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330 MOTION PICTURES I922-I945
Building a "more perfect union" in the industry, and one that would be self-governing
Improving the Quality of pictures quickly Improving the Demand, through organized public opinion Securing the Practical Co-operation of Educators Helping Distributors to overcome fraud and loss Helping Exhibitors adjust contract problems Improving the quality of Advertising
Although this listing of exactly ten major items is of course an oversimplification, it is close to the facts. From my brief summary of the ten subjects hereafter, each can be seen to have been a project that couldn't wait. And though most of the problems were continuous, the initial approach to them was most important. In nearly every case circumstances forced me to take the bull by the horns and do something at once. It was far better to attack than to defend.
From another viewpoint the analysis holds true that every one of the ten projects was an attempt to carry out one or more of the Association's basic objectives. I realized that there were so many active factors in the industry that we had to take them all into account if we were to make progress in solving the central problem, which was better pictures. And in subdividing the work, we actually ended up with ten major departments.
INTERNAL DISORDERS
The industry had grown like a mushroom, more in scope and dollars than in self-control. Tougher or more ruthless competition would have been hard to find, or greater rewards for courage and resourcefulness. It was that kind of business. And too often there was an apparent conflict between making fine pictures and making more money.
The other side of it was that very few rules of the game— fair trade practices— had yet been built up. Some that did exist were honored more in the breach than in the observance. Our "industrial civilization" was still in the future. In the early days jealousy and suspicion colored the whole chaotic process of production, distribution, and exhibition. Motion pictures were suffering from the rashness of youth and a bad case of growing pains.
On the personal side, the industry was giving critics too many openings for attack. As Terry Ramsaye, the most thorough historian of the art, wrote in his two-volume work, A Million and One Nights: "The flow of scandals was telling at the box office. Censorship movements were acquiring new strength. Professional enemies of the screen were capitalizing opportunity." Plenty of people were only too willing to believe that stories like those of Fatty Arbuckle and Wally Reid were typical. It seemed to make good copy for newspapers to connect all sorts