Fighting with Films

S in the United States, motion pictures played a great part in the work of the Foreign Section, ranking as a major activity. To millions unable to read, to literate millions unreached by newspaper or magazine, to city audiences and village crowds, the screen carried the story of America, flashing the power of our army and navy, showing our natural resources, our industrial processes, our war spirit, and our national life. Our method of presentation was either to rent a theater outright, giving our own shows, or to rent the pictures themselves to exhibitors, although in many of the rural districts we put a projector on an automobile and traveled from village to village, delighting the rustic populace with "the wonders of America."

War pictures, as a matter of course, gave the point to every program. A steady stream of wonderful "fighting stuff" was poured into our foreign channels, so that the eyes of the world followed America's war progress from the cantonment to the ship, from St. Nazaire to the firing-line, along the firing-line from Chateau-Thierry to the Argonne, and saw America's war preparations from the shipyard to the sea, from the factory to the great supply depots in France. Great feature-films like "Pershing's Crusaders" and "America's Answer" could stand alone, but the majority of "war stuff" had to be accompanied by contrasting material. Not only this, but it was also the case that we wanted the world to see America "at home."

In the first days, Jules E. Brulatour, a pioneer in the motion-picture industry, and one of its fine, inspiring figures, came to the Committee as a volunteer, and it was his job to collect "educational stuff," meaning every sort of a movie that would show American cities, factories, and farms, our social progress, our industrial life, and our adventures in altruism and humanity. He knew exactly which of the great manufacturing concerns "went in" for motion pictures, and straightway commenced a begging tour that took in Henry Ford, the United States Steel Corporation, the International Harvester Company, Waterman's Pen, the Corn Products Company, the lumber companies, coal companies, etc., until he had thousands of reels showing every phase of American industry. Then he went to the Bureau of Parks and got "nature stuff," to the Department of Agriculture for scientific farming pictures, to the Bureau of Education for "school stuff," to the Public Health Service for "sanitation stuff," and on down the line until he had everything that the government possessed in the way of an educational film. An arrangement with the film-news weeklies permitted us to comb their releases, and from them we bought footage that showed patriotic celebrations, women voting, Labor Day parades, seashore scenes, baby contests, stock shows, athletic games, and everything else that threw any light on us as a people.

All of the manufacturers were generous in the extreme, giving us a full set of positives without debate, although Henry Ford led all others in princely donations that totaled thousands of dollars. The task of duplication was Mr. Brulatour's, also the hard, tedious job of putting the titles into the various languages. It was a remarkable task that Mr. Brulatour carried to success, although a very LLEWELLYN THOMAS J JULES BRULATOUR.*P^GUY CROSWELL SMITH

E. L. STARR WILBUR H. HART

LT. JOHN TUERK enthusiastic word must be said for Lieut. John Tuerk, borrowed from the army by reason of his wide experience in the motion-picture field. The old Kalem studio on West Twenty-third Street in New York was taken over, and hummed night and day with the rush of picture selection and picture shipping.

Later, when the Foreign Section was fully organized, Mr. Hart's Division of Films became the source of supply, and Mr. Byoir was placed in charge of operations. As a result of these combined activities, the foreign commissioners were able to present a well-balanced program, starting out with pictures of an American city or some national park, following with typical American scenes, then showing schools, model farms, welfare work 'in factories, a shipyard or munitions-factory, and then finishing strong with an American cantonment, the grand fleet, the arrival in France, and "over the top with the Yanks."

All of which was very fine as far as it went, but upon investigation we found that it did not go far enough. What the war-weary foreigners liked and demanded was American comedy and dramatic film. They had to have their Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin and Norma Talmadge. The Germans, either by outright purchase of picture-houses or else by subsidizing exhibitors, were largely in control in every neutral country, and used American entertainment film to put across their propaganda material. As a result, we stood to be left out in the cold.

Looking around, we discovered that no film of any kind could be sent out of the United States without a license from the War Trade Board. Without waste of time, we saw Vance McCormick, the chairman, and secured from him a ruling to the effect that every application for a license must bear the indorsement of the Committee on Public Information. The rest was simple. Calling a meeting of all the film supporters, we explained the situation in detail, and while promising that the Committee would use all of its influence to expedite film shipments, we demanded in return that the motion-picture industry should come to the aid of the Committee in equal degree. As a result of negotiations this arrangement was worked out:

(1) That every shipment for entertainment film from the United States should contain at least 20 per cent, "educational matter."

(2) That not a single foot of American entertainment film would be sold to any exhibitor who refused to show the Committee's war pictures.

(3) That no American pictures of any kind would be sold to houses where any sort of German film was being used.

This method shut the German film out of Sweden and Norway in a few weeks after the adoption. With respect to Switzerland and Holland, where the German control was virtually complete, the Committee adopted an even more drastic mode of procedure. It was asked of the leading film-producers, and agreed to by them, that the representatives of the Committee should have the absolute and unquestioned disposition of every foot of commercial film that went into the two countries. As a consequence of this air-tight arrangement, Mrs. Whitehouse and Mr. Suydam were not only in possession of the Committee's war and educational pictures, but also had entire charge of every comedy and dramatic picture that went out from the shores of the United States. No motion-picture house could do business without our product, and it was very soon the case that the Germans were being run out of both fields. In Switzerland, where they held most tenaciously, the lid was falling relentlessly when the armistice came.

