Juvenile delinquency (1955)

220 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Now, mark this well, "and type of kind of advertising." This sort of underlines the question you just asked, Senator. This is Mr. Al- bright's statement. Shall we believe the first part of it or the last part it? Chairman Kefauver. Well, he doesn't say that particularly that he approves of what is being done in the advertising part of the code. Mr. Benesch. This is the statement. Chairman Kefatjver. He says: The quarter century old self-enforced production and advertising codes through which the companies conformed to acceptable to moral and social standards * * * Mr. Benesch. I maintain they do not conform. Chairman Kefatjver. I take it, Mr. Albright, that you would amend your statement on page 3 where you say— to acceptable moral and social standards in both content of pictures and type and kind of advertising * * * that you don't mean to approve of all of the pictures or all of the advertising. Mr. Albright. I certainly would limit that statement to develop- ment of the code. You have been discussing today with Mr. Wliite and Mr. Shnrlock the application of that code to the material, and I think we have had a rather thorough sifting of that. Chairman KErAu\^R. I took it that what you meant there was that this is what your conception of what the code was designed to do, and so far as the application of the code, that is not your matter. Mr. Albright. It doesn't happen to be my bailiwick. Chairman Kefauver. Does that answer your question ? (Mr. Albright's statement reads as follows:) Statement of Roger Albuight, Dikectok, Department of Educational Services OF the Motion Picture Association of America Mr. Chairman, my name is Roger Albright. My business address is 1600 I Street, Washington, D. C. I am director of the Department of Educational Services of the Motion Picture Association of America, an organization of the 10 principal producers and distributors of motion pictures in tlie United States. For the record, these 10 companies are Allied Artists Pictures Corp., Columbia Pictures Corp., Loew's, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., Republic Pictures Corp., Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., United Artists Corp., Universal Pictures Co., Inc., and Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Here on the west coast, where motion picture production is concentrated, there is a companion but separate organization known as the Association of Motion Picture Producers. Nine of the ten companies are also members of this pro- ducers group. United Artists, which is engaged solely in picture distribution, is therefore not a member of the producers organization. I appear here as a representative of the Motion Picture Association, with which I have been actively identified for 20 years. My associates and I will endeavor to present to your committee a comprehensive summary of the affirmative policies and programs of an industry which voluntarily initiated a quarter of a century ago the first self-imposed code of public responsibility ever undertaken by an industry in this country or in the world. We are proud of that and of how it has worked because we think it is the best evidence of our awareness of the obligation we have to millions of people who see and enjoy our product each week throughout the world. First, however, as one who has been rather intimately associated with educa- tional and community problems for nearly a quarter of a century, I would like to take the opportunity to commend this committee for undertaking its study of juvenile delinquency. I use the word "study" advisedly since I am sure the committee and its com- petent staff know that there are no pat answers, no magic formulas, no quick and easy solutions to this question. It is a continuing issue, shifting both in degree and character with changing world and national conditions.