Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1927)

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ii JVhy this censorship ? The movies are really a bit too backward about the life of this jazz age!" the "soul" variety are much more desirable than the censors who shout to heaven that they are sending our youth to the bow-wows. "Motion pictures," says Darrow, "stand out today as one of the greatest factors in the civilized world for promoting happiness and pleasure. There is.no other unit of entertainment that does as much as the motion picture toward making this world a happy place in which to live. "For that reason the picture industry should be handed all the gold medals and honors that are to be passed around ; for, after all, what is life if there is no pleasure? "Life without happiness and pleasure," says Darrow, "is not worth living. Who wants to hang around on this earth if all we see are long faces and sad expressions ! Our ministers preach continually about finding our happiness hereafter. I do not want to argue with them ; but I have a hunch that we will find our happiness and our suffering here on earth while we are alive. So, I, for one, have always tried to get p. & A. "// there were no movies, families would have to stay at home . . . and perhaps quarrel. One of the splendid things about motion pictures is the fact that the admission cost is so low. It makes them available for millions of people whose lives without them would be pretty dull" P. & A. "The people who shout against the jazz pictures are, to my way of thinking, out of tune with the world. There is something wrong with their physical make-up" £&« all the pleasure possible here. If I have been mistaken — well, I will be just that much ahead of the game when I come into the other pleasure. "In motion pictures I have long found much of my enjoyment, or at least a great deal of it. I am an ardent picture fan. I go to see them all. "And," declared Darrow with more than considerable emphasis, "let me tell you that I have never seen a picture vet that shocked me." "What about the socalled 'jazz' -pictures?" I asked. "They are wonderful," replied Darrow. "Simply wonderful. Those people who shout against them and censor them and demand that they be censored are, to my : way of thinking, out of tune with the world. There is something wrong with their physical make-up. "The jazz films are really and truly portrayals of life. Not life of a century ago, to be sure; but life of today. And that is what we are living — life today. A half century ago the girls did not wear dresses that stopped at the knees, or above. They did not carry flasks in their handbags. They did not smoke. They did not show their legs to the world. If they did, they were classed in the oldest profession. "But, today, times have changed — and the girls have changed with the times ; for the better, too, I think. They are interesting and just as good as their grandmothers. The pleasures of the young men and women, and the older ones, too, have changed. The world has speeded up, and the people have kept pace. "So, with a j a zz atmosphere around us, why shouldn't the picture pro(Continued on page 88) 30