Moving Picture World (Mar 1917)

March 17, 1917 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1747 Taking a Chance By Sam Spedon IN A RECENT letter from the National Board of Review our attention was called to this ad, which was published in the local press of a city in northern New York: THE REAL BIRTH CONTROL PICTURE HERE AT LAST THE GREATEST FILM SENSATION THIS CITY HAS EVER SEEN BARE FACTS LAID BARE THE MOST SENSATIONAL, THE MOST STARTLING THE MOST AMAZING PICTURE EVER PASSED BY THE BOARD OF CENSORS PERSONS UNDER SIXTEEN YEARS NOT ADMITTED. The letter informed us that the picture advertised was not passed by the National Board of Review, and had been prohibited from exhibition in New York City and many other cities throughout the country, and said : "It is fortunate for the local motion picture industry that the Commissioner of Public Safety, who has the support of every exhibitor of standing in that locality, took immediate action looking to the suppression of this exhibition so that the advertisement was at once discontinued in the papers." This advertisement is a striking example to what extremes some men will go to to cater to morbid curiosity and the lower instincts of human nature. We are prone to condemn the exhibitor for the showing of objectionable and prohibited pictures, but the fact is, he is only an accessory while the principal offender is the producer. Both are guilty of violating common decency and defying public opinion to the detriment of everybody else in the industry. We have got to handle this subject without gloves. This is neither the time nor place to speak in platitudes, metaphors or similes. We must speak plainly and to the point if we wish to rid our good ship, the Motion Picture Industry, of the barnacles that clog its progress and the pirates that threaten to scuttle it. Stooping to such methods of making money reminds us of the old days of the Midway and Coney Island when the barkers stood outside the holes in the wall and pointed to a sign in flaring letters : "FOR MEN ONLY." Many a time our attention has been called to these signs and to be honest, it was only by excercise of considerable self-control that we withstood the temptations of satisfying our curiosity. One night we waited outside one of these places and watched a couple of Irishmen who were with their wives (or sweethearts) enter, after they had gained the latter's consent on the promise to tell them what they saw. The two men had hardly gone in the entrance when they came out the exit, blushing and laughing with chagrin. We asked them what they saw. They said : "I'm ashamed to tell you." They kept their word to their female companions and we overheard them tell them ; "Nothing but an old 'browser' in a 'mother hubbard' running back and forth on a platform." Just one of those games to "gyp" the dimes from the curious. That's what most of the unsavory pictures are and that's what such advertisements as the above mean. The exhibitors who show these pictures in their theaters are turning them into holes in the wall. The people who attend such exhibitions feel very much like the two Irishmen, if they do not feel wholly disgusted with themselves and the management of the theater. If we ever expect to escape the blight of legalized censorship we have got to clean the Augean stables in our midst of the filth of mental and moral depravity with which some benighted souls are besmirching the escutcheon of the industry. How men who lay claim to any respect will traffic in unsavory and prohibited abortions in the name of entertainment and art is past finding out. It would seem they are afflicted with astigmatism and shortsightedness that are nothing less than mad blindness. It is the surest way of committing business suicide. We cannot touch pitch without being defiled. "As a dog returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly." Dreams and Visions By Sam Spedon. DREAMERS dream dreams that always augur good or evil for themselves, they never concern anybody but themselves. Their dreams are due to disordered stomachs or minds that turn inward and not outward, beyond their own selfish interests ; everything is introspective and not prospective. Nobody cares to hear their dreams because there is no interpretation to them, and always engender superstition and pessimism ; they are destructive and not constructive. Give us the man v. ho has visions of something beyond the trials, tribulations and chaos of the present. He sees things that mean something to us all and his visions encourage hope. He points out the silver lining of the cloud. He grasps the situation and tells of the better days that are in store for us. He is practical and optimistic. License Commissioner Bell recently said : "The motion picture industry is a big business, but it is not yet the great business it is destined to be." He has a vision of greater things in store for us. Wonderful things have been done, but still greater things shall be accomplished. It has furnished rest and recreation to the weary and heavy ladened. It is destined to be a light to enlighten the world. It will stimulate thought to the betterment and education of all mankind and bring the nations of the earth closer together in a bond of fellowship and open communion. It is not strange that so many of us are jealous in protecting such a great industry and its mission against the inroads of bandits and vandals who would prostitute and destroy it for the sake of filthy lucre. We heard a man say : "The moving picture business is dead. I've got mine out of it. I should worry." There are others who see nothing to it if they can't get theirs out of it and do not care how soon the goose that laid the golden eggs is killed. Men have dreams of wealth and when they do not materialize see nothing beyond but destruction. William A. Brady, at the F. I. L. M. Club dinner, a short time ago, said: "I have a son sixteen, now in school ; he can be a lawyer, doctor, or whatever he chooses to be, but I would be proud if he followed motion pictures as his business. I am getting along in life, but let me tell you young men I consider the making of good pictures, the distribution of good pictures just as great a power for good among men, as any other business or profession. I can see a great future for motion pictures in the educational, governmental and industrial fields as well as the arts and sciences." Mr. Brady has a vision and made it known to encourage others and inspire them with greater interests in and respect for