Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

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The tide turns NOVEMBER 7, 1922 may prove to be the Independence day of the motion picture industry. On that day the people of Massachusetts voted against motion picture censorship after it had been given a thorough trial in that commonwealth. On that day Al Smith was elected governor of New York. What connection has the governor of New York with the motion picture business at large ? Oh, not much, except that Al Smith's first message to the New York legislature will recommend abolition of the notorious, wasteful and unsuccessful motion picture commission of that state. Massachusetts and New York were the last recruits to that group, comprising Kansas, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, that blushes at baby clothes and denies its citizens freedom of the see. The establishment of censors in New York and Massachusetts placed a total of nearly 32,000,000 persons directly under censorship in the United States of America. Automatically this placed other millions, dependent for their films on exchanges, in censorship states, also under censorship. The 1920 population of the United States was 105,000,000. For the past year one-third of all Americans were under the Middle Ages oppression of censorship! But on November 7 Massachusetts shook off its shackles. Will Hays aptly compares it to the Boston tea party. "They're starting another party now that is just as insignificant,", says Hays. "It was censorship which caused the revolution and made the United States. You cannot censor the people's rights to act and think and see for themselves." And on November 7, with the motion picture and amusement people behind him, Al Smith was elected governor of New York. This presages the emancipation of 10,000,000 more persons from the tyranny of the censor. Four censor states remain, but not for long, we hope. Register optimism, please! Four years ago Hollywood was in the joyful throes of a production boom. Armistice had been declared in the World War. Many who had been ill of influenza were recovering. There was excited bustling in every studio. There had been only 29 units active. These included three serials and eleven comedy companies. Camera! of November 17, 1918 carried a jubilant bannerline, "PRODUCTION BEGINS ON ENORMOUS SCALE," and recorded the starting of 23 additional feature pictures. Everyone was happy — 52 units were working! Today — long faces — "nobody working" — "don't know what the business is coming to!" — gloom. Yet last week there were 93 companies in action. Sixty-three were making features; 25, short subjects; 4, serials. This week — run down the Pulse of the Studios and see for yourself. The industry is more active today than it was in that joyous boom week four years ago. Further, it's more stable and is doing better things. No credit for the dead When Wilham D. Taylor's picture, "The Top of New York," was shown at Grauman's theater this week, the title crediting Taylor as director was loped off. Another undeserved insult to the dead. Taylor directed the picture. It was not his best picture. But he took keen delight in making it, especially in working with little Mary Jane Irving, who he declared was the most natural and charming child actress he had ever directed. It was Taylor's picture. The fact that a few months after the picture was made a drug-crazed fiend, or the hireling of one, murdered Taylor doesn't change the fact that Taylor made the picture, delighted in doing so, and was entitled to have his name on it. Whether William D. Taylor's just credit was omitted from "The Top of New York" by an ofl?icial of Famous Players-Lasky studio, or whether it was done in the theater at the order of Sid Grauman or one of his men, doesn't matter. It is an insult to Taylor not readily to be forgiven. TED TAYLOR. Camera! The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry. Entire contents copyright, 1922. by Ted Taylor. Published weeltly at 4513 Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood, L«s Angeles, Cal. Telephone 595-179. Price, 10 cents a copy, $2.50 a year ($2 in Los Angeles .county, $3 in Canada, $3.50 foreign). Entered as second-class matter October Id, 1920, at the postofllce at l^s Angeles, Cal., under the act of March 3, 1879. Entered as "Camera!" August 11, 1918. Ted Taylor, publisher and managing editor; Ruth Wing, editor; Doris Mortlock, studio editor; Eugene H. Klum, art editor. S. W. Lawson, business manager; Fred W. Fox, advertising manager; Ora Brook, circulation manager.