Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1933)

1 he Audi lcnce lalks Back When the audience speaks the stars and producers listen. We offer three prizes for the bestlettersof the month $25, $10 and $5. Literary ability doesn't count. But candid opinions and constructive suggestions do. We must reserve the right to cut letters to fit space limitations. Address The Editor, PHOTOPLAY, 221 W. 57th St., New York City. THE S2.> LETTER I would say she is about twenty-three. She wears a red knitted tarn that is too big for her, and a short tan coat with a moth-eaten fur collar. Her eyes are dull behind thick glasses. Her body is awkward and clumsy. She is always alone. Yes, she is ugly. When she was a child, boys pulled her braids and girls laughed at their teasing. Now they never notice her. She enters the theater and eagerly comes to my aisle. I take her to a seat "near the front, please." And she sits down, alone, childishly excited in anticipation of the picture she is going to see. As I usher people past her I can see her smiling. She is no longer Mary Jones. She is no longer alone. She is not shy, silent, now. She is on the screen. Now she has a chance to love and be loved. To laugh, to sing. A chance to live. Milton White, Springfield, Mass. THE ski LETTER Much is said about moving pictures, the a< t ing, the scenes, but little is said about the folks who attend. Shouldn't something be done to teach people how to acl when they go to the movies. Look at what we have to -land: There's the toe stepper. There's the seat hog. He'd never, never budge! There's the popcorn bag rustler, with his constant crackling, crumpling, munching and swishing. There's the gum-ehewer whose mastication strikes the ear as maddeningly as the drip-drip of Inquisition times. There's the giggler — who must laugh at the death-scenes. There's the chatterbox. ANYBODY want an argument? Just a little ten cent argument, or a great big dollar-fifty argument? We have plenty! Whew! Several debate teams could have been organized among the contributors of this month's letters! Everybody was in an argumentative mood! Well, not quite everybody. There were a few calm, heart-warming letters about "Another Language" and how it kept husband and wife under the same roof. Experiences like that always set us up! Wish we'd hear more of them. But just now we're sitting tight in our swivel chair and holding on with both hands till that "King Tone" letter casts a bomb among the Gable followers! And, that's all right. The more fights the merrier. We like to referee! You can always take the children to see Joe E. Brown. One of his chief charms lies in the fact that everybody — from baby to grandmother— can enjoy his pictures. Joe himself is very much interested in his three-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Ann and finds time to play with her There's the self-appointed interlocutor. How about an "Emily Post" department for theater-going behavior? Mrs. Vance Vercell, Torrington, Conn. THE $5 LETTER Wnen the toddler smashes a quart of milk on the newly-scrubbed front porch, and the fourwar-old comes in crying with a bumped nose just at the very moment you are trying to get tlu snarls out of the oldest one's hair, then I say: "Thank Cod for a good Saturday matinee at the neighborhood movie!" With this prayer of thanks, the baby is tucked in for her afternoon nap. the other two air taken to the show. I believe that thousands of other mothers will agree that good neighborhood movies have prevented many a nervous breakdown! Mrs. Kuiikw Hakim R, San Francisco, Calif. PAPA NEED NOT SPANK Why doesn't mother and father of the letter titled "Papa Spank" in the September issue choose the pictures for their Junior to see? Then papa wouldn't have t<> spank. That is one reason why PHOTOPLAY has gone to the trouble to give us previews of current pictures, before 1 take any child to the movies 1 study PHOTOPLAY. Then I choose pictures like " Vlorable" or "IVnrodand Sam." [ PLl VSE n i;n to page 12 ]