Screen Guilds Magazine (August 1934)

August, 1934 3 Puritan /_ _ / Pagan The Church has been victorious. The picture industry has acknowledged de¬ feat. pleaded guilty and accepted pro¬ bation. We now realize that all the while the American people didn't really want the type of entertainment it patronized most heavily. Why this apparent condi¬ tion ? The answer, friends, is the American Conscience, that curious phenomenon, half-Puritan, half-pagan, which every now and then goes into such strange pretzel-twirls. Remember how it voted dry and drank wet? Well, at the moment it is all smoked up about the movies. Maybe you heard. The chief trouble with the American Conscience is that it cannot draw the line anywhere. Granted readily that ‘ 4 Sadie 's Stepins" and “Flesh Aflame" were dirty pictures which should never have been made (although the American Con¬ science went for them in shoals), where does the American Conscience get off, denouncing two such really fine num¬ bers as “It Happened One Night" and “Of Human Bondage"? Therein lies the danger of censorship: give a censor an inch and he'll take the Atlantic Cable. Long ago the dramatists and the publishers found this out. They refused to take it lying down, however, and by jumping into the ring whenever they got a chance, they soon had censor¬ ship bleeding on the ropes. The motion picture industry, however, capitulated instantly because it had con¬ science trouble of its own. It would seem that there is nothing else for the creative branches of the industry to do but follow suit for the time being. Perhaps we can take advantage of the precedents of his¬ tory. Perhaps, if the producers eliminate the little family pastorals like “Sadie's Stepins" and “Flesh Aflame," as well as “sophisticated touches," “hot dia¬ logue," “shock comedy," “display se¬ quences" and other such tours de force, there will be no need for the Puritan half of the American Conscience to get exercised over our efforts. Then, when it tries to put the blast on the next “It Happened One Night" or "Of Human Bondage" that comes along, the pagan half will yawn and say; “Aw, nuts! Isn't Mae West down at the Bijou tonight?" The Editors present the first picture ever drawn of MR. CANTOR with his eyes shut. The Wedding • It was bound to come—this wedding of the writer and the actor! Here’s hoping that their first offspring, the new SCREEN GUILDS’ MAGAZINE, will grow up to be a lusty and healthy addi¬ tion to our motion picture family. I’ve always maintained that an actor is only as good as the words that are given him by a writer. You fellows who wield pens and typewriters mean so much to us actors. We can’t get along without you. On the other hand, try getting along without us! That’s why this merger of writers and actors for a joint publication must make for a long and successful life of the new SCREEN GUILDS’ MAGAZINE. The last issue was a grand effort. Now, with the brilliant members of the Screen Writers’ Guild maintaining their high standard of contributions in the new publication, and the actor being accorded the privilege of having his little say in its columns, we hope it will hold even more interest for its readers. As President of the Screen Actors’ Guild I extend my blessings to the wed¬ ding of the writers and the actors. May there never be grounds for divorce. EDDIE CANTOR. Death Rattle T HE LAST attempt of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to save producers from having to bar¬ gain with writers under Government auspices is feeble and hollow, scarcely worthy of the large pretenses of the Academy when it was in its heydey. Last week, on the eve of opening con¬ ferences between the Writer-Producer Five and Five Committees, the writers' branch of the Academy resuscitated the old writer-producer agreement of 1932, and adorning it with shiny new signa¬ tures, sent it broadcast into a bored in¬ dustry. The document stated in appropriate terms that the producers had been sort of lax in living up to it after it was signed but since it had been called to their attention they had all promised to be good boys and to try to live up to is once more. The general implication of the document was a kind of plaintive admonition to writers, “Hey, fellas— what d'you want to go and get worked up about another agreement when we got one here that's brand new and ain't never been used." The producer attitude in this comedy of attempted seduction is not new and needs little comment. The Academy was founded by them as an instrument to frustrate self-directed efforts of the talent classes in the industry to obtain equitable conditions. The Academy has consistently maintained this role from the beginning to its present enfeebled state. From a realistic point of view there is scarcely anything even rep¬ rehensible about it. The producers know what they want and frankly indulge in traditional tactics, adorned with all the familiar fancy didoes of producer ethics to attain their objectives. But when the question of ethics is brought into the matter, it becomes time for the writers of Hollywood to give ser¬ ious consideration to the remaining hand¬ ful of their craft in the Academy who are willing to lend themselves to this attempted betrayal of the interests of the overpowering majority. There is plenty of room in the picture industry for diverse opinion and point of view on any question. Among the nine writer signatures appended to this new Academy document, which is almost half the entire Academy purely writer membership, there are some who have shown every indication of a sincere and frank belief in the Academy's type of or¬ ganization, and have taken its professed objectives to be its real ones. For such men we can have only respect, however (Continued On Page Twenty-six)