Juvenile delinquency (1955)

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150 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY used to be said that children who read of the exploits of gunmen in dime novels would grow up to be gunmen themselves; the current charge against the movies is only an adaptation of that old complaint. I think tliat covers what he has to say, but I woiikl like to supple- ment that, if I may. Mr. BoBo. Mr. Greenspan, on that one particular instance there, have you also brouo;ht alon<>- with you other instances where people might have taken a varying viewpoint with that person there ? Mr. Greenspax. A varying viewpoint ? Mr. BoBO. Yes. Mr. Greenspax. No, I haven't. Mr. BoBO. Has the council gone into any research ? ]Mr. Greenspax. The council has. We have gone into research from time to time, and our findings more or less reflect some of the state- ments that were made here yesterday by some our our studio heads. For one thing, we agree and I personally agree that the public must share the responsibility as well as the credit that motion pictures re- flect. Don't forget it is the same public, the same people who pay their money to see Blackboard Jungle, that also pay their money to see A Man Called Peter or a Davy Crockett or a Disney picture. It is the same people. And we also know that "crime doesn't pay" has always been the key- note that has been sounded by motion pictures. In fact, some year'^ ago—I am surprised Dora Schary didn't mention that—M-G-M led the way in a series of crime shorts^some of you may recall—called Crime Doesn't Pay, which was very, very effective. Chairman Kefauver. He did mention that. Mr. Greenspan. Did he ? I didn't remember that. Chairman Kefau\t:r. He talked about the shorts, about the ones he had the G-men in, which were the "crime doesn't pay'' shows. Mr. Greenspan. I see. He didn't mention it by name. From time to time efforts are made to take recognition of this problem. I can recall during the 1930's, when the so-called gangster pictures were being made, it had reached quite a pitch at one time, especially where heroes were created, such as Jimmy Cagney and Eddie Robinson, and kids were going around imitating them and emulating them. I recall one picture in that time called Angels With Dirty Faces in which a specific ending was arranged for that picture, in which Jimmy Cagney, the star, is led to the electric chair. He was shown as a cringing, cowardly, hystei'ical character, in order to cause the children and the little kids who had made him an idol previously, to change their minds about him. Mr. BoBO. ]Mr. Greenspan, I have been interested in quite a bit of the testimony here, where the good things, such as showing Jimmy Cagney as a cringing person, would have an effect of teaching chil- dren there that the good man in the movies would teach the children this. I wonder if the same thing is not true, when we show these par- ticular scenes and teach children, and when we show the other scenes of brutality, of crimes, of horrible fights, of an absence of respect for law and order, aren't we teaching children at the same time, a great number of children, these things are condoned by the public, realizing there are a great many good movies and also in many of these movies are bad scenes that miffht also be teaching them ?