The Motion Picture and the Family (Oct 1934 - May 1937)

; April 15, 1936 THE MOTION PICTURE AND THE FAMILY 3 LESSONS from the MOVIES Presented for the Committee on Social Values in Motion Pictures by Howard M. Le Sourd, Ph.D., Dean of Boston University Graduate School, Chairman Seeing "Mutiny On the Bounty" Inspires Verse Boys and Girls Arrange For I Big Exhibit , Boys and girls in Fifth Term « English at the new and modern . Seward Park High School on the ; lower East Side of New York City \ are all enthusiasm these days for they are in the process of arranging one of the most elaborate motion . picture exhibits which has yet 1 graced a metropolitan high school. : It will be titled "Moving Pictures and Books" and will deal primarily with films which are based upon current fiction and literary classics. It is to be displayed in the i fully equipped new exhibition room of which the students are so proud. In accordance with the trends of { modern pedagogy, the pupils them1 selves are taking the primary rej sponsibility for arranging the exj hibit, drafting upon the teachers or librarians for necessary assistance. Incident to the exhibit, members \ of the committee are getting help, ful training in commercial corres' pondence and business technique by writing letters to motion picture company officials and by interviewing executives of these companies to gather material. I Through their tireless efforts and the cooperation of individual companies and of the Motion Picture 5 Producers and Distributors of 9 America, Inc., a large collection of 5 stills, pamphlets and scale models ' of screen sets has been assembled. The star feature of the exhibit is expected to be a model of a complete modern motion picture lot, with buildings, streets, sound stages, camera and microphone in miniature, which the young people themselves will make. To young movie-goers whose past experience has been with only the finished product shown in neighbor1 hood theatres this promises to be c a revelation and one that will make ■ for a more genuine appreciation \\ of the complicated technique of making a motion picture. Fame Of Quides Spreads to China So widespread is the fame of the i motion picture study guides issued by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc., subsidiary of the Motion Picture Committee of the Department of Secondary Education of the National Education Association, that it has penetrated even to China, j The issue of the North China Daily News of Shanghai, under > date of February 6, contains the „ announcement of the publication . of a study guide on Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, prepared by Miss Marion C. Sheridan, Ph.D., dean of the English Department of the New Haven High School and president of the New England Association of English Teachers. A Tale of Two Cities will be screened at the Nanking Theatre in Shanghai shortly and students of English literature are being urged by the News to attend. THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (Walter W anger-Paramount) There was the sound of a baby, crying, and a mother's voice, praying— Oh, God, give her strength to be good — to be never hatin' an' never fightin' — an' don't let her carry the burden o' fear watchin' her loved ones an' seein' 'em die. An' always askin' out of her heart: "Why has it got to be? Why has it got to be?" Thus Melissa, a mother in this beautifully colored picture, poured out her heart. She did not want sorrows and trials, such as had clouded her life, to burden the heart of her baby girl as she grew into womanhood. But feuds in the mountains live on from generation to generation, and the hatreds of the past find some new stimulus with the passing years. When that baby girl was grown, conditions hadn't changed and Melissa still complained about her men folks: They don't understand. They don't understand nothin' but shootin' and killin'. That's all they understand. Here was war on a small scale but war just the same. How the tragedy persists! Mothers rear sons for cannon fodder, and daughters to be the suffering, sorrowing wives and mothers of future warriors. Why has it got to be? The Trail of the Lonesome Pine suggests the reason. Every man feels bound by the code of his group to hate what has been hated, to maintain a sense of pride in the tradition of his clan : to exhibit the ever, are for reference only and are not available for general circulation. The stills in the Picture Collection, on the other hand, can be freely borrowed. Quietly, unostentatiously, and as a feature of its work very little known to the general public, the library has been collecting these stills for a long period of years. Each is hand-picked and chosen with greatest care so that it will be typical of the spirit and art of film making. An elaborate cross index enables the trained librarians to locate instantly stills on a wide variety