Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

18 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS Challenge to a Noted Judge Inspired the Latest Big Feature Picture "A Boy and the Law" the Result of an Editor's Dare BY WILLIAM W. YOUNG Manager, The Youth Photoplay Co. ' I * HERE is an unusual photoplay A story back of the new five-reel feature, "A Boy and the Law," that it strikes me is worth telling. That film is the result of a challenge — a challenge to a noted judge. Last spring, as editor of The Publishers' Guide, I asked Judge Willis Brown to contribute an article on "Soul vs. Sensationalism in Newspapers," and the burden of his article was a plea for a squarer deal for the boys and girls of the country in the daily press. He pointed out that the only times our young people get into the papers are when they commit crimes or get into serious trouble of some kind. In the article he said that in his personal experience as judge he had almost daily come across child stories of an uplift character that would make excellent newspaper copy, and that no moving picture scenario writer ever could imagine stories half so good, so thrilling, so heart-appealing as some he mentioned. That led me to invite Judge Brown to write another article, on the subject of motion pictures. It was headed "True Sensationalism in Motion Pictures," and rang so true, was so convincing, that I was pleased to see it reprinted in The Exhibitors' Times, with favorable comment by the editor. In that article Judge Brown urged the supplanting of vicious productions with a better, more wholesome kind that would please the larger portion of motion picture patrons, tend to gain new patrons, and thereby increase the profits of the exhibitors. He pointed out that schools, settlement houses and churches are putting in motion pictures and demanding a higher type of subjects which, while entertaining, will educate, and better human conduct, and he declared that to him it seemed utter silliness on the part of motion picture producers and exhibitors not to awaken to the apparent demand of the very people to whom they must owe their future business. Among other things he said: "As a former youth, and in behalf of the growing citizenship, I plead for common sense to enter the business of motion pictures and that at least a portion of the vast business be given to the proper exploitation of youth, and that some recognition be given the children, who, in their impressionable age, take and hold what the eye witnesses and what the story tells far more than the fixed adult. "To dignify youth and youth achievement, to make work and goodness of heart attractive, to instill patriotism in the boy of this day, mean but to delight both youth and manhood and to grow prosperity. The money-maker in the motion picture business will be the man who plays his business to ALL, not a half or a still smaller percentage, of the people. "If I ran a motion picture house I would consider that my greatest profit would come by inducing those who do not now visit motion picture houses to come to mine. I would get after the stay-at-homes. In pleasing them I would still hold the present patrons. I would make patrons desire to have their children see the good, pleasing and helpful things rather than have numerous parents keeping their children away from the show." That is where the challenge of which I spoke came in. After reading the manuscript, and before publishing it in the August Publishers' Guide, I went to Judge Brown and challenged him to produce a scenario for a motion picture production that would meet the requirements stated in his article and yet would be of sufficient popular interest to appeal to the present-day motion picture theatre manager. He accepted the dare and soon brought to me the scenario of "A Boy and the Law." It is the real life-story of Willie Eckstein, one of the many wayward boys whom Judge Brown encountered in his court and in whom he has maintained a parental interest. So human, so thrilling in parts, so instructive and so comprehensive was this story that I immediately saw in it all of the elements of a wholesome popular photoplay, with the result that a company was organized for its production and exploitation, and for the production and exploitation of other photoplays with youth and youth achievement as the basic ideas. I did not rely solely on my own judgment, either, but took this scenario to several noted educators, ministers, social workers, and, what is more to the point, several experienced motion picture producers and thea tre owners, and all agreed that Judge Brown had in this story met all the requirements stated in his article and had outlined a photoplay that would go in any theatre on its merits and entertain as well as instruct and uplift. I have known Judge Brown for several years and have watched his wonderful work with misunderstood boys, and I felt quite confident of the outcome of my challenge. No man has had a better opportunity to study child life than he. He is the originator of the Parental Court idea; he wrote the Juvenile (Parental) Court laws of Utah, Indiana, and other states, and is the author of the Federal "Parental and Educational Courts Bill" recently introduced into Congress by Representative Richmond P. Hobson. He was the first judge of the Juvenile Court in Salt Lake City, and later of the Parental Court of Gary, Indiana, and he organized the first Boys' City, the famous Boys' Farm near Gary, and the more famous Boys' City in Michigan. Also, he is chairman of the National Youth Achievement Committee. Besides, he is not unfamiliar with photoplay requirements, for I have it on good authority that one of the most successful — financially and otherwise — special features that Selig ever put out was "A City of Boys," which was nothing more than a series of scenes depicting the life of the hundreds of boys in Judge Brown's Boys' City. That was merely scenes, mind you, with no plot, while in "A Boy and the Law" the activities of the boy municipality are shown as incidental to a remarkably interesting story. This real life-story of Willie Eckstein is acted throughout by the young man himself, and Judge Brown personally appears in all of the scenes of which he was a part in real life. The story begins ten years ago in a town in southern Russia, the early scenes showing vividly the persecution of the Jews in that country. Willie's father is prosperous, providing well for his family, consisting of a wife, little daughter and two boys, of whom Willie is the elder. While Willie is away in school an edict is issued by the governor of the state in which his parents live to the effect that all Jews who came to the state subsequent to 1886 must leave before a certain date. Failure to do so means that all property of those remaining will be confiscated. Willie's father is among those who must leave. Willie receives a letter from his mother describing the occurrences and telling him of their new humble home in a distant state. A number of other boys also receive word of the persecution of their people by the Russians.