Reel Life (1915-1916)

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NATIONAL BOARD DROPS “CENSORSHIP” Secretary McGuire issues statement on change to National Board of Review WD. McGUIRE, JR., executive secretary of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, • this week issued the following statement relative to the announcement of the change in name of that body : “The National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures will hereafter be known as The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The new name is a more accurate indication of the nature of the Board’s work, because the word “censorship” implies a type of official control and supervision that is deeply repugnant to the American ideal of free speech. The National Board believes in the free expression of ideas in the press, the theatre and the motion picture. It has come to the point where it would rather go out of existence than seem to stand for the kind of bureaucratic blue pencil that works in secret and enforces its decisions on the public without ever giving the public a chance to decide for itself. Board’s 240 Members Give Services Without Pay “The power of the Board lies in the fact that it represents public opinion. Its 240 members, serving voluntarily and without pay, come from all walks of life. Their standards of review are drawn not only from their own wide experience, but from constant correspondence with motion picture exhibitors and the motion picture public all over the country. It has over 700 people on its regular list of correspondents and works with a National Advisory Committee of nearly 100, made up of prominent people in every state of the Union. This crystallization of public opinion has incalculable weight with picture producers, because the producers have to give the public what it wants or go out of business. They know that any Board that can look at their pictures, uninfluenced by their own close interest and enthusiasm, and serve as a test of the public’s reaction on films, is the greatest help to them. That is why they voluntarily submit their films to The National Board and agree to abide by its decisions. “The Board exercises its greatest power through its weekly official bulletin to picture exhibitors and city officials throughout the country. Innumerable towns and cities have given up their local censoring committees and accepted the official advices of The National Board, because they have found that the Board represents in its decisions the average desire for a clean treatment of moral and social questions without the prejudices that are so apt to govern the views of a small local group. Among the scores of cities that have adopted the findings of The National Board as a guide to the pictures suitable' to be shown in their theatres are New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Duluth, Minneapolis, Spokane and Providence. All the leading cities of the country are maintaining active, co-operative relations with The National Board, depending upon its official advices as the best expression of public opinion. Object is to Raise Standard of Pictures “The work of the Board will continue to be what it has been — to formulate and express public opinion on motion pictures, review pictures for manufacturers with recommendations for changes and eliminations, and keep the country, through local officials and exhibitors, posted on the pictures to be seen. It does not pretend that its decisions will satisfy every individual, because these decisions are founded on principle and carefully formulated standards that cannot take into account personal and local prejudice. “The work of the Board, since its organization in 1909, has resulted to an increasing extent in raising the standard of pictures, because it provides advice to the producers and a warning to the public. If a picture is shown that is bad, city officials throughout the country are at once advised of this fact. The courts can and do deal with it in the sensible and democratic way, in response to public opinion crystallized in the laws governing the suppression of exhibitions opposed to public welfare. In such an instance, however, the public has had a chance to see and judge for itself, and is not made the victim of a star chamber censorship.” H* 'K 'k 'S' Bold Move Beats “Reformers” ( Continued from Page One ) audience as she did at the Thanhouser studios when this Mutual Masterpicture was made. This also was announced in clear, bold advertisements to the people of Middletown. The newspapers gave the Alhambra the editorial cooperation and justice due in the situation by fairly presenting the facts and the news. Copy specially prepared for the case by the Mutual Film Corporation’s publicity service department went into both the news columns and the advertising columns of the papers. Everybody in Middletown was told the story of Inspiration and the natural interest of the public in a fight was capitalized. Aiming directly at those who had sought to stir up sentiment against the theatre and the photoplay, Mr. Goetz issued special invitations to the members of the club particularly active in the matter and gave a special screening of the picture for the city officials. The judgment of this critical audience vindicated the picture. Then playing both matinee and evening performances, with Miss Munson appearing on the stage before each showing of the picture, the Alhambra proceeded to take in 3,000 paid admissions. This is considerable business to be done in an eight hundred seat house in a city of less than thirty thousand population. Perhaps the most important aspect of the proceedings has been in the salutory effect on the agitators of Middletown and the standing of the Alhambra. Every fight for a picture justly won prevents a dozen to come. Lucille Taft, long a gentle Mutual heroine, will be seen in a vampire role in the forthcoming Mutual Masterpicture, De Luxe Edition, The Quality of Faith. As a society girl, who relinquishes her claim to her minister fiance and later marries a society chap whom she soon tires of, Miss Taft is called upon to exert exceptional vampire charms. Miss Taft promises to display some exceptionally fine screen acting in her delineation of the role. Alexander Gaden, Gertrude Robinson, Charles A. Travis, John Reinhard, Henry Pemberton, Alan Robinson and John IVTackin are in the cast. Richard Garrick is the director. >{c >{c >{j Rea Berger will direct as his first American (Mutual) production, a five-part feature by J. Edward Hungerford entitled The Overcoat , which is a romance of the Barbary Coast and San Francisco night life. Rea Mitchell and William Stowell play the leading roles. • REEL LIFE — Page Seventeen