THE MOVIE AS THE HOPE OF CIVILIZATION
NO conscientious writer begins the final chapter of a book that has
engaged his energies for a considerable period of time without a feeling
of mingled regret and apprehension. He lays aside reluctantly a piece of
work which, at its inception, seemed worth doing, and whose doing has
given him real pleasure; and, at the same time, he is haunted by the
fear that for the attainment of the purpose which he has had in view he
has left something of vital importance unsaid, has failed to marshal his
facts, figures, suggestions and arguments to the best advantage, and may
have allowed at times his own enthusiasm for the subject he has had in
hand to repel his less sympathetic readers. This latter possibility is
especially disquieting to a writer who has endeavored to stress the
significance of the movie, in its constantly multiplying manifestations,
as a new but possibly determining factor in the struggle of modern
civilization to save itself from the many foes besetting it. It is hard
for “the man on the street,” a clear-headed but rather unimaginative
being, for whom, among others, this book is written, to admit that what
has seemed to him for years past to be but a more or less interesting
form of amusement, too much given to errors of taste and judgment, has
become, of late, through an amazingly rapid process of evolution, a
world power, the influence of which upon the lives of individuals and of
nations can not easily be over-estimated. But the business, politics and
international affairs of the world are dominated for the most part by
this same man on the street, and it is imperative, for the sake of his
own ultimate welfare, as well as for the good of the race at large, that
he be made to realize that the screen as an entertainer, educator,
drummer, possessing a monopoly of the race’s only universal language, is
worthy of his most earnest attention.
In a letter recently written by President Harding to President Sills of
Bowdoin College is to be found the following interesting prophecy:
We shall from this time forward have a much more adequate
conception of the essential unity of the whole story of mankind,
and a keener realization of the fact that all its factors must
be weighed and appraised if any of them are to be accurately
estimated and understood. I feel strongly that such a broader
view of history, if it can be implanted in the community’s mind
in the future through the efforts of educators and writers, will
contribute greatly to uphold the hands and strengthen the
efforts of those who will have to deal with the great problem of
human destiny, particularly with that of preserving peace and
outlawing war.
This recently accepted broader view of history which, as President
Harding says, is an influence making for peace, a new ally to the world
forces struggling for a higher and better civilization, can not be
implanted in the minds of the public, as I have demonstrated in the
first chapter of this book, through educators and writers employing only
the old media for the dissemination of their teachings. Neither the
book, the rostrum, the pulpit, the printed word, nor all of them
combined, have made, nor can they make, that kind of impress upon the
much-too-illiterate public which will compel the race to cease
committing its habitual crimes and blunders.
But, strangely enough, at the very moment when the enlightened minds of
all nations, through the words of contemporary statesmen, scholars and
writers, have become convinced of the “essential unity” of human history
there has been granted to mankind a medium for the universal
dissemination of new ideas, discoveries, facts and generalizations that
has in it the power to perform for the race a service the necessity for
which President Harding has eloquently demonstrated. Scientists and
historians have of late served as continuity writers for the great
picture drama of man’s past, and, lo, the story of the race reveals
itself not as scattered, unrelated incidents but as a majestic,
coördinated tale, but partially told, whose dénouement may be more
splendid than we have hitherto dared to hope it could be.
No student of world affairs can fail to be impressed, despite the
cataclysm that overtook the race in 1914, by the pathetic but hopeful
and inspiring fact that mankind, by a reasonable and not too difficult
confinement of his energies to civilized, peaceful, constructive
activities, could raise itself to a much higher plane of civilization in
a comparatively short time from the slough of despondency in which it
now finds itself. All that is necessary to give Man the buoyancy,
courage and incentive necessary to overcome the evils that beset the
world is the assurance that the iconoclasm that periodically destroys
his own handiwork, the destructive mischievousness of an evil spirit
that he has not as yet exorcised, shall never again be allowed to
function, that wide-spread wars shall be permanently relegated to the
bloody, accusatory past. The osteopaths assert that a slight
maladjustment of even a small bone in a man’s skeleton may doom him to
death from some fatal malady seemingly unrelated to the framework of his
body. Whatsoever may be the truth in this assertion, it serves to
illustrate the point I am making, namely, that the cause of war—any war,
small or great,—appears to be almost always ludicrously insignificant
compared to the damage it does. We are always face to face with the
hideous fact that any slight dislocation of the bony structure of modern
civilization might, as was shown by the recent war of wars, bring about
its complete annihilation. Surely it is incumbent upon us, if we are
not, as a race, madmen or morons, to take full advantage of any new
medium or method that presents itself for the safeguarding of peace on
earth, for the furtherance of good will to men.
