Year book of motion pictures (1951)

Photoplay Appreciation IT is estimated tliat not less than 6,000,000 students in elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities receive more or less detailed guidance from their teachers in the appreciative study of appropriate motion picture feature and short subjects currently offered in the theaters. This technique is rapidly spreading, especially in high schools and junior high schools. These progressive teachers use the local motion picture theater for illustrative material just as they use the public library for collateral reading. Also, they have found it practical to mould the taste of their pupils toward the development of discriminating habits of choice in the selection of motion picture entertainment. In these activities teachers use study guides of which 25 or 30 are published during each school year, classroom bulletins mailed by the Community Service Department, selected still pictures chosen with special reference to their educational value and research photograph exhibits which are regularly displayed in about 6,500 public libraries and school libraries. Interested teachers are usually able to obtain this material through local exhibitors who secure it from the distributors of the pictures; where this is not possible, teach ers may contact Motion Picture Association Inc., 28 W. 44th St., New York 18, N. Y., direct. Exhibits Available to Schools and Libraries DISPLAYS of various types, research exhibits, and brochures featuring the historical background, literary antecedents and technical data concerning production are available from the Department of Community Service without cost. The research exhibits— approximately 20"x30" and including from three to 12 posters— present source materials utilized in designing costumes, sets, properties, story sources and other collaterals used in the process of translating fiction, biography, history, etc., to motion pictures. The brochures covering much the same field are usable for intimate classroom study as well as display. The Community Service Department, in cooperation with educational groups and librarians, selects the pictures to receive this treatment. The cultural, social and educational as well as entertainment values of the pictures are the determining factors. The interest in and desire for mutual collaboration on the part of the producer-members of the Association makes this service possible. Exhibitors, where it is known that these materials are not locally used, should feel no hesitancy in approaching school administrators or librarians concerning their value. They are now regularly in iise by more than 6,000 high schools and 4,000 libraries. While many schools and libraries have limitationi and restrictions inherent in the public character of their institutions, once they have realized that these display materials have been designed with a knowledge of their problems, welcome them. Only mutual respect can grow from the realization that many current photoplays have great educational value and that filming of the classics greatly extends the public's reading of them. These materials enhance the value of both and attract the public to inose photoplays which, because they contribute constructive ideas and ideals as well as entertain, should be universally seen. Speakers Bureau The Community Service Department does not maintain a formal Speakers Bureau but is prepared to cooperate wherever possible in providing speakers for programs concerned with the moral, social or entertainment value of motion pictures. Requests for speakers should be made as far in advance as possible to the Community Service Department, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., 28 West 44th Street, New York 18, N. Y. The MPaa. Library The MPAA Library was established five years ago, to serve as repository and reference for information on matters pertaining to film industry activities. The informational services of the Library are available not only to MPAA staff members and member companies, but as well to nonmembers, exhibitors, educational institutions, civic groups, etc. The MPAA librarian each year answers by mail and phone hundreds of individual requests for information from industry as well as non-industry sources. Compactly set up along institutional lines, the Library today has on its shelves some 1 ,400 texts on practically every phase and aspect of the film business. Supplementing these are thousands of pamphlets and clippings which have been carefully catalogued and cross-referenced. In addition, the Library keeps a running file of nearly every periodical in the film field and maintains bound volumes of the more important motion picture trade publications. Another important service of the Library is to keep industry executives abreast of current comment on the motion picture business through the preparation of resumes and digests of significant new texts and published materials. In 1950, more than 400 books and pamphlets and over 1,500 separate magazine issues were received and reviewed by the Library. From its vast store of information the Library supplies, on request, basic materials for speeches and articles on motion picture topics to people within and without the industry. Scores of such requests during the past year have come from teachers and students.