Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

74 MOTION" PICTURE COMMISSION. for the buildings, the interior construction of buildings, the physical side of a motion-picture show house. Mr. Towner. There Avas some controversy with regard to some of the issues and some of the associations withdrew from the national board, did they not? Dr. HoAVE. Not during my time; I do not knoAv Avhat associations they were, because I never heard of it. Mr. ToAVNER. Xone of the associations withdrew that have been connected Avitli the National Board of Censorship? Dr. HoAVE. I do not think so. I Avant to qualify that to the extent of saying that there is constantly a difference of opinion in the board; men get irritated and Avomen get irrigated. Mr. ToAVNER. There ought to be a difference of opinion, of course. Dr. HoAVE. And that is one of the leading virtues of the board. For instance, I Avant to take an example Mr. Bryloavski (interposing). I might say that the National Mo- tion Picture Exhibitors of America did AvithdraAv, I believe. Mr. ToAVNER. What Avas the cause of that, if you knoAv? Dr. HoAVE. That is something Avith Avhich we had nothing to do. The Chairman. We Avill hear the gentleman about that later on. Dr. HoAVE. I am not sure but that the Women's Municipal League did AvithdraAv; I am not clear about that, but there are some repre- sentatives here Avho can speak about that. I presume. HoAvever, Mr. Chairman, in that general committee there is the greatest variety of opinion and I Avant to cite tAvo or three examples Avhich indicate the difficulty Avhich anyone has in censoring pictures, and that very difficulty is Avhat raises criticism. Last Avinter there Avere tAvo plays put on in New York, one called "The Lure" and one called ''The Fight." Both of those pictures Avere censored by Magistrate McAdoo; he said they Avere immoral because they shoAved houses of prostitution. The next evening after that action the leaders of the Avoman's suff'rage movement, Mrs. Catt—and I do not know hoAv many more—Avent to see the picture and they all said, "That is the strongest moral dramatic agency that Ave have ever seen put on the stage." I took ]Mrs. Howe, avIio Avas formerly a minister, to see "The Fight," Avhich Avas suppressed. She said. "The influence of that production on the people of America Avill be better than an untold numbei" of books." A feAv years iigo Mr. Rockefeller and his associates spent large sums of money to distribute a book Avritten by Reginald Wright Kaufman called "The House of Bondage." That Avas sent broadcast over the United States because it was thought it Avouid have :i grent moral influence u])on the peo]^le and educate them on this great social question. That book was dramatized by a man named London and submitted to the National Board of Censor- ship. NoAv, our board sj)lit wide open on tliat. Dr. Warbasse. Avho is a leading physician and iunnensely interested in and one of the leaders in social prophylaxis and interested in all sorts of agencies for the suppression of" immorality, Avas almost ready to resign from the national board because the committee refused to pass that film. He said, "That fihn. going to great numbers of people, Avill teach chil- dren, Avill teach l)oys and girls, men and Avomen, about the horror of this thing an<l wilTdo more good than anything else I can think of."