Since that red day in June, 1914, when the assassin Gavrilo Princip
fired the shot that not only echoed around the world but almost
overturned the very pillars of civilization’s temple, two antagonistic
tendencies upon the part of mankind have displayed themselves with
unprecedented impressiveness. Man’s destructiveness has been raised to
the nth power, while his constructive ingenuity has been exhibited in an
amazing and encouraging way. The laboratories of the world to-day are
solving problems the solution of which places the human race absolutely
in control of its own destiny. It may, if it so chooses, commit suicide
through high explosives or poison gas, or it may devote itself
successfully to the overthrow and annihilation of the Four Horsemen of
the Apocalypse, War, Famine, Poverty and Disease.
Now what bearing has all this upon the subject-matter of this book, what
has a biography of the movie got to do with the choice mankind must
presently make between a higher civilization and a return to savagery,
between the call of the millennium and the lure of the jungle, between
science making earth a paradise and science making earth a hell? If my
preceding chapters have not supplied a convincing answer to this query,
let me, even though I repeat myself, endeavor, before I bring this labor
of love to a close, to formulate a concise, but comprehensive and
convincing, answer to a question that future generations may consider
the most important that the soul of Man ever asked of the physical
universe. Is it not conceivable that posterity will laud us of to-day
for inventing the Esperanto of the Eye and marvel at us because we
failed to make full use of it to attain that enlightenment which is the
_sine qua non_ of our race’s salvation? May not our descendants revere
us for inventing the screen, while, at the same time, they mock at us
for our delay in taking advantage of its highest possibilities as an
ally to progress, as a defense against racial deterioration?
In various parts of the world of late, in the Arctic regions, in South
and Central America, in Mexico and New Mexico, in South Africa and
Egypt, in Asia Minor and elsewhere, archæologists have, through
excavations and allied activities, brought to light the remains of
prehistoric civilizations so remote in time and so high in character
that a new aspect has been given to various periods in the progress of
the race from the cave and jungle to Paris and New York. It is
unquestionable that Man during the countless ages that have passed has
attained at times in various localities a condition of cultured
enlightenment that appears admirable from our modern point of view only
to lose it again either through internal or external foes, or through
both combined. The outstanding and highly significant fact is this, that
the human race, no matter how splendid a development it might display
sporadically and locally, could make no general and permanent progress
until the nations had devised some method of wide-spread
intercommunication. The earth is a graveyard of great cities and great
peoples who were forced to pass into oblivion without revealing to the
outer barbarians of their time the secret of their greatness. Nor was a
highly civilized people in one part of the world able to form ties with
some equally advanced people far afield—and so, though they both
possessed the key to the higher knowledge, they were ignorant of each
other and both were doomed eventually to perish.
To-day civilization, so far as its surface manifestations are concerned,
is not a localized but a world-wide phenomenon. It can not be completely
buried, as have been so many of its miniature predecessors. The Congo
has its telephones and the Arctic region its wireless. But in so far as
modern civilization is more comprehensive than the Babylonian or the
Egyptian, is not provincial but cosmopolitan, so would its downfall be
more tragically appalling than any catastrophe that has yet afflicted
the human race. And from all parts of the world come to us the voices of
observant men and women who, alive to the warnings vouchsafed to us by
the recent war of wars, are imploring humanity to look not with passion
but with reason at the situation of the world to-day and to take
measures at once that shall drag us back from the edge of the precipice
we have reached.
Has the Esperanto of the Eye, the only medium the race has ever devised
for universal intercommunication, come too late to rescue mankind from
impending doom? Not if rulers, law-makers, teachers, preachers,
diplomatists, statesmen, all men and women who influence the heart, mind
and conscience of human groups, small or great, realize in time that in
the screen the race has found a medium which, rightly used, could mould
for it a future infinitely superior to its deplorable past.
There will be, I fully realize, those who will jeer at the basic idea
underlying the contention that I have made in this little book, ridicule
me for believing that, although a man cannot raise himself by his
boot-straps, mankind at large can elevate itself by means of the
regenerated, ever-increasingly-potent movie. Nevertheless, as I have
been describing in some detail the evolutionary steps that have raised
the screen from a toy to a world power, have broadened its scope from a
plaything to a sleepless influence affecting the destinies of men and
nations, I have been constantly more convinced that the suggestion
regarding a great world centre for the enlightenment of mankind through
visual instruction, made in my first chapter, becomes every month more
feasible, as it also, as the days pass and the world appears to go from
bad to worse, grows more imperatively necessary. The screen is a mirror
in which the race can see itself as it has been and as it is, and a
tongue, comprehended of all men, that might, if it rises to its great
mission, bring salvation to the world.
