CORRESPONDENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19478, 24 December 1925, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE

FILM POSTERS (To the Editor.) Tn relation to the matter of moving picture hoardings, to which Sir James Parr has taken exception, permit me to enter the lists upon his side. It is a fact beyond dispute that there arc continually appearing throughout the Dominion highly sensational am! improper hoardings/ which are an offence to all serious-minded people. The idea appears to be that the more daring, the more shockingly immodest, a poster is, the more effective it becomes as an advertising agency. That that idea is utterly false (except as re lating to its effects upon the lowest classes) is proven in the spontaneous appeal of a really good entertainment such as the old Jubilee Singers, or a first-rate picture such as “The 'Pen Commandments.” To those latter the average decent citizen feels he can. with perfect safety take his wife am! family, but with the other doubtful typo, the risks of offence so oxershadow the probable gain or pleasure that he wisely stays away. In districts whore I have been I have seen th.' bold, bad type of show simply starved out through the influence of this strong moral sentiment. Picture people would do well to take into account the iac't. that there is a big. steady-going section in every community that are onging for clean amusements, and who would give their patronage unfailingly wherever hey were to be obtained. Sir James Parr deserves the sincere thanks and support of every decent citizen for his effort to clean up what is not only an offence to the aesthetic, sense, but a danger to the morals of I the community. Picture people have to j live, like other people, and pictures have come to stay, but there is no reason why they Should not strive, by carefully scrutinizing their posters and programmes, to make their calling a high and worthy one, and one contributing in every way to the ideals of good citizenship. The picture-man. next to the newspaperman, has one of I the most influential of callings. It is not too much to say he may make or mar his young auditors, lie may place before them scenes that stir their longing for the beautiful, plays that breathe pure sentiment, noble devotion, splendid courage, lie may be a con science to the nation, a strength to righteousness. And all this mark you, without using a penny-piece. For the man who will run his show on these lines will soon find that a good and increasing class of people would seek him out, passing lower-class shows to get to one they could depend upon. We know advertising must be pr 'minent, arresting. but by all that is good, let it be decent.—l am, etc., G. F. COX. St James’ Manse. Wanganui East, December 23, 1925. 1.. -•