Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NICKELODEON Vol. VI. Chicago, December, 1911. No. 6. THE FAVOR OF THE CLERGY. r\ N nearly all subjects below the sacred clergy differ ^ in opinion as widely as do the laymen. Dancing, for example, comes in for alternate praise and censure as we go the rounds of the church. And so skilled are many of these excellent clergymen in expounding the light as they see it — for that is their life work and study, just as exploiting pictures is yours — that they convince many of their hearers, no matter which way their argument tends. So it is not strange that while some among the clergy favor, others condemn the motion picture. Of course we are inclined to think those who favor broader minded than those who condemn. Perhaps we are biased, because we know so much good of pictures, and so little of evil. But we have an irrefutable argument. In practically all cases those of the clergy who condemn know nothing of the object of their censure, while those who favor have studied the subject at close range. The pamphlet published by the Rev. Herbert A. Jump, a Congregational minister of New Britain, Conn., under the title "The Religious Possibilities of the Motion Picture," which has been quoted a number of times during the last year in these columns, has become a classic in its peculiar field. And the Rev. Mr. Jump has since contributed other articles to the religious and lay press, not exactly in defense of pictures — for to his optimistic mind they need little defense — but rather suggesting ways for their further use as an educational force. No doubt the Rev. Mr. Jump by reason of his unusual energy, enterprise and optimism, and because he was almost a pioneer in the extension of clerical favor to the picture, has received greater recognition along that line than any of his brothers. But it be short-sighted indeed to ignore the very real help that is being offered by many of the gentlemen of the cloth. The spirit of malice is still strong against the picture, and we need support of the kind that only the leaders of the spiritual and beneficent can give. In Lancaster, Penn., last month, the Rev. Clifford G. Twombley, rector of St. James' church, delivered a sermon which was virtually a study of the value and dangers of the motion picture show. His text was "Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good." — -I Thes. 5 :21. It is our purpose to excerpt here such parts of Rev. Mr. Twombly's sermon as seem to suggest possibilities for bringing about a better appreciation of the uplift forces of the picture, either present or potential. We therefore pass over the many good things Rev. Mr. Twombley says about the pictures with the mere comment that they are enthusiastic enough to prove him a friend of the films. The faults he finds are these : The chief danger in the moving picture show, is in the emotional and sensational side of it. There is always (at least it has been so in every show which I have attended) one film, and often there is more than one, sometimes there are three or four films, one after the other, of the sensational type — a harrowing death, or a thrilling rescue, or a dashing and sentimental love-making, or an exciting fight, or a pathetic or unjust imprisonment, or a moving act of sacrifice, or some realistic agony, or anguish of distress, or shock of sorrow. And too much of this sort of thing is not good food to live upon, especially for young people. Let me give three examples, among which many I might give, of such films: First. Two men are shot in a cabin by Indians. They go through their death throes on the floor, and finally manage to crawl over each other and shake hands before dying with faces upturned to the ceiling (while from fifty to one hundred little children watch them from the front seats). Second. Another film is a lighthouse story, in which the heroine is carried out to sea by a storm, while she stands up in her boat wringing her hands. The next day the empty boat is washed up against the rocks, while her aged father and her frenzied artist-lover try in vain to catch it. The father (the old light-house keeper) is then found dead in his light-house from shock, and the lover proves his faithfulness to the girl by tending the lighthouse all the rest of his days. Third. A sea-captain is left by his mutinous crew on a desert island, with his two mates. Then he is shown as an old man in ragged clothes, the last survivor of the three, burying his last companion with a stick for a shovel. He has lost his mind, but at last is rescued and brought back to himself again by being shown a photograph of his wife. Such pictures (and many others of a similar type) stir the emotions of the majority of people continually; and when the habit is formed of feeding upon such emotions often and regularly (which is a very easy habit to form) it becomes a dangerous thing. The emotions are intended to incite a man to action. When they do not, or when neither opportunity nor time is taken for action, the emotions themselves become less and less healthy and powerful with less and less driving power. They are like the driving wheels of a locomotive going round and round in the same place on the track and never driving the engine forward. They wear out the machinery quicker than anything else. Moreover, more and more abnormal things are Required to stir them deeply. They call for more and are gradually less able to be moved by the true things of life. The man becomes blase and effete, or a merely sentimental and vapid creature, a being with sadly weakened will, and no virile strength. "Neither physically nor mentally," says President King, in his Rational Living, "are we constituted for continuously tense feelings, arr"d when the tenseness is continually forced we make wholesome, simple and lastingly happy living impossible." Healthful." and helpful emotions which lead to wholesome action are most advantageous, but (as the wise philosopher says) "we must utilize the intervals between strong emotions." We must have time between the emotions to put them into effect. "No high emotions, no dreams, no ruptures, no thrills, no beatific visions (Carlisle says) will avail anything if they do not mean better life shown in more active service." To settle back, content with the dream alone, or the pleasant or exciting feeling and emotion, is to lose more and more the power of perservering and determined action, which alone makes worthy life. It is, moreover, like reading exciting blood and thunder (but not necessarily immoral) novels all the time. It makes good, simple, natural, healthy, elevating, strengthening reading seem tame and stupid and impossible. And so, for people to feed upon this kind of moving picture food too often is like going to stirring and emotional plays at the theater two or three times a week. It vitiates and burns out the healthy and powerful emotional life which stirs to action, and weakens the will, and the emotional life, in /