Motion Picture Reviews (1934)

Motion Picture Reviews Three MOTION • PICTURE • REVIEWS Published monthly by THE WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB LOS ANCELES BRANCH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN Mrs. Palmer Cook, General Co-Chairman Mrs. John Vruwink, General Co-Chairman Mrs. A. M. Marsh, Bus. Manager Mrs. Chester A. Ommanney, Preview Chairman Mrs. Charles Booth Assistant Preview Chairmen Mrs. Thomas B. Williamson Mrs. Lucile R. Eastham, Circulation Manager EDITORS Mrs. Palmer Cook Mrs. J. Allen Davis Mrs. George Ryall Mrs. Walter Van Dyke Mrs. John Vruwink Address all communications to The Women’s Univereity Club, 943 South Hoover St.. Los Angeles, Calif. Advance Supplement is published and mailed approximately the 15th of each month. 10c Per Copy $1.00 Per Year Vol. V JUNE, 1934 No. 6 EDITORIAL The California State Division of the American Association of University Women at the convention, May 25-26, meeting at Palo Alto passed the following resolution: Realizing the potent effect of moving pictures upon adolescents and children, and facing the facts brought forward by the various surveys on moving pictures : BE IT RESOLVED: That the California Division of the American Association of University Women, through their local branches, strive to make effective the findings of these surveys ; THAT, by education, through publicity, and by withholding patronage from theatres showing pictures which undermine the best teaching of the home and school, we strive to bring to the attention of the moving picture industry and the public in general, the determination of the Association of the University Women to demand better films This is a significant move for study of the problem of motion pictures. It will become a project for each of the sixty California Branches and will contribute definitely to the moulding of public opinion already aroused on the subject. In last month’s bulletin we mentioned the resolution approved by the National Council of Catholic Women urging all Catholics to “withhold patronage” from theatres exhibiting films which would degrade public morals. The National Council of Parents and Teachers went on record as approving legislation to abolish Blind selling and Block buying. In May at the Biennial Convention of the Young Women’s Christian Association the National Board gave its approval of the activities of the Motion Picture Research Council and voted to support any legislation which would abolish Blind and Block bookings. These moves show the state of mind of organized women who feel perturbed over the situation as it now exists. The Industry has had years of opportunity to see the slow trend and to meet it half way. The previewing groups represented in Hollywood have so far been against censorship or legislative regulation of the marketing of films. They have always been hopeful of community cooperation with exhibitors which would at least control the type of films available for children and young people over the week-end. In a publication just sent out by C. C. Pettijohn, General Counsel of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors, which is entitled “The Case Against Federal Regulation of Motion Pictures, an Argument in Opposition to Political Censorship of the Screen,” he gives