Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. 41 to defy public sentiment. The man who runs a tiieuter. the man who runs a newspaper, is not as much exposed in th(> anofer and wrath of those whom he offends as the exhibitor wouhl be. The ex- hibitor faces his patrons by day and l)y night, and if a man brings his family there and there is anything on the screen wliicli gi\es offense to the little children or to the women, why. that man Avould be spiting his own bread and butter if he exhibited any such offen- sive pictures. Scores and hundreds of exhibitors have told me that they carefully examine every picture before it is put on the screen. They do not want to offend their patrons, and if there is any doubt in their minds as to whether the exhibition of a certain picture or a certain part of the picture might or might not he offensive, why, they are inclined to resolve that doubt rather against themselves than in their favor and omit the showing of that picture. That same spirit of great respect for the ordinary decencies of life, for those ordinary decencies that enter into the make-up of every nor- mal human being, characterizes the producers of moving pictures. They are anxious to please, not to offend. It is a fact that the Ameri- can producers to-day supply not less than 75 per cent of the world's market of motion pictures. No matter where you go in Europe, whether you are in Eome, in Naples, London, or in Berlin, you will find a very strong percentage of each program is made up of pictures made in this country. Why? Because the American pictures, with negligible exceptions, are clean. They are made by men who have their eyes, who have their ears attuned to public taste and to public sentiment, and wdio do not want to cater to any morbid or depraved taste, which is always abnormal and the possessors of^ which are mostly in the minority. Now, censorship has been responsible in the countries of Europe for a great decrease in the number of pictures made, and a great injury to the industry generally and absolutely no good accomplished by censorship such as exists in Rus.sia, in Ger- many, and other countries. France has no censorship. Mr. Fess. Mr. Bush, would you object to an interru])tion there? Mr. Busii. Why, certainly not. Mr. Fess. This committee, of course, is wanting information. Mr. Bush. Exactly. Mr. Fess. Not prejudiced one way or the other. You are oppos- ing the censorship, first, because it is un-American, as I under- stand it? Mr. Bush. Precisely so. Mr. Fess. Secondly, because it is unnecessary? Mr. Bush. Precisely. Mr, Fess. And thirdly, because it is unprofitable l)y reducing the production of the films. Mr. Bush. That is one of the reasons. Mr. Fess. I think I have gotten those things from what yon have said. Mr. Bush. Yes. sir. Well, there is just one more thing that I would like to call yoiu' attention to and that is very vital in the consideration of this bill. Granting that the personnel and the motives of the gentlemen v.ho compose the connoission to lie r reated under this bill are far above reproach or .suspicion, is it fail' to iutriist to the judgment of one, two, or three individuals to say what shall and Avhat shall not be moral or proper? Why. the man who has the