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

Aprii 15, 1937 THE MQTION PICTURE AND THE FAMILY 5 Publisher, Newspaper And Industry Cooperate To Popularize Film 6 7hii.drkn:s c^Vkjng Book Testi val \ Beginning May c)lh Sponged Ay . Central panel of a display devised for the Children's Festival of "Herald-Tribune Books." DRAMA NOW FILM CLUB IN NEW LOTS Twain Classic Comes To Screen {Continued from Page 1) goes with an outline of its plans i ! for the Children's Book Festival, there, too, will go word of the filming of The Prince and the . Pauper and the suggestion that j bookstore proprietors use the , panels from the film for window decoration. I I Classroom and Library Exhibit The classroom and library exi): hibit consists of 10 panels teeming with romantic and historic i interest. Woodcuts of early CoJ ronation ceremonies, costume pic5 |i tures of the actors and actresses j who played in earlier versions of the film, reproductions of various A editions of The Prince and. the '.\ Pauper, from the original up to the present day, are a few of many interesting materials assembled by the research experts to supplement photographs of the various scenes. Dramatic contrast character, ! izes the exhibit. The first panel shows the Prince in all the panoply of his exalted position; the other the Pauper in his rags. A third panel presents the Court of Henry the Eighth as it was recreated for the film. Central motif is Holbein's famous portrait of Henry, which illustrates , strikingly how closely the costume department has adhered to , designs of the period in clothing the characters. Successive panels show the Pauper in Offal Court, in contrast to the Prince in his j palace, and Rufflers Court in the woods. An entire panel is de[ voted to Miles Hendon, Soldier of Fortune, whose character dominates the story. To the majority of people, how, ever, it is the seventh panel show, ing the Coronation which will possess the greatest interest, for step by step the famous ceremony . is enacted, just as it will be in London a few weeks hence. Every ', detail is complete from the entrance to Westminster Abbey to the administration of the sacrament and the placing of the , Crown on the head of the newly made monarch. Reproductions of j quaint woodcuts of the CoronaI tion of George IV and of Victoria provide interesting contrast to the modern stills. Literary interest predominates ^ in panel eight, which is devoted \ entirely to incidents from Mark B Twain's life. Panel nine shows j the various editions of The Prince I and the Pauper, from the first , to the present day, and also the !' impressive Mark Twain statue in Hannibal, Missouri, where the 0 author is shown surrounded by some of his best known charac{ ters. The final panel deals with e the play past and present, and j includes interesting photographs ^ from early productions, among them one which shows William „ Faversham as Hendon and Ruth 0 Findlay as the Prince and any other with Marguerite Clark in the dual roles of Pauper and 1 Prince. Although smaller than the j classroom and library exhibit, the ' I bookstore exhibit shares the pic Every now and then, as do most publications, The Motion Picture and the Family gets a kindly letter from some reader saying that she has enjoyed or profited by the monthly contents. Not often, however, is the whole focus of the program of an organization changed as a result. Changed After Seeing Magazine That was why there was an especial thrill in learning from Miss Sue Thatcher of Brooklyn, New York, that the New Lots Drama Club had become the New Lots Movie Club merely because turesqueness and charm of its larger companion. It represents a triple cooperation between the motion picture industry, the book department of one of America's foremost newspapers and Grosset & Dunlap, publishers, who are signalizing the appearance of the film by putting out a popularpriced edition of The Prince and the Pauper. Since the primary purpose of the Spring Book Festival of the Herald-Tribune is to spread the output of juvenile literature through the year, the appearance of this new volume is especially timely. The Bookstore Posters The bookstore posters are three in number. The centre and largest carries the story of the sponsorship of the Spring Book Festival and a collection of striking scenes from the film. Smaller its leader stumbled upon a copy of The Motion Picture and the Family in the community library. "It turned our attention to pictures," Miss Thatcher advised, "and now we are devoting our programs to research along that line, using The Motion Picture and the Family as a sort of textbook. It is a bit hard to have to go down to the library all the time to read it," she added a shade plaintively. Whereupon the editor assured her that she would be happy to put her on the subscription list. panels have additional pictures appropriately captioned. "Herald-Tribune" Offers Awards The Festival to which these posters will help to call attention will be marked by the presentation of two awards of $250 each offered by the Herald-Tribune, one for the best book for small children, the other for the best book for older children published this spring. Judges will be Stephen Vincent Benet, Pulitzer prize winner; Mrs. Dwight W. Morrow, author of The Painted Pig, noted for her interest in progressive education; Hughes Mearns, author of Creative Youth and member of the faculty of New York University; Miss Mary Gould Davis of the New York Public Library staff and Mrs. May Lamberton Becker, editor of "Books for Young People" in Herald-Tribune Books. A Clubwoman Chats Upon Family Films (Continued from Page 3) There was a point of view, and a very understandable one, that the motion picture industry ought to make a specific number of films which are definitely propaganda for peace. Against this was offset the quite reasonable contention that most of the propaganda films to date have been quite ineffective because of the obvious fact that they were propaganda. A considerable doubt was expressed as to whether peace interests would be best served by this type of film — even though it were disguised as a commercial feature film — or whether the best service the industry could give to the cause of peace was by more subtle and indirect methods, by filming the exploits of heroes of peace in such fashion as to glorify those exploits as dramatically and as superlatively as the exploits of the heroes of war, Ex-Pres. of Chile Speaks Hon. Carlos Davila, former President of Chile, presented a quite individualistic viewpoint. He said that the idea of pacifism as at present expressed lacks a great deal of potency and followed this up by the rather paradoxical statement that this appears to be "the most propitious moment in which to change the cry of whining pacifism to an aggressive battle cry." "The armaments of the belligerent nations must be answered with more armaments by the peaceful ones; aggressiveness by more aggressiveness; the threat of war, by yet a greater threat of war, and where a million people are ready to die for nationalism, there should be ten million people ready to die for peace. When the radio, press and films are ready to divulge to the people the heroic deeds and battles for peace, then, and not until then, will the defeat of war be started," he said in closing. Mrs. Harry Lilly, Chairman of the Policy Committee of the East Coast Preview Committee, on the other hand pointed out that the motion picture is primarily a medium of entertainment. "The question naturally arises, then, whether it can show the advantages of peace as a substitute for war in screen stories built about the normal processes of living: stories of the home, office, factory, school, college, industrial and agricultural pursuits," Mrs. Lilly said. "Dramas are or may be unfolded in all of these but could they be projected forcefully enough really to convert men to the ways of peace? "I think the other media of education per se for peace will have to do much more efficient work, that statesmen will have to solve many economic problems connected with war, that business will have to find some means of employment other than manu(Continued on Page 6)