Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

And a hundred people in a scattered community came because they wanted to see clean films ! The INNATE URGE for the WHOLESOME Mrs. Curtis Hlllyer President, City Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations, San Diego, California Grant School, the Latest One to Instal Projection Equipment in San Diego. This Is a Typical Open-Air California School. The Big French Doors Are Open Nearly Every Day in the Year IT wasn't a very nice film that I dropped in to see one day — but there was nothing in the title or the posters to warn me. Just ahead of me a little sixteen-yearold school girl bought a ticket, and we were shown to seats side by side. Just beyond the school girl sat two sailor boys, for, being a seaport town, we have many of these boys in our midst. Inside of ten minutes the two boys were talking to the girl, and all three were laughing at the not too nice parts of the play. I know that that girl had never seen those boys before, and it worried me greatly to know that she was alone and unprotected. When all three left the theatre together I left also and watched the child walk down the street with the boys, get into a machine, and ride off. What became of them is part of another story, but then and there I made up my mind that some safe place of amusement should be provided for our school children. Playgrounds and clubs take care of a few ; but the larger group of young people who have a couple of unoccupied hours to while away after school and who want to "go to the movies" should have safe exhibitions to attend. It is not helping matters much to say, "Don't go !" We must have something else to give them in place of the unworthy showings, and that something must be safe motion pictures. As president of the City Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations I felt that this was a work that the organization should undertake, but it was summer time and things were at a lull. However, we knew that one of the schools had a small portable projector and a screen. The superintendent of schools was asked if the P. T. A. might have the use of the school one evening that week, a request which was willingly complied with, and Friday night was the time chosen. We had five days in which to advertise our showing. We asked the papers to print an item announcing a motionpicture exhibition at the Garfield School, and made pasteboard signs to put up in neighboring store windows. Everyone was interested and promised to tell the next fellow about it. Friday arrived, and about a hundred people were present to see our pictures. We had no feature film to show these people — only a travel picture, an industrial film, and a Ford Weekly that we had picked up in town. We did not advertise any feature, but told the people frankly what we had. And a hundred people in a scattered community came because they wanted to see clean films! After the showing we outlined our aims for those present. We wanted to start giving a clean film showing every other week in the schoolhouse ; an afternoon showing after school for the little folks, and an evening screening for grownups and the older boys and girls. The Board of Education would allow us the use of the projector, and we promised to provide one feature film, one travelogue, and a comedy. Our audience was quite enthusiastic over the plan and promised to attend regularly and give the idea all possible support. We decided that every other week would be often enough to conduct the showings. Through a church that used films once a week we managed to get some fairly good films at anywhere from eight to twenty dollars, and our normal school rented travel pictures and industrials to us that it in turn had secured from the University of California. A boy in the school ran the machine and the president of the Garfield P. T. A. took over the management of exhibitions, appointing a ticket-taker and someone to keep order. The exhibitions paid expenses from the first, and even made a few dollars, which went toward equipping a cafeteria for the school. In a short time two other schools of the city decided to start showings of their own. The Washington had long wanted a machine, and had prior to this time raised $200 by giving teas in the homes of the P. T. A. members, this money having been invested in Liberty Bonds. These were now sold and the money used as the first payment on a machine. The Board of Education volunteered to and did put in a fireproof booth for the work. On New Year's Eve, a year ago, the first school film exhibition was given in the Washington school auditorium — a feature film, a travelogue, and a comedy. The auditorium accommodates between eight and nine hundred people, and it was filled to capacity. Curiosity brought some, but the wish to see really clean films brought most. Since that time the Washington P. T. A. has paid out nearly one thousand dollars for equipment, consisting of a Power's machine, a screen, and curtaining for some very large windows in the auditorium. The debt is entirely cleared and has all come out of the proceeds of the film exhibitions. Music has been added, and occasionally other features to make variety. The expense of all this has been met by the proceeds from the showings. Needless to say, there has been a fine, alert group of women in charge of the work, who have given such untiring service to their community that the Washington exhibitions have been a real success. The Brooklyn school also decided to institute school motion pictures, and it also raised money enough to make a first payment on a machine, with the result that it is in possession of about five hundred dollars worth of equipment, all paid for. Since the beginning of the winter term another school, the Grant, has begun to show films, having expended about five hundred dollars for equipment. As we have a distributing house for motion-pictures in San Diego, all our equipment has been bought through this house, and they have been generous in arranging terms to fit the needs of the schools. I think any good house would do this for a reliable group of people. These schools that are conducting film exhibitions are scattered all over the city. The Washington is the largest, having about a thousand children. It is in a mixed district, with children from Mexican and Italian homes, American children from small and poor homes, and some from the finest homes in the city. The other schools have not so many foreigners, and the Grant is in a very well-to-do district. These showings have done several things. They have kept 11