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)

108 MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. that it is no burden, and the national board is not thoufrht of as a. censoring body at all. It is thought of by our manufacturers, how- ever, as an agency which they themselves helped to create and which is endeavoring to raise the tone of the business. I know that where- ever the National Board of Censorship hears of some improper film (and when I say improper I do not mean indecent, because I do not think they put out any indecent films in this country—but let us say a film wliich shows a prize fight, or a bull fight, or a i)icture which shows life in the slums in an unattractive or unpleasant way), it gets in touch with the local authorities wherever that film is being shown or intended to be shown and tries to get such action as the law per- mits, and, as a matter of fact, it does not take very much more than a short note to the newspapers to kill such a film. I'eople do not like to go to see it. The national board is really an agency, so far as the manufacturers that I represent are concerned, to keep up the tone of the business and for keeping out those people who are trying to prostitute a very powerful and very worthy agency for good. That is about the way we feel toward the national board. We know perfectly well it is not the national board which has enabled us to improve or wliich has required the improvement or development in the character of the pic- tures. It is the public demand that has dorie that. As the people became used to seeing the moving pictures, the same old ideas did not appeal to them an}' more. People Avould not go to see a horse walked up and down. I remember the firs! picture I saw—a horse being led to and fro on the race track—and you saw him mcne on the pictures. It was very wonderful then. Of course, the people would not go to see that any more now, and so as the popularity of the pictures and their general use has become greater and has increased, people de- mand more complicated and complex and well-de\ eloped themes, and that has been one of the causes of development. The Chairman. The people are well aware of this censorship by the board in New York. Air. Sf-ligsreiu;. My private opinion is that 80 per cent of the patrons of moving-picture houses have not the slightest idea what the board of censorship does, and that SO per cent of them pay no attention at all to it. The CiiAJiniAN. Are you not of the opinion that the general public know's that there is this censorship, and therefoiv they know that what has been presented has been censored by this New York board? Mr. Seliosbeijo. I am not of that opinion. The CiiAiR.MAN. You are not of that opinion? Mr. Seeigsherg. No. Perhaps there are some better read people in tlie cities who know about the National Board, but the bulwark of the motion-picture business is not in the cities. In the cities there are always new attractions^—^vaudcville shows and threaters and public jiarks and free amusement places. It is in the country. The farther away you get from New York the better the business of the motion-i>icture exhibit. It is almost imi)ossible to run a large inolion-i)icture show successfully in New York, because the people from out of town do not want to go to motion-picture shows. They can do that at home. But when you get away from New York and away into the land of cme-night stands in the tliealrical business, that is where the motion-picture show is the sole form of annisement,