Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

Enters Politics By William A. Brahv ure the propaganda force oi those continuous houses with f • ir^umeniative force of the two papers— granting that their beliefs were alike, which is unlikely? The women from now on are a dominant power in ileciding any political question, in this country, and the women go to pictures, and believe in pictures— every one of them. Many of them. 1 suppose, believe what they read in the newspapers, but their adherence to the screen is unanimous. Is this swift and impressive power a hot air theor>? Not on your life' It has been proven, and in a way that amazed all Washington. A feu monLhj ago the all-wise gentlemen in the capital proposed to impose a twenty-per cent tax on amusements. This news struck the picture and theater men of New York like a thunderbolt late one Thursday afternoon. A meeting was called, and in a few hours S-'.ooo worth of telegrams had g o n e North. South and West. Instantly, in response to those wires, protestants against that unjust bill appeared on the stage or the little rostrum of everj motion picture house from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The political power of the movies, born full-armed. uas working for the first lime, and hitting on ever\cylinder. The ne.xt morning the first protests against the Kitchen programme— or pogrom, if you like — began to come into Washington. The air was filled with them Friday afternoon. Saturday i -.'eTied like a sno storm. ^-.'. -j:. it was a blizzard. Mor. iay the District of Culurr-bia was snowed under. And Tuesday the cr%went out from Washington 'Stop' Stopr Vou are clogging the wires and stopping the national mails! " Kitchens crowd surrendere'l. for five million petitions against their work had arrived: In three working dav. t.^e -otion picture had absolutely stampeded and killed a piece CI .c .:.h proposed legislation, apparently aimed at manager, and producers, but directly reactive on all the people, and especially on people of moderate means. Fr jm now on. candidates must go on record to prevent persecutiun ot the movies. Here is a startling fact: no business in the United States wii no 3? much building in the next two vears as the motion picture industry! At the end of that period no city of a hundred thoa^nd inhabuants will be without at least one ornate, substantial picture theater seating 2.000 people, with fine'v presented programrr. -s of \-aried nature, accompanied bv an orchestra who^e readmgi will raise thf uhole public taste in music; and every — bi« argument will c> of half a million or over will have a great moton picture auditorium sealing irom 3.000 to 5.000 person.,, and taking it, pace as the local center of community life, the natural liomc 01 great gatherings, an interior forum for expression, on occasion, of the city's embodied thought . • ovca I'nT^i U\?° K '''''"' "'"'I' ""'' '''''"' '° disap,H.-ar from the Inited Mates have 01 ten been described as commumiy cen £'^;.M r o '^"^ T'"\ ''"^^•■' '^"^ '"^« «''^-" have vou thought of them as political centers That is e.xactly what t'hev -n'aUKalh ' rlik •' ni""' ^'"'"^ ^^'''^ ''^'''' "''■•" ^^'^'''■"^ ^"=' — naturally — talked thllll;.^ over. The motion picture theater will take the place of the saloon as a cinter 01 politics Mmply because, in the small town there IS no other regular place to comrregate. The church is not a confinuoijs oiK-n hou^e. as is the movie theater; besides th.motion picture is a part of every-day life, an.l men come io ,t in colloquial mood Men go to the house of c;od for «orshib Ihe hrst othcial rivognilion of the motion picture from a religious orsan.zatmn as a whole has come from the .Methodist Episcopal Church, which • •« ■• ■. / in its great conference pro ', jccted for next July in Columl.u., O., has asked for a picture representation in i'.s pageant, and in it committees. Needless to sav, the picture industry will '. send to Columl)u> a representation of its leaders and its most advanced thought. It welcomes an oport unity -s * tu join forces with a potent religious body in it> task of making the world a cleaner, happier, better P'jce to live in. The moJ *■ lion picture is u direct co , operator with everv decent r KOI" ^"^'^'^ in tli«-' world. The ■ Uftrrfn'If^l^S.-tA/ '''"^-l^. the inquisitors, the -t^t 1 1 ImKI^W suppressors ol public opin "C^/^D '""• ''"-' '^*-'"!»""'s — all the.se T %w7t»*. are lying to you. more or I>nV 4:1 f^X: ^Trr' '^"""^ deliberately, when they Jrlf CJ^|lJt,r\ ,1 tell you otherwise. Let me tell you sometiiing about Bolshevism, the menace of a broken-up worhl. Bolshevism isn t a lack of food. Its a lack of brains! C.ive people knowledge of what is really going on, an idea of what the other fellow really thinks, and you have taken all the kick out of war Give them a universal uniierstanding. an acquaintance of nation with nation, a sympathy of class for class, and you have not only killed anarchy— you will have buriei it too deep for resurrection. There is no force which 'Daorjiion by % F. Jjmet SO marcliing on. makes for internati jnal understanding to-day that is comparable in any way, for effectiveness, with the motion picture. The motion picture has done more to advance the poor man. to give him a knowHedge of the world, and a varnish of cosmopolitanism, than any other agency of modern times. The man who has never moved from Tulsa. Okla.. may have a very accurate knowlcilge of the geography, famous streets, noted buildings and active water front of New York. The rul)e who lives in New \'ork, and is a rulie because he has never seen anything el'e. travels on the screen and so becomes acquainted with Tulsa, just as Tulsa has shaken hands with him. It is a simple truth that crkwhcre, to-day. have inco.iip.-'.rably more faith in sec in a picture than in (Continued uk pj^c ijt)