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CUT OUT BY THE "MOVIE" CENSOR 19
Rhoda Lewis, points out
that a child would interfere
with their ambitions. Gray
consults Dr. Brainard, his
old family physician. The
latter earnestly urges the
parents to let nature take its
course. He shows that no
worldly achievement can
equal that of parenthood.
"But the physician's advice
is not heeded. Sorrow
and wretchedness follow,
to be terminated by the
husband's waking, for the
latter half of the story had
been only a dream.
"The Pennsylvania censors
objected to this photoplay because
it had reference to prospective motherhood,
which is, as I have already
stated, something apparently abhorrent
to those behind Pennsylvania's
censorship laws.
"Then the censors suggested this little
joke—that the theme of the last three
reels be changed from the discussion of
parenthood to that of child labor in factories
or mines.
"Am I not right," asked the producer,
"when I say that censorship as it works
Great Snakes!
They won't let you look at 'em in Okio or Pennsylvania.
Verboten!
Little boys may be seen—but not at the throttle of a locomotive in Ohio.
out too frequently is a negative rather
than a positive moral force?"
Well, there are the two points of view
—that of the censor and that of the
producer. The former professes to be
broad-minded, fair, and acting only
under the law; the latter to be the victim
of absurd, badgering and conflicting
decisions.
But even the producer quoted above
has not shown the worst side of censorship.
There is a tendency—especially in
the smaller cities and towns—to go a step
farther. Faddists and self-constituted
reformers here get a chance to harass the
industry. Theory and whim want to
have their way without reference to rule
or regulation.
Only a little while ago a dozen members
of a woman's club in a town in Iowa
called upon the local censor. They had
a grievance against a production then
running. A bride was shown seated at
breakfast in a superbly furnished home.
Inasmuch as the husband in the storywas
"only on a salary," these twelve
women thought it a dangerous situation
to set before the young women of the
town! They might be tempted to lead
their husbands (when they got them)
into home expenditures beyond their
means:
There is no exaggeration here. The
{Continued on page 138)