Mr. Joy. Or decide upon an idea which we develop as an original ourselves.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Well, if you purchased a story that had already been published, do you mean to say that you cannot write a synopsis of that story?

Mr. Joy. I doubt very much whether it would be possible for us to write a true and accurate synopsis of The Rains Came when we purchased the book. We could have given a final shooting script after we had finished our production.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Are we not quibbling about details of no consequence, when you say you do not issue a synopsis or cannot issue a synopsis, we will say, of a book that has been written or published, for instance, any work by Charles Dickens, which book may be the basis of a picture you make?

Mr. Joy. May I explain my position so far as the published book is concerned? There are so many things in a published book that are thoroughly unusable; there are so many elements in many published books that we cannot use by reason of our own production code; that to issue a synopsis of a book when we buy it, before we have gone through the labor pains of developing our own treatment of it, might be completely erroneous.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Well, let us assume that for a minute, although I do not agree with it-maybe because I do not understand the practical working of it as well as you do; but from a layman's standpoint I confess I cannot see the force of what you are saying in that respect. Assume that you have purchased a story, then, as I understand, your next step is to prepare it in narrative form

Mr. Joy (interposing). Prepare a treatment; yes.

Mr. WOLVERTON. That is a break-down of the story; is it not? Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Now, what would prevent you from using that as a synopsis?

Mr. Joy. I do not believe it would be of any value to one.

Please

do not misunderstand me. I am really not trying to quibble. I am not trying to avoid any question. This matter is too vital to us to quibble.

Mr. WOLVERTON. I do not take it that you are trying to avoid giving me an answer. I am asking, however, for all of the information can get, and I recognize that you are a person of standing in the motion-picture industry and as such you ought to be able to answer at least some of these questions.

Mr. Joy. Thank you, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. You have stated that the next step after the narrative form is produced, is to fix up the dialog and make sequences of the story.

Mr. Joy. Eventually, after the story line is agreed upon.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Now, getting down toward the finished product. Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. What is there at that time that would prevent you from sending out a synopsis which would be true?

Mr. Joy. Because I do not believe in more than 10 cases out of a hundred, sir. that the rough draft continuity matches the final picture. Too many changes are made after that.

Mr. WOLVERTON. You said that the next step was a full dialog.

Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. That comes pretty close to the completion, does it not, so far as the script is concerned?

Mr. Joy. Yes. There are probably not more than two or three steps beyond that.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Do the steps beyond that have to do with the production of the picture?

Mr. Joy. Well, all of the steps are joined in the final shooting script and have to do with its production.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Let us dwell a little bit on the question of the condition of the story at the time of the full dialog as you expressed it. Isn't that just about what the story will be?

Mr. Joy. It is what the story is going to be about; yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Well, how could you have a dialog without knowing what the picture is about? I assumed the dialog was conversation between those who are taking part in the picture.

Mr. Joy. The rough draft continuity is usually written for the sola purpose of indicating characterization.

Now, I do not believe it is necessary for us to go into a polished job in order to be able to tell anyone what the story is going to be. Mr. WOLVERTON. That is the thought that I had in mind.

Mr. Joy. But there will be, there are bound to be, unless we are making strictly a formula picture, at least 50 percent changes. Mr. WOLVERTON. Fifty percent change?

Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Are you speaking of changes in the story? Do you mean final changes, or do you mean

Mr. Joy (interposing). I mean this

Mr. WOLVERTON. Pardon me a moment.
Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Do you mean complete change or just a change of detail?

Mr. Joy. I mean that some whole characters may be dropped. I mean that some complete lines of thought, directions of the story, may be dropped. I mean that entire locales may be changed. I mean that periods may be changed.

Mr. WOLVERTON. What?

Mr. Joy. Periods; times; instead of this war, it might be some other war.

Mr. WOLVERTON. If you are treating of the Revolutionary War you can hardly substitute some other war.

Mr. Joy. It is conceivable that a story line might fit into a war, any war background. We might change it under those condi ions. Mr. WOLVERTON. Well, at what point would you turn it over to those who are to perform in the studio?

Mr. Joy. We would turn over the final revised shooting script./ Mr. WOLVERTON. That is the period about which I am now inquiring.

Mr. Joy. We have been talking about the draft of the continuity. Mr. WOLVERTON. I am talking about the point where you stated that there was a full dialog and that the shooting of the picture is ready to take place, and I a a inquiring why, if you have a full dialog

and the shooting is about to take place, what is there to prevent you from making a true statement at that time in the form of a synopsis. Mr. Joy. The answer is that the time period between the first treatment and the final shooting script has been a long period in comparison with the time period between the final shooting script and the production of the picture. The final shooting script comes almost immediately before actual production starts. It may have taken months or years to have developed it from the original treatment. Now, in the case of Maryland, it was in April 1939, before our sales convention, that our first conception of that story occurred to us, and we are just now completing it. It will be distributed some time this

summer.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Colonel, I take it that there comes a time when the dialog is completed and it is with reference to the time of that period that I am speaking; when the script is turned over to those who are to perform and learn their parts. That is a pretty definitely fixed time, is it not?

Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. The story is then fixed, is it not?

Mr. Joy. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Why wouldn't that be the proper time to make up a synopsis?

Mr. Joy. Why, I think it would be the proper time, provided we are not held accountable by law for subsequent changes made during production.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Have the pictures been sold before that, or are they sold after that?

Mr. Joy. No; the pictures under our present system, I am reasonably sure, have been sold before that.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Well, then, if the pictures are sold before that. what information do you give to the purchaser with whom you are dealing, or to whom you are attempting to sell your pictures?

Mr. Joy. I am sorry, sir; I have no connection whatsoever, or experience in the selling end of our business.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Do you know whether they merely tell them that you will have so many pictures by such and such an artist?

