To prohibit and to prevent the trade practices known as "compulsory block-booking" and "blind selling" of motion-picture films in interstate and foreign commerce (1939)

TRADE PRACTICES IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY \\ Proposed amendment. — Witnesses representing the studios centered their attack on section 4, complaining that it would be unduly burdensome and would interfere with the production of quality pictures to be compelled to furnish in advance "a complete and true synopsis" which should include ''an outline of the story, incidents and scenes depicted or to be depicted." To meet these objections the author of the bill and of this report will on the floor of the Senate move to strike out all of section 4 and insert in lieu thereof the following: Sec. 4. It shall be unlawful for any distributor of motion-picture films in commerce to lease or offer to lease for public exhibition any motion-picture film over two thousand feet in length unless such distributor shall furnish the exhibitor at or before the time of making such lease or offer to lease an accurate synopsis of the contents of such film. Such synopsis shall be made a part of the lease and shall include (a) a general outline 16 of the story and description of the principal characters, and (b) a statement describing the manner of treatment of dialogs concerning and scenes depicting vice, crime, or suggestive of sexual passion. It is the purpose of this section to make available to the exhibitor sufficient information concerning the type and contents of the film and the manner of treatment of questionable subject matter to enable him to determine whether he wishes to select the film for exhibition and later to determine whether the film is fairly described by the synopsis. It is believed that this amendment will meet the producers' reasonable objections to the bill. The constitutional aspects of the measure are dealt with in a memorandum by Prof. Noel T. Dowling, a lecturer on constitutional law at Columbia University and an expert connected with the legislative drafting service maintained by that institution. (See Appendix.) ENACTMENT OF THE BILL WILL BENEFIT THE PUBLIC AND WILL NOT INJURE THE MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 1. Public bene jits. —The demands of great national organizations with thousands of local branches for restoration of freedom of choice is impressive. The local parent-teacher associations of the county number more than 27,000 with a paid membership of over 2,250,000. The State congresses of this association in 47 of the 48 States are loyally supporting the bill. The complete list of organizations urging the passage of this remedial measure appears near the beginning of this report. The extraordinary sponsorship thus indicated is a guaranty that as soon as the bill becomes effective thousands of groups throughout the country will in no uncertain terms indicate the standards to which they will hold their local exhibitors in the selection of their programs. The normal American way in which this will take place is well expressed by Walter Lippman in the article hereinbefore set out. Not only the organizations and associations listed, but the exhibitors and the public at large are entitled to their say as to what shall be shown on the screens. Their composite good taste is to be preferred to that of the movie producers. Dr. Fred Eastman, associate editor of the Christian Century, points out that — ■ The fact that every one of the 10 best-paying pictures last year was on the approved list of practically every group which appraises pictures is convincing evidence that the public supports voluntarily the better pictures. There are, of course, occasional exceptions to this, but they are only occasional. 16 "General" is used in its primary sense of "comprising, dealing with or directed to the main elements, features, purposes, etc., with neglect of unimportant details," not in its secondary sense of "indefinite, vague."