Portrait of an Average American

The Persistent Movie-Goer, as He Has Been Unconsciously Summarized by the Movie-Maker

DEEMS TAYLOR

LATE last August, as duly reported in Variety, The Association of Motion Picture Producers met in Hollywood, and after solemn and soul-searching deliberation issued, for their own guidance and that of others, a list that is doubtless destined to tako rank with the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, the Thirty-nine Articles of something or other, and the Ten Commandments of Jehovah. This edict, though it has no official title, is generally known as The Thirty-seven Don'ts for Pictures. Under its provisions the movie magnates bind themselves to eliminate certain subjects from the screen and to exercise meticulous care in treating certain others, in order to avoid, as they put it, "international complications and general censorship throughout the world," and to insure "that vulgarity and suggestiveness may be eliminated and good taste can be emphasized."

Eleven of these "don'ts" are absolute; twenty-six others are heavily cautionary. Suppose we put them all before us, taking the absolute prohibitions first. The film producers have agreed that under no circumstances will they allow to be photographed:

I.—Pointed profanity by either title or lip which includes the words God, Lord, Jesus Christ, unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies.* Also other profane and vulgar expressions no matter in what manner spelled.

2.—Any licentious or suggestive nudity— in fact or silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture.

3.—The illegal traffic in drugs.

4-—Any inference of sex perversion.

5.—White slavery.

6.—Miscegenation.

7.—Sex hygiene and venereal diseases.

8.—Scenes of actual childbirth—in fact or in silhouette.

9.—Children's sex organs.

10.—Ridicule of the clergy.

11.—Willful offense to any nation, race or creed.

IN twenty-six other instances the producers promise to tread lightly. Only "if properly treated" may the following be laid before a movie audience:

12.—Use of the flag.

i3.—International relations (to avoid picturizing in an unfavourable light other countries' religion, history, institutions, prominent people, citizenry).

14.—Religion or religious ceremonies.

15.—Arson.

16.—Use of fire arms.

17.—Theft, robbery, safe-cracking and dynamiting trains, mines, buildings, etc. (the idea in handling of this point being that the producer must have in mind the effect which the too detailed description of this may have upon the moron) .*

18.—Brutality and possible gruesomeness.

19.—Technique of committing murder by whatever method.

20.—Methods of smuggling.

21.—Third degree methods.

22.—Actual hanging or electrocution as legal punishment for crime.

23.—Sympathy for criminals.

24.—Attitude towards public characters and institutions

25.—Sedition.

26.—Apparent cruelty to children or animals.

27.—Branding of people or animals.

28.—Sale of women, or of a woman selling her virtue.

29.—Rape or attempted rape.

30.—First night scenes.

31.—Man and woman in bed together.

32.—Deliberate seduction of girls.

33.—The institution of marriage.

34>—Surgical operations.

35.—Use of drugs.

36.—Titles or scenes that have to do with law enforcement or law enforcing officers.

37.—Excessive or lustful kissing, particularly when one of the characters is a heavy.

NOW of course, one's first impulse, after reading this list, is to burst in roars of contemptuous laughter and exclaim, "Isn't that the movie mind for you! " Myself, I went about the house for half a day, muttering just that. Then it occurred to me that in the last analysis the minds that dictated the Thirty-seven Don'ts were not those of the movie industry after all, but of the American movie public and the American movie censors. Some of my best friends are movie magnates—to hear them tell it—and they don't, in real life, think like that. The Thirty-seven Don'ts are, as a matter of fact, a rather striking character study of the average American movie-goer, a portrait all the more revealing in that it is not an intentional one. From the evidence at hand we can learn much of what he admires, what he hankers after, and what he fears, putting him together much as a paleontologist is said to reconstruct a fossil monster from a scrap of shinbone.

Our first impression of this average American is that he is obsessed by sex (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 28, 29, 3o, 31, 32, 33, 37); our second, that he is a deep-dyed and incorrigible hypocrite (4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 26, 27, 28, 34, 37). These first impressions, however, are not the whole story. Sex and hypocrisy are two of his troubles, but by no means the only ones.

One of his greatest misfortunes is the fact that he is a mother. Judging from the evidence of the Thirty-seven, the woman who has children under sixteen must be in an overwhelming majority among picture audiences. What is more, she must be unable to afford the luxury of a nurse or governess, so that when she goes to the movies she perforce takes her offspring with her. If this were not so she would probably be able to contemplate with a certain equanimity certain phases of life (3, 5, 8, 9, 17, 19, 3o, 31, 35, 37) that she would not care to have revealed to her children. Since she must bring them with her, she knows, by bitter experience, how imitative they are (as a father of two years' standing I heartily agree with her), and is consequently terrified of seeing anything on the screen that might "put ideas into their heads" (1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16,17, 18, 19, 26, 29, 3o, 3i, 32, 34, 35). Her relations with her children are still on the good old-fashioned basis of complete lack of frankness between parent and child, so that she is in constant dread of having them ask what she considers embarrassing questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, i5, 16, 17, 19, 29, 3o, 31, 32, 33, 37). She and her little ones are the heaviest cross the motion picture of today has to bear.