In France, England, and Italy the initial showing of our picture films was always an event, the high officials of government attending formally, and even in the neutral countries we were able eventually to make our own productions on an impressive scale. Our most glittering success, perhaps, was in The Hague, where the police had to stop one performance of "America's Answer" owing to "the great pro- American demonstrations that it aroused." In Mexico, however, much the same result was achieved.

As the work grew, and as the fight took on greater intensity, it became apparent that film experts would have to be despatched to aid the resident commissioners, also that we would have to install our own laboratories in certain countries and export our own raw material and equipment. The success of Guy Croswell Smith in Scandinavia had shown that this should be the method. Coming out of Russia with Mr. Sisson in March, 1918, he took film charge of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark immediately.

In furtherance of the general plan, H. C. Hoagland went to France, where he established intimate contact with the Signal Corps, enlarging laboratories, vitalizing procedure, and generally increasing and improving the output. He handled the Italian situation also, making arrangements in Rome for the national exhibition of American programs. Llewellyn R. Thomas, sent to The Hague, handled 306,000 feet of dramatics, 52,000 feet of comedies, 12,000 feet of Committee war film, 92 reels of news pictures, and 200,000 feet of raw stock. He operated fifty eight-reel programs, and his speed, ability, and enthusiasm dazzled the Dutch and routed the Germans. From the very outset our "movie" work in Russia was attended by every difficulty. The fall of Kerensky made Russian consignments a problem, and to meet this situation we made arrangements with the Y. M. C. A. by which its representatives would carry film to the Committee's representatives in Petrograd and Moscow. In the fall of 1917 we assembled thousands of

19 277 reels, covering every field of American activity, and intrusted them to A. C. Harte, who was proceeding to Russia for the Y. M. C. A. Through various unforeseen changes in Mr. Harte's plans, he turned back at Stockholm, and, as the Russian frontier was closed, our pictures continued to rest in Sweden. Another effort was made through the agency of Herman Bernstein, the war correspondent of The New York Herald, who took with him many cases of film, and who also agreed, if he found it possible, to pick up the shipment left in Stockholm by Mr. Harte. Mr. Bernstein's chance to get into Russia came suddenly and he had to travel without impediment of any kind; the films that he carried took their place in storage alongside of those left by Mr. Harte.

As a consequence, Mr. Sisson and Mr. Bullard were compelled to rely entirely upon the small amount of film already possessed, and while they used it over and over again with remarkable results, there was always the sense of bitter disappointment. When the Bolsheviki finally threw pretense aside and came out as open enemies of America, the Committee changed its basis of operation from Moscow and Petrograd to Archangel and Vladivostok.

To Vladivostok, the center of east Siberian motion-picture trade, the Committee sent carloads of equipment, including six-B cameragraphs, delco light plants, monoplane lamps, re winders, motors, etc., motion-picture film-printing machines, motion-picture rheostats, screens, etc. This permitted the installation of our laboratory with full titling facilities, and as a consequence the Committee was able to ship continuously and in quantity. As in other countries, arrangements were made with the commercial producers for exclusive rights, and feature dramas and comedies soon joined with the Committee's war and industrial film for the presentation of well-balanced eight-reel programs.

Charles Philip Norton and H. Y. Barnes handled the motion-picture campaign for Mr. Bullard, and under their direction the Committee showed pictures throughout Siberia. Not only were our programs presented in picture-houses, but through the co-operation of the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Military and Naval Association we reached the firing-line, the churches, the rural communities, and other places where the Russian peasants assembled in any number. Read Lewis, the Committee's commissioner at Archangel, had been supplying one motion-picture theater in Archangel, and two in a suburb, with programs, and in conjunction with the Young Men's Christian Association was furnishing three reels of features and comedies and two reels of educationals. Harry P. Inman, ordered to Archangel to assist Mr. Lewis, carried with him a laboratory outfit for the manufacture and exhibition of motion pictures, also a large amount of negative and positive raw stock, 42 reels of feature dramas, 16 reels of good comedies, 26 reels of news weeklies, and all our official film, including "Pershing's Crusaders," "America's Answer," "Bridge of Ships," "Official War Review." Not the least of Mr. Inman's many successful undertakings was an arrangement with the educational department of the Russian Co-operative Unions (which is recognized by the present Archangel government) for films to be released in towns within a twohundred-mile radius of Archangel. Wilbur H. Hart, sent to China, found that distribution through established theaters was not feasible, inasmuch as less than 2 per cent, of their entire attendance was Chinese. In many of the principal theaters in Shanghai and in Pekin he presented the feature-films of the Committee with success and followed up with special presentations of various kinds in an effort to reach the purely Chinese population. Japan was comparatively simple, as we dealt with a well-established system of exchanges. E. L. Starr, the motion-picture expert despatched to South America, made a very complete survey and worked out a plan that gave maximum results. In Buenos Aires a theater was taken for official showing of the Committee's feature-films, after which a commercial arrangement was made with the leading distributor in the Argentine. In Brazil the motion-picture industry was controlled almost entirely by the French and Italians, and Mr. Starr made arrangements for distribution through the American Embassy at Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Morgan, the Ambassador, gave the matter his personal supervision, and as a result it was not long before American films held highest place in the favor of the Brazilian people.

In Peru the motion-picture theaters were found to be crude and unsatisfactory, the greater portion of the Peruvian population being Indian and entirely illiterate. Railroads reached some of the more important mining and agricultural sections, but a vast amount of this territory was accessible only by