Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1910 — Censorship for the Moving Pictures [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Censorship for the Moving Pictures

ST. LOUIS.—Very few of the many thousands of persons who nightly attend the moving picture shows and see the words, “Licensed by the National Board of Censorship,” flashed on the screen at the end of a film know what the sentence means. They have a vague idea that the film has undergone some sort of scrutiny. They do-not know whether the work nas been well or indifferently done, except as they judge from the film that has just been shown. The line flashed on the screen is in reality a seal of respectability, for the films that receive the approbation of the board are supposed to have had all objectionable features removed, if there were any that needed removal. Tvjice a week, on Mondays and Frl-, days, the censorship committee meets to pass on the films. Before a film is shown printed cards are passed around

to the censors. On them may be registered either absolute approval or disapproval, or any features that might be considered doubtful or objectionable noted. If there are all approvals, the film is, of course, passed-without further ado. If there are all rejections, it is, with as little ado, thrown out. But if only certain parts come in for either absolute disapproval or doubt such portions as they object to must either be stricken out entirely or modified according to their suggestions. In practise the manufacturers find that the best means of avoiding trouble is to secure the ideas of the censors before the film is produced. It is possible to do this, because a scenario is made out for each film, just as if a drama were to be presented at a theater. ' To produce these picture plays, regular companies of actors are formed, just as if they were to have speaking parts in a theater. *■ Their parts are made out for them, and they are cached—not in words, but in action. Now the careful marfufacturer sends his scenarios to the censors for approval, or for modification, if considered necessary.