Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

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April, 1911. MOTOGRAPHY 31 shows which have developed as the result of this shortsighted section of the building code. * * * As indicated above, we believe that a committee should be appointed to co-operate with the Board of Aldermen in drafting ordinances for the adequate regulation of motion picture shows. Pending such action, certain measures appear to be immediately necessary, and we beg leave to make the following suggestions : (1) That a committee of fire officials be instructed to make a careful examination of all moving picture shows in the city, and that the licenses of such places considered unsafe be revoked. (2) That the Police Department be instructed rigorously to enforce the law in regard to overcrowding. (3) That action be taken either to enforce section 484 of the Penal Code, relative to the admission of children under sixteen years of age, or to secure its repeal by the legislature. Tne Moral Effect of the Moving Picture In one respect at least moving pictures have performed a work that man has found difficult. They have converted the head hunters of the Philippines into decent citizens. Our officials in the islands were at a loss how to impress upon the savages the advantages of cleanliness until they hit upon the moving pictures. Here was an expedient that spoke all dialects and was entertaining at the same time. The novelty of the show appealed to the native's curiosity and then to his pride, and the result has been clean houses and streets where before there were filth and unsanitary conditions. — Chicago Examiner. Collier in Boston John Collier, secretary of the National Board of Censorship, was in Boston recently lecturing on the motion picture and its problems. Mr. Collier's statements are always interesting and we quote a few : "Boston has the best moving picture shows," said Mr. Collier, "and New York has the worst. The ruling limiting the audience at the moving picture shows to 299 in New York has made it impossible for the managers to do what they otherwise might like to do. They cannot afford to put up a fine fire-proof building, give proper ventilation, or a good show for that number of people. To make anything on it they give a short exhibition, run it along as quickly as possible — you may see a funeral procession in it going at a gallop — and they bring it to an end and turn out one audience and get another in as soon as possible, crowding in the school children, which is against the law. We must sweep away the many silly laws and put the shows under the direction of one department. "Moving picture shows revolutionized the amusement world as printing revolutionized the literary. The drama is more fundamental than literature. It is a great human art. The mass of the people had no theater ten years ago. There were a few marionettes around the country , a few melodramas, and the vaudeville performances, which are not drama. The moving picture shows have changed all of that." Of the bad character of some of the pictures shown he said : "The attitude of mind of the American people, which they get perhaps from their Puritan ancestors, is that all amusement is likely to be bad unless you make it good, and that what poor people like is vulgar because they are vulgar. The pictures began that way, but they purified themselves. This was one place where a poor man could go and take his whole family for 25 or 30 cents. _ The families went, they demanded something better in the pictures, and they have been steadily improving. The only good censorship is that at the fountainhead, and to get it one must forget lawmakers and work through friendly co-operation." Motion Pictures Good for I nsane That the use of moving pictures, rightly selected, is becoming more common in the various state charitable -institutions, is the announcement by Secretary A. L. Bowen of the Illinois charities commission. "The use of moving pictures for the entertainment and improvement of the mental condition of the insane is increasing rapidly," said Mr. Bowen. "In this morning's Chicago papers is an account of the introduction of pictures into the Cook county hospital for insane at Dunning by Doctor Percival, the new superintendent. "Moving pictures have been in use in the Illinois state institutions for some time. Superintendent Hardt at the Lincoln state school and colony has displayed them for more than a year. Doctor Carriel, superintendent of the Jacksonville hospital for insane, has had great success with them for a considerable time. Dr. Sidney D. Wilgus, recently elected superintendent of the Elgin hospital for insane, has had them in operation there for about five months. Other state hospitals are arranging to instal the machines. "Difficulty is experienced in getting the right kind of films. The greatest possible care must be exercised by the superintendent in selecting pictures that will have the proper influence upon disordered minds. Moving pictures have been referred to, in loose writing, as methods of cure for the insane. Of course moving pictures do not and never will cure an insane man — that is, restore him to his right mind — but they afford him a pleasure and an amusement which ameli.T:ate his condition." Advocates Sunday Films That many of the present Sunday laws are absurd in that they induce lawlessness and fatigue and prevent boys from growing up naturally, was the opinion expressed by Joseph, Lee and Rev. Edward Cummings before the citizenship class, of the South Congregational Church at Calumet, Mich. Mr. Lee is one of those who have had introduced in the Legislature a bill for a more liberal observance of the Sabbath. Asked if he didn't think the moving picture shows were bad things to be open Sundays, Mr. Cummings said he was one of those who had personally investigated the Sunday moving picture shows. He found that some 20,000 people attended these shows on Sunday — fathers and mothers with children and often with babies. As a rule these shows were enjoyable, especially since the films have been censored. "I should like to see a moving picture show in this church," said Mr. Cummings, "and I think it would be a good thing for other churches, as these moving pictures are splendidly educational."