“A lighthouse of the past, a university of universities, a fountain of
all revealed knowledge, inculcated through a medium understood of all
men, a Mecca for the pilgrims of progress from all comers of the
earth,”—that is my dream, and, for having dreamed it, I know that I am a
better man. By the same token, the human race would become a better race
if it possessed the foresight and common-sense to make my dream come
true!
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APPENDICES
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APPENDIX A
STATISTICS SHOWING THE SCOPE OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY
Motion picture theatres in the United 15,000
States
Seating capacity (one show) 7,605,000
Average weekly attendance at picture 50,000,000
theatres
Admissions paid annually $520,000,000
The average number of reels used for one 8
performance
Average number of seats in picture 507
theatres
Number of persons employed in picture 105,000
theatres
Persons employed in picture production 50,000
Permanent employees in all branches of 300,000
picture industry
Investment in motion picture industry $1,250,000,000
Approximate cost of pictures produced $200,000,000
annually
Salaries and wages paid annually at $75,000,000
studios in production
Cost of costumes, scenery, and other $50,000,000
materials and supplies used in
production annually
Average number of feature films produced 700
annually
Average number of short reel subjects, 1,500
excluding news reels, annually
Taxable motion picture property in the $720,000,000
United States
Percentage of pictures made in 84%
California (1922)
Percentage of pictures made in New York 12%
(1922)
Percentage of pictures made elsewhere in 4%
United States (1922)
Foreign made pictures sent here for sale 425
(1992)
Foreign made pictures sold and released 6
for exhibition
Theatres running six to seven days per 9,000
week
Theatres running four to five days per 1,500
week
Theatres running one to three days per 4,500
week
Lineal feet of film exported in 1921 140,000,000
Lineal feet of film exported in 1913 32,000,000
Percentage of American films used in 90
foreign countries
Film footage used each week by news 1,400,000
reels
Combined circulation of news reels 40,000,000
weekly
Number of theatres using news reels 11,000
weekly
Amount spent annually by producers and $5,000,000
exhibitors in newspaper and magazine
advertising
Amount spent annually by producers in $2,000,000
photos, cuts, slides, and other
accessories
Amount spent annually by producers in $2,000,000
lithographs
Amount spent annually by producers in $3,000,000
printing and engraving
Hospitals and charitable institutions in 7,000
U. S. equipped for showing motion
pictures, Jan. 1, 1923
The number of schools and churches in U.
S. equipped for showing motion
pictures, Jan. 1, 1923, almost equals
the number of theatres.
Practically every State and Federal
Penitentiary, Penal Institution and
House of Detention in the U. S. shows
motion pictures regularly to their
inmates.
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APPENDIX B
THE SCREEN AS A NEW LIFE GIVER TO LITERARY CLASSICS
The following quotations are culled from recent reports made by
librarians in various parts of the United States:
“The filming of books always causes a great demand for them. A
call comes immediately after the advertisement appears in local
newspapers and lasts months, and, in cases where pictures are
extraordinarily good, years after the film has been shown.
Before the exhibition of the pictures, ‘Peter Ibbetson’ stood on
the shelf. Dumas was read by few, and interest in ‘The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ lagged. Since the films have been
shown here, these books are circulating constantly.
“Not only do the films increase the demand for a particular
book, but interest is aroused in the time and setting of the
story. For instance, after ‘The Three Musketeers’ was shown,
calls came for the life of Richelieu and the history of the
reign of Charles First. Dumas is now in great demand. ‘Orphans
of the Storm’ brought calls for the life of Danton and the
history of the French Revolution. ‘Passion’ overwhelmed us with
demands for the life of Dubarry and the life of Louis XIV.”
_Walnut Hills Librarian, Cincinnati, Ohio._
“I can say, most emphatically, that the filming of literary
classics does have a very noticeable effect upon the reading of
the books filmed. The increase in the demand and use of these
books is noticeable from the very moment they are announced.
‘Robin Hood’ is on here now, and long before it first appeared,
every scrap of our information on Robin Hood was out in use.
