Hollywood Saga (1939)

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION The first motion pictures cost one cent to see in the old penny arcades, but as the show lasted less than a minute, it was really more expensive than the most elaborate work of modern cinematic art. Ten thousand feet of film may be seen today for not more than fifty cents, so that the patron now receives four times as much movie for his money as he did in the very beginning. Not only that; he sees the picture from a comfortable seat, usually in a clean, attractive theater; sometimes in a palace whose splendor warms the cockles of his proletarian heart. No longer does he have to apologize for attending “just to take the children.” In the midst of an audience of seventy million, he can find no one to accept his apology. Motion pictures started by being entertainment for people of small means. That, indeed, they still are, but the well-to-do have joined the audience which has become a mighty cross section of the public, comprising probably more than half the people of our land. But even now the dimes and quarters paid by people of small incomes form the bulk of motion-picture receipts. This insures not only the life, but the health of the screen. No one can tell seventy million people what they may or may not have on their screens. No band of reformers or educators is strong enough to command a majority of the audience. They may, it is true, form groups large enough to make their influence felt, but only if they are liberal enough to represent the thought of millions of their neighbors. The American people is essentially clean-minded, and while minorities may be pleased to see indecency or vulgarity on the screen, the majority vote is so strongly against off-color entertainment that no unclean school of picture-making can long survive. It has been tried by certain producers of the baser sort, and only resulted in censorship, an evil capable of being even 21