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Censorship, The Payne Fund Studies and Hollywood's Influence on Children and the Field of Education

A Time Line

The Pitch

On April 14th, 1894 Thomas Edison

premiered the Kinetoscope

1900 to 1915: The five cent theaters, or Nickelodeons,

gain popularity, especially with the working class and immigrants.

Some popular films of the era:

1903: The Great Train Robbery

1905: The Little Train Robbery

(this was a parody of sorts of

The Great Train Robbery)

Starring children

In 1909, The National Board of Review (Censorship)

was formed and included representatives from the National

Education Association as well as New York public schools.

John Collier, executive director of the National Board of Review

argued that "It is the supreme duty of the state to see that all educational

opportunity reaches all people. The theater is, in our view, an incomporable

vehicle of education, the most evangelizing form of speech, the most morally

dynamic form of art, the most significantly social form of enjoyment." (Gallagher, 12)

In Production

In the 1920's movie going goes middle class--

moving away from working class and immigrants which made up the majority of audiences in the 1910's.

1922 Will Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributers Association (MPPDA) speaks at the annual meeting of the National Education Association.

He states his organization's committment to the goals of "establishing and maintaining the highest possible moral and artistic standards in motion picture production, and developing the educational as well as the entertainment value and the general usefulness of the motion picture." (Spring, 358)

He warns those at the convention of the dangers of government censorship of the movies. He also states that "I am against political censorship, of course, because political censorship will not do what is hoped for it in the last analysis." (Spring, 358)

Also in 1922, movie censorship bills are introduced in 32 states.

The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie", premiers in 1927.

As films gained popularity, educators complained, as they would later about television and radio (and video games and the internet), that movies were in competition with the schools for the minds and attention of children (Spring, 361)

In 1927, the Reverand William Short, organizes the

Motion Picture Research Council. He is a long time critic

of the movies. (Spring, 361)

1928--Reverand Short, working with organizer W.W. Charters and other educators, psychologists, and sociologists, created, through money provided by the Payne Fund, a Committee on Educational Research in order to study the supposed detrimental effect of movies on children.

Distribution

The Production Code of 1930 goes into effect.

and Hollywood gets subersive:

Featuring double entendres and no-nonsense women.

Joan Blondell in 1931's 'Blonde Crazy'

1933's 'Baby Face'

1932's Red Headed Woman

With the Payne Studies mostly complete, W.W. Charters commissions Henry James Forman to write a popular summary of the studies titled "Our Movie Made Children". By 1935, it had reached it's seventh printing.

One of those studies by Edgar Dale, contrary to the rest of the published findings, supported the use of the film in education. Dale's study led to the creation of his film appreciation manual that was incorporated into the classrom. His philosophy was that if students understood film making and film quality, they would then demand better films from Hollywood, thereby reducing the need for government censorhip.

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