Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

14 MOVING PICTURE AGE December, 1922 holding barrack meetings, going where the boys lived, but again the needy ones slipped out. Then we tried the movies. First, in the big auditorium, seating 3,000, we started using them on Sunday nightsgood wholesome pictures, which did not always come up to our slogan of "Pictures with a moral," but which were not harmful and which did get us a crowd. Then we worked pictures into the other hut programs. Later we worked short, pointed talks into all movie programs, even on week nights : talks on social righteousness and patriotism, about taking one's place in the home town, the home church, the Y. M. C. A., or the Knights of Columbus, about looking after one's insurance, about becoming leaders of the young boys at home. So, in the camp work, the movie contributed its part in wholesome entertainment and at the same time brought us the boys and gave us a chance to put across our message to them. When I resigned from camp work in September, 1919, and accepted the pastorate of the First Unitarian Church, it was with the distinct understanding that I should have the chance to try out some of my schemes. I knew that folks believed in religion, but that most of them were not very keen about sermons and theology. So we started, that fall, our Sunday-Evening Picture Service. We opened the service with a good rousing "sing," using the better class of popular choruses, plantation melodies, patriotic songs, and religious hymns. We had a prayer, announcement, an offering, and then the picture. We have tried the picture program, including educationals and a feature of medium length ; but we have found that a single feature, well chosen, serves our purpose better. We have called them "pictures that preach," and have tried to make them a distinct moral contribution. After the picture I have given a five-minute straight-from-the-shoulder sermonette along the lines of the lesson in the picture, and I like this plan better than giving an address before the picture. If the lesson in the picture is not distinct, or if the character of the picture is not the best, by talking afterward I can correct these defects. After the talk I dismiss the congregation in the usual manner. The atmosphere is religious. Rev. William N. Whear, Pastor, First Methodist Church, Lanesboro, la. — Films were first used in the Methodist church to fill Lanesboro's painful want of clean entertainment. We had no adequate plan for this work, and those in charge had had no experience with films. Several local young men who knew something of motion-picture projection offered their assistance in this humble beginning. A portable projector and a muslin curtain were installed in the church auditorium, and with "The Goose-Girl" for the feature the initial program was screened for a large and enthusiastic audience. The Lanesboro Community Building is the outgrowth of this church's attempt to serve the community seven days in the week. We found that the showing of entertainment films twice a week in the church auditorium was giving rise to a lack of reverence toward the house of worship ; and so we began to create sentiment in favor of a suitable building and equipment for community programs. Today there stands alongside the church a community house valued at $20,000, the doors of which are open every day in the week. Here we have a public library, gymnasium, auditorium, women's rest room, showers, games, and other equipment, all belonging to the community center. Here home-talent plays, socials, and motion-picture and literary programs provide the citizens with a rich supply of wholesome social life, and this ideal concentration of community interests is but the development of what in 1918 was only a muslin screen and a portable projector. Rev. Carl S. Patton, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, Cal. — The size of the audience is only one test, to be sure; but it is a fair one. Our Sunday-evening congregations for February, 1919, averaged 242. For the same month in 1920, with the pictures, they averaged 1,244. On the second Sunday evening in October. Rev. K. E. Wall, an Ardent for Religio 1919, we had 132 people present. On the same Sunday evenings in 1920 and 1921 we had respectively 1,265 and 1,190. Our offerings have increased proportionately. I preview all of my pictures myself. It is an endless job, but I have not been willing to delegate it to anyone else. Sometimes I ask one of my friends to see a picture for me and report tentatively upon it. If he reports unfavorably I drop it; but if he reports favorably, no matter if he is enthusiastic about it, I see the picture myself. I do this for several reasons. First, no man's taste is that of another man, and the preacher will be held responsible for whatever is shown on the screen. Second, I can often use, by making proper elisions. a picture which as seen in the theatre would not do for the church at all. As to where to make the cuts, I can tell only by careful preview. Third, most pictures as they are given in the theatres are a little too long for my purpose. I do not wish ordinarily to use a picture over an hour, or at most 70 minutes, in length. Most pictures originally longer than this can be cut to this length without hurting them. Fourth, it would be quite impossible for me to make an appropriate talk in the midst of a picture without having seen the picture and thought considerably about it beforehand. These reasons are more than sufficient for the careful examination of every film I rent. My evening service thus gives me two or three times the amount of work I formerly put into an ordinary Sunday-evening talk. But I am entirely willing to give this amount of workto it, since I have from six to eight times as many people as I otherwise would and I can produce a much more telling impression upon them. Rev. K. E. Wall, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Zanesvillc, Ohio. — Here was a challenging situation. Standing-room at the motion-picture houses was at a premium. The faithful few who attended the evening service did not need it. Should we close our church on this most opportune evening of the week, or should we adapt our program to meet the situation? After deciding on motion pictures I spent nearly two months educating my people to be of the same mind on the matter. At our annual meeting I recommended the purchase of a projection outfit and the membership voted unanimously for the plan. There were a few who did not exactly approve — neither did they object. Here is the value of preparing your people for a move of that sort. I have known ministers who did not make careful preparation, but who went ahead and, largely of their own accord, instituted this type of service. Consequently they antagonized a part of the membership, and the whole project became a miserable failure. We began our picture services in February, 1920. The church was crowded to the doors. We seat 375 in our auditorium, but many nights we have turned scores away. Our picture services have been a decided success in every way. We have not instituted the regular community-night entertainments, and I am not in a position to write on that subject. The few that we have had were well attended and beneficial. Rev. C. Wesley Boag, Pastor, First Methodist Episcopal Church, Delavan, Wis. — As I studied the matter, the question of motive loomed large. Why need I instal motion-picture equipment in my church? Let me say quickly and frankly that my object was not to draw a crowd, as I already had an enviable attendance at the evening service. Nor was it my object to oppose or compete with the movingpicture theatres of my city ; I am on the best of terms with them. Nor was it a desire to do something different or spectacular. My object was a sincere desire to extend and enlarge the service rendered by my church. It seems to me that the program of many churches has narrowed to a few hymns, a sermon, and a benediction. Perhaps it is true that the church today is open to the criticism sometimes made against it that it is continually saying, "Help us here, help us there; do this or that for us; give here and give there!" I have acted on the Advocate of the Use of Films us Purposes