Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1914)

26 'n\E MOVING PICTURE WORLD The First American Censors. Who They Are and How They Work — Mrs. Maude Murray Miller, the Woman Member of the Board Talks Freely — Sentiment Among Exhibitors Is Strongly Against the Censorship Law. By W. Stephen Bush. Columbus, Dec. 22nd, 1913. I HAVE interviewed the first official censors known to American history the first censors whom a sovereign state pays to sit in judgment upon the morality of their fellows. They are known in the terms of the law as "a board of censors of motion picture films." If you show any motion pictures in the state of Ohio which, is in the judgment and discretion of the board of censors, "otherwise than moral, educational, or amusing and harmless," you are liable to be fined "not less than twentyfive dollars nor more than three hundred dollars, or imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both, for each offense." As Mrs. Maude Murray Miller, the woman member of the board, pointed out an e.xhibitor showing an unapproved picture in Ohio might easily accumulate a life sentence if he runs a continuous show from 10 A. u. to 1 1 P. M. Pen Pictures of the Screen Bosses. I found the three censors to be composed of substantially the same clay which seems to have been used to fashion the rest of the population of Ohio. Indeed not one of the three makes any claim of superiority. They are. with the exception of Mrs. Maude Murray Miller, rather apologetic about the functions of their office. The Board of Censors as appointed by the Industrial Commission of Ohio is composed of Mr. J. A. Maddox, Mr. H. E. Vestal and Mrs. Maude Murray Miller. Mr. Maddox, who is the chairman of the board, I found to be a man of good intelligence and pleasant manners, possessed, in a marked degree, of those advantages which come with a newspaper training. He is apparently in the early thirties, and has had experience both in the journalistic field and in the world of amusements. For years he has been actively engaged in the motion picture business as an exhibitor and his sympathies are plainly enough with the exhibitor. I can readily believe that the scant salary of a censor could have been no inducement to Mr. Maddox to accept such a thankless task. He says that he took the position because he felt he could exercise its duties with better advantage to the industry than a mere place-hunting politician. "The plan of state censorship," he said, "took root in the threatening evils of municipal censorship from which, for instance, such cities as Cleveland and Cincinnati had suffered severely. This present censorship law was drafted to prevent every little town or city to set up a censorship of its own. Such a condition would have been unbearable. Now that we have a censorship law for the state, the cities that had local censorship have abolished their local censors and they are willing to accept our censorship. It is true that the cities with a home-rule charter do not have to accept our censorship : they may set up a censorship of their own ; they may have the legal right to do so, but it is most unlikely that they will." •'Are you doing any censoring at present ?" I asked. "No ; we are not Qoing anything at present. The restraining order of the federal judges exempts the patrons of the Mutual from the operation of the law and, in all fairness, we suspend the law for everybody else as well. We have so far censored in all about 8,000 reels or about 1,500 subjects of the General Film, and about half that number for the Universal. The percentage of total rejections has been very low, perhaps fifteen in all. Eliminations have been ordered in about 10 per cent, of the films exarnined. We charge for duplicates the same as for originals, and in case of eliminations to be made in duplicates we take the promise of the branch manager. The money paid to us comes in checks drawn to the order of the State Treasurer of Ohio. "It has been said that your work in e.xamining so many films in so short a time has been rather remarkable." "Well," answered Mr. Maddox, with a smile, "you must remember that Mr. Vestal and I had seen a large number of reels before and thus we could safely depend on our memories. It is not correct to say that we threatened to censor the Mutual films. Being in Cleveland and anxious to facilitate matters, we invited the Mutual to have their films examined while we were on the ground." "What standards," I asked, "have you established to determine whether a film is moral, educational or amusing and harmless in character?" "We have established no definite standard; each film must stand on its own merits. We want to be liberal and we take into consideration the property rights in the matter. We know what the loss of five or six prints mean to the manufacturer and we are always anxious to give him the benefit of every possible doubt. I am glad that this matter has been taken into the courts ; the exhibitor wants to know where he stands, and if this present law is declared void much will have been done to clear the situation. The Child and Censorship. Mr. Maddox thought a while and then continued very earnestly : "Do you know what is at the bottom of all the censorship agitation? I will tell you: it is the child and the mother of the child. If there were no motion picture theaters in the residential sections, where children compose so large a part ni the audience there would be none of this demand for censorship. The mother of a child is horrified by a scene which no child should ever be allowed to see and she calls up the police captain and demands immediate action. Why, right here in Columbus, in the downtown business districts, there are shows far more objectionable than any picture house would dare to put on and there is no outcry or protest of any kind. Why? Because no children go there. I do not know what is in the minds of some of these directors when they make a picture showing how a child is poisoned by ratsbane being put on a biscuit." In answer to questions, Mr. Maddox said that an approval of a film by one member of the board was the act of the whole board, but that in rejections he would want the decision to be made by all the members. He did not say that he was in favor of the principle of censorship, but intimated that he looked upon it rather in the light of a useful expedient. He said he knew that the exhibitors were now all against it, but he pointed out that not a voice was raised against it at the convention. He thought the change of heart was due to the influence of the exchanges. I had been told that Mr. Maddox had been approached with an offer to manage a large theater and that he w-as seriously considering his resignation as censor. Mr. Maddox would not deny that this was a fact. How the Scheme Works. When asked about the method of work pursued by the censors, Mr. Maddox said that he had employed a large clerical force and that each group of producers was given a convenient allotment of numbers. He said he had devised this system after consulting with managers of all exchanges shipping into Ohio. Separate records were kept of approvals and of rejections and all eliminations were set forth clearly. Daily reports were made by the board. At present all the exchanges and exhibitors have discontinued using the "leaders" sent out by the board. These "leaders" contain the words : Approved by the Ohio Board of Censors." the number of the approval as registered in the office of the board and the seal of the State of Ohio. The reading matter is printed on a miniature map of Ohio. During mj stay in Cleveland and Columbus I visited at least two score of motion picture theaters, but the Ohio stamp of approval was nowhere to be seen. Here is a facsimile of an ".'Approval" : The form and wording of the rejection is the same as in approval, but for the word "not" before "approved." Many thousand feet of undistributed "leaders" are now waiting on the shelves of the office of the commission for tlie decision of the federal judges. I found the second member of the board, Mr. H. E. \'estal. a man of e.xperience in the motion picture field. He is an exhibitor conducting a motion picture show in ."Vda, a small town not far from Columbus. Mr. Vestal impressed me as a conscientious