Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

i6 THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS WILLIAM LORD WRIGHT'S PAGE IT'S a long film that has no turning. * * * * Andrew Carnegie says he is willing to carry a gun and go to the front in the event of war. Maybe he has been inspired by those Civil War moving picture plays. Stricter moving picture censorship is needed in Pennsylvania, where two normal school students have been expelled because they spooned in a park and a wandering operator surreptitiously filmed their raptures. We are grateful for the little things, among them being the fact that none of our moving picture play idols have deemed it necessary to wear a hat with one of those bows behind. ^ ^ ^ ^ We have about determined to urge an educational film showing how the bottom of the berry box continues to be placed well toward the top. * ^ * ^ Notwithstanding the free advertising that a censor always gives a thing censored, a lot of people don't seem to like him. Our humble editorial confession of the day is that we always contrive to ascertain whether by any bare possibility an anonymous letter is complimentary before sternly and indignantly rejecting it without reading. * * ^ ^ One-third of the world's population is said to be regular moving picture patrons. There are now more than 30,000 picture play theatres in the United States, and more than 3,000,000 feet of films are prepared for display every week. Is it any wonder that the city of New York takes off its hat to the moving picture exhibitor. He is monarch of all he surveys convention week — and any other week, for that matter. President Nefif, of the Moving Picture Exhibitors' League of America, is a candidate for re-election to that office before the delegates in convention assembled in this city next week. He again deserves the honor of reelection, and the editor of this department, and also the editor of the News, suggest that he be elected for a term of at least two years. This will give him free sway to effect certain reforms which are in the course of development. We know Mr. Neff, and we know Mr. Neff's personal and public history back for many years. He is a clean man; an able man; a conscientious and sincere man; and a man who has the interests of his brother exhibitors at heart. We do not always agree with Mr. Neff's policies. We have the courage of our own convictions and wouldn't give a continental for Mr. Neff, or anyone else who did not likewise have such courage. However, in recalling the forward strides taken the past year, we are able to assert that the good policies are away in the majority, and that no other man in a similar position could have led the national and state exhibitors' leagues to such power and success. To Mr. Neff goes the credit for the creation of these strong organizations. He should be, and will be, honored again by the election as national president. It would be a grave mistake for the exhibitors to choose other leadership at this juncture. All danger to exhibitors' own interests is not yet past. * * * * Pathc's Weekly will appear twice a week hereafter. Two separate and distinct groups of current events per week will make it possiI)lc for even a greater numlicr of people to post themselves on the important happenings of the day. We think the animated weeklies liave accomplished much for the moving picture industry during the past year or so. They are directly responsible for attracting a distinct class of patrons to the picture theatres — people who would not ordinarily have become picture play fans. The illustrated weeklies have suffered, and these periodicals no longer devote so much space to photographs of world happenings, because the animated weekly has superseded them in this branch of work. The weekly releases tend to educate and entertain young and old, rich and poor. They bring the entire world right before our eyes. The releases cannot come too often for the good of cinematography. * * * * The Moving Picture News and Editor A. H. Saunders cordially welcome the exhibitors to Gotham. Next week will be a week of import and many vital questions will be discussed and decided by the exhibitors in convention assembled. We welcome these ladies and gentlemen and hope that many of them will honor us with calls. From the very first, this publication has been devoted to the best interests of the exhibitors individuallj and collectively, and sacrifices have been made, many a time, because of devotion to their interests. The dawning of a day of better things has come. Exhibitors are to be no longer harried by the powers that be. Exhibitors are sure to come into their own with a fair field and no favor — all for one and one for all. We hope that all these ladies and gentlemen that are with us next week will be instructed and benefited by the visit to New York City. We hope that every hour will be full of entertainment and profit. As we said before, nothing is too good for the Moving Picture Exhibitors' League of America. :^ ^ ^ ^ President Wilson is not making any new departure in selecting litterateurs for important diplomatic posts. He has, however, gone further than any former president in the number of men of letters whom he has thus honored. Walter H. Page has become Ambassador to Great Britain. Two popular novelists, Thomas Nelson Page and Meredith Nicholson go to Italy and Portugal. Dr. Van Dyke is selected for the Netherlands, and Colonel Stovall, a Southern editor and author, for Switzerland. All of which leads us to prophesy. Maybe some day when the moving picture literature comes into its own and the composer of photoplays becomes honored and sung, maybe, we repeat, the picture playwright will become the ambassador! We hope so, an3'how. And j-ou. picture playwrights who drop into New York next week to look over the convention field, just drop in on us and we'll talk it over. You are welcome, we assure you! The special agitation regarding the censorship of moving picture films seems confined to certain cities only. Happily, it has not grown universal in character. The Ohio state censorship will doubtless be effective, and it is hoped it will be wisely enforced. There is a clamor against "picture shows" in some quarters that is not justified. The fact is, the motion pictures are probably the cleanest form of all public entertainment we have. It started badly, but the censorship established by the picture companies themselves has resulted in the weeding out of most objectionable pictures. Of course, off-colored pictures will occasionally slip in, as was exemplified recently in New York in the exploitation of notorious "gunmen," but on the whole, there is little ground for complaint. There is far more reason for a theatrical censorship which shall prohibit the exhibition of plays and vaudeville acts which are filled with nasty allusions. * * * * There ought to be an absolute suppression of the sex problem play which gains a respectable audience by reason of its presentation at a first-class theatre and by actors of ability and reputation. In carrying out a censorship of any sort, says the Dayton News, owned by Governor Cox, of Ohio, care must be taken that it is not dominated by petty prejudice. According to recent accounts real tyranny has been exercised by the police of Rehlin, who have control of the picture theatres. Here arc some of the films wliiih have been suppressed: A