Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

FILM January, 1946 16MM Director, Slide & No. 19; Free Films We thought we had disposed of this subject so far as this page was concerned, but from evidence coming our way it seems that the hydra has some heads remaining, at which we can not resist making a thrust. We note that a newcomer to this field has taken up this subject of “free” films and tells us there are two kinds of “free” films, namely those that are “recreational” and those which deserve to be classed as “text films.” Does not this rather naive classification apply also to pictures which are not “free”? Apparently we have been laboring under the erroneous impression that “free” films were those which did not cause the borrower financial outlay, with much emphasis on the word “financial.” But it seems we were born a doubting Thomas, who believes one does not obtain something for nothing. To us such “deals” void all natural laws and the Bard might well have altered his famous statement to read : “He who steals my purse steals trash, but he who steals my unsuspecting and confiding mind steals that which no one can return.” For a teacher to permit the theft of the unsuspecting and confiding minds of school children under his charge, foi‘ a tax-supported educational institution to tolerate AND RADIO GUIDE WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR Volume XII, No. 4 EXCHANGE PRACTICES BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH Film Exchange, State Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio B. A. Aughinbaugh his doing this, or for a state institution not only to tolerate but actually to advocate such procedure through its publications is to go beyond the limitations of moral law. We inherently love children too much to sell them out directly or indirectly to commercial interests, and we charge that any publicly-owned film exchange which accepts for distribution, or any school which uses, a sponsored film whose direct or hidden purpose is to promote a privately-owned commodity, or a private business, is guilty of moral corruption and should be branded as guilty of malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance. We further outlaw under our classification all films that are released by the public-relations department of any business concern, since such departments exist solely for the warping of public opinion to their private viewpoint. While this may be condoned in the commercial battle for public adult-attention which applies the “adult discount” to exaggerated claims, it can in no way be condoned in public schools, where every child has a right to believe that what is taught him there is free from selfish aims. The school pupil must be guaranteed that not one but all sides of any proposition will be given him. This guarantee is the safeguard which will assure him that what is taught him in school is at least an honest attempt at accuracy and is not the exploitation of a private wolf masquerading as a public sheep. How many children are being taught today, in public schools, through certain promotional films, that “coil” springs are the only proper type of springs for automobiles; that the construction of a telephone is so intricate and that its maintenance is so costly that it would be contrary to the laws of both God and man for a city council to demand a lowering of utility rates; that the great Mogul Oil Company makes gasoline better than any other company; that the Greater Mogul Sulphur Com])any has the only genuine sulI)hur, a brand so good that it is employed even in the fires of