St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-04-27

from the film industry. This was not
only to advertise the film product,
but to assure the good will of these
groups. Apparently Negroes, as a
racial group, were unimpOrtant,
judging from its treatment by the
film makers. Yet along came Billy
Rowe, shrewd motion picture and
theatrical editor of the Pittsburgh
Courier a few years ago, and when
he returned east the advertising bar
had been broken. Now many Negro
papers carry some motion picture
advertising in every issue.
This brings to mind what many
friends in the film industry have
told me over period of years:
The colored man is treated as he
is by Hollywood because of all the
other racial minorities touched by
the films, he is the only one who
has never made organized protest
against ill-treatment; or organized
demands for better treatment.
To me that seems highly signifi-
cant. Walter White, chief fighting
man of the NAACP, in recent years
made trip to Hollywood to regis
ter the protest of his organization
against the light in which Negroes
were invariably shown in the films.
Although this was but one man,
representing but one organization,
his protest had almost immediate
effect in that the Hayes office is
sued a directive to all studios to
cease casting the Negro in an IN
favorable light.
Unfortunately, no directive could
be issued to show the Negro in a
favorable light. Many studios re-
sented the directive at first, and
struck back by simply not using
Negroes in their pictures at all.
And many actors who had eked out
a most precarious existence on the
bits thrown them by the film MAX
ers, took strong issue with any
movement which would take away
their means of livelihood.
There are many truly liberal in
dividuals in Hollywood, who, if they
had the power, would begin making
powerful documentary and drama
tic pictures of the Negro at once
if they had the power. But the
power rests with those who head
the studios, and these groups
naturally regard the work in which
they are engaged as a hard, cold,
highly competitive business, whose
end and aim is to make money.
Some of the studio heads have
been extremely frank about the
situation. It is their claim that if
a picture offends the South, then
the profits shown by that picture
slump deeply. So that the way to
make profits is, among other things,
not to offend the South. Also, they
must not offend the Catholics, nor
the Jews, nor the Mexicans. To
offend the Negro apparently isn't
a matter to be considered.
Unfortunately, what the studio
heads mean is not what they say.
Those whom they seek not to offend
are the exhibitors, the censors, and
few scraggly politicians who suf-
fer acutely from Negrophobia. It
is in the hands of these few that
the determination rests as to what
pictures shall be shown the South.
The censors and the exhibitors of
the South do not hesitate to use
their shears on any scene in any
picture which they may consider
Objectionable. A recent survey
showed that those things "most
Objectionable" were those in which
Negroes were shown "acting, or
talking, or dressing like white folks
=. acting smart-alecky and talk
ing back to white folks shoot
ing or striking white folks or
in any manner committing any
breach of the code which would by
implication or otherwise, create an
equality between the two races -"
To those who realize that ma
jority of Southern white people are
not Negrophobists, the case is not
without hope. However, Holly
wood, whatever its attitude, past or
present, is quick to jump aboard
any movement which seems popu-
lar. There are a few really i'm
portant men in Hollywood who
would as they say ''take a gamble"