MOVING PICTURE CENSORSHIP.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17273, 11 October 1921, Page 10

MOVING PICTURE CENSORSHIP.

' . "•♦,•-■■■•.-.' ' i CONFERENCE IN LOS ANGELES. (?ROV Oim OWN CORRESPONDENT.) ' • SAN. FRANCISCO, September.B.' ; An important series of ) meetings of moving picture. censors of the United States and Canada haß just concluded in ' Los Angeles, Southern California, the hub of the cinema industry of the world. «■ Mr W. T. Willis, of the Chicago Board of Censors, stated *-his point well when he said he "aimed to represent the average theatre-goer—tried .. to keep his mind attuned to the great 90 per cent, of film patrons, giving but small attention to that which the higher "high-brows," about 6 per cent, of picture audiences, or the lower ''roughnecks," about 5 per cent., represented to the industry." ■ "One 'of the greatest troubles we have," said Mrs I. G. Bur beck, of Edmonton; Alberta, Canada, "is with the folk .who. do not 'go to picture 'shows. Men and women, too, call me up* on the telephone an 4 demand to ,know why I passed such and such a picture, declaring it is absolutely unfit for public exhibition, and when I ask them where they saw it, . they • admit they have not seeli it at all, "but think the advertising is bad." <- "I'm tired of censoring pictures for people who do not:seem them," added this lively and observant little Canadian ladv. Mr Walter Hepburn, of Vancouver, .British Columbia, said, he found the exhibitors generally' eager t'6 show' a picture, regardless of how much cutting was necessary, "They will even ask me to change the sub-tjtles in such a way that, many of the angles of dramatic suspense' are absolutely changed in order that the film may be shown," said he, and his;first assistant, Mr James A.. Smith, who : claims the proud privilege of "lasting nine years longer than any other member ;, of his board," said the great solution of the whole picture difficulty was . to make films especially for children, and- to make otherrf for grown-ups; "Many scenes entirely proper for adults to witness are either wholly misunderstood by the younger spectators," he added,' "or aro of a nature which suggest morbid or .gruesome ideas, and_ our present arrangement of treating" films to make thorn fit the ideals, and demands of the entire population makes the ; matter difficult?' ' ■'•'■■■■-'. Bulings "Elastic." Mrs T. H. Eggert, of Houston. Texas,too, said that cutting rather tihan the forbidding of the film was preferred by in her city. "I can cut from ten feet to 1800, just so I let, the picture go through," she said, "and in many cases I know, I am just about ruining the film—and personally think it better-not to show it at all under such conditions-" . • * Mr Willis, of Chicago, further remarked that the" 1 Chicago Board prohibited six films, of which, only-on©, was necessary. "Many of the censorship ■ boards have been established .in a hurry," he opined, "and are without foundation of sane philosophy. Their, rulings,. according Ju> arbitrary limitations, must bo about as elastic as the ability and standards of the produoers. I think' generally, the attitude of the censors is to avoid the personal whim and- to try to strike the average point of view regarding morality, scenes of crime and obscenity. The motion picture aggregation of censors and "stars" created a diver/ sion by. attending an u/rigue gathering under the auspices' of the Immanual

Churdh Brotherhood of Los Angeles during an interim of the sessions. The audience included many motionpicture notables and the visiting State and Canadi 'i censors, one of whom, Mr W. T. Wilht, of Chicago, made the stirring statement that < the .timtf'.was coming "when the rriotion pictures would need no'censors, and such boards will then fall of their own weight." At the close of the meeting, Trustee W. C. Mclntyre, of the Church, offered «. resolution of deep .sympathetic, interest with the picture people, and of. support in their endeavours to elevate their work. Bert Lytell, a motion-picture star, laid the burden of censorship to the minimum 3 per cent, of' objectionable pictures produced; thereby placing tho honest and'sincere produoer6 under that handican. He made .the point tihat pictures" are not hmde solely for children and ,young people, and "you might as well make your novelists and magazine story writes tell their stories in words of one syllable as to censor indiscriminately the motion picture." Church Protests. JBryant Washburn,- after telling-of-hiß severely, religious bringing up, held "if you -want ~g6od .pictures, we want to make them.' 1 ' ■ • Dr C. J. Winbigler, of the Central Baptist Church of Los Angeles, told of the protests of the Church' against the fact that in the past "the worst instead of the best of life had been shown in pictures," that the people who played noble characters. shown, did not in their lives sustain . those characters, that the Church. protested against calling everything inappropriately goody, what was termed feunday school stuff, and that ministers were regularly travestied m pictures. "I believe in pictures. We put them in our church," he added, "but I want, the noble pictures based on high,ideals. Here is my hand foi*. everything that is true and noble in life, but I am against all pictures that debase." William D. Taylor, the well-known director admitted Uharb immediately after the world war 1 some bad pictures had been-made, but; the public, had changed, and no more would such pictures be made. All - - that right-mjnded producers wanted, he Baid, was a chance to prove their honesty and sincerity of purpose, in making pictures that* will-do good. Miss June Mathiß; the Bcenano writer, pointed'to a tdrt on'the wall, "Where There is no Vision the People Will Perish," and based her pertinent remarks on that. "You must let tho people know what life really is," she concluded, with the statement that under present restriotJions that moral romance, "the Scarlet Letter,'. could not be filmed. • George Beban'followed; in an impassioned plea for the pictures your son ana my son can come away clean minded;" He argued that it was the duty of the public to support the better pictures. Mr Benjamin Hampton gave, a thorough analysis of the situation, and denounced censorship as un-American, sayine that for ten years the American people had been denied their constitutitonaL right of freedom. Ho told of how in Pasadena (a fashionable suburb of Los Angeles) the'so-called.better class had taken his advice and made a habit of going to picture theatres and telling the manager what they thought of the pictures shown, with the result that ..there was now no more trouble about evil pictures in that city. Will Rogers was then .introduced, and in a good-humoured vein of gentle satire reviewed the somewhat ponderous ideas that had been evolved, and suggested that if people when they visited a theatre saw an objectionable picture would tell the manager if ever he produced another of that make, they would boycott his theatre, there would be no more. Incidentally, 'he said, the meeting was a wonderful affair—it gave the pic-

