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the replies furnishes 919 mentions of favourites and 277 mentions of actors disliked.
Douglas Fairbanks once again wins first place, being an especial favourite among the boys. Next comes Rudolph Valentino, who captures almost the whole of the feminine vote. Here, again, the preference was influenced by the older children's opinion. Then come Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan and Tom Mix.
Antipathy is especially directed against a well-known artist whose name is withheld so as to hurt nobody's feelings. Who can tell the reason for this dislike? Two or three boys wrote " Because he makes such faces ". The same fault is found with another big film-star. Girls complain of what they call the " silliness " of Ridolini and Harold Lloyd.
These artists, however, need not quail before such criticism. Some of it is only second-hand or the simplicity of the very young, who still love marvellous adventures and have not yet learnt to appreciate subtle interpretations of femininity, or again it is the superior pose of adolescence, which professes scorn for what it considers frivolous.
As already stated, such opinions are of small value, but the young are greatly flattered at being asked their opinion and grateful for an opportunity to assert their personality, (see table X).
Replies to last questions.
The opinions about the cinema held in the families of the children show little variation. They are either favourable, or otherwise, on grounds already mentioned as the reasons why children do not visit the cinema oftener. Most families express no opinion.
The desire to imitate actors is not widespread. In some cases boys are in the habit of caricaturing a comic artist and in just a few cases girls express a wish that they were like some famous film-star.
As regards the desire to participate in some incident or adventure seen on the screen, the answers are few but interesting. Most of them are from boys who aspire to share in adventurous or heroic enterprises.
Answers to the last question of all are likewise few. Some express a wish that suburban cinemas were better ventilated. As one boy put it, " You feel you're suffocating ". A few complain that unaccompanied children fidget.
A certain number state that instructional films ought to be shown in every school.
One child writes that big businesses ought to be filmed " to make Italian genius known to foreign countries and to those who cannot visit all the factories "; another thinks it would be easy to make charming scenes with children in them, the various school festivities and functions offering excellent material. " Cameras ", he adds, " need not cost much ".
As explained, however, these opinions are pre-eminently individual and cannot be statistically reproduced.