Year book of motion pictures (1951)

lo American ideals, and that a positive, not a iiegati\c. jjoliry was reqiiiied to promote the development of the motion picture. Accordin<;ly. in 1916 the Board adopted its present name anti policies. The Rc\ iew Clommittee has a membership of 200 men and women represent ins; a fair cross 'ection of public taste. From this panel smaller groups are formed and attend screenings in tile projection rooms of the motion pictme companies. Pictures are judged for entertainment, artistic, instructional and ethical \alues, and are classified according to audience suitability. Recommendations are based on majority opinion. Tiic General Committee includes experienced reviewers, authorities in cultural and sociolological fields, and the directors of the Board, and acts upon any decision referred to it by its members or questioned by a producer. The Committee on Exceptional Films is compo.sed of critics and students of the motion picture primarily interested in the movies as an art form. Its members contribute critical reviews to the Board's magazine Films in Review. In 1917 the Exceptional Committee initiated the practice of publishing a selection of the 10 best fdms of the year, a practice now widely imitated. The Schools' Motion Picture Committee was organized in 1935 by a group of parents and teachers in New York City interested in suitable movie programs for children, espe ciallv weekend programs. Their original activity was conducted with the help of the National Board of Review. It was soon clear that their recommendations of programs for different age groups would be useful to other parent-teacher groups throughout the coimtr.y, and the Committee was made a department of the Board in 1943. Its audience classifications for children appear in the Board's Weekly Guide to Selected Pictures and in New York newspapers. The National Motion Picture Council has been a department of the Board active since 1916. It organizes and advises community groups interested in seeing and studying good movies. These groups, or councils, usually consist of representatives of the community's public-spirited organizations. They publish information about good films, cooperate with theater managers, hold discussion meetings. .\nnual conferences are held in New York City for delegates from Councils from all parts of the country. The chief speakers are professionals active in motion picture production and distribution. VARIETY CLUBS INTERNATIONAL V By MARC J. WOLF International Chief Barker ARIETV CLUBS INTERNATIONAL continues to grow both in size and in accomplishments. Our Ckibs now number 39 with tlie addition of the Variety Club of Salt Lake City and the Variety Club of Southern Nevada, both of which were granted charters during the year 1950. For the third consecutive year our Heart Fund reports show over three million dollars expended for charitable ventures in the United States, Canada, Mexico and England. This sum is in addition to the hundreds of Variety projects during the year, such as free shows for shut-ins, special shows for orphans, aid given by \arious Variety tents to the Red Cross, March of Dimes, Cerebral Palsy Drives, etc., which cannot be measured in terms of dollars and cents. We feel that we have a record for charity, which if figured on the basis of membership, far surpasses that of any other organization. WOLF The months that have elapsed since my election as chief barker, last Mav in New Orleans, have been filled with ever increasing realization of the magnitude of Variety's accomplishments. Come with me, if you will, for a short survey of a few of Variety's projects. Last year the judges decided that two of our Variety tents should be given the .Annual Charity Citation because both of them had performed so well during the year that it was impossible to make a single choice. In Miami, due to the work of the Variety Club of Greater Miami, we now have Variety Children's Hospital. This great institution, unsurpassed in its facilities has given to the Southcast a place wliere crippled children ha\e every chance known to modern science for cure. This hospital has been particularly suc 858