The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Among the Magazines 259 fheatre, there will be no reason why an author should not write first-hand a good motion picture that will do away with many of the hacks who now chop up a picture into what they call a continuity. j. . . When men of fine training have come to know the requirements of the movies in the same way, then perhaps we shall have something to begin on for bet- ter films. ... "Sometimes when I sit in one of the coliseum-like picture theatres and get the impression of the thousands of persons all with their attention enchained on a small square of white about half a block away, I still wonder at this miracle of a mechan- ical age. . . . There is, I am sure, a vein waiting to be hit, some radium to be obtained from this gob of stuff." "B OB SHULER'S MAGAZINE" is the name of a new monthly pub- lication, the fourth number of v/hich we recently picked up on the Los Angeles news stands. Bob Shuler, we un- derstand, is a prominent minister in that city, whose energy and convictions need more outlet than can be found in weekly sermons and pastoral visits between. It is a militant magazine, vigorously writ- ten, sometimes a bit bombastic, but always unmistakably sincere. It has taken the large contract of giving "merciless pub- licity" to whatever is wrong in the world, and new and strenuous emphasis to what- ever is right—the editor being the final court of decision as to the wrong and the right. The magazine is exclusively editorial, hence all the pages are unanimous on this point. The targets aimed at in the 4th number (and there is a good percentage of hits) are numerous and varied: Liberal Tenden- cies in Religion, Flappers, Will Hays, The Shorter Bible, Christian Science, Nudity in Dress, the Jews, the Catholics, Jack Demp- sey, Movies in General, and the Press and Government of Los Angeles in particular. For staunch defense are chosen The 18th Amendment, the Morals of Bryan, and the Ku Klux Klan as far as it has been judged unjustly. It is stimulating reading—amusing, irri- tating and impressive by turns. The mag- azine has already won numbers of sup- porters who are abetting the enterprise en- ergetically by subscribing for their friends. Probably an enumeration of its enemies would be still more impressive. The editor has a hard fight on his hands, but he evi- dently wants it. As far as it is a construc- tive fight our good wishes are with him. In future issues we hope to make reference to Bob Shuler's Magazine whenever it can be done appropriately in our field. THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL (Chapel Hill, N. C.) gives the fol- lowing report of an investigation by A. J. Nystrom & Co. of Chicago: The .increase in confidence in the visual ele- ment in education had brought up the question of whether or not there would be a conflict be- tween motion pictures and stereopticons on the one hand, and maps, globes and charts on the other. The result of the investigation disclosed that visual education devices have not adversely affected the sale of maps, globes and charts. The superintendent of visual education in one of the largest cities in America told the Nystrom Company that he does not introduce motion pic- tures into a course until a very thorough ground work has been established in the pupils' minds. He depends upon maps, globes and charts to im- plant a broad understanding of basic relationships, and the significance of what is to be shown through stereopticon and motion picture devices, before introducing the latter. The distribution of the publications of the Ny- strom Company and their English connection, W. & A. K. Johnston, Ltd., throughout the English speaking world, brought to light an interesting commentary on visual education from China. This is also regarded as an example of how ob- servers working in widely separated times and places, will arrive at the same conclusion. For centuries there has been a statement in the Chi- nese philosophy that "to see once is better than to hear ten times." WORLD'S WORK for SeptemDer contains an article by Robert J. Flaherty which should be read by all seriously interested in motion picture advance. "How I filmed Nanook of the North" is a detailed account of the making