Milford chronicle., 1949-02-04

PEGLER vision will ba E6,S.
ing into the homes and we have a
double standard which bars from !
the home Offensiveness which we /
tolerate in theatres.
It is difficult for young Amer
leans 20 believe that such
changes can be wrought IN .
short time. However, many OF
US actually saw the sequence Oa
the magic lantern, the silent
movies. beginning IN penny
arcades and little flre-trap store
fronts, and then the talkies, with
beautiful color.
We who saw that recall that the
first production movies were
ierky films which we endured with
a degree Of conscious tolerance
knowing they were not very good
yet. We endured them because they
were cheap and were improving
rapidly. For many Of US it was
movies or nothing because the
theatrical ''r o d. skipped the
smaller cities and towns except on
rare occasions. when the minstrels
came by.
The first talkies
Pathetic were pathetic. There
in was phonograph
poo;.,.,;.,o behind the screen
'S playing. a record Of
the speeches and incidental sounds.
But timing was, too much for the
technicians Of that day-about 1910
perhaps. A man would be shown
shooting another fellow or beating
him brainless with a ehairleg and
painting, Darling, / love you'll"
Hollywood began about 1910, but
the greatest development has come
since World War / and has been
concentrated in the last IS or %
years. It always was a icentious in.
stitution, but when Roosevelt. came
to power. the magnates, greedy,
vain and uncouth, were simply car
ried away by his calculated flattery,
|. They. actually dined and slept in
/ the White House.
He was making use Of them.
lt drove them crazy with SELF
importance. But tell me, have
you ever seen q movie which
I could be interpreted as q Criti-
Cism Of any phase Of ROOse-
veIt's administration? To them
that would be sacrilege.
Or a movie which furiously a
tackled Hollywood Itself and il
moguls, who nevertheless depicte
the United States congress as
) gang Of rogues, towards and Il
norant dupes and the America
press as a fascist institution? / pr,
pared a scenario about q year az
and the producers had backing an
were going to show up the reign
the Capone gang in the movie il
dustry through Browne and Biof.
: But Eric Johnston Of the Movir
Picture association stopped it.
would have depicted some Of M
Johnston's own employers in Sordi
social relations with Willie Biol
who had gone to Hollywood straigl
. from Chicago where he ran a brOt
el and was convicted Of it ar
given six months in Jail. -
0 Bioff was one
= CO1SOrted the lowest thin
Witb alive but he WI
Coc;o,. good enough to sns
'O'''y canapes with Il
: haute monde Of Hollywood.
really was their social and NOR
peer and that was a portrayal whit
O the Johnston office Of the Movil
), Picture association had to prevs
: at all costs.
> have no ulteriOr motive in I
. citing these facts because / am q
a movie man, and did the sto
feeling sure they would kin it. T
n Johnston office barred an Capo
r films with trick extra proviso th
IS the punishment must fit the GRIN
l. AS long as that one stays on {
ID books it will be impossible to fil
a the John Hartford swindle.
= Television is only a couple
years old but already it is kill
N interest in radio. and no wond
90 Given the vastness Of iInasinati
n for its stage, free Of cost, radio
been miserably paltry and 81
d. pleased. The comedy has been
2 bad that it has become the butt
the very comedians themselves. "A
O. they are such poor actors that q
ey can't even memorize their. pieces
OF don't bother To. Worse than th
% even with the text before them, q
:, = botch their little recitations and
provise stupid remarks to mi
as light Of this incompetence. Z
,rt dramas are the most juvenile ST
with long, explanatory q si d
p which were used in the earl
al comic strips,