Paramount Pep (1923)

2 Paramount Pep Adolph Zukor to Hold Conference of Distinguished Writers and Artists Will Formulate Artistic Principles for Motion Pictures — Will Award Prizes For the purpose of formulating a set of principles for the artistic development of motion pictures, leading novelists, artists, dramatists, editors, educators and others prominent in public affairs in this country and Europe will be invited by Adoph Zukor, to attend a conference to be held in New York in the near future, when the artistic needs and possibilities of the screen will be explored. Announcement of his plans for the conference was made yesterday by Mr. Zukor, who will sail Saturday on the Olympic for the purpose of interesting European writers and artists in the project. “These artistic standards,” said Mr. Zukor, “will guide picture producers in discharging their obligation toward the cultural development of the millions of people all over the world who rely on the screen for their principal recreation. A supervisory board of weil known men and women will be appointed by the conference, and this board will award a series of prizes, amounting to several thousand dollars, which we will offer at the confer ence to those elements contributing most to the motion picture’s artistic development during the year. “While the artistic progress of the motion picture has been great,” continued Mr. Zukor, “the greatest development so far in the picture’s short career has necessarily been in the technical side of picture craftsmanship and in the stabilization of the industrial side. “Today we have pretty nearly attained perfection in photography, lighting, scenery and in other phases of picture production which go into the making of merely beautiful and effective photography. The last two years also has seen the business put on a firm and stable financial basis. “The big field of picture progress, therefore, lies in developing the screen along the soundest artistic principles. Millions of people all over the world not only get all of their amusement from motion pictures, but they also depend largely on pictures for their cultural development. “The responsibility of picture producers toward fostering sound taste and artistic standards in these people is an enormous one. I know producers have tried to meet this responsibility, but the growth of the industry has been so swift that attention has had to be concentrated on the physical development of the picture business. “So that in discharging this responsibility we may have the best advice and guidance available, I am going to invite the leading novelists, dramatists, artists, sculptors, editors, and educators to explore the artistic and cultural possibilitites of the motion picture in a conference to be held in New York in the very near future. It is my hope that these men and women, representing the best in American thought and American taste, will evolve some set of principles which can be accepted by the motion picture industry as its artistic guide. Our aim is to have a conference that will be to the motion picture what the French Academy is to French letters, what the Royal Academy is to British art and what the Pulitzer Foundation is to American journalism.” MR PEP SAYS: IN BUSINESS, the greatest and rarest quality is plain horse sense. An Editorial Comment R. C. LiBeau, District Manager at Kansas City, calls our attention to a comment on “To Have and To Hold” in a Kansas paper and taken from the editorial column. It reads : “You missed a clean, wholesome play if you failed to see “Back Home and Broke” at the Gem, Monday and Tuesday nights. Mr. Andrews, proprietor, is putting on an exceptionally high class of pictures. Next Monday and Tuesday nights he will show “To Have and To Hold.” The sale bill editor saw this at the Newman three weeks ago, and it is one of the very best we ever saw. Anyone going who does not say that this show is high class in every particular, with interest at top notch, throughout can get a dollar each from us, at the end of the first show — and we’ll be standing right out in front.” We agree with Mr. LiBeau that editorial comments of this kind are the best arguments in the world against people who claim that costume pictures do not please people in the smaller towns, regardless of how good they may be. The town in which this paper is printed is a small town in Kansas and it goes to show that pictures of the caliber of “To Have and To Hold” are welcome on the screen by any public. Costume or not, if it is a good picture it’s a Paramount and if it’s a Paramount it’s the best show in town.