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)

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MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. 227 them and let us know about them, so that we can protect the other cities of the country. We have a working arrangement, and we have done, I think, a pretty fair work. The fact that the character of the pictures has changed very materially shows that we have done something along that line. We have not accomplished the entire amount of work, but it seems to us in New York that under the cooperative arrangement, rather than the local arrangement, we are able to accomplish quite as much. There is a certain amount of mulishness in every individual, and it stands to reason that the manufacturers are just as mulish as the rest, but if they are forced to do a thing by law it will result in its being carried into the courts. Mr. Abercroimbie. I understand you are a member of the board of censorship ? Mr. Cocks. I am the secretary, one of the paid men. Mr. Abercrombie. I would like to ask you how the board proceeds to detect violations such as those mentioned a few minutes ago by the various exchanges ? Mr. Cocks. The great groups that manufacture possibly 90 pel cent of the pictures have been very careful, and they have played absolutely fair. Mr. Abercrombie. How are they watched; by whom and where? Mr. Cocks. We have 375 representatives throughout the whole country who are watching those pictures. We send them a bulletin each week, with the understanding that they will report back to us if there are violations. The reports come from different parts of the country. Mr. Abercrombie. Are those people appointed by your board? Mr. Cocks. They are the representatives of the board. They are mayors of cities, police commissioners, superintendents of education, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, and people of that kind. Mr. Abercrombie. Is it an easy matter to change a picture that violates the rules of your board after the picture has been passed upon by your board and sent to the exchanges ? ^ Mr. Cocks. No; it is only when the picture is out on the field in the exchanges or in the State rights group before it has been sub- mitted to the board, that it is possible to make the changes. Mr. Abercrombie. How does your board ascertain whether things ordered omitted from a picture are omitted ? Mr. Cocks. We have the absolute statements of the various ex- hibitors that they have made the changes before the pictures are sent out to the exchanges throughout the country. The group that Ave frankly confess we do not reach is this gi-oup of 4 or 5 per cent of the films you gentlemen have talked about, the State rights pictures. Mr. Abercrombie. Tn this connection, I would like to ask you this question: When the board orders a certain part of a picture omitted, do you follow the picture up to see it exhibited after the change has been made? Mr. Cocks. Yes: Ave do. The Chairman. We are much obliged to you, Mr. Cocks, ihis concludes the hearings on this particular bill.