ture people a. phance to get into* church. As to the censors he had met them and they were all right I "Yes, they Are all rjjrht, almost human,"'he said, and he complimented Mrs I- G. Burbeck from-Alberta, Canada, "which is eighty-six miles further north than went," for making such.a,long journey in, the- in-terests-of good pictures. It was evident *hat Mr H; J. Middaugh, President of the Immanuel Brotherhood, in • beginning this move to unite the. people 'of the church and the-picture, people, had begun an international move should produce most important results. Black and White. "You cannot make a' black and white drawing without, using some-* black," said Mr Willis, of the Chicago Board of Censor*. "And folk who think that film censors want to take out every hit of dramatic contrast in the photodramas do not understand our point at all. yjn Chicago-wo try keep out situations and actions which suggest immorality." Asked to define just what he lneant by the lust wdrdj Mr Willis continued: "Anything inimical to the'public-wel-fare." There was a note 1 of ;encoupgement, however, in his next comment, when he said: "But times' change Mid the censors change'with them.- For instance, ten jeers ago the frockß whjch < women wear now on the streets uuit© conventially would have been banned* We have a- different point of "view for different times,, even for different times of day—just as any other man or woman of the world has." Mr Willis declared most'emphatically that so far as he himself -was concerned the censors of films haa no desjre'w.seo the whole world overrun with "kickless" drama. Speaking of the report ■that D. W. Griffith had abandoned the idea of filming Goethe's "Faust" on account of. censorshio, Mr Willis -said that ho believed an artist of Mr. Griffith's capabilities, could make the. film so that it would be entirely acceptable to film comers-^-"biitw ; ould ho?" Then he added, ..."With the fanciful tjuallty of the Mephißtophetes, as wb see him ■ in grand opera, the picture could be of an impersonal character which would make it more pictorial than'. coldly direct. ' Under such circumstances I .thinkVfaust' could.be put on the screen to artistic and educational advantage."

A motorist who had just killed a bird with his mudguard as it flew in front of him points out that such incidents are rare as compared with a few years ago. He suggests to the London "Daily Mail'* that birds, like dogs, have acquired .1 sense ofV the speed of motorvehicles Several motorists questioned by a reporter confirmed this view. "Young-birds are as clever in dodging fast traffic as the old." said one, "and fhis implies that- tho sharpened - sense has become hereditary. Motorists, top, navo noticed a similar development in regarding dogs of which fewer now are killed by motor-vehicles than'"even three or four vears ago " Tlie newlv acquired wariness of sneop and cows is just as noticeable. Dairy cows,"leaving a field for milking string out on either side of the road.' leaving a'clear passage for traffic, ivhereas formerly they bunched in the' middle of the road and motor vehicles had to stop. Captain T. E. Vaughn, of the United States Signal Corps, recently drove & motor car down the main street of Dayton. Ohio, U.S.A., controlling it from another car, in which he rode, and, upon which was mounted a radio apparatus. The <-ar thus controlled had a receiving set concealed in the interior of the body. It preceded the car in which Captain Vaughn rode by about fifty feet, and drove down the busiest street r of the city, occasionally blowing its horn and strictly observing all traffio regulations. The sight of a motor car driving apparently of its own volition, and without passengers, caused a great sensation in Dayton-