The Moving Picture Weekly (1920-1921)

THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY ■29 Frank Popular Mayo Star QNE of the Universal Special Attraction stars who is attracting considerable attention not only for the rapidity of his rise in the photoplay but for the enthusiastic comments which have been made by trade press critics, is Frank Mayo. It is true that he was introduced to stardom through a remarkable vehicle, "The Brute Breaker," which was directed by Lynn Reynolds. The lobby display in the accompanyinsr cut represents the effort of the White House Theatre of Milwaukee to do justice to the subject which they advertised far and wide in the newspapers and the billboards. You will notice that the Whitehouse Theatre has an unusual arrangement for an effective display. For instance, they have room for a twenty -four sheet, a six. and two threes in the centei" of the front above the entrant. In addition to that there is a thre^ on either side on a level with these and on the street level they can use nine three-sheets, two sixs. and six ones, together with two easels for lobbv displav photogranhs. Few the hit at the White House Theatre that atres can make such effective display, they made an effort to get every one "The Brute Breaker" made such a of the Frank Mayo subjects which The White House Theatre, Milwaukee. have been released. These include "The Little Brother of the Rich," "Lasca" and "The Peddler of Lies." THE NATIONAL BOARDS ANNUAL MEETING (Continued from preceding page) I George Middleton. He said that "I know I voice the protests of all writers when I say I object to having my plays fit the caprices of 45 states of mind. It is like our silly divorce laws that makea man a bachelor in one state while he is a bigamist in another. I feel very strongly that the movies must protest vigorously against the entire tendency of intrusion as expressed in cenorship. I am still a believer in a free press and free films. "I ask that the film be left free. The ideal American film will be one that is not afraid to show America as it is with all its brilliant sunlight and ominous shadows. It will have the faults at best of the average human. As one grows older he ceases to ask for perfection and tries to accommodate himself to the fact that in life as in institutions the good and the bad are mixed. "I fear intolerance r.:ore than freedom. I believe that error can be fought only in the free air. Repress opinions and thoughts and words, and they will escape in distorted acts. Some of us here are the great-grandchildren of revolutionists who made this country. Some of us here are of alien parentage. America is all things. We should strive to make America a forum where all opinions may live, not an amphitheatre where certain opinions must be killed. Thus only can we achieve understanding and readjustment. And I still believe that there is no greater force in American life to-day to teach that human understanding and sympathy than the small lens of the camera which has no prejudice and no fear, if the hand that directs it is honest and unafraid of the truth." MASSACHUSETTS AND VIRGINIA lyjISS MARY GRAY PECK had recently returned from Massachusetts, where, she reported, a strong movement is afoot, backed by, as she termed them, "the organized forces of self-righteousness." "They are the modern Puritans," she said, "a different sort of person from the old Puritan. He had as his spokesman such a one as John Milton. The modem Puritans, however, have the bacillus of censorship — against which Milton eloquently inveighed — so deep-seated in their systems that probably nothing but death will remove it." Miss Peck, however, did not believe that these organized forces of self-righteousness, composed mostly of women, really represented the women of the State. She said she found that the most effective propaganda for the National Board of Review vdth Massachusetts audiences was its large list of members who are devoting their time freely to public service through the National Boards Miss Peck had also recently been in Virginia. There, too, there has been agitation for state motion picture censorship, but she believed that in the case of Virginia the desire for legalized enforcement of moralily was on the decline. The spirit of the exhibitors in Virginia was conciliatory and the women's organizations were willing to meet them half way. The prospect was therefore for the settlement of the questions at issue by means of a co-operative arrangement. If it were only possible for every person who is inclined to favor state censorship in preference to the present system of review by the National Board of Review, to attend one of its annual luncheons and meet the people who do the actual work of reviewing and who control its policies and administration, it is reasonable to predict that even "the organized forces of self-righteousness" whom Miss Peck encountered would feel their props so unsteady that they would seek some other "evil" to attack and for the nonce leave the motion picture to develop in peace under the guardianship of the National Board of Review and the inspiration of leaders of the industry like Mr. Brady and the genius of writers and thinkers like Mr. Hughes.