The Exhibitor (1959)

I|! it Industry Supports Self-Regulation MPAA, Indie, Exhibitor Spokesmen Defend Record Before House Committee Studying Obscene Material WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eric Johnston, pres¬ ident, Motion Picture Association of Amer¬ ica, appeared last fortnight before the Postal Operations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives under the chairmanship of Kathryn E. Granaham. The sub -committee is making a study of obscene and porno¬ graphic materials being sent through the mails. Also representing the MPAA were Geoffrey M. Shurlock, director, Production Code Ad¬ ministration; Gordon S. White, director, Ad¬ vertising Code Administration; and Mrs. Margaret G. Twyman, director, community relations department. Said Johnston, “. . . No motion picture approved under our Production Code is ob¬ scene or pornographic; no advertising ap¬ proved under our Advertising Code is ob¬ scene or pornographic. The members of our Association do not deal in obscenity or por¬ nography. They don’t make it. They don’t distribute it. They don’t condone it. They are as resolute as anyone in the U.S. in opposing the obscene or pornographic. They believe that purveyors of obscenity or pornography in any of the media should be arrested, tried in the courts, and, if convicted, punished. “The motion picture is one of the greatest, and certainly the most far-ranging, of the media of communications. Those of us who have a stewardship for this medium recog¬ nize our responsibilities to the public we serve, to the public that supports us . . . We have two prime responsibilities — to main¬ tain basic standards of morality and decency in motion pictures and in motion picture ad¬ vertising. We endeavor to do this through our Production Code Administration and our Ad¬ vertising Code Administration. These Codes have governed our production and our ad¬ vertising for 30 years. “The American motion picture is an am¬ bassador of good will to all the world . it is a medium of expression, as much so as newspapers, magazines books and radio and television. The U.S. Supreme Court has un¬ derscored that the film is as fully protected as all other media by the First Amendment to the Constitution — the amendment that guarantees freedom of the press. All respon¬ sible persons in the communications media, while cherishing this freedom and resisting encroachments upon it, fully recognize that freedom means neither license nor licentious¬ ness. Freedom imposes responsibility. It re¬ quires self-discipline. It demands these things of the communications media no less than of the individual citizen. No other industry has matched us in fulfilling these obligations . . . “Some have said that due to changes in the past 10 years, the motion picture itself has changed, that something has happened to our sense of self-discipline, to our Production and Advertising Codes, and that our sense of pub¬ lic responsibility has diminished. This is sim¬ ply not true. “It was never the purpose or the function of the Code to make every picture suitable to every person — man, woman or child — from six to 16 to 60, or any other age. To accom¬ plish this sort of common levelling would destroy the motion picture, or the press, or A. Montague, center, president of the enter¬ tainment industry's Will Rogers Memorial Hos¬ pital and Research Laboratories, recently pre¬ sented citations for exceptional service to the hospital in 1959 to two IATSE Locals. Inter¬ national President Richard F. Walsh, right, ac¬ cepted the plaque for Illinois Local 748, while Ernest Lang, executive secretary. New York Local 306, left, received the honor for his unit. Stellings Heads TOA Unit NEW YORK — Albert M. Pickus, president of Theatre Owners of America, completed appointment of TOA committees for his ad¬ ministration, with the selection of Ernest G. Stellings of Charlotte, past president of TOA, as chairman of TOA’s business building com¬ mittee. He named, to serve with Stellings, the fol¬ lowing exhibitors: Harry Greene, Welworth Theatres of Min¬ neapolis; David Jones, Kerasotes Theatres, Springfield, Ill.; Seymour L. Morris, Schine Theatres, Gloversville, N.Y.; Edward Seguin, Balaban and Katz Theatres, Chicago; Robert W. Selig, president, Fox InterMountain The¬ atres, Denver; Sonny Shepherd, Wometco Enterprises, Miami, Fla.; and M. B. Smith, Commonwealth Theatres, Kansas City. any communicative medium. It would lay waste to our freedom to communicate by im¬ posing a system of thought and idea control that even the totalitarians have not been able to devise. It would reduce us to the mind and maturity level of the dreary drudges in Orwell’s T984.’ Obviously, what we want — and what our Code was created to assure is breadth and diversity, not blind conformity, in the motion picture art. We don’t intend the Code as a document that says: ‘You can’t film that!’ What it does say is: ‘You can film that if you abide by responsible standards of morality and decency.’ “. . . Another statement we sometimes hear is that there ought to be laws, state, local and even Federal laws, to restrict certain mo¬ tion pictures to adults only . . . Could an “adults only” system really work? Who could say what is suitable for an adult? Who could decree when someone becomes an adult? Ad¬ vocates say they want classification to pro¬ tect youth. They say it will help to curb and cure juvenile delinquency . . . The cause of juvenile delinquency is not found in the mo¬ tion picture theatre . . . Government classifi¬ cation of films can’t be an answer . . . Statu¬ tory classification is really governmental cen¬ sorship. One of the real curses of censorship so often overlooked is that it simply doesn’t work; and there is no evidence that any hu¬ man being is qualified to pass in advance on what the rest of us in America may read or IA Locals Honored For Hospital Aid NEW YORK — Awards were made today to the two IATSE locals showing outstanding performance in a union-sponsored campaign to raise funds for the amusement industry’s Will Rogers Memorial Hospital and Research Laboratories. Projectionist IA members are converting a normally wasted material into a source of benefit to the hospital by collect¬ ing and selling for salvage the copper drip¬ pings from projector lamphouses. This has become a nationwide project of the IATSE, and has, in many locations, been expanded to include all waste material with salvage value. The effort has become known within the union as the “Scrap-N-Drippings Drive.” Although individual IATSE members have been doing this for several years, its potential was recognized by several of them who promoted the idea throughout the union. The hospital issues two citation plaques each year in recognition of this effort. These are announced on Will Rogers’ birthday in November. One goes to the Local reaching the highest total dollar return, and the other goes to the IA unit producing the greatest return per member. Presentation this year, the first in the series, are made to Local 306, New York, for the largest total, and to Local 748, Dixon, Ill., for the best produc¬ tion per member. Hospital President Abe Montague, and IATSE International President Richard F. Walsh made the presentation to Local 306 through secretary Ernest Lang. Walsh accepted the second plaque, for the best per-member performance, for Chester L. French, secretary of Local 748. not read, may hear or not hear, may see or not see. What’s wrong with the American people making up their own minds? We’ve been doing it ever since we began as a na¬ tion. It’s worked out better than any other system I know.” Shurlock in his statement to the sub-com¬ mittee further explained the workings of the Code and said that “out of the 12,000 feature films made by established Hollywood pro¬ ducers over the last 25 years, only two fea¬ tures have played in American theatres with¬ out the Code seal. He pointed out that the 10 leading box-office champions of all times were concerned primarily neither with sex nor with violence. “In the long run,” he said, “it’s not the sub¬ ject matter but the treatment that counts, and it is with treatment that the Code opera¬ tion is fundamentally concerned.” White presented many statistics as to the volume of matter processed and said, “There is neither obscenity nor pornography in ad¬ vertising for motion pictures bearing the Association’s Seal of Approval ... In my 15 years as head of the Advertising Code, the Post Office Department has not once chal¬ lenged a single piece of advertising that we approved . . . The granting of a Production Code Seal of Approval to a film obligates the producer, at the same time, to use only ad¬ vertising which has been submitted to and approved by the Advertising Code Adminis¬ tration.” White also pointed out in connection with billboards and outdoor advertising that the companies in that field have a national asso( Continued on page 12) February 10, I960 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 7