of subjects. One inquirer may want to know what servants' costumes were like in 1919 and a still is found that answers the question. Another may wish pictures of period furniture and particularly, close-ups of the lace doilies and antimacassars which characterized the Victorian era, and at once they are forthcoming. The people who make use of the motion picture collection are varied in type. Some of them are motion futile courage and bull-headedness of his forbears. How silly to be an outsider looking on, but how tragically real to the participants! When silly, selfish pride in fighting gives way to a vision of the glories of peace, when a spirit of friendliness replaces a haughty desire for mastery, then the new day of brotherhood on earth will dawn. THESE THREE (Goldwyn-United Artists) Here is a story of havoc wreaked in the lives of three innocent adults by a whispering campaign begun by a lying, spiteful child. Two college girls, Martha and Karen, with the help of a young doctor, turn a dilapidated old New England homestead into a charming school for girls. The school prospers, but there is one disturbing factor, Mary Tilford, a vicious, lying child, who bullies the other children and will go to any lengths to escape her school duties. Through eavesdropping by the children Mary is able to turn a perfectly innocent situation into a scandal which her grandmother accepts as fact. She proceeds to notify the mothers, who withdraw their children from the school. A lawsuit for damages is lost, and then Karen, susceptible at last, breaks her engagement to the doctor. What a tragedy wicked tongues and poisoned minds can make! FARMER IN THE DELL (RKO Radio) This family picture portrays problems that arise from an overambitious and not too intelligent mother. Ambition is that quality (Continued on Page 6) picture fans who, through the stills, follow the fortunes of their favorite stars. Others are making a serious study of motion picture art and through the stills they familiarize themselves with developments in film technique. Producers often resort to these old stills to get authentic data on the fashions and customs of 20 or more years ago. Producers from Hollywood to Moscow have used the collection for this purpose. Motion picture stills are also used by artists, educators, fashion designers, mural painters, wig makers, as an inspiration for their works of art or as a basis for their designs. Often the librarians ingeniously combine motion picture stills with other material of educational value to make up educational exhibits. A case in point is the circulating exhibit called Three Centuries in Tahiti which was sent out some time ago. In it, side by side with colored prints of Gauguin paintings and enlargements of the engravings of Tahiti in the 18th century, It is a far cry from seeing a motion picture to writing poetry, yet a surprisingly fine collection of sea chanteys resulted from the study of Mutiny on the Bounty by sophomores in the Terre Haute, Indiana, High School. Space prevents the printing of many, but here are one or two samples of the work of the young rhymesters : Captain Bligh had a motley crew And mutiny lay ahead; The sailors' hearts were filled with hate And the captain's filled with dread. Sailing swiftly, silently on Or pounding the merciless waves, Man's inhumanity to man Changed the Bounty's crew to slaves. Gordon Belles With a high wind and full blown sail How could Bligh and his brave men fail? He lost his ship and the crew's good will Here's hoping the old captain's floundering still. Ruth Fiebleman A cruel, merciless captain By the name of Bligh Held the fate of the Bounty On the unknown seas so high. On the rugged isle of Pitcairn Settled the mutineers; And still their red blood flows there After two hundred years. Alice Randel The writing of sea chanteys was correlated with the work of the class in rhythm and rhyme and represents one of their first attempts at original verse. Makes Boys Work Way In Movies A clever Minneapolis theatre manager has found a way to make juvenile gate crashers really value motion picture entertainment, says the Christian Science Monitor. Discovering three boys sneaking into the theatre without paying admission charges he gave the two older boys a mop and pail and had them do some cleaning in the balcony for their tickets. The younger lad had to wipe down the steps for his admission. When the jobs were finished, the manager told them that any time they wanted to see a movie they might ask for him and he would give them jobs to pay for their tickets. were cleverly worked-in stills of Mr. Robinson Crusoe, a motion picture made in the same tropic region. To enliven the stills from the modern film, quotations from the Diary of Gauguin were added. The exhibit furnishes a fine illustration of a library-film tie-up. 20,000 Stills For Loan At N. Y. Library (Continued from page U