Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

'I submit that the present situation is contrary to sound public policy," declares Mr. Teall in this reasoned revolt against monopoly A WORD from a PHILISTINE Robert J. Teall Principal, Madera Union High School, Madera, California [Mr. Teall has presented in forceful manner a situation that is intolerable to the mind of any thinking American, and we present his thoughts in the faith that visual educators and other citizens are spurred to action, rather than cowed, by information of such suppression of the community's known desires in the name of any individual's personal gain. The Editorial Page expresses our personal reaction to this and similar cases of attempted restraint of trade, and we will gladly give detailed publicity to every such instance that readers bring to our attention. — The Editor.] THIS is a jeremiad. It is more — it is a call to revolt. And its text — considered as a jeremiad — or its slogan — considered as a rebel's cry — is this : Shall greed or the public interest rule in the distribution of motion-picture films to educational institutions f The Madera Union High School is a rural high school in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Madera has a population of about 3,500, and the high school enrols about 350 students. The town has a motionpicture theatre, which puts on a program each day of the week. In March. 1921, the students of the high school through their weekly organ, the Madcran, began to agitate for the purchase of a motion-picture projector, for installation in their new auditorium, recently completed and seating 750 persons. The board of trustees of the high school, though favorable to the project, were limited as to funds, and could not at the time finance the purchase of projection equipment. The Student Association pledged its credit and issued bonds, in denominations of from $1 to $25, to run without interest to January 1, 1922. The bonds were purchased by students, a first-class projector and a mercury-arc rectifier were installed, and regular Friday-night entertainments were undertaken for the purpose of raising the funds necessary to retire the bonds. As was perhaps natural in the beginning of such an enterprise, we experimented somewhat timidly with our public. We booked comedy-drama for the most part. Some of the films we found acceptable under this classification were the following : From Paramount (Famous Players-Lasky) : "Huckleberry Finn," "Girls," with Marguerite Clark, and "Twenty-three and One-Half Hours' Leave." From Vitagraph : "Peggy Puts It Over," with Alice Calhoun, and "The Fortune Hunter." Under another classification than comedy-drama we would place the Vitagraph feature "Black Beauty," which was used most successfully as an afternoon performance for high-school and grammar-school children. After our experimental period we arrived at the point where we were ready to venture on the showing of the more serious and more expensive films. We were all set to launch out and give the people of the community some high-class service. But just at this point our propeller fouled ! The exchange1 in San Francisco opened the trouble by sending us a communication in effect like this : "Owing to the objections of the manager of the Madera Theatre, we shall be unable hereafter to supply you with any service whatsoever"; and the other exchanges, one by one, gave us to understand that service would not be available. A committee of our students went to interview the manager of the local theatre. He informed them that it was his conviction that a high school had no right to the use of any film that told a story; and he gave them to understand that he proposed to enforce his opinion. So that was that. We were able to contract with one exchange for a dozen programs before the floods descended upon us, and we have not yet completed that contract. But when that is over, most of the film exchanges of San Francisco are closed to us. We are not altogether lost. The University of California is adding from week to week to its film library. It has at its disposal the group of films called "Conquest Programs," of which we shall book a few. We have booked "Julius Caesar" from the university for an early showing, and we have booked from another source four chapters from the Lincoln Cycle. Perhaps we ought to be satisfied with these and similar films. We are — as far as they go. But they do not go far enough. We want to show our boys and girls and the people of the town such films as Maeterlinck's "Bluebird," and "Oliver Twist," "Treasure Island," "Our Mutual Friend," "Everywoman," "Joan the Woman," and a lot of others. But under prevailing conditions they will not be shown here, either in the theatre or anywhere else. We have stepped on a basic fact in the process of film distribution ; it has risen up and slapped us in the face, and we are angry. We want this thing changed ! I am told that Petaluma, in this state, has met the situation. I am told that the ParentTeachers' Association of that city, which is sponsoring the community motion-picture exhibitions, is working in harmony, and even in co-operation, with the local theatre. I do not doubt that many communities the country over have met and ironed out their difficulties in this connection. I have heard even of some Utopias where the theatres actually loan films to the schools. But not here. Not, also, I suspect, in a thousand towns similarly situated all over the land. Community motion pictures seem to flourish only in towns too small to have local theatres. (Continued on page 14) 1 We are glad to quote from a letter received from Mr. Teall just before the issue went to press: "The people have modified their position in regard to service to us, so far as to offer us a considerable number of features and a number of second-run comedies. "