Hollywood’s Morals Defended

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18340, 17 December 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

Hollywood’s Morals Defended

Poll ce and Pastor File Protests on Behalf of Film Folk

*| Lieutenant. Daniel M Long, a police 1 officer of twenty seven years' experi Hence in that portion of Los Angeles. -| “This is a decent, law-abiding commu- _ nity of good, fine home folk, whe are , bringing up their children just like any other kind of citizens.” And Mr F. A. j Knowles, official statician of the Los Angeles Police Department. offers - figures showing that Hollywood contri--1 butes only 2.1 per cent of the city s s vice, instead of the 21.1 per cent that

Hollywood has tiled » protest against the legend that its daily life is a devil's playground, its inhabitants morally bankrupt, and its amusements of a character to invite condemnation, and it is finding earnest defenders. “ Gossip and scandal - mongering are the source of the silly talk about the moral laxity of Hollywood people,” declares

might be expected from its proportion! of the. citv's population. “ It must be apparent to anyone with the slightest knowledge of the facts.” i writes the Rev Neal Dodd, rector of ; St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood, “ that no group of people could live as these are reported to live and escape severe penalties. Of course they j don’t live that way.” And then he goes on to tell what he knows of them ! through close association as a pastor and as secretary of the motion picture relief fund. Remarking that the Hollywood district has a population of 150,000, and that those affiliated with the picture and theatre professions number only 0000 men. women and children. Mr Dodd tells why he thinks Because everybody knows their names, he. says, newspapers are tempted to ex aggerate anv kind of gossip concerning them. But how about divorces!’ " Yery well, let us talk about this situation,” says Mr Dodd, in the 44 Hollywood Magazine,” going on to summarise recent information from the county clerk's office as follows: “Moving picture divorces are, in point of number, relatively insignificant. Since they are of greater public

I interest, they are given greater publicity. and this publicity is by no means j always based on fact. It is enough, ap- ! patently, that two people have agreed :to separate if they are in the motion pictures —for a flock of reporters to de- , scene! on this office and call for the files. Prior to 1919 these files were not open jto the public. Since that year they • j have been. The published reports of i divorce complaints are generally so ' j completely different from the actual ‘ ! complaints, and also the counter-corn- - plaints or rebuttals, that one would r hardly know the one had reference to i the other were it not for the names. J “In scanning the records of 69.000 , divorces over a period of twelve years, it is noticeable that very few moving picture people have figured in those records. Without, definite statistics to hand, the best estimate of proportion ’ that can be made is that less than onehalf of 1 per cent of the total given above were divorce applications of moving picture players. plaints indicates that the grounds were seldom those that called morals into question. The moving picture divorces i have been largely on the basis »>f in- - compatibility.” The impression that there are many

Hollywood scandals also is ascribed by Mr Dodd to 44 the exaggerations of the yellow Press, in whose perception the word Hollywood is presumably synonymous with proven moral obliquity.” lie then enumerates the few actual cases ot the last few years, which will recur to the mind of every reader, and adds: “And all in all -and I doubt if the statement can be overturned it is doubtful if a dozen cases of marital infelicity or improper moral conduct of Hollywood's picture colony reaches the Courts in the course of a year.” It is the same, he says, with the “gin parties," a favourite topic of the newspapers. He doubts their occurrence in anything like the number that is reported. and quotes Lieutenant Long, the officer before mentioned, as follows: - “ We make vice raids out of this station. but we don't find any excess of picture players in our net; in fact, we get remarkably few. Our liquor arrests are not confined to the movie colony, though to read the newspapers one might think they were. Wright Act among the moving picture contingent. I’ve a lot of sympathy lor them. 1 can say, because -it’s no light job to live your daily task under the scrutiny of the Press. “ It’s just like being a mouse and wondering where the cat is. To use a very common but expressive term, the tales about the movie people arc mostly a lot of 4 hooev.’ ” Mr Dodd adds this comment of his “ A grave responsibility rests upon those who knowingly defame the motion picture profession, and T can only hope they come in time, to realise it. To those who seem to find pleasure and to those who seek profit in exploiting the imaginary misdeeds of a few hundred people, whose daily work is to bring a little colour and happiness into the world. 1 would commend the words, 4 Judge not that ye be not judged.’ ”