Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, April 9, 1949 9 It's a big problem but the movies didn't create it, the movies don't aggravate it, and the movies do much to curb it. In this balanced nation-wide survey of educators, police officials, probation officers, mothers, is an answer to unjust attacks, Mr. Exhibitor senteeism but what the truant officers and the absentees still call hookey. Investigation showed that the truants were at movie matinees. Brubaker called a conference of theatre managers and together they worked out a system by which all under-age children were noted as they entered the theatre by the cashier who immediately notified the probation office. Meanwhile an usher checked to see where the suspects sat and led the probation officer to the children when he arrived. Exhibitors Help With the aid of schools in furnishing theatres their lists of holidays, the theatres succeeded in helping the probation office in solving its hookey . . . pardon, its absentee problem. In the nation's capital, Washington, D. C, a distinguished senator, whose comprehensive investigation into cartels has not led him to forget his interest in youth, believes that the motion picture is a potent weapon to battle juvenile delinquency. He also believes that for the most part the industry is cooperating and doing a first-rate job, but that it is up to the industry to clamp the lid on the minority which ignores the majority. He is Sen. Harvey Kilgore, West Virginia Democrat. The senator believes that films which might incite teen-agers to crime should not be made. He thinks that state and local censorship is of no great use in this question and these pictures must be stopped at the source. "There is no doubt," Sen. Kilgore declared, "that the majority of the large producers have cooperated in every possible way to curb juvenile delinquency, but some, more interested in profit than in cooperating for the success of this worthy task, sometimes more than offset the goodwill engenedered by the majority." Sen. Kilgore is at present seeking a practical solution to some juvenile crime problems through his Federal Youth Correction Act. Motion pictures are out in front when it comes to battling juvenile delinquency and are a great aid to authorities, Dorel L. Denison. lieutenant in charge of the Kansas City Police Department's Youth Bureau, believes. Not that Denison doesn't hold that movies could be improved. One objection he has to them is the problem they offer in keeping children out late. To Denison 11 P.M. is late enough for any of the younger set to be out and he has an agreement with the all-night theatres to see that their young patrons get out of the house by that time. But Denison's biggest objection to movies is the predominance of drinking scenes. He feels that many of these are neither in keeping with truth or traditions of American life today and that they lead youngsters to believe that no one ever goes out to dinner with his wife, or family, or girl friend without going to places where drinks are served. Not to Blame However, he does not think the movies themselves on the whole contribute to juvenile delinquency since, in his opinion, what they see on the screen does not have any lasting effect on the youngsters. Theatre-going, he declares, has one decided advantage for the young— it keeps them off the streets. Also movies, he finds, have an important part in instilling a respect for law and order and teaching ideals about citizenship to the young. The police officer finds that films like "Drums Along the Mohawk" are valuable in this respect as are the better historical, pioneer and westerns. Western stars such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, he thinks, play important roles for youngsters in that they present clean-living, honest personalities on the screen. Motion pictures are also to be commended, the lieutenant finds, in that they belabor the point that crime does not pay. Here, Denison believes, they might go even farther in stressing the penalties and sufferings resulting from crime. He takes off his hat to "Canon City" in this respect and believes that they can help even more when they show the causes leading up to delinquency and crime, such as' is done in "The Big City" and "Knock on Any Door," which the lieutenant specifically mentioned. Drops 38 Per Cent In Boston juvenile delinquency has dropped 38 per cent in one year and almost without exception welfare organization leaders give the movies an especial pat on the shoulders for improving the type of pictures which can fit into children's programs. The child angle is particularly important to such interested parties as the Rev. Dana A. Greeley, pastor of the famous Arlington Street Unitarian Church. "I object strenuously," Dr. Greeley declared, "when a picture is shown under some such title as 'Red Pony,' obviously with an intent of appealing to all the 'family trade,' and then have it gruesome and shockingly in bad taste for children. "But I do believe with equal certainty that motion pictures in the past 12 months have cleaned their own house considerably and that the good picture of today has a splendid influence on children and in the curbing of so-called juvenile delinquency." Educator Speaks Headmaster Hodgman of the Beaver Country Day School, one of greater Boston's exclusive schools for girls, believes that historical novels when correctly filmed are of tremendous influence in curbing delinquency. He believes that in social welfare work the modern picture has done its full share in showing that crime truly does not pay and that the Brotherhood of Man has been aided by showing of pictures depicting equality and social rights regardless of race. A Boston father who requested that his name be withheld had some very definite views. "I know that I much prefer my own children to attend motion pictures rather than to be left entirely to their own resources for amusement. "I believe," he continued, "that the motion picture of today is a great force for good and that censorship is a thing of the Dark Ages, by that I mean censorship should be that of the parents and people themselves. We cannot regulate morals by law. It must be done by education and self-teaching. "I believe that is where motion pictures enter into the scene. They are causing young children to realize that good does triumph and that our great country is built upon a doctrine of liberty, equality and fraternity." Another Boston defendant of the movies ;s Walter M. Burse, president of Suffolk University. "Today's motion pictures," Pres. Burse declares, "have left behind them the ide'as of a decade ago when perhaps some of them were much too blood-curdling and suggestive. I believe that today motion pictures play an important part in keeping children off the streets, in teaching lessons of good government, of good morals and of obeying the law." Prof. Burse pointed out that Suffolk has installed motion pictures in an auditorium seating more than 1,000 persons and that the University has welcomed visits from such stars as Jane Wyman and Margaret O'Brien. Delinquency Curb ".Motion pictures of the better sort," he added, "definitely have their influence in curbing juvenile delinquency. It is now about time that instead of pointing to the pictures as the source of ideas for such delinquency some one speak up and give the industry credit for its splendid work in educational films, in developing the youth mind and along the lines of good morals and good influences. I believe it deserves an accolade." Boston educator Burse's views are echoed from the west coast — .Los Angeles, home of movie making — where Mrs. Joseph C. Wenger. president of the southern California district of the California Federation of Women's Clubs, declared that movies do not contribute to juvenile delinquency and that anyone who thinks on the subject must realize that the industry has actually done much toward correcting the juvenile problem. Speaking of delinquency, she said : "It is not the fault of the pictures, but that of the parents. It's their problem, right in the home. The trouble is that many parents are too slipshod about allowing their offspring to see certain films." Los Angeles also saw another form of exhibitor-parent cooperation when women representatives of leading organizations met with showmen to discuss that tabu subject — molestation of children in theatres. Child Molesters The meeting was called by the Business and Professional Women's 'Club of Los Angeles and among the exhibitor delegation was Paul Williams, general counsel of the Southern California Theatre Owners Association, and Spence Leve, Fox West Coast district manager. Both pointed out that cases of molestation were few and Leve gave the clubwomen something to talk over with their husbands at night (Continued on Page 12) Six-Hour Sit With Snacks If anyone could figure out how to make a six-hour sit tie in with a snack, trust Siritzky International to do it. During the six-hour run of the French trilogy— "Marius," "Fanny," "Cesar" — at its Elysee in New York, they put in a hamand-cheese sandwich plus coffee snack bar into the house. The boys figured rightly that if the customers sit six hours they'd want to snack and the new venture showed a profit.