Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

CAMERA I "The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry' Page Five ni\e Lure of Latin Life to Live in L. A. The choicest exhibits on display at the great international exposition now in progress at Rio de Janeiro will be brought to Los Angeles for the American Historical Revue and Motion Picture Exposition to be held here next summer in commemoration of the Monroe Doctrine's hundredth anniversary. This announcement was made this week by the Revue and Exposition management, which is already making plans for Spanish-American participation in Los Angeles' great event. All South and Central America, as well as Mexico and the West Indies, are represented at the huge celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Brazilian independence, which is to close March 31. Efforts are now being made to get all the nations and private interests participating in that event to move their exhibits to Los Angeles for the Revue and Exposition here a few months later. The interest of Central and South American republics in the Monroe Doctrine and President James Monroe is indicated by the fact that the Brazilian Exposition erected at Rio the Monroe Palace, probably the most beautiful building ever constructed in South America, Diplomatic representatives of these countries have already bespoken their countries' hearty co-operation with Los Angeles and the motion picture industry in staging an international event suitably observing the Monroe Doctrine Centennial. Spanish-Americans, accepting the invitation of Los Angeles, to come here next summer for the Exposition, will find themselves at home among people who speak their language, serve their own food, play their own music, and who dispense the same wonderful hospitality for which the genial residents of Latin America and old-time California are noted. The architectural motif of the entire Revue and Exposition is Spanish Colonial. Warships and troops of several Central and South American countries will participate in the Historical Revue, which will portray episodes from the history of South America as well as that of the United States, Boliver, Sucre, Don Pedro and other South American immortals will receive due recognition, as will great Spaniards who, like Magellan, added lustre to the history of the • New World. A special group of buildings will be erected at Exposition Park to house LatinAmerican exhibits. Arrangements are being made for continuous entertainment of Latin character that will give this section a constant atmosphere of fiesta. Local Spanish participation will be in conjunction with this and will be in the capable hands of Spanish-American organizations and individuals of Los Angeles and Southern California, who have done most to preserve the spirit of Spanish Colonial traditions in California. A casa of Spanish Colonial or Mission design to house the activities of this group is a part of the plan of the Exposition management. From this casa will be dispensed a lavish hospitability typical of the Mission days. This building will include, in addition to the room set apart for administration and purely social activities, a restaurant, theater and museum, all typically Spanish. In this casa descendants of old Spanish families of California's history will receive their brothers and sisters of the South and celebrate the fiestas with all the dignity, beauty, charm and color of the days of the Dons and Donnas. In the restaurant the delectable dishes of Old Spain will be prepared by cooks and served by senoritas who know how to cook and to serve, while the best singers, the most expert dancers and celebrated string orchestras of both local and foreign fame will entertain night and day. In the theater appropriate entertainment will be given and in the patio visiting LatinAmerican bands will play, the idea being to maintain an almost continuous holiday atmosphere. An interesting part of this plan of local Spanish participation is the museum of Spanish Colonial Antiques; objects for this museum will be lent to the Exposition by owners of private collections. In this connection house-keeping methods of old Mission days will be shown together with arts and crafts of Mission Indians. For these treasures California will be ransacked from garret to cellar. A Pageant and perhaps a play representative of Spanish Colonial history are also scheduled as features of this department. It is hoped to have several Presidents from the Latin-American countries as guests of the Exposition. Many distinguished diplomats, army and navy officers, special commissioners, men and women educators and artists of stage and screen are already planning to be present. Seeking a Voting Majorit}? for Better Films An invitation is extended by the National Committee for Better Films to every person in the United States who wishes to learn about and patronize the best pictures. It is extended particularly to schools, churches, libraries, women's clubs and social agencies, as well as to parents and all individuals or organizations using motion pictures or otherwise interested in seeing that the production and exhibition of fine films are encouraged. The National Committee for Better Films, which is affiliated with the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, with headquarters at 70 Fifth Ave., New York, asks all these people and organizations to help it in its work of furthering the Better I<"'ilms Movement by joining as Associate or Cooperating member under its new plan of membership. All members are supplied monthly with the committee's three major services Photoplay Guide of Selected Pictures for the family group and special young people's entertainments; "Film Progress," the committee's organ of the Better Films Movement; and "Exceptional Photoplays," critical reviews of the finer productions, issued by the National Board of Review. Reports on many interesting informational films suitable for either school or community exhibition as those for religious education, are included in these services. Members also receive a certificate of membership and the Membership Creed, which it is believed everyone joining will be heartily glad to endorse. It is the committee's contention, which has been tested and proved by experience in Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities, that a marked influence can be exerted on the character of local motion picture entertainments by community cooperation in support of the good films. When the good films are well supported, the exhibitor is led to book more of that kind. Investigation shows, conversely, that in many communities the exhibitor is discouraged from booking the unusual and artistic film because, when he has ventured to do this, his regular audience has on the whole been unable to appreciate it, and the very people who would have gone out of their way to see it had they known about it, have stayed at home. "Every ticket dropped into the box at the entrance of a motion picture theatre is virtually a ballot," writes the secretary of the committee, "a ballot that reaches not only the exhibitor but the producer. Tin; one guage of 'success' and 'what the public wants,' which exhibitor and producer inevitably recognize, is box oflice receipts. Attendance at a certain type of film means that more films of that type will be produced and exhibited. Indiscriminate attendance or no attendance at all is misuse or neglect of the motion picture voter's power. "There are artists in the film industry who three-fourths of the time produce hokum and one-fourth let us glimpse what they can really do. Promptly the movie audiences through the box office says 'Go back to the old stuff that we're used to from you and like. We don't want any change of fare.' And so the old dishes are served up again with new names and garnishings and the habituated masses consume, while those with taste and discrimination remain unsatisfied— when they do not go entirely without. "What we want to do is to create a voting majority, or at least a determining minority, of motion picture goers who are sufficiently epicurean to make the honest, worthwhile, artistic picture surely pay. They can learn of these pictures as they are produced, from the National Committee for Better Films; they can learn to appreciate these pictures by attending them and read ing the critical and interesting reviews in 'Exceptional Photoplays' which is furnished to members. They can, if they will, engage in a fascinating activity by organizing community support for these films, and cinema study clubs, among lines already in vogue in many cities as reported in the pages of 'Film Progress.' " "Every community should develop without delay a faithful and energetic nucleus of members of the National Committee for Better Films who can be depended on to arouse interest in and enthusiasm for the finer, more significant productions, extend a knowledge of the National Committee's services, and also cooperate with the exhibitor in building up audiences for family' and young people's entertainments."