Moving Picture World (Jan-Jun 1910)

43« THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD CORRESPONDENCE. THE CLERGY AND THE PICTURE. February 23, 1910. Editor, Moving Picture World: Referring to the article in a recent issue of The World, by Lux Graphicus, in which he calls attention to the marked change in the attitude of the press and the pulpit toward tin motion picture, would say that while in many of his statements he is correct, it occurs to me that his second paragraph is rather misleading. Anyone not thoroughly informed would naturally infer that the clergymen as a whole had until recently been up in arms against the motion picture. It cannoi be denied that a few narrow-minded wearers of the cloth here and there were strenuous in their denunciation of tin motion picture. It is also true that at times some very abU ministers took exceptions to certain classes of pictures upur very excellent grounds too well known to need discussion here. This state of affairs, however, was not current by an> means, for motion picture exhibitions were given in churches many years before motion picture theaters and exchanges were in existence. During my experience of thirteen years before church audiences, I have never heard any serious objection voiced by the pastor of any church where it has been my privilege tc exhibit, and I can name fifty right here in Philadelphia. Il is not necessary to put on religious, strictly educational 01 other "tame" subjects in order to cater to ministers or church people, for they demand as much entertainment along this line as anyone else. The youngsters demand "cowboys and Indians" and the grown-ups want "something to laugh at,'' and all that is necessary is to use a little judgment in selecting subjects. Perhaps if the managers had paid a little more attention to the class of pictures they were exhibiting there would have been no kick even from the narrow-minded. I remember to have read an article in The World which asserted that the churches of Philadelphia were actually in opposition to the motion picture theater, because at that time there were so many exhibitions being given. Many churches have their own machines and conduct their own picture entertainments. There are scores of large Catholic churches in New York and some in Boston where I have exhibited whose pastors are warm admirers of good pictures, and the same may be said of Brooklyn, Jersey City, Albany, Chester Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington and dozens of cities and towns visited by me. Most emphatically, therefore, I would say that the pulpit as a whole has not been unjustly censorious. Not so much can be said of the newspapers. One instance is still fresh in my mind. It was during the "frenzied legislation" that the editor of a certain resort paper and myseli undertook to pave the way for increased business along the Jersey coast from Atlantic to Cape May by running a motion picture section each week. I contradicted erroneous statements appearing in the press of Philadelphia and based observations upon condition of the business here. A cop-\ of the paper reached The Moving Picture World and evidently was of interest, for it printed a whole column from my section verbatim. We were soliciting advertisements and getting them slowly but surely each week, when the owner of the paper orelcred the section out, preferring to fill up with "boiler plate." On the other hand, during the seven consecutive Summers of my connection with Cloward's Motior Picture Theater, at Brandywine Springs Park, the press of Wilmington was especially friendly. "The Life of the American Fireman" got us half a column of favorable comment, and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," put on with quartette and lecture, received another. That was the first motion picture house to open in the State of Delaware, and the admission was ten cents until Cloward sold it last Summer. I cannot remember the number of times we have entertained the children from the orphanages accompanied by fifteen or twenty reverend sisters whose outing was sanctioned by no less an authority than the Rt. Rev. Bishop Monagahan. Yours very truly, WILLIS ELLIOTT REYNOLDS. [Clergymen as a whole are of course not antagonistic to the moving picture, but it cannot be denied that an appreciable minority made themclvcs, some time ago, painfully conspicuous by their pcrfervid denunciations of all moving pictures and all moving picture theaters and entertainments It is this bigoted and sweeping generalization on the part of some clergymen to which The Moving Picture World will always object. — Ed. M. 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