Start Over

The command is forward : selections from addresses on the motion picture industry in war and peace (1944)

Page scan 00021 from The command is forward : selections from addresses on the motion picture industry in war and peace

Record Details:

Title:
The command is forward : selections from addresses on the motion picture industry in war and peace
Date:
1944
Publisher:
New York : Richard R. Smith
Volume:
The command is forward : selections from addresses on the motion picture industry in war and peace
Leaf #:
00021
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
May 01, 2025
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

MOVIES AS PROPAGANDA 0, people associate "propaganda" either with outright falsehood or with something that is being put over by devious methods. I doubt whether there would be general agreement in this room as to what is or is not "propaganda." Let me ask you gentlemen a few questions to illustrate my point: Was the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament "propaganda" ? I understand on good authority that its nameless author wrote the story in an effort to counteract a then current trend toward racial exclusiveness. What about Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto of 1848? Was that "propaganda" ? Before you answer, let me ask you another question: What about Rousseau's Declaration of the Rights of Man written on the eve of the French Revolution? And before you answer that one, what about the revolutionary manifesto of 1776 written by Thomas Jefferson and known as the American Declaration of Independence ? What about Harriet Beecher Stowe's flaming novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, and John Steinbeck's potent portrayal of the ills of the "Okies"— The Grapes of Wrath? What about the stage plays and the movies based upon these novels? I believe these questions are sufficient to indicate the futility of attempting to secure any common agreement as to the use of the word "propaganda." That is why I took the liberty of rephrasing the subject for the day. Under no circumstances, however, am I trying to avoid the issue implicit in your invitation and your own phraseology of today's theme. Let us turn, therefore, affirma