Moving Picture World (Jan - Feb 1919)

January 4, 1919 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 75 but theatres and churches were not closed. This letter from Dr. Royal S. Copeland, New York's health officer, tells why. Department of Health. December 17, 1918. National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, Times Building, City. I am pleased to comply with your request to furnish you with my observations regarding the relation of the theatre, and the motion picture theatre in particular, to the recent epidemic of influenza in New York City. As you know I was steadfastly of the opinion that in a city like New York it would be folly to expect to obtain \.— lief through the closing of the moving picture theatres, when ihe crowded transportation lines and other densely packed places of assembly were permitted to operate. There never was any doubt in my mind regarding the status of the well ventilated, sanitary theatre, but I did have serious objection to allowing the unsanitary hole in-the-wall theatre to continue. Every place of the latter sort which our inspectors found was closed immediately and was not allowed to reopen until the necessary alterations and improvements in operation were made. In view of our experience in New York City, where the death rate was the lowest of any large city on the coast, we are convinced that our decision to keep the theatres open was wisely made. The moving picture theatre was of great assistance to the Department of Health in furthering the work of public health education during the epidemic. Managers of the various theatres gave relief talks before the opening of each performance, advising their patrons of the requirements of the Board of Health regarding sneezing, coughing and expectorating. In every motion picture theatre in the city messages were flashed on the screen with appeals from the Board of Health for the cooperation of the public in stamping out the epidemic. Managers limited their audiences to the number of persons that could be seated and prohibited smoking for the period of the epidemic. My principal purpose in keeping open the theatres ii: New York City was to prevent the spread of pani : and hysteria, and thus to protect the public from a condition of mind which would predispose it to physical ills. Properly operated theatres were valuable factors in main-* taining the morale of the city, and New York City was notably free from a hysterical sense of calamity during our epidemic, and I am firmly convinced that it would have been unwise to have closed them. R. S. COPELAND, Commissioner. Conditions are no different in any other city. Isn't it reasonable to suppose that if Dr. Copeland's letter wore placed in the hands of any intelligent health officer he would understand its logic and be influenced thereby? But to make such a campaign effective exhibitors must unite ; they must get together and present their claims in a businesslike manner. 1919 AWAITS NEW LEADERS By Louis Reeves Harrison. OUR best business men are chiefly concerned in getting things done, rather than fussing about the manner of doing them, and it is obviously silly to underestimate the importance of those vigorous and well-trained minds now engaged in trying to bring moving pictures up to a standard of production equal to the quality of demand. If it was purely a question of horse-power plus horse-sense, no fifteen thousand theatres could accommodate the millions of people who would flock to the picture shows, and reissues would not be necessary. There is something else needed. The business world is one of financial sensibilities. It is supported by energy on one side. On the other should be clear-sightedness. Neither the halt nor the blind can succeed where leadership means organization, system, elimination of wasteful expenditure and sound judgment on an infinity of detail in publicity and distribution, so those who are hobbled by tradition, or who have gone lame with constant stumbling, or who are lop-sided with predudice against new methods, may be counted out of the race at the start, but there are many who have the speed and may get lost on the way from sheer inability to see straight, even when the right course is pointed out to them over and over again. Such men fail from lack of ability to adapt themselves to changing conditions. All business conditions are now greatly changed. What was good last year may utterly fail this one. Men who have survived disasters of production and, distribution, who have pulled through with a profit, who have had some narrow escapes just the same, are not going to weather the season of 1919 by repeating the same old errors of judgment and policy. They will simply add their concerns to the long list of downand-outs, some of them enormously capitalized, who could not grasp the ideas that our world is progressive, and that progress means change. Moving pictures have one great, big significance. They can graphically portray the life in us and around us. That life is simply character in action. Why talk about plays of "action," as you did last year, unless you can be made to understand that there is nothing dramatic about any kind of action unless some clash of character, or powerful manifestation of character, brings that action to an interesting and decisive crisis. You may be an optimist on the moving picture busines, but you will land up in the Vale of Tears unless you grasp the meaning of character in drama, the fact that even our national character is subject to change under new and powerful influences, that old subjects are not vital, and that we must keep pace with the times. Perhaps you are going to hitch your wagon to a star? Keep the wheels on earth this year if you do. The whole world was changed by our boys in France. Millions of those boys are coming back with bigger and broader ideas than they ever had before, fresh from earth's greatest tragedy, yet sweetened by our heartfelt showing of sympathy, more capable of according justice to their fellow men, more tenderly considerate of women and children, manlier men than any of us have ever been, and ready to diffuse their feelings and thoughts among loved ones waiting for them at home. This whole nation may be changed by the boys from France. It has been changed socially during their absence. Two powerful influences point the way for 1919 drama. To reach the full-blossomed enthusiasm of our men, to be in accord with the new spirit of our women, we must renounce our allegiance to the frazzled autocracy of convention, encourage imagination, vision and faith in our future. You thought last year you could hire dramatists by the week. What you got from most of them were vehicles of no particular purpose and weak conception. Real stars are as heaven-born as the poets, but you had an idea last year that you could manufacture them, though you left out the potency and "color" of drama, the fine fragrance and sacred beauty of its characterization and atmosphere. Don't try to. put over that stuff on the New American of 1919 unless you wish to be classed as a movie Bolsheviki !