Mr. Joy. It would be useless for me to give any opinion on it, sir, because I do not know.

Mr. WOLVERTON. Who could give us that information?

Mr. Joy. The general sales manager of any company.

Mr. WOLVERTON. I am sorry you did not precede them on the witness stand, for I think it would have enabled an examination of them that would have been more detailed than it was. It is inconceivable to me that any person who is in the moving picture business. whether it is in one activity or another, does not have general information for the whole industry to answer a question as to when a picture is sold and at what period of its preparation.

Mr. Joy. Thank you.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Are you through?

Mr. WOLVERTON. That is all.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Thank you. We will hear Mr. Don Ameche.

STATEMENT OF DON AMECHE, ENCINO, CALIF.

Mr. AMECHE. Gentlemen, I am simply here

Mr. BULWINKLE. Will you give your full name and address to the reporter?

Mr. AMECHE. Don Ameche, Encino, Calif.

I am sent here by the Screen Actors Guild, whose governing body has disapproved of the Neely bill.

Just how much connection the actors have with this Neely bill is very problematical and probably very small, so, of necessity, what I have to say will probably be very short.

The only part of this bill that I feel that I know anything whatsoever about is this synopsis provision. While all of this discussion has been going on

Mr. PATRICK. That is section 4 you are thinking of, I take it.
Mr. AMECHE. I trust that is correct.

I just do not feel that, as an actor, it is possible to give a true synopsis of a story as we get it, even at the time that we start shooting the picture, and have any individual or any group of individuals understand exactly what is going to come out of the shooting script.

We have more or less of a peculiar job, I guess. It is our business to kind of interpret things. It is interpreted some by ourselves, and some through the eyes of the director, and some through the eyes of the producer.

At different stages during the shooting of different scripts, our perspective of the story, our understanding of the characters; our understanding of the story as a whole, can change almost from day to day or week to week. That might be by something that we find in the script, I mean, which changes our conception of the part, changes our idea of the story; it might be from suggestions of the director. He might go home some night and get a brand-new thought about the whole thing, and that will twist his conception of the thing.

We sit down some mornings after we start reading the dialog we are supposed to shoot that day, and according to our conception of the character, it does not seem to be in keeping with what he would do. So you take out maybe three pages-it has happened I know many, many times, that you take out three, four, or five pages of the dialog and sit down and rewrite the whole thing.

As you are going through the shooting of the script, some character which at the beginning of the shooting seemed very trivial, in the course of a few days, something he might do, some action of his might be funny, or might be a good point for the story, so they will increase his part, make it larger, so that it would enhance the value of the story. I do not know-in standing here talking about these things, it is all pretty hard to explain.

Mr. PATRICK. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ameche, would you prefer that we ask you questions?

Mr. AMECHE. It is perfectly all right with me.

Mr. PATRICK. You are talking about section 4, Mr. Ameche?
Mr. AMECHE. Yes, sir.

Mr. PATRICK. That is the part of the bill you are referring to?
Mr. AMECHE. Yes, sir.

Mr. PATRICK. That is the part of the bill that has to do with the synopsis, in which it states:

It shall be unlawful for any distributor of motion-picture films in commerce to lease or offer to lease for public exhibition any motion-picture film or films over two thousand feet in length unless such distributor shall furnish the exhibitor at or before the time of making such lease or offer to lease an accurate synopsis of the contents of such film. Such synopsis shall be made a part of the lease and shall include (a) a general outline of the story and descriptions of the principal characters, and (b) a statement describing the manner of treatment of dialogs concerning and scenes depicting vice, crime, or suggestive of sexual passion.

Now, for example, in the treatment of dialogs. We are interested, I think, all of us, and our chief concern with this bill is with section 4 and its efficacy and workableness of that section.

Mr. AMECHE. Yes.

Mr. PATRICK. That is what I want to ask you about at this point, as an actor. I think we are all anxious to have an actor here to ask these questions.

Mr. AMECHE. All right.

Mr. PATRICK. Now, in the treatment of dialogs, say, regarding crime. Of course, you realize that I am a novice, no actor at all, but how, under the requirements of this bill-in stating that the synopsis shall convey to the purchaser, the exhibitor of the picture, from the salesman of the producer of the motion-picture company; if the salesman should take the dialog or whatever is required under this bill we are talking about, or this treatment of the dialog say in a crime, how could that synopsis convey to the prospective purchaser of the picture the meaning of these words in a dialog, for instance, where one man will say to another, perhaps:

"You wouldn't shoot the old man, would you?"

And he says, "No; I won't shoot the old man," or (changing emphasis):

"You wouldn't shoot the old man, would you?"

"No; I won't shoot the old man.'

I may have gotten enough in there for an actor to realize what I am trying to convey.

Now, my attempt has been to make those two lines, repeated verbatim in the first dialog and in the second, indicate a different meaning. How would that be treated in a synopsis? Do you get any difference between the first and the second, even as I said them?

Mr. AMECHE. Yes; there is a great difference.

Mr. PATRICK. I will ask you if the second reading does not convey an entirely different meaning from the first, or would if I had gotten the right emphasis on the words.

Mr. AMECHE. Well, it would have an entirely different meaning; different interpretation by the actor.

Mr. PATRICK. Yes. Well, now, as an actor, will you be kind enough to take those same lines and make the old man be perfectly safe in the first instance, and ready for destruction in the second. [Laughter.] Mr. AMECHE. Well, I do not know-if I could do so well.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Would it not be better to let the gentleman continue with his testimony?

Mr. PATRICK. I think you know what I have in mind. How can it be so treated in the synopsis that it will convey to the purchaser, by the synopsis, what the treatment is going to be?