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1909 · Into the Film IndustrySection 24 of 24 · show all
  1. 1Investigating the Field
  2. 2Background of the Industry
  3. 3Motion Picture Theatres
  4. 4New Firms Enter the Field
  5. 5The Trust
  6. 6Thanhouser Begins
  7. 7In Edwin Thanhouser’s Own Words
  8. 8Early Thanhouser Film Production
  9. 9Barry O’Neil Remembers
  10. 10Victor Heerman’s Recollections
  11. 11Equipping the Film Factory
  12. 12Edwin Thanhouser Interviewed
  13. 13A Visit to New Rochelle
  14. 14A Local Reporter Visits
  15. 15Cameras
  16. 16Motion Picture Photography
  17. 17It Wasn’t Easy
  18. 18Additional Reminiscences
  19. 19Scenarios
  20. 20Actors and Actresses
  21. 21Advertising and News Releases
  22. 22Distribution
  23. 23Growing Pains of the Independents
  24. 24Censorship

Section 24 of 24

Censorship

Q. David Bowers, Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. About 1 min.

Censorship was a major issue in the film industry in 1910. The clergy, newspapers,1 and civic leaders created numerous committees and regulations to control what could and could not be exhibited. Sex was an obvious target, and any film which depicted more than a momentary kiss was apt to be rejected, as were nudity and certain forms of violence. Manufacturers could not tell what might or might not offend one censorship group or another, for there were no national rules, and what might be permitted on the screen or a poster in Denver might be forbidden in Detroit or Boston.2

In an advertisement in The Moving Picture World3 Edwin Thanhouser stated that American patrons preferred American-made films to foreign imports, and that theatre owners preferred “censorship pictures,” films which had been pre-censored, to avoid “a rank uncensored outrage, going under the name of a film, [which] might slip into a show and frighten his patrons away. Can you blame the exhibitor for not wanting to take chances? He can never repair the damage film-outrage can do him… The exhibitor takes no chances with a Thanhouser film. It is shown to the Board of Censorship for approval reel by reel, and reel by reel it is approved…”

Of course, this was no guarantee that the city fathers or the police departments of Los Angeles, Kansas City, New Haven, or Philadelphia would not censor it further.

Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.

Footnotes

  1. At the outset, many newspapers were dead set against films, believing that they might steal from their circulation figures, and that readers might prefer to get their entertainment on the screen rather than on the printed page. However, by about 1912 most newspapers found that printing favorable news about films and giving human-interest details of motion picture production and players’ lives actually helped to increase circulation. Within a short time thereafter nearly all large city papers carried film news on a regular basis. ↩

  2. The National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures, popularly known as the National Board of Censors, was founded in New York City in 1909 by the People’s Institute (which had investigated films since at least 1907) and the Motion Picture Patents Company. In 1915 the organization changed its name to the National Board of Review. Although findings of the board were adopted by some, there were still numerous boards of review in certain states, cities, and towns, and numerous local police departments often singled out films for further censorship. ↩

  3. April 23, 1910 ↩