The Moving picture world (December 1920)

ETec'embef 18, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 847 Directors' Dinner at the Biltmore Is Broadening "Intellectual Debauch TOASTMASTER Augustus Thomas said that if the Motion Picture Directors' Association had done nothing else but give the dinner which it gave at the Biltmore on December 7, it would have justified its entire existence. Senator Jimmie Walker said it was "an intellectual debauch." It was. Somehow or other, things just couldn't descend to the commonplace. The food, the music, which were handed out to the physical men, were up and away from the commonplace. So was the intellectual food up on a pinnacle from ordinary fodder. Broadening Effect Ten different speakers, among them Frank Crane, Sophie Irene Loeb and the fiery La Guardia, from ten different angles gave their hearers something to think about. Director, producer, exhibitor, the press, the man of music, the stateman, the writer, all gave, all received, all came away from the fourth annual banquet of the M. P. D. A. broadened and bettered. There was no "robustious, periwig-pated fellow tearing a passion to tatters, to very rags." Every one spoke humbly, every one spoke sincerely. President Vincent, with his committee and his entertaining artists, and Toastmaster Thomas somehow wove a spell about the affair that could not be broken into by rant or cant or bunk. Charles Miller helped along with the creation of this atmosphere by holding the mirror up to the director in his witty and pertinent paraphrasing of Hamlet's instructions to the players. After Mr. Miller's line, "I'd as lief the town crier handled the megaphone," no speaker could decry his profession lacking a sense of humor. A Fair Proposition In his address of welcome President Vincent had a word to the man of finance, the producer, the press, the author, the exhibitor, the player, saying that each had a conception of picture making^ which the director of today wanted to incorporate into his work. Lesley Mason said that the M. P. D. A. could effectively help to internationalize the motion picture by giving every bit of assistance possible to foreign directors who came to America as students of our technique. Sophie Irene Loeb, head of the Child Welfare League, pleaded that the director study life at close range. "If you are showing the prisoner in Sing Sing," she said, "find out how he lives, how he acts behind the bars. The same with all your characters whether they be dope fiends or farmer boys. You must go right down into the heart of humanity. You must make your picture so that the man in the theatre looks at it and says, 'I am that fellow on the screen.' You don't have to soar in the skies of imagination to find your material. It is in the people; it is in life." Down with Sour Sunday Toastmaster Thomas then introduced "the father of Alice Brady." And "the father of Alice Brady," William A. Brady, as he is generally known, said that the .Blue Law promoters had given up their idea of preventing Sunday railroad travel, sports and newspaper publication and had centered their attack on the motion picture. He asked that producers and players keep their pictures clean and above re proach so that no professional fault-finder could have powder for his guns. "Let us not be driven into politics," said Mr. Brady, "but if these fanatics do not let us alone, let us show them what the screen can do when its full power is provoked." Keep on Fighting Sydney S. Cohen, on behalf of the exhibitor, congratulated the director on the progress of his art within the past year. "And in fighting these professional reformers," said Mr. Cohen, "we must fight not only for 1920 and 1921, but for 192S. The reformers are always at it. That is their business. And as a concrete protest against them, and as a mark of esteem, I should like to see erected in New York City a statue of the late Mayor Gaynor, who was mainly responsible for making Sunday pictures possible in the city." John C. Freund, prominent in the music publishing field, active-minded and . enthusiastic despite his white locks, was warmly applauded after his appeal that the director give more thought to the music for his picture. La Guardia Entertains "Two decades ago," he said, "America had practically no music in its schools. Today there is hardly a school that does not have its musical director. America is spending more money for music today than all the other countries of the world. America loves music. Let me ask that you" think more seriously about the relation of music to your photoplay. Music gives a picture something words cannot. Try to give the people the music that whispers of immortality." President of the Board of Alderman La Guardia said he was afraid to speak out boldly after what William R. Brady had said of the power of the screen. He warmly advocated, however, that the picture lend itself to public affairs without necessarily entering politics, and ended with a message to the director never to forget that his function in life was to make people happy through his pictures. Crane and the People Dr. Frank Crane backed up the sentiment of Sohpie Irene Loeb by a further appeal to the director to search among the people themselves for screen material. "I believe that everybody is wiser than anybody. I believe the people are more moral than any moralists who preaches to them. I believe the people are braver than any figure who prances on horseback as their leader. "The moral note is the note you want in your pictures. The greatest picture ever made will be a religious picture, just as the greatest pieces of literature and of printing have been religious in theme. The River of God isn't up in the heavens. It is down in Houston street, black with men, and to men, who are little pieces of God, you must go for your inspiration." Dr. Martin, head of the People's Forum and chairman of the National Board of Review, in an earnest and brilliant speech urged the director to see his work in the light of bringing art closer to the people. "On the continent, art and the people are the same thing," said Dr. Martin. "Here in America there seems to be a break. The moving picture, the great educator, can bridge that gap. The Board of Review is only too willing to aid in this national undertaking. As far as censorship is con cerned, the essence of the work of the Board of Review is to prevent the establishment of state boards of censorship." The Inimitable Jimmie Senator James A. Walker wound up the proceedings with a bang. Jimmie said he believed in the people as Frank Crane did, but the last election proved there was no reciprocity. Jimmie also said he never could understand why directors made up as they did for their work. Getting serious, he said that the Blue Law agitators were the twentieth century politicians, that their platform was the Bill of Don'ts, but that great pictures like "Over the Hill" preached a better sermon than all the sermons the agitators ever compiled. "I deny that Sunday is the Lord's day," said Senator Walker. "Every day is the Lord's day." The lists of guests at the dinner numbered 150 prominent members of all phases of the industry. Advice to Directors Delivered by Charles Miller Direct the scene, I pray you, as if 'twere Life itself, humanly, vividly. For if you ovrdo it, as so many of our directors do, I had as lief the town crier held the megaphone. Nor do not tear your hair and rave about it all, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest and as I may say whirlwind of your action you must acquire and create a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to see a robustious, square-headed fellow tear a subtle scene to pieces, to very rags, to catch the cheap plaudits of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of understanding nothing but the crude and obvious. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'doing emotion itself. It out-burlesques burlesques. Pray you avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the situation, the situation to the action; with this special observance that you' o'erstep not the modesty of Nature; for anything so overdone is from the purpose of the picture, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as 'twere the mirror up to natur, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image and the very age and body of the times its form and purpose. Now this overdone or speeded up too much, though it make the unskillful laugh or aplaud cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of which one must in your judgment o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be directors that I have seen direct — and heard others praise and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that having neither the intelligence of an extra-man nor the skill of a super, bitactor or "type" have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought one of the property men had made a director and had not made him well, he imitated humanity so abominably. Oh, reform this altogether. And let those that direct pictures give the author and the spectator credit for some intelligence, for there will be of them that will themselves set up or paint a l~bel on honest love itself, though at the time each humble spectator in the uttermost row has long since guessed it. That's villainous and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that doeth it. Go — make a good picture.