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)

176 MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. This will be the case when you have a commission of five. It will be simply impossible for them to censor 200 reels a week. Now, Dr. Chase has also suggested that educational films would not necessarily have to be censored. But Avhat is to prevent any educational film from having in the middle of it, or at the end of it, something that might be objectionable^ If you are going to censor one class of films every one of them must be censored. Dr. Chase. May I make a correction there ? I did not say they should not be censored. Mr. Brylawski. You said that it would not require so much time to censor them. Dr. Chase, I meant that an ordinary employee could look them through, and if they v/ore of an educational characrer it would not be necessary to refer them to the board of higher authority. Mr. Brylawski. Then it would have to be referred to an ordinary employee, and that is what the people of this country are not Avilling to be subjected to. Our intelligence is not to be guided by ordinary employees. Now, there is a little p(;int in that bill there about obscene pic- tures. I recall a little incident that occurred when I first came to Baltimore in 1870. I noticed on Baltimore Street a large fence. 10 feet high, with a brick Avnll all around it, and upon investigation I found that that was the property of Ross Winan, the great in- ventor. I learned that he had mapped out a beautiful park there, right in the center of the city, and had placed in it at his own expense thousands of dollars worth of statuary which he had secured from Europe. That statuary was placed there for the public to see and for the purpose of beautifying the park. The city council at that time, upon the protest of some people, objected to the statuary, and Mr. Winan was forced to put this wall around this beautiful art gallery. From 1875 down to this present day every effort has been made by the citizens of Baltimoi-e to try to get that wall down, because they have changed their opinions. The council passed that ordinance at the re(piest of a few fanatics. Now, would we want to lun e a brick wall around the Corcoran Art Gallery? Our ideas of obscenity have changed, and our ideas ma}' change again. "What may be considered obscene by one person is a work of art to another. I just happened to recall that little story of Ross Winan. Gentlemen, I thank you very much for listening to me, and I will conclude by repeating the old and tried adage: '* Leave well enough alone." The makers, the directors, the national board, the managers and owners of theaters, and, last but not least, the people are the onl}'^ real censors we need. I thank you very much for your attention. Mr. Ahkrcrombie. I would like to ask you how many moving- picture houses in Wasliington exhibit pictures that have not been passed upon by the national board of censors? Mr. Brylawski. N(!t one. The exliibitors will not tolerate it. Mr. Akercromhik. Aie you familiar with all tlie liouses? Mr. Brylawski. With every one of them. sir. They call me the daddy of moving pictures in Washington, and they do what I tell them to do. Mr. AuKRCRoMiuK. Are all the managers of the houses required to screen in advance the statement that the picture has been censored?