Screenland (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

for 7s[o v e mb e r 19 29 25 Vital Force Behind Motion Pictures Dr. John B. Watson, the Famous Psychologist, Founder of the Behaviorist School of Psychology, Settles Once and For All the Controversy: is Sex Appeal Necessary to the Motion Picture Industry? Read What this Authority Says it. She only knows she feels frustrated, miserable. But instead of brooding about it, she dresses herself prettily and goes to the Roxy or the Capitol Theater. "Settling herself comfortably in her seat, she watches Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor in an exquisite love scene. Soon Mary isn't unhappy any more. She is dreaming. Day dreaming that she herself is Janet; and that on her lips, the tender kisses of Charles Farrell are falling. "A little later the picture is over. The lights go on, the orchestra begins to play and Mary goes home — happy. Life isn't any more a dreary routine. Even broiling the chops and fixing the pineapple and lettuce salad has a touch of romance to it. For all the time she is imagining that she is the heroine of a love drama, in which her husband, transformed into a dream lover, is the hero. "And so another marital crisis is past. Once again the movies have proved a positive, alleviating factor. "Many of these people who seek their happiness in the mo' tion picture theater write me letters and ask for advice. I can do little to aid them. One psychologist can't remake the world. But where I can help is by trying to stir the sentiment of the movie millions up to the point where young boys and girls from birth upward can be trained so they mature in truth and beauty." Although Dr. Watson is almost fifty, he looks a young forty. He is a big, splendidly built man with the energy of a Mussolini and the pep of an Alaskan dog team. He has a Rabelaisian laugh and a broad sense of humor. He is physically a combination of George Bancroft, William Powell and Lewis Stone. He is the Bill Haines of the scientific world. A Bad Boy among the psychologists all right, for he is always stirring up scientific controversies over his original solutions of human behavior. Although Dr. Watson writes profound books on Behaviorism, he is just a human being like the rest of us, with the Dr. Watson Says: "The motion picture functions as one of the best of pathological laboratories. "Whenever I visit a motion picture theater, I don't do so to study the sex habits of the penguins or the geologic structure of the great Antarctic Barrier. I go there for the same reason that a hundred million other people go there — to enjoy youth, warmth, beauty. To see the perfect consummation of masculine strength with feminine loveliness — the one Paradise of which a man may be eternally sure!" same problems. It has only been nine year^ since with little or no money, a young wife and heavy financial obligations, he gave up academic honors to seek a place\in the business world. Starting out selling coffee to the\etail trade in order to gain business experience, he is now a member of the crack advertising corporation, J. Walter Thompson Company. He has risen steadily, both in the advertising and in the scientific world. "Most movie goers, just like most other people," goes on the doctor, "make the miserable mistake of thinking they will be happy tomorrow. As children we think we will be happy when we can act as we please. Whereas, Huxley said: 'A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. "The pursuit of happiness is almost always an unhappy quest. I dislike that word 'happiness' anyway. Fulfillment is a better word for it. And my idea of fulfillment is throwing yourself so heartily into work and into outdoor sports that there is neither time nor energy left for repinings, repressions, inhibitions. That is the ideal I should like to see worked out for every child born on the earth. "I myself am not a movie fan," Dr. Watson concludes. "My work and my family leave me little leisure for keeping up with current pictures. "But I sincerely believe that the motion picture industry would shortly come to grief — just as the human race would cease to exist — if it were not for the appeal of one sex for another. "Whenever I do visit a moving picture theater, I don't do so to study the sex habits of the penguins or the geologic structure of the great Antarctic Barrier. I go there for the same reason that a hundred million other people go there — to enjoy youth, warmth, beauty. To see the perfect consummation of masculine strength with feminine loveliness— the one Paradise of which a man may be eternally sure!"