Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1912)

MUSINGS OF "THE PHOTOPLAY PHILOSOPHER" 141 Mr. Harold C. Kessinger, the National Lecturer of the Yeomen of America, writes me the following interesting communication : "I went to a Motion Picture show. There I saw what American democracy means. There I saw all the people. In they came, the rich and the ragged ; the leading citizen and the hod-carrier ; the master and the servant ; the bachelor and his gentleman friends from the club ; the sweethearts ; the family of wife, father and children. Yes, and there's grandmother, too, the excitement and fascinating pictures bringing the flush of youth to her cheeks. "They are all there. You ask for the melting pot. The Motion Picture show is it. You ask for the proof of our democracy. The Motion Picture show proves it. You say the great masses are bad, their tastes low and vulgar. The Motion Picture show nails your lie. Watch the great audience, rich and poor, satins and rags, melted and fused into one great mass, a great, pulsating human heart, touched by pain, convulsed with laughter. "Watch the eager faces of the crowd, their questioning, wondering eyes. Watch them follow the story of the picture with scorn for the villain, and blazing hope for the good and true. These people, these American people, made up of all classes, a great conglomerate mass of American humanity, they are good and sound and wholesome at the core, for right and against sin, and wrong, and unfair play. "See the American flag. Hear the orchestra strike up the 'Star-Spangled Banner.' Hear the cheers, and you will never doubt their patriotism ! "The Motion Picture show is the common people's college, the public school teacher, one of the greatest forces of education and enlightenment of the present day. "The Motion Picture has come to stay, has come to evangelize the church and school. It is finding its place in all fields of human endeavor. State universities use it to teach the great lessons of better country highways, the value of fertilized soil and the need of better farm conditions. Bible stories are made interesting, graphic and impressive; geography transformed from a dry, monotonous study. "The Motion Picture machine is the wonder-worker of the present day, the leading educator, guiding parent and child into new fields of human interest, education and entertainment." . It is important to censor the films, but it is equally important to censor the literature from which films are made. Most plots are taken from current history or from the short stories that have appeared in the newspapers and magazines. Sherlock Holmes stories may recount all kinds of crimes, and the newspapers may publish accounts of every variety of marital infidelity, and the censors are silent ; but, let anything one-half as bad appear on the screen, and they are up in arms. So why not censor the printers ' productions ? a? He who always tells the truth is sure to be found out. I overheard an interesting conversation the other day between two persons, one a Motion Picture enthusiast and the other a public school teacher. Had I been a stenographer, I would have taken down the entire conversation and published it here. The question under discussion was, What man or woman in public life today is doing the most good in the training of our boys? Who is creating the most beneficent impression? Who is doing most to mold good, moral character? Many names were mentioned by the teacher, one being a writer of boys' stories, one a Sunday-school teacher, one a college president, one an editor and one a preacher. But the Motion Picture ' ' fan ' ' had but one name, and he insisted that this person was doing more to instill in our boys all over the world a love of bravery and courage, a proper conception of moral uprightness, a clear idea of the beauty of self-sacrifice and a lasting impression of the nobility of honesty of purpose. And to whom do you think he referred ? Not to Theodore Roosevelt, not to President Taft, not to any evangelist, preacher, moralist or reformer, but to a simple, plain, excellent Photoplayer — G. M. Anderson!