Recently this was true of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ a subject
which has been dead for quite some time in library circulation
and all at once it was revived with a tremendous demand. Not
long ago we had a sudden call from many parts of the city for
material about ‘Fanchon the Cricket’ and later learned that the
film had been running in an obscure community moving picture
house.”
_Charles E. Rusk, Librarian, Indianapolis, Ind._
“In some cases there is a demand for the books in foreign
languages such as Italian and Hungarian, and the showing of ‘The
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ brought requests for the book
in the original Spanish.”
_Librarian of Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio._
“Very often not only the story filmed is called for, but others
by the same author. In the case of ‘Monte Cristo,’ it has led to
a great demand for all the works of Dumas. ‘A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court’ has revived the interest in others of
Mark Twain’s works.”
_Report by a New England Librarian._
“The screen creates a new demand on the part of those who have
not themselves seen the picture. A middlewestern librarian tells
me that many of their calls for the book come from those who
have seen the advertising of the picture, or who have heard
their friends talk about it, or who assume that a book which has
found its way into motion pictures must be out of the ordinary.
By way of anticipating and satisfying this demand, that
librarian has kept a display rack of books in constant
circulation by placing the sign above them: ‘These Books Have
Appeared in the Movies.’”
_Ralph Hayes._
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APPENDIX C
WHAT MASSACHUSETTS THINKS OF MOTION PICTURE CENSORSHIP
In 1921, the legislature of Massachusetts was induced to pass a
censorship law. By petition it became a referendum matter and on
November 7, 1922, the public of Massachusetts voted upon the question of
whether or not the people desired a censorship of the motion picture.
The people defeated the measure by a vote of 553,173 to 208,252, a
majority of 344,921 against censorship.
It was the first time the public of any State had ever been given the
opportunity to register its opinion on this important subject.
Massachusetts is a conservative State. Its people are conservative
people. They rejected censorship by a vote greater than that given to
any candidate on the ticket or to any issue. Their voice at the polls
was based upon a thorough understanding and consideration of this issue.
In this work of enlightenment, the newspapers of Massachusetts performed
a tremendous service to the motion picture. Ninety-two per cent of them
stood staunchly upon the principle that freedom of expression upon the
screen is just as essential to its further development as freedom of the
press is essential to the continued enlightenment of mankind.
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APPENDIX D
SIGNIFICANT DATES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOTION PICTURE
Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé, of France, inventor of photography, born
1789, died 1851.
Desvignes, of France, devised apparatus for animated photography, 1860.
Du Mont, of France, formulated scheme of chronophotography, 1861.
Muybridge, an Englishman, photographs a trotting horse in motion,
California, 1872.
Jansen’s photographic revolver for recording the transit of Venus, 1874.
Dr. E. J. Marey’s photographic gun for studying the flight of birds,
1882.
Stern filed patent in Great Britain for chronophotographic apparatus,
1889.
Roller photography invented by Eastman and Walker, 1885.
Eastman, an American, invents celluloid film, 1889.
Edison, an American, exhibits his Kinetoscope at Chicago World’s Fair,
1893.
Robert W. Paul, an Englishman, throws first movie picture on screen at
his studio in Hatton Garden, London, early in 1895.
Paul shows movies at the Royal Institution, London, Feb. 28, 1896.
Paul and Sir Augustus Harris win success at the Olympia Theatre, London,
with the “Theatograph,” 1896.
Richard G. Hollaman, an American, exhibits the cinematograph at his New
York Eden Musée, 1896.
Charles Urban installs his new projector at the Eden Musée, 1897.
First topical film—the English Derby of 1896—was shown by Paul at the
Alhambra, London, 1896.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX E
WHAT THE MOVIE HAS DONE FOR A GREAT RAILROAD
A little over two years ago, the loss and damage bill of the Illinois
Central Railroad, on carload and less-than-carload shipments, averaged
more than $2,500,000 for a single year.
Seven months after motion pictures were adopted to educate employees in
proper methods of freight handling, in connection with a vigorous
campaign to improve the record, that expense was reduced a cool million
dollars! The reduction has averaged approximately fifty per cent for the
year. Best of all, the bill is still on the down-grade.
In addition to reels on “Loss and Damage,” the Illinois Central Railroad
has produced other films on methods of engineering and switching. Its
“visual education department” boasts a collection of 6000 slides, in
addition to nearly half a million negatives of still photographs.
