STATEMENT OF MISS INEZ COLCORD, WASHINGTON, D. C., REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN The CHAIRMAN. Miss Colcord. Miss COLCORD. Mr. Chairman, my name is Inez Colcord, and my address is 1634 Eye Street NW., Washington, D. C. I am here representing the American Association of University Women. My position with this organization is secretary to the committee on legislative program. I should like to read you a very brief statement, Mr. Chairman, from this association in support of the bill now under consideration by your committee. The American Association of University Women is an organization of more than 66,000 members who are alumnae of colleges and universities of high standing, organized in 880 local branches to do practical educational work. The principle of abolition of compulsory block booking and blind selling in the leasing of motion-picture films was studied by our branches a number of years before 1935, when it was definitely placed on our legislative program by a vote of branch delegates assembled in convention at Los Angeles, Calif. Again, at the biennial convention held in Savannah, Ga., in 1937, and in Denver, Colo., in 1939, the delegates confirmed their stand in support of this principle. Under the authorization given by these successive conventions, the NeelyPettengill bill was endorsed and actively supported by our association during the last three sessions of Congress. Further, in April 1939, when hearings were held in the Senate on the present Neely bill, S. 280, testimony was presented by our association in support of this measure. The American Association of University Women believes in democratic procedures, and in accord with these, believes that every community should have the right to community selection of the motion pictures it desires to see. Members of our local groups who have worked with local exhibitors have found them exceedingly cooperative, but unable to do very much about getting appropriate motion pictures for children at times when children can see them, because of the trade practices known as block booking and blind selling. The concern of our members for the best cultural advantages for adults is also a factor influencing our point of view. The stand taken by the American Association of University Women with respect to the Neely bill represents the growing interest of our members in the rights of local exhibitors to use freedom of choice in the selection of motion pictures. Moreover, branches of our association concerned with the effect of motion-picture programs on children have been especially active in studying local offerings of motion pictures and policies governing their selection. Branch reports for the last 2 years indicate that the Neely bill is one of the most thoroughly studied and active bills on our entire legislative program. For example, a branch report of last year from Bowling Green, Ohio, a copy of which is attached with this statement, illustrates the type of study carried on by the branches in our association. Here the A. A. U. W. committee on motion pictures and children found that from January 14 to March 6, 1939, 22 main-feature pictures were shown at the 2 local theaters, both independently owned, at Saturday matinees; and that 17 of these were of the highly exciting, western, or crime type, 8 having been classified by Parents Magazine under "No" for children. The committee in Bowling Green believes, after study, that the passage of the Neely bill will make it possible to remedy such extreme situations by giving the local exhibitor greater opportunity to serve the best interests of the public through the exercise of choice to meet public demands. Under the present block-booking arrangement, our members who desire a high type of entertainment for themselves and their families have no alternative but to stay away from motion pictures a large part of the time. We believe, with many others who have studied focal situations, that if each community is given the opportunity to help choose motion pictures suitable for the entire family, the results will be increasingly beneficial both to the local community and to the motion picture industry. The American Association of University Women, therefore, urges the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee to give favorable consideration to the Neely bill, S. 280, which will aid local groups to choose their own motion pictures for local consumption. (The report from Bowling Green, Ohio, above referred to is as follows:) SOME FINDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, COMMITTEE ON MOTION PICTURES AND CHILDREN, BOWLING GREEN, OHIO The committee has centered its interest upon a study of the local movie situation as it relates to children. Its members have investigated four phases: 1. Children's attendance at movies. 2. The programs offered when children attend. 3. The effect of these programs upon children. 