Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 25, 1946)

December 25, 1946 in addition, there were 38,000 pieces of film advertising to be inspected. And then there are the circuses and carnivals and travelling shows. Administrating all this is the clean-cut young fellow with no gray beard. O. J. Silverthorne was 25 when he joined the film censor board, 26 when he succeeded 80-year-old J. B. Hardwicke as chairman. How did he get that way? O. J. was born and brought up in Norfolk and Brant Counties. At 21, O. J. Silverthorne was no farther from home than London, Ontario, but he was travelling up, not around, In London, at 21, O. J. was district manager for Shaw School correspondence courses. O years later he was a mar ried man operating his own business college in Collingwood. He operated it for three depression years. “‘And that,” he says, “was the biggest mistake I ever made.” Before the Collingwood venture he had spent a year running the commercial department of Mount Royal College at Calgary. Old enough for objective reflection, years wiser by experience, O. J. figured he had had enough business college operation by 1934. He and his wife flipped a coin to see if they would stay in Collingwood or come to Toronto, he says. The toss landed them in the Queen City and O. J. got the censor board appointment. He had been on the board a year when they made him chairman. In another year the amalgamation of the Theatre Inspection Branch and the Circuses and Travelling Shows Department with the censor board, made him master of all he could survey. Since then he has not marked time. Nor have the years been uneventful. The chairmanship of Ontario’s Board of Film Censors is. a government job. It affects an industry that personally concerns 95 out of every 100 citizens. It is the target for propagandists and counter-propagandists, pressure-groups and editorial writers. O. J. Silverthorne can’t please them all and sometimes doesn’t. . German elements screamed and threatened when the Soviet anti-Nazi film “Professor Mamlock” was not banned in February, 1939; O. J. Silverthorne was unimpressed. Three months later Nazi sympathizers threatened to kill him when the censor board chairman refused to ban “Confessions of a Nazi Spy.” He escaped death, but he has not avoided the verbal and editorial “roastings.” His annual reports have raised minor issues. In 1938, British film producers did not like his observations. In CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY A Reasonable Man (Continued from Page 19) 1940, organized labor protested his establishment of a school for projectionists. And then there have been big controversies. There was Silverthorne vs. the League of Decency in the fall of 1936; the “Canada at War’ issue in 1940, and the fight over ‘Inside Fighting Canada” in 1942. Some people did not like the board chairman’s views on these issues. But it is fair to say that he received more applause in each of these controversies than he did abuse. O. J. Silverthorne impassively carries.on despite all this. But it is a matter of record that his skin is tough. One November day in 1943 he went as a volunteer to a Red Cross blood bank. The doctor pricked a finger on his right hand but drew no blood. The left hand fingers were ae . Vancouver, Toronto, WTPCME MEPIS RENE NEUEN EEE NE NE NEUE RE REE ENE CL LEUCINE REI IEA ENA NS RIE IR IRIE IR EIS ERNIE IR RIEL S, . TIIR IIE IE IAI LERE IIR OR RU III PELE LER IR IRI IEEE ISIE EIEN IE ISIE I IES R EE IE LEIS Season's Greetings to the MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY GENERAL FILMS LTD. Regina, Montreal ANARAAARARARWAARRAAAAAAMARARMMDRMRWARRAARAAWARAs equally unavailing. Pricked in one arm, O. J. Silverthorne still didn’t bleed. They finally got his contribution on a fourth try; concluded he had “thicker skin than the average man.” UT thicker skin does not mean lack of perception. O. J. Silverthorne’s 1945 report included observations of juvenile delinquency that could ‘not have emanated from an ivory tower. “The film is never an “only” factor, and rarely the principal factor in contributing to juvenile misbehaviour,” he said, pointing out however, that “delinquency rises with certain types of films.” Of the Toronto area, he said, ‘In one district delinquency is low, while in another section of the city it is alarmingly high. Consequently, the cinema must ba Winnipeg, Moncton. De De Di DUD Di DDD De Di Bae De Dea Da Di Da DUI BIBI Di Bisa DiI LTD DBAs ITT YARnDidi + ae —. i‘ ttn a emanated aie ‘ into two groups. Page 21 be regarded as of a local nature in the larger centres of the province, requiring the application of local corrective measures rather than a blanket policy.” In his 1946 report, published last spring, the film board chairman announced the plan, now effective, whereby first run pictures are marked for “adult entertainment.” This plan which seeks to indicate what films are believed to be too sophisticated or otherwise injurious to children will be tried for a year, he said. There is nothing compulsory about the classification scheme. Pictures are marked “adult entertainment” for the benefit of parents, not asa bar to audiences young or old. “The kids can still go.” O. J. Silverthorne explains. “We're not telling the kids they can’t see adult pictures. It’s up to their dads and mothers. We’re no dictators. Some of the parents like the idea, some don’t.” Pictures not recommended for minor consumption generally fall They are the “blood-and-thunder” films which may promote juvenile delinquency in impressionable young minds and the too-sophisticated films which may be misunderstood by adolescents. In the matter of such films as Fanny by Gaslight, decisions of the Johnston Office in Hollywood are often no guide to what O. J. Silverthorne and his board will rule or revise. The man has no gray beard, but he has a definite mind of his own. Johnston’s Office recently held up “Wicked Lady.” The Ontario chief sent it back for revision. Of 1,715 Hollywood pictures last year, O. J. Silverthorne and his board revised 96, rejected five. Only once did the board chairman send a picture back for reshooting. ‘Alexander Graham Bell,” did not give Brantford proper recognition in the story of the telephone, ruled O. J. Silverthorne. And since both O. J. and his wife come from that part of the country what else could he rule? Mrs. Silverthorne is the former Ariel Savage, of Brantford. What does the “O. J.” stand for? “J” is “just an initial” said the Ontario film chief. The “O” is for Omri. peer ceninm ri ¥ My Sincere Best Wishes § ¥ For a & ¥ Merry Christmas 4 ¥ and « ] ¥ Happy New Year 8 y » DAVID SIEGEL 4 ¥ Chief Projectionist 4 3s PREMIER OPERATING 4 ¥ CORPORATION b ciccnesiniaropstunieslialnae