There are likewise motion pictures made expressly to educate farmers
along the road’s right of way in modern scientific methods of poultry
raising, soil treatment, dairying, potato culture, and packing produce
for shipment. A force of industrial agents maintained by the railroad
holds farmers’ meetings at which talks and films are the order of the
day, and conducts field days and other get-together affairs where “the
movies” constitute an always dependable attraction.
_Visual Education, March, 1923._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX F
FACTS AND FIGURES SHOWING THAT THE SCREEN HAS BECOME THE FIRST WORLD
CONQUEROR
Buenos Aires, Argentina, has 128 motion-picture theatres, with 2,250,000
paid admissions per month.
Montreal, Canada, supports over sixty motion-picture theatres.
Santiago, Chile, has twenty-three motion-picture theatres, and a new one
is now in process of construction which will seat 2,500 people.
American films depicting exciting serial dramas and boisterous comedies
are popular in China. Shanghai has 20 motion-picture theatres; Canton
15; Hongkong 8, Peking, Tientsin and Hankow 7 each.
The first motion-picture drama produced in China with a native cast was
screened July 1, 1921, at the Olympic Theatre, Shanghai, by the Chinese
Motion Picture Society.
In Greece there are about 40 motion-picture houses, 9 of which are in
Athens.
In India, Burma and Ceylon there are about 168 motion picture houses, 16
of which are in Calcutta.
In Java there are 250 motion-picture theatres. American films are the
most popular. One of the largest theatres seats 2,000 Europeans and
2,500 natives.
In Japan there are about 600 motion-picture theatres giving regular
performances and about 2,000 more giving occasional performances. Tokyo
has about 50 houses, Osaka 30, Kobe 15, and Kyoto 10. These theatres
seat between 500 and 1,500 people.
There are in the Netherlands 170 licensed film theatres, with more than
50 other theatres, town halls and society rooms where films are
occasionally shown.
Bergen, Norway, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, has seven motion-picture
theatres, with a combined seating capacity of 4,000. Seventy-five per
cent of the films shown are American.
Lisbon, Portugal, has 3 motion-picture theatres with a seating capacity
of 800 persons each, and thirteen smaller houses seating about 400 each.
There are about 120 motion-picture theatres in all Portugal. American
picture films are rapidly increasing in popularity.
The largest motion picture theatre in Bucharest, Rumania, has a seating
capacity of 1,200.
Sweden is better supplied with motion picture theatres than any country
in the world. With a population of 6,000,000 it has over 600 cinema
houses. Stockholm, with a population of 500,000, has 75 picture
theatres.
Great Britain has about 4,000 motion-picture theatres. The largest and
best appointed cinema theatres in the United Kingdom are found in the
provincial towns of England such as Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and
Liverpool.
France has about 2000 picture theatres, Denmark 250, Belgium about 800.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX G
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS COÖPERATING WITH MOTION
PICTURE PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF AMERICA, INC.
The Nat’l Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
National Society Colonial Dames of America
National Health Council
Boys’ Club Federation
American Historical Association
The American Sunday School Union
Chautauqua Institution
National Safety Council
American Home Economics Assn.
The Nat’l Community Center Assn.
Community Service
American City Bureau
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Safety Institute of America
Child Welfare League of America
Playground and Recreation Association of America
Commonwealth Club
Actors’ Equity Association
The Woodcraft League of America
American Federation of Labor
Jewish Welfare Board
Girl Reserve Department of the Y.W.C.A.
Russell Sage Foundation
Camp Fire Girls
The Council of Jewish Women
National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness
Nat’l Assn. of Civic Secretaries
Cooper Union
National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations
Associated Advertising Clubs of the World
Girl Scouts
American Country Life Assn.
Nat’l Tuberculosis Association
American Child Health Assn.
National Education Association
Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
The Academy of Political Science
National Child Labor Committee
American Civic Association
International Federation of Catholic Alumnæ
Nat’l Catholic Welfare Council
War Dept. Civilian Advisory Board
Young Women’s Hebrew Association
The Girls’ Friendly Society in America
The Nat’l Assn. of Book Publishers
The Nat’l Security League
Daughters of the American Revolution
The International Committee of Y.M.C.A.
N.Y. Child Welfare Committee
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Salvation Army
Young Men’s Hebrew Association
Nat’l Council of Catholic Women
Girl Scouts
American Museum of Natural History
National Council of Catholic Men
Dairymen’s League Co-operative Assn.
National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Associations
International Federation of Catholic Alumnæ
American Library Association
National Civic Federation
Boy Scouts of America
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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that:
was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).