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)

MOTION" PICTURE COMMISSION. 119 not see the loffic of that, because a motion picture costs about ifl.*^*^^^ or $1,500 to produce to get the negative, and tliat can only be pro- duced at that price. If you haA'e an organization that is doing it thoroughly, a thorough equipment to do it daily or Aveekly, then yon would have a minimum cost of $1,000 to $1,500. That is a good deal more than it costs to print a book. Then, in order to get it out, you must have a thorough organization to put it on the market and so place it as to comply with the local rules, and that is a big item of expense. You must have a projecting machine, which costs a couple hundred dollars, and the proper screen, proper facilities for exhibit- mg. In other words, the man who is going to put out a nasty pic- ture must lay out a great deal more money than the man who is going to get out a nasty book. So, if the tendency to produce nasty books is net ver}^ evident in our literature I should say that even the profit Avhich may be made out of such pictures would not be an inducement and it would be a very hazardous investment. The Chaiil-man. There is one detail of the bill that I would like a little information upon. I think it is estimated it would require about $50,000 perhaps to pay the expenses, the necessary legal ex- penses, of the national board of censorship. What should the bill be to cover the amou.nt—$50,000? Mr. Seligsberg. Will you tell me how you figure $50,000? We tried to figure it and came nearer $150,000 or $200,000 for the expense of the commission. The Chairman. We estimated it would not cost the Government over $50,000. Mr. Seligsrerg. May we submit some figures on that? The Chairman. Very Avell, Mr. Seligsrerc;. The way we figure it noAv, we did not want to burden you with the details, but in order to make the bill feasible at all Ave will call your attention to certain changes you will have to make. You must allow longer than 90 days to do the work on hand row, because there is about two years' worlc to be done, and jn-obalily there is some provision to be made in the bill for that. I would prefer to give you better figures than I can give you on my feet here. There is another thing I wixnt to call attention to and which does not seem to have been made clear, and that is that those so-called white-slave films are not shown in places where we can get to them or would get to them. They ai'e not shown in the 5 or 10 cent houses, but in the $1 and $2 houses. They are exactly on a par. so far as the public is concerned, with the general drama. I knovr a man who df)es not send his children to a theater without investigating, even if it is an ordinary drama. It is not like The House of Ijondage, which is put in the 10-cent houses, with a big sign up over it " No chihlren allowed." There is nothing of that kind. It is put in a house where the patronage of children is not souglit, because the price is prohibi- tive. So that is not a practical question with respect to these ])articu- lar films. It is only something that would be slipped through. The 10-cent shows are much better, but it is only something tluit would slip in; something that would not be detected in time, that could pos- sibly be shown, and I must confess I can not conceive of a motion- picture exhibitor so blind to his own interest as to permit, after one accidental projection, any impropriety in his screen, because it is a