Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

256 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. VI, No. 6. stead of growing ever deeper and stronger, is continually made shallower and less powerful. Here, then, is the danger, that too much of the emotional and sensational and exciting and tragic may unfit people, and especially young people, for simple, healthful, active, persevering, efficient, normal life (or lead them to copy the unhealthful), and that the taste for simple pleasures may be lost, and normal, ordinary life and work grow to seem tame and uninteresting, and not worth while. This, I sometimes think, may explain to some extent the lack of continued interest in simple pleasures which we find in many boys and girls today, and their desire for something new and exciting all the time. It is impossible to feed upon this sort of food all the time and be healthy. I heard of a boy last week who had gone to moving picture shows steadily (three times a week or so, I suppose) for a year, and had become tired of them and stopped. That was regarded as a healthy sign. Let us hope that it was! But it may also have been a sign that his emotions were burned out, and could no longer be fired, that he had become blase even to the real experiences of life, and that his moral nature had suffered great damage. We must admit that he has something of a case It is the deliberate intention of the motion picture producer, the playwright, even the novelist, to stir the emotions ; and usually the popularity of a player or writer is in direct proportion to his ability to excite the normally dormant emotional side of man. This is not a defense ; it serves merely to show that motion pictures follow no new law in their psychology, and their producers can hardly be censured for treading close to the paths of literature and the staged drama. But there is another element, another factor in the showing of the motion picture drama. We must remember the children ! When admission prices were placed at five and ten cents, it was because the cost of the entertainment was small enough to allow such a rate — not because those prices would tempt the children. Yet today the motion picture is not only the greatest amusement for everybody, but it is pre-eminently a children's entertainment simply because of its price. No one will deny that today the picture stands shoulder to shoulder with the legitimate drama, even in the matter of possible admission price. At a dollar a head no more children would attend the picture theater than now attend the legitimate theater. But the condition existing is not a dollar a head, bu five or ten cents a head. Every week pictures are turned out that demand our admiration for their wonderful acting. We marvel that our emotions can respond to an image of light and shadow on a screen. We even come to know the name and something of the personality of those whose counterfeit presentments play so strongly upon our heart-strings. But do we always remember that what is a marvelous bit of acting to us comes near to awful reality to the children of the audience? Are we justified in dwelling on death-bed scenes, deliriums and agonies when we think of the little minds absorbing it all, the virgin emotions whose intensity is reinforced by fresh imaginations and ignorance of life? It is trite in literary circles that the beginner always writes tragedy. It is instinctive with him. Yet he knows that there is practically no sale for the tragic story. Why does he do it? Simply because in his inexperience, it is the only weapon he has against the somewhat blase emotions of the reading public. He realizes that he must strike deep if at all ; and tragedy is the primitive means to that end. The first producers of motion picture drama were like novitiate story writers. They were groping for the human heart of the audience. And they found it with that same old hackneyed trick of tragedy. Today it is no longer necessary to depict heart-wringing scenes on the screen to gain attention, any more than it is necessary for the publisher of a popular magazine to print heart-wringing stories to sell his books. It is not necessary— and the best producers are not doing it any more. Since it has been proven unnecessary, it is time for all producers to abandon it. So after all, it is only for comparatively few that we are publishing some of Rev. Mr. Twombly's views and adding our own comments. And to those few, those producers who have not yet realized that it is weakness, not strength, in a play that forces it to lean on emotional excitement, and to those few exhibitors who still judge of a play by its emotional effect, we would repeat : Remember the children ! MEETING AN UNJUST ATTACK. UNJUST attacks upon the work we are engaged in naturally arouses our indignation, especially when those attacks are but a means to a selfish end or a bid for notoriety. Our first impulse is to shout back an angry denial, sacrificing our dignity in a desire for recrimination. The second, cooler thought is to ignore the trumped up charges as unworthy of reply, leaving to the perspicacity of the public the correctness of the final decision. The former course is of little worth, since denial is expected even of the guilty. The second course, dignified and gentlemanly though it be, is open to misconstruction and seldom receives the approbation it deserves. There is a third course which is a refinement of the two, but which is only possible where efficient organization exists. Properly pursued, it affords a splendid illustration of one of the functions of organization, and it "calls the bluff" of the slanderer. At the regular meeting of November 29 of the Moving Picture Exhibitors' League of America, Cleveland Branch, a resolution was adopted covering such a case. The resolution followed the report of a special committee who had been investigating the charges made for several weeks. As it is self-explanatory in revealing the cause of its action, it is reproduced here without further explanation : Whereas, Miss Kate Davis of Wilkesbarre, Pa., having made statements in her recent Sunday evening sermon at the Old Stone Church, this city, and also issued statements to the Cleveland Plain Dealer representatives to the effect that (1) "Cleveland's moving picture shows are of a much lower moral standard than those in Detroit or Columbus." (2) "They are hot beds of iniquity," (3) "Training schools for criminals," (4) "Recruiting stations for the white slaver and disorderly house," and other similar statements well calculated to injure the character, and cast a public reflection upon the members of this association if such or any part of her statements were true, and Whereas, Miss Davis, having given the name and address of a prominent officer of the Juvenile Court of this city as authority for her statements in reference to the evil effects of the local picture theaters upon the juvenile population, etc., etc., and, Whereas, Our committee, having investigated thoroughly and made a detailed search for facts regarding the conditions complained of — said search being in various city departments, and Whereas, That the said investigation shows that Miss Davis' statements cannot be verified by official figures, in one single instance, but on the contrary said statements were made without the slightest authority or official sanction, therefore be it Resolved, That we condemn her statements as reckless, slanderous and false, publicly spoken for sensational purposes and cunningly calculated to assist her candidacy for the position as state film censor in Pennsylvania. We futher condemn the actions of Rev. A. B. Meldrum of the Old Stone Church for permitting a "professional