4. What can be done to improve the situation. Attendance (secured largely from group questionnaires given in the schools).Elementary school children: Young children typically attend the movies once a week, although there are nearly as many who go less than once a week; few go more than once, and a large majority go to the Saturday matinee. Sixth-grade children are evenly divided in attendance at matinees and evening shows. From personal observations of the committee, very few children are accompanied by adults at the Saturday matinee. Junior high school children: This group usually attend evening shows; more go to Sunday matinees than to Saturday matinees. Fourty-four percent of this age go once a week, while 30 percent go more than once a week. Programs. Five times as many children attend the Saturday matinee at the Lyric as at the Cla-Zel. The program at the Lyric includes a western and a serial. The program at the Cla-Zel has, since January, been a double feature consisting of action and crime pictures on which the producers do not require a percentage. Fifty main-feature pictures were shown during the time the committee visited the local theaters (January 14 to March 6). Of these the committee saw 36. Comparison of these pictures with the ratings of Selected Motion Pictures and Parents' Magazine shows that these two sources agree in giving 13 pictures ratings of "good for children." Of these 13, 5 were shown at Saturday matinees and five on Sunday. From January 14 to March 6, 22 main-feature pictures were shown at the 2 theaters at Saturday matinees (the Cla-Zel runs double features). Seventeen of these are of the highly exciting western or crime type. Parents' Magazine classifies 8 of them under "no" for children. The committee believes that a steady diet of westerns and serials is not wholesome for young children and urges parents to help children choose the pictures they attend and to cultivate a taste for something other than thrills. It asks them to express their own opinions to the local theater owner (who supplies what he says is demanded) regarding the programs presented at Saturday matinees. The committee believes further that the passage of the Neely bill will give our local exhibitor greater opportunity to serve the best interests of the parents and children in Bowling Green, which is his desire. Mrs. W. C. HOPPES, Chairman. Mrs. M. M. MERCER, NEVA WEST, Committee. STATEMENT OF MRS. ROBERT LA RUE JEFFERYS, WASHINGTON, The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Jefferys. D. C. Mrs. JEFFERYS. Mr. Chairman, my name is Mrs. Robert La Rue Jefferys, 3616 Seventeenth Street NĚ. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am interested in the passage of the pending measure S. 280, to prevent the trade practices known as compulsory block-booking and blind selling-because I am motion-picture chairman of the District of Columbia Congress of Parents and Teachers, which has endorsed it enthusiastically, but more so because I am the mother of two children, two little girls aged 10 and 8, whose present and future welfare, especially in these precarious times, are a heavy responsibility for any parent. We often hear it said that heredity will determine how far a child. will go in life, but that environment will determine in which direction the child may go. Today, with so many of our youth floundering in an environment of unemployment and economic problems that bewilders them, and ofttimes makes them despondent, we have a responsibility probably greater than that of ordinary times, to keep their minds on the right track and their outlook cheerful and optimistic. With so much time on their hands for play and recreation, we find an increasing interest on their part to enjoy entertainment such as the moving pictures. No one can doubt that the movies play a great part today in molding their lives, just as the movies also serve effectively to improve the mental state of adults. I think that during our years of depression the moving pictures have been a great force in America to keep all of us on a more even keel, to help us forget our problems, and to escape from reality into a world. of pleasure by merely walking a few blocks from our homes and spending a few nickels or dimes to enter a theater. But if we are to have the right kind of moving pictures for our young people, whose minds are in the formative stage and who are not as capable as adults of "digesting" various forms of entertainment and their attendant influences, we must provide for them the kind of moving pictures most suitable to their age and interests. To do this requires a community freedom in the selection of motionpicture films a freedom which permits the exhibitor in each community to select films adapted to the interests and welfare of the children of that community. Of course, all Americans, and all American children, have many interests and objectives in common, but there are theaters in some communities serving children of different age groups than others, of different economic status, of different environments, and of different religious views. The problem of the motion-picture exhibitor in such a situation is to select a pic ture which will attract the most interest and the most business, but which at the same time serves the community interest. Any system which forces unwanted pictures upon an exhibitor is as undersirable as a system that would force our local grocer to handle products which the community does not want. The primary purpose of this measure is to establish community freedom in the selection of motion-picture films, and it is this purpose that interests me most. A second purpose of the bill is to relieve independent interests in the motion-picture industry-producers, distributors, and exhibitors of monopolistic and burdensome trade practices. Naturally that interests me also, but t is a matter about which others will speak, and it is a problem with which Congress. should be as much concerned as it has been in regulating other monopolies and trade practices such as those affected