Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

Record Details:

Title:
Moving Picture World
Date:
Jan-Feb 1927
Publisher:
New York, Chalmers Publishing Company
Volume:
Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)
Leaf #:
000523
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Moving Picture World, founded in 1907 by J.P. Chalmers, was one of the motion picture industry's first trade papers. Published on a weekly basis in New York City, Moving Picture World informed exhibitors about films available for rental and editorialized on behalf of the growing industry (improving the quality of movies through higher filmmaking standards, not government censorship, was a frequent topic). The paper reached its height in the mid-to-late-1910s--a fact reflected in the circulation figures and the huge amount of advertising that filled every issue during the period. In the 1920s, Moving Picture World lost ground to other competing weekly trade papers -- including Variety, Exhibitor's Herald, and Motion Picture News. In 1927, Moving Picture World ceased publication when it was acquired by Martin Quigley's Exhibitor's Herald. Across the 20 year run of Moving Picture World, readers can watch the transition from short film programs to feature films and witness the transition from the dominance of Edison's Trust to the rise of the "Independent" film companies that ultimately became the Hollywood studios. Silent film historians have utilized and cited Moving Picture World more frequently than any other trade paper, and the publication still has many insights left to offer. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012/2013
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

February 12, 1927 • MOVING PICTURE WORLD Sauce For the Goose 477 Consistency Is a Rare Jewel ECENTLY a prominent corporation lawyer, who has no connection with the Motion Picture Industry, remarked that his casual knowledge of motion picture legislation developed what to him was a peculiar situation. “It’s a strange thing to me,” he said, “that the bulk of motion picture legislation seems to fall naturally into two classes. One section seems to aim to pull production down to the moral and intellectual standard of the average child. And the other section is devoted to excluding children, as far as practicable, from the theatre.” Of course most persons realize that the motion picture is the favorite entertainment of the children, not only because of its cheapness, but because it oilers a style of entertainment that appeals more strongly than the highly seasoned spoken drama of the day. This being the case, it is presumably intelligent to seek to hold the pictures to the level of undeveloped mentality, but since so much care is expended in keeping the pictures to this level, why so strenuously insist on barring the children, as far as possible? One way or the other the law is not functioning. Each effort to enforce an unpopular measure seems to result only in failure and to make more popular habitual and growing disrespect for the law. It really would be better for child morals were they permitted to attend the theatre without knowingly violating these laws. Contempt for minor ordinances will inevitably lead to disregard for the more important enactments. Were a deliberate effort made to encourage disregard for the statutes, the campaign could not be more successfully conducted. Why not sane legislation that can be enforced, rather than bigoted enactments that serve only to make a joke of the law? If it is possible to undermine the morals of the overwise rising generation, more harm has been done the past few weeks through the publication in the tabloids of the nasty details of the Browning case than has been wrought in thirty years of motion pictures. The pictures should not be made the scapegoat.