Photoplay Magazine Cover — page 88: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

€ Are you a PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE—ADVERTISING SECTION Children and the Movies By DOLLY SPURR sensitive person? JATURALLY, yow are. Every person of cul- ture and refinement possesses those finer sensibilities that mark the gentleman and gentlewoman, And particularly are such people sensitive about the little personal things that so quickly identify you as a socially 4 desirable associate or in business. Attention to the eonditien ol your breath ought to be as part of your daily totlet routine as the systemauic a washing of your face and hands. Yer men and women how muny, many negicct this most important stem! ; natural one. Halitosis (or unpleasant breath, us the scientific The treason is a perfectly term has it) Js an in- sidious affliction that you may have and still be entirely ignorant of. Your mirror can’e tell you. Usu- And the subject is too delicate for your friends—muaybe ally vou can't tell it yourself, even your wife or husbancd—to care to mention to you. So you may unconsciously offend your friends and those you come in intimate contact with day by day. Halitosis (unpleasant breath) is usually temporary, due to some local condition, Again it may be chronic, due to some organte disorder which a doctor or dentist should diagnose and correct. Wher halitosis is temporary it may easily be overcome by the use of, Listerine, the well-known liquid an- tiseptic, uscd reguiarly as a targle and mouthwash. Listerine possesses unusually effective properties as an antiseptic, Te quickly hales food fermentation wn the mouth and dispels the unpleasant lalitosis in- cident to such a condition, Provide yourself with a bottle today, and foreable uncerrainty as co whether your breath its freeh and Lambert Pharmacal Company, Louis, Missouri, relieve yoursell of that uncom clean vaint sweet, {recy adtertivementt in PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE t¢ guaranteed, ig until the past few months I was en vgaved in the theater business in the small mid-west town of Marion, Ind. I hod managed three theaters for eleven years, and for the greater part of cach season these houses ran pictures. Being a woman and intensely interested in children, I gave a great deal of thought to suitable recreation for the kiddies While I was particular to all times, clean, wholesome pictures for all my theaters, I nevertheless realized that some of the most ordinary dramas and consedies were beyond the understanding of the aver- age child. I wanted my home town young- sters to see pictures they would understand and enjoy, and I figured that it was up to the parents to co-operate with me and sc- lect the pictures that were suitable. To muke this selection possible, I issued each week a 26-page booklet, containing pic- tures of each production and a complete story. I used both newspapers and adver- tised heavily, so that I could carry out this same idea, I catled the public’s atten- tion to the pictures most suitable for the children, and urged the parents to read the synopsis of each picture carefully so they would KNOW what their boys and girls were seeing It was quite an experience, but after keeping at it for more than five years I erew disgusted and discouraged. A few of the parents saw the wisdom of selecting their children’s amusements, but the major- ity kept right on in the same old line of flinging a dime or quarter to on or daugh- ter, saying, “Yes, you may go to a movie They either wouldn't take the time to find select. at out, or didn’t care whether the picture was Suitable or not. In talking on this subject to one bright little mother she laughed and said, “Oh, what's good enough for me is all right for Bobby!” Another mother bitingly remarked that, “If a picture isn't suitable for my child, it isn’t fit for me either.” Both views are dead wrong. A film story of love, life, mystery, or temptation ain be understood and appreciated by any grown person, but the same picture has little or no meaning for a child, As for the men and women who go to the other extreme, they may be rightfully careful of what their children see, but that’s no reason why they have to be prudes about themselves. Maybe they would really enjoy playing “London Bridge” or “Ring around Rosie,” and read- ing Mother Gooze—but I have my doubts! I kept a record one year of pictures I bad shown that were particularly suitable for children. I found I had run one bun- dred and two, which is an average of two a week, and two shows a week is certainly enough for a child to see. Children must have recreation, and the movies are a cheap amusement that can never harm the kiddies, if the parents will only use a little judgment about what they allow them to see. It’s simply a matter of co-operation between the theater man- egers and the parents. Even the smallest, cheapest theaters nowadays, issue some sort of a program cach week that gives a short description of the pictures. If there is no program, there is always a “phone, and if a manager docsn’t know what productions are the best for the children, he'd better get out of business. I've met hundreds of theater minagers in various parts of the U. S., and I've never talked to one who wouldn't gladly co-operate with the parents, even $0 far as to put on special Saturday shows for chil- dren exclusively. But the theater men com- plain that the parents don’t seem to take any interest in such moves You'd like to visit a studio, would you? sce here. But don't leet Here's what would probably happen if you did: you'd trip over the beastly hose that has something to do wath the lighta: you'd walk in front of the camera and mess up the scene, you a come away with the worst headache you ever had—from thove lights you this discourage you Comichbooks (E(0)