by the so-called Patman chain-store law. No Member of Congress, whether he is lawyer or layman, should have any difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the present system of contracting for the distribution and exhibition of moving pictures does not permit community freedom in the selection of moving-picture films. By a trade practice commonly known as block booking, each of the eight major producer-distributors leases to the exhibitors during each recurrent selling season its production of pictures for the ensuing year in large blocks-often the entire output-thus affording the exhibitors no choice but to take all of the pictures so offered, or none. Blind selling is the accompanying trade practice of the Big Eight, whereby pictures are leased to the exhibitors usually before they have been produced and with little or no information concerning the character or quality of the pictures that will be delivered, the stories that will be embodied therein, or the treatment that will be accorded the story material in the filming thereof. Of course, there is a certain amount of censorship to keep out very offensive moving pictures. Six States and 16 cities have censorship boards, and there is an over-all censorship in the motion-picture industry itself. This results in making of pictures to a certain general pattern, but there should be some latitude in the selection of these pictures so that the most appropriate ones will be available for each community. I am not one to harp on so-called blue laws for every State, to invoke such a varied assortment of censorship that it would be difficult to make pictures on a general pattern. On the whole, there are plenty of good pictures being produced, but the little independent exhibitor is required to contract for many of the lower-grade pictures to get the better ones, and even then he may not have the first runs on them and may be required to charge higher rates than his community can stand. The passage of the Neely bill at this time is more important than ever, because the country is becoming increasingly "picture" conscious not only of motion pictures, but of magazines and books which feature pictures. The American mind is so occupied with problems and activities that we seem to find time only to grasp events through pictures. This trend indicates that the number of people attending moving pictures will increase tremendously during the next few years. Let us be sure that we and our children see good pictures at reasonable prices, which will be the natural result flowing from the passage of this bill. Mr. Chairman, I have a short resolution of the District of Columbia Congress of Parents and Teachers reaffirming its stand taken in 1937 in favor of the Neely bill, dated January 9, 1940, which I would like to submit for the record. The CHAIRMAN. That will be received. (The statement referred to is as follows:) DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CONGRESS OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS, Washington, D. C., May 14, 1940. Whereas it has been determined through scientific research that motion pictures exercise tremendous influence on the character, attitudes, health, emotions, behavior patterns, conduct, and social philosophy of children and youth: Be it Resolved, That the board of managers of the District of Columbia Congress of Parents and Teachers, in regular session assembled this 9th day of March 1937, reaffirms its belief that community freedom in the choice of films should be established; to this end it reendorses the Neely-Pettengill bill (S. 153, H. R. 1669) to abolish compulsory block booking and blind selling and urges the prompt enactment of this measure by the Congress of the United States. This action has been reaffirmed by the convention each year. The board of managers reaffirmed this action at its regular meeting on January 9, 1940. NORA M. LOWE President. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mrs. Jefferys. STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY T. BANNERMAN-Resumed Mrs. BANNERMAN. Mr. Chairman, at this time we should like to yield some time to a member of the independents who will clarify some of the legal and practical questions which were raised before the committee yesterday, Mr. Myers. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Mr. Myers. STATEMENT OF ABRAM F. MYERS, COUNSEL FOR ALLIED STATES ASSOCIATION OF MOTION-PICTURE EXHIBITORS Mr. MYERS. May it please the committee, I recognize that it is the privilege of the members of the committee to ask any questions of any witness at any time. However, I expect to deal with some of the practical and somewhat technical aspects of the motion-picture business. The clerk reminds me that I overlooked a formality that I should not have overlooked. My name is Abram F. Myers and I am counsel for the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors, a national association composed of the independent motion picture theater owners. The CHAIRMAN. You prefer not to be interrupted until you complete your statement? Mr. MYERS. I feel that I could be of more help to the committee if I were allowed to proceed uninterrupted until I complete my statement, after which I shall be glad to go down the rough and rugged road. Mr. COLE. It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that a witness of such importance should yield to questions during his statement. Some of us who are interested may not be here when he concludes his state |