Second only to mother and the kiddies as a menace comes the half-wit and the potential criminal (note the producer's own opinion of his audience as expressed in the latter half of point 17), who apparently goes to the movies in enormous numbers. He, too, like the little child, must not be allowed to see things that might give him ideas (5, 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 26, 27, 29, 34, 35); for there are many aspects of life which, while they are merely regrettable commonplaces to the adult spectator, might be dangerously suggestive to the spectator who is adult only in years.

HE, however, is the sub-average American. Concerning the average we may learn much that is interesting. For one thing, he is still safely Christian (1), with a dislike of profane swearing that makes him unwilling even to admit that he understands the words. Parenthetically, he may safely be said to be getting used to swearing that is merely vulgar, or innocently obscene. You will recall The Big Parade, wherein

You'll never get rich,

You son-of-a-gun,

You're in the army now! was chanted by the singing soldiers, with the entire audience (the day I was there) delightedly correcting the censored rime of the second line. You will recall, likewise, What Price Glory? and Beau Geste, in which, though the titles were mute upon the subject, the amateur lip reader might divine the presence of numerous references to canine ancestry and illegitimacy.

As a good churchman, this average American thinks birth control a sin (7) and does not care either to discuss it or learn about it. This indifference may be an enforced one, it is true; for he is still in considerable awe of his clergyman, of whatever denomination, and will not have his sanctity questioned (10). The sects to which he belongs are so numerous that one has to be very careful about mentioning any of them (14).

He may not be obsessed by sex, but he is terribly frightened of it. He is suspicious of nudity, which gives him naughty thoughts, and would prefer to pretend that there is no such thing. He seems abnormally afraid of temptation, likes to pretend that marriage has nothing to do with sex, but on the other hand will not tolerate the thought that there are any sex relations beyond those sanctioned by marriage. His attitude on the whole question is anything but pagan. Sex, to him, is a very solemn business, in no way connected with laughter; something that young folks must be kept away from, something not to discuss in either its normal or abnormal forms, and whose results, painful or pleasant, are not to be mentioned (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 20, 28, 30, 31, 32). His wife apparently does not find him a very exciting mate, for she is forever indulging in romantic dreams, identifying herself with the passionate characters on the screen. So dear are those dreams that she resents having their idyllic nature damaged by the introduction of an unattractive partner (37).

*I quote verbatim.

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Both of them are more than a little hypocritical concerning this and other matters. They would much prefer to pretend that the unpleasant things in life simply do not exist. If a problem is inescapable, ignore it; if a disease is horrible, never mention it. They are kind-hearted, with a deep-rooted aversion to cruelty and bloodshed (4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 26, 27, 28, 34). On the other hand, they have no sympathy with criminals of any kind, although they hate to witness the enforcement of laws that they themselves have created (22, 23).

Be it noted, by the way, that the average American policeman is a person much respected and feared by the movie maker, for he has much power, which he does not scruple to use if his dignity is slighted (21, 22, 24, 36).

Our average American is still a bit uneasy concerning national solidarity, and is very insistent upon observance of the outward forms of patriotism. He is still frightened of agitators, radicals, and bolsheviks (12, 24, 25, 36). This fear is doubtless engendered by the fact that he is still intensely conscious of his mixed lineage, and is likely to take offense at an insufficiently respectful reference to some race to which, as an American, he no longer, theoretically, belongs (11, 13). This same mixed lineage, however, has given him a considerable degree of sympathy with the peculiarities of alien nations. He is kind-hearted and easy-going, in the main, honestly desirous of living on good terms with the rest of the world. (11, 13, 18.)

So there you have him, as some of his closest students paint him. And when next you see a bad picture, remember that he, as well as Hollywood, is what is the matter with the motion picture industry. For an industry it is, and not an art. No enterprise whose paper is held by the banks and whose stock transactions are quoted on the exchange can afford to be anything but an industry. Those at the head of it are engaged in the manufacture of goods which they hope to dispose of in the largest possible quantity to the greatest possible number of customers. Consequently, if they draw up Thirtyseven Don'ts, be sure that they drew them up to please those customers. The motion picture, as some one must have said, is in its infancy. What's more, it will remain there, until its present audience decides to grow up (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37).