Motion Picture Magazine, July 1914 (1914)

\ GOOD AND BAD 31. P. THEATERS 103 those who did was spread over the rest of the com- munity. It had a strong in- fluence on the younger mem- bers, influen- cing their choice of habits by bad and unwhole- some suggestions, as I mentioned be- fore. It seemed almost, as it were, to project its unwholesome effect upon the community as a whole, by limit- ing the choice of influence in a field where a great deal of good might have been accomplished, as I intend to show later. Individual instances came to me thru many of the boys on the play- ground who were regulars at the theater. It seems as tho this theater had taken the place, in a psychological influence, of the injurious dime novel, which a few years ago figured so prominently as a cause for the delin- quency and incorrigibility of city boys. Boys who became prominent, to my observation, because of their natural self-assertion, leaders of the gangs, the ones who were chosen by the boys themselves as captains of the athletic teams, were the ones who figured the greatest number of times in the juvenile-court cases of our neighbor- hood. When the gang went on a rampage, they were invariably always in the thick of the trouble or dis- turbance, and were known as bad boys. The real trouble was that the ideas and energies of the boys were converted into the wrong channels. Because of the longing for the dramatic element, which is perfectly natural in a growing boy, he is apt to make a hero out of a criminal. Ample opportunity was given the boys for this ill-directed hero wor- ship, by the picture plays of the theater, in which often the hero was a criminal. I had a direct confession from one boy, at heart a good boy and a born leader of his fellow playmates, that he conceived the idea of a burglary from one of the picture show plays. I do not mean to insinuate that this one picture theater was.the only bad influence on this community and its people, nor in fact that it was the rul- ing evil one. But I do intend to show that it had an evil influence as a general thing, and how this influence was counteracted and raised to a higher level by another Motion Picture theater, conducted in what might be termed almost an ideal way. I had noticed a new building that was being erected on the main street, and hearing that it was to be a new picture theater, I was naturally cu- rious and interested, as I had taken note of the influence of the other picture show. It was not long before I discovered that the promoter and owner of this new theater was a re- markable man, in fact a philanthro- pist, and a man whose ideas were to be of great social benefit to the community. He erected a large, neat and com- modious building, with a well ven- tilated and cleanly decorated interior. A pipe-organ, as fine as any church in the neighborhood could boast of, was installed, and good music beside this was also furnished in the way of an accomplished pianist. Nothing but the best of films were accepted from the distributor, and the manager, by his own personal influence, caused the city board of censorship to become more free in its condemnation and more discriminating in its selections of film plays. His aim was to educate his patrons as well as to amuse them — p r ominent weekly records of events were engaged and shown; sights of travel all over the country were a feature. His selections of humor, pathos, and love were of the cleanest and most elevating.