Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

/r* hOllVWOOD California. ever deceived dear Soeur Therese by wringing that garment out in the water as Exhibit "A" in the evidence —before taking our bath in the way usual under other forms of civilization. So, you see, quite a good deal depends upon where one is; don't you know ? In Japan, now, modesty is very confusing. A nice Japanese girl would not show her legs, her neck, her arms for anything— excepting only in the public bath-houses where both sexes bathe together in the nude. The decorum there is above reproach — the only people who ever "get fresh" are odious Europeans who have to be expelled promptly for immodesty. Hence,you will observe that the American Mot i o ture censorship is not the only curious brand of modesty extant. But, after all, a good deal of respect is due the Motion Picture Censor. He, alone of all people, really knows where modesty begins and ends and under just what circumstances nudity is modest. He doesn't argue, you understand — really modest people could never argue upon such an immodest subject — but he knows, bless him. History, for instance, modifies things considerably — in the movies. When, for instance, Cecil de Mille, anxious to be wholly modest in his presentations and yet wishing to inject a modicum of cultured interest, keeps his modern females nicely within the most recent code of civilized modesty — he manages to introduce a n i c e little hark back to ancient Rome — in just another age of tottering civilization— and he can strip 'cm with impunity. His leading lady may then disport herself solely in a row of beads and a headdress, for purely educational historical purposes — and the Censor and Civilization bear up bravely. Then there is the question of Art to be considered — Art, the very bulwark of civilization. But Art has certain intimate affiliations with Nature and Truth. And, alas, Nature and Truth can be so very uncivilized. So it comes to pass that most of the famous art galleries of the world are filled with portrayals of ladies and gentlemen who stand forth in confident modesty minus a stitch, although once in a way concessions are made in the matter of fig-leaves. Ai "Woman has shamelessly proclaimed to a startled masculine world that she has knees' and doesn't care ■who knows it." Posed by Bessie hove. movie director, therefore, with a passionate regard for Art, Nature and Truth, is reduced to having his leading lady pose as a lovely cold marble statue — and Civilization is saved. Even Ringling's Circus, with a proper regard for Art, Truth and Civilization, met the difficult combination by posing its beauties as nude sculpture groups, dressed solely in a little powder and a wisp of chiffon — and the whole atmosphere of the tent was elevated into one vast Arty appreciation. But if they had done their other stunts in that costume — Civilization, where would you have been? And again, the lady who did the fearsome stunts on the trapeze — just a nice covering of skin-tight tights. No one questioned the athletic young person's modesty on the trapeze — but oh, if she essayed to play golf at the Los Angeles Country Club in those togs! Phew ! Or would even the Motion Picture Censor stand for those tights on the screen — without even a cape over the shoulders or a ruffle around the waist? No, sir; modesty in the circus and modesty on the screen are two very different matters. Oh, very different. You will have heard the cultured quidnuncs deplore that, alas, the motion picture is not Art. Well, I should say not. What you go to see in an art gallery, for your intellectual improvement's sake, for the cause of higher civilization, is entirely distinct from what you go to see in the movies for mere entertainment. Why, if those film people dared to inject that sort of Art, that sort of higher culture, that sort of civilization into picture shows — my good sirs, the Censors would have an apoplectic fit forthwith. The women's clubs, those strongholds of culture and civilization, arc 24