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was lured by the apparent security of our trade with America and other countries, into the feeling that change and progress need not be too seriously contemplated.
Perhaps the first small step in the right direction was asking Blanche Macintosh to write a script for us instead of relying upon our own puny efforts. She, too, began very humbly, for her first scenario only earned her a guinea. It was called In Wolfs Clothing and I am afraid that is all I know about it.
A very important event in the story of English films was the appointment of a film censor. I mentioned near the beginning of this book that there occasionally appeared unpleasant little films which were ostensibly for 'smoking-room' use, and that, though some of us took a little fright that they might spread and become a danger to the trade, they did not then grow beyond being 'no bigger than a man's hand.' But in these later years, when there were fifty 'producers' for every one there was before; when there were fifty times as many markets with the temptation to make a little quick money and hang the consequences, the danger was certainly growing. Although there was as yet no overt evidence of it, we felt it might flare up at any moment.
We remembered hearing what happened to the stereoscope in the days when our fathers were young. That very attractive instrument, showing beautiful scenery in natural deep relief, was to be found in nearly every ladies' drawing-room, until in an evil day some unprincipled persons began selling indecent photographs for use in it. That was its knell. It speedily acquired such ill-repute that it was totally banished and never again came back into favour.
And some of us took fright. We visualised the possibility of a like fate overtaking our cinematograph. It was Will Barker who took the first step. He called Bromhead and me and one or two others into consultation and we put our heads together and agreed that the best safeguard would be to set up a censorship and somehow compel all film-makers to submit all their films to its judgment. It was rather a large undertaking but it was a big danger with which the whole industry of film-making was threatened. I need not go into details. There was in existence the Kinematograph Manufacturers Association to which we all belonged, and it was arranged that that body should inaugurate the scheme. Its very capable secretary, J. Brooke-Wilkinson, entered heartily into the arrangement and as secretary of the
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