Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1920)

Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section The Mighty Messenger ( Concluded ) "Daddy will be back soon now, Peggy dear, with sonic nice KEMPS Balsam Then you can go to sleep and forget that horrid old cough." But why not save poor old dad the night trip to the drugstore next time by having an extra bottle of Kemp's Balsam in the house all ready for big and little coughs alike. Get a bottle now. Le Roy. N. Y. "Hair-Dress'1 Miss Betty Parker Makes stubborn hair easy to comb, neat and attractive Jay Dillon hi atnred in Jack Norworth's "Odds and Ends" Adopted by-Screen-Stage-Sociely Because Hair-Dress ivill makcthr most stubborn hairsta>'the w.iy you coinb itand retain asmooth, dressy appearance the entire evening. With Hair-Dress you can comb your hair any f.ishionabte style— straicht back— any way you want it. HairDress will also eive to your hair that beautiful lustre so much in voifue with men and women ol the stage, the screen and socirty. Is harmless .'tn<l acts as an excellent tonic. Send for Trial Jar ru1art""us'°1?\v: ■ l iys. I( it isn't just wh.it you have been looking for — send it b.iLk. Vour money will be cheerfully returneti to ynu. Send United St.itrs stamps, coin or money order. Youi jar of delicately scentc<t. Krcaseleas HairDress will l>e promptly miilr-l postp ii-l Srm! (or thi-i won<1crfiil toilet nee essity today. Send Sl.OO for Three Months' Supply. HAIR URESS CO., Dept. 112, 920 Windsor Ave.. CHICAGO ^Jideed lincjeney nwed nurt Mamed )y^Uk deodcnximJ^ ! Science has discovered a new method by which undcr.irm persptr.ition can be repressed. And without st.iining the d.iintiest lingerie! It is with Imm.ic, a clear colorUtt lotion — exquisite, d.iinty. linm.-ic simply cannot stain. Yet it i-frrcts instant underarm dryness without injury to even the most delicate ■.\ctn. At your dealer's or send fifty cents. Hannibal Pharmacal Co. Bo« C, 6)9 Olive Si., St. Louis, Mo. V,iV**r,t i>(\'rrt ,thr unn ■irril'itxtil rj}ilntorf/ . I can hear readers asking, "Did they stay in the motion picture business?" We did not. The heart of a social worker and the spirit of an adventurer are seldom combined with a genius for money making. The kind of show William ran would need an endowment. That would make it a philanthropic institution and folks would be afraid of it. When our savings were ex hausted we sold out, reluctantly, to a gentleman whose idealism was balanced with business experience. Then, having appeased our restlessness for that time, we passed into a new field of social service where we still remain. But whenever any of our coworkers begin an unwise or unwarranted attack on our old friends, "the movies," we feel impelled to lift up our voices. Why I Do Not Believe in Censorship (Concluded from page jo) little business of their own, began to meddle in the affairs of others. With oily tongues and lazy bodies they take advantage of the weak side of human nature and start a propaganda that enables them to live without work, to travel, and what is dearer still to their warped and diseased minds, to receive the plaudits of the unthinking multitude. We prate of our liberties, when in fact they arc slipping away, insidiously but surely, till now we are hedged about by a multitude of "Thou Shalt Nots." When a few men can arrogate to themselves the right to say what one hundred million shall or shall not see or hear they become tyrannical usurpers. A country permitting it is not free. With so many axes to grind in our legislative bodies, it is easy for a handful of charlatans to get measures slipped through that are just as surely robbing us of our blood-bought liberties as was King George. Down deep in every heart is a love for the good, the true and the beautiful. However base and ignoble we may be ourselves, we dislike to see such traits in others. Unhampered public opinion will so set its seal of approval of the good play and disapproval of the bad as to make the production of the latter unprofitable. If unprofitable they will not be produced. The great heart of the people is sound, the censors to the contrary notwithstanding. L. A. Stockwell, 183s Fort Stockton Drive, San Diego, California. He Tells Why in Thirty Words CENSORS are meddlers. The people— the common people, if you like — are as a whole saner, more critical, than any individual or committee of individuals. Leave censorship to the people. Lewis H. Eddy. 3430 Peralta Street, Oakland, California. Conscientious Producers Build for the Future TWICE I have been asked to serve on a local board of censorship for the moving pictures. Twice I have refused. Why, my reasons are twofold. First. No person or set of persons can have the wisdom to choose for another what he shall read, see or think. What may be one person's mental food may be another's mental poison. Therefore I felt that while I might for myself and my children exercise a personal censorship, it w.as the right of each individual to make a similar choice. The photoplay that would ap|H'al to an uncultured longshoreman might not be one that a college-bred lady may choose, yet he would be as entitled to have his taste considered as she. Second. The precedent in creating a Board of Censorship is dangerous. If controlled by a majority of minds prejudiced in any direction the public could easily become the victim of propaganda. In a similar manner a lack of vision on the part of the board may rob the public of many plays that would be productive of much good. So far as obscene productions are concerned, a theater which caters to that element soon finds itself in disrepute. Theater managers are looking at returns for tomorrow as well as today. They can be trusted to build for the future by being even in advance of the ever increasing demand for improved filmplays. The best and safest censor is public opinion. Any other censor is un-.\merican, and tends to rob the citizen of his inborn right to use his own intelligence in all matters pertaining to his personal development and enjoyment. Mrs. Johx Gratke. 407 U. S. Nat l Bank Bldg., Portland, Oregon. Too Much Sense to Censor THE chief objection to censorship of moving pictures or of anything else is that censors do not function properly. They do not know how to cefise. Only a person of unusual depth of soul and breadth of sympathy is capable of being a censor, and such a person has no time for censorship. He is too busy creating masterpieces of his own. Censors, official or self-appointed, have existed in all ages and have flourished in all periods of the world's history. They had them away back in the time of Christ, and that philosopher of philosophers tersely stiitcs their most salient characteristic in the words, "Ve blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.'* As to what constitutes a gnat and what a camel opinions differ. For instance, my particular gnats arc Percy and Fcrdie. If I were a censor I might readily swallow the camels of vice, vampirism and vulgarity, but I should strain futilcly at that i>air of insufferable bores and "beastly bounders." Censors being thus limited and prone to prejudice, why should an intelligent majority, capable of judging for themselves, be governed by the opinions of a paid minority. — a minority under a conscientious impulsion to earn their salaries? The only effective consorship is that of the people themselves, pos,se.ssing collectively, if not always individually, the wisdom to recognize, appreciate, disparage or condemn. Charlotte B. Horton, 431 Connecticut St., Buffalo, N. Y. Kvciy aJrcrUiH-mcut In rnoT(U"LAY MAGAZINE ti gutnntccd.