MOVIES AS REDUCING MEDIUM

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 June 1933, Page 3

MOVIES AS REDUCING MEDIUM

ESTABLISHED VOGUIS OF SLIM FIGURES. As a reducing medium,' any system of exercise or diet is inferior to attendance of the nearest motion picture theatre, for the “movies’ ’ have removed an average of twenty pounds from the modern girl. Drastic and perhaps radical, this fairly accurate analysis of statistics covering the past twenty years indicates that the muchmaligned film directly promoted the prevalence of slim, iboyish figures *in women. Such is the deduction of a wellknown student of cinema influences. Twenty years ago the voluptuous woman was the rage. Then came the dawn of motion pictures, instituting a drastic change, according to Gregory La Cava, noted film director for BKO Radio pictures. “Voluptuousness was sent into the discard when D. W. Griffith introduced such personalities as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford to the screen,’’ La Cava declared during the production of “The Half-Naked Truth,” BKIO-Badio Picture. “Griffith was roundly criticised at the time, because the reigning beauties of society and the stage were all hips and bust. A slim girl was considered immature and unattractive. “However, the genius of the Gishes and Pickfords soon developed a fan following. Hundreds of thousands of young women strove to be like them. The screen continuously featured svelte, lissome heroines, 'With the result, as time went on, the popular standard of beauty changed to what it is to-day. At the present time millions of young women are unconsciously patterning themselves after the Constance Bennetts, the Ann Hardings, and Marlene Dietrichs and, Lupe Velezs of films,” La Cava asserted.