The Film Daily (1945)

: ^'^ DAILY Thursday, September 20, 1945 Johnston Gives MPPDAFive-Point Program Formation of an All-Emhracing Motion Picture Industry First on Agenda By ERIC A. JOHNSTON President, MPPDA I HAVE been attracted to the motion picture industry because it offers unlimited opportunities to work for peace and prosperity at home and abroad. These are the two goals for which all mankind yearns today. The motion picture has been aptly described as the greatest way of telling a story ever devised by man. In a relatively short period of development, the film has become a medium of mass entertainment and enlightenment, unique in world history. Its appeal is universal. Its potential power for good is only matched by its potential power for evil. Each week, 80,000,000 people in the United States, and millions abroad, go to the motion picture for entertainment, information and inspiration. Through their eyes and ears, they receive new ideas and first become acquainted with new products — products which are luxuries today but are necessities tomorrow. America's Greatest Salesmen We have learned that American motion pictures are, and they must continue to be, America's greatest salesmen, her most natural and convincing ambassadors of good-will. The development of the atomic bomb and the rocket projectile in the closing phases of the war has taught us that mankind must learn the art of living in peace or else face extinction. The motion picture, prudently and wisely used, should be one of the most potent forces for promoting friendship and understanding among nations. I learned from personal experience that in many countries, the only America the people know is the America of the motion picture. We intend always to keep that in mind. It is our aim to foster an industry program which will make motion pictures an even better reflection of the American design of living. This cannot be accomplished by crude, brute -force propaganda, by AS JOHNSTON CHARTS THE COURSE The organization of a Motion Picture Institute, representative of all arms of the industry. II The inauguration of a greatly expanded industry research program on a co-operative basis. Ill The gaining for the American motion picture of a fair share of foreign markets. IV The firm adherence to the industry's established policy of enlightened self -discipline. V The development of the motion picture as an important adjunct to the nation's whole educational system. boastful chest thumping over our superior way of doing things. Rather, the program will depend upon a faithful portrayal of all the natural forces of day-to-day life around us. Immediate Objectives We have other immediate objectives : 1. War taught the industry the value of united, co-operative effort. All elements of the industry — producers, distributors, exhibitors, representatives of the actors, directors and writers' guilds and the craft unions — worked together in the manifold war activities. This co-operative effort must be carried over into the peace. Our purpose is to work with all these elements to form a Motion Picture Institute so that the industry can assume its full share of the responsibility of promoting peace and better living. Nothing like this has ever been attempted in any American industry in peacetime. It ■s the natural evolution of political into industrial democracy. We cannot maintain democratic capitalism without industrial democracy. The motion picture industry can set the example. This proposal is merely another way of saying that we Americans must learn to live together, to work together, and above all to talk to one another \s though we were residents of the same planet. Unless we do, we might just as well stop prattling about promoting the cause of international peace. An America divided will never lead the way to a world united. We cannot be good neighbors until we learn to get along with ourselves. 2. A greatly expanded research program should be undertaken. It should be a cooperative program for the benefit of the entire industry. Such research naturally will involve countless facets to improve the film, the theater, methods and ':echniques. Greater use of pictures in the educational field will be fully explored. "We Shall Want " 3. As practical business men, we shall want, of course, a fair share of foreign markets. America has no artificial barriers against motion pictures from abroad. In this same spirit, we expect that other countries will not erect barriers against American pictures. Free interchange of motion pictures is the best means to bring the people of the world closer together. 4. Enlightened self -discipline by the industry is, and will continue to be, the surest guarantee against Government censorship and regulation. The industry, by trial and error, has learned that decent, clean and truthful entertainment is most surely and permanently successful. The lesson has beer learned. It is the job of all of us, in the industry and without, to see that it is not forgotten 5. The war has demonstrated the educational value of the film. The armed forces attained striking results in their use of training films. We must strive to make the motion picture an important adjunct to our whole educational system. In the schools, films are being used more and more as visual aids. Limitless Opportunity In the field of adult education and specifically in the re-training of the veterans and war workers, there is a limitless opportunity for the motion picture. In the factories, better management labor relations can be promoted through the films. The debt of an industry like ours for its tremendous growth and for warm acceptance by the American people is too obvious to mention. It must be repaid in the steady, undipped coin of responsible and enlight3ned leadership. Such leadership must even be willing to 3acrifice short range advantages for long-range benefits to the public and thus to itself. The substance of any lasting system is the hope of an everrising standard of living in the future, accompanied by convincing evidence of accomplishment as we move along. We can and must provide better food, better clothing, better housing and education for all our people. With our know-how and tremendous natural resources, we can do this. "Noiv Is the Time. . . ." We may as well face the fact that there are other political and economic systems in the world, wholly different from ours, but which do have mass appeal especially in time of iniustrial strife and stagnation. The only way to prove our sys:em is better is to make it work oetter. The next five years may cell the tale. Now is the time to pull off our coats and get at it. This is the sort of job that all of us working together can do in the motion picture industry — a down-to-earth sort of job which provides an unprecedented opportunity to serve a united, democratic and prosperous country.