HOLLYWOOD’S “REFORM”

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1930, Page 11

HOLLYWOOD’S “REFORM”

NEW CODE OF ETHICS. SAN FRANCISCO, July 21. The resourceful and imaginative gentlemen who are at the head of the publicity departments of the various motion picture producers at Hollywood and in New York have suddenly discovered that the public can no longer be bamboozled by a string of adjectives and a flood of superlatives. Up to the present time there has been nothing known to humanity that contained half so much exaggeration as the ordinary preliminary announcements sent out about forthcoming pictures. From one degre of superlatives to another the press agents progressed until it seemed as though there could not possibly be any new heights to climb. But somebody always managed to conceive a fresh method of exaggeration, whereby the ’ very latest super-super-super-film might be exploited. The words used have been weird and wonderful, and their manipulation such as would do credit to the best advance agent Barnum ever had. Indeed, for years past the films have been “circussed” until the whole thing has become both ridiculous and pitiable. It reached the point where nobody believed anything that was written in advance, and the great majority refused to accept any opinion but their own —and very rightly so. Now the Press agents are going to turn over a new leaf. They have made a collective promise to be good. They are absolutely going to refrain from tho old methods of deliberate and grotesque exaggeration. Illustrations and texts are to represent faithfully the pictures with which they deal. No false or misleading statements are to be made, either directly or by implication. Good taste is to be the guiding star of the advance agents. The clause in the new code of ethics of the International Advertising Association that is most intriguing is that which reads: “The history, institutions and nationals of all countries shall be represented fairly.” Commenting on this promised reform, S. Morgan-Powell, theatrical editor of tlie Montreal “Daily Star,” says: “If that clause is faithfully .observed, what a clean sweep Hollywood will have to make of a lot of her stock material! In the past Hollywood has recognised only one national foi- faithful portrayal—her own. Now she binds herself —through the advance agents—to extend the same fidelity of portraiture to those of other lands. That is a sacrifice indeed, and one may well wonder by what forceful argument its acceptance was brought about. “Profanity and vulgarity are also to be avoided. Here again we sense a change of major importance that can only have one meaning—the public has become tired of both and demands their elimination from the screen. It may go hard with a number of comedians, but what, after all, are a few film comedians compared with the vast masses of the film-loving public? “If the Press agents live up to their undertaking in this new code, then there will be nothing left for the censors to do but retire gracefully from the scene with the knowledge that their usefulness has passed, and that they can safely leave the youngest generation to the movies, confident they will not be corrupted. And that would positively be the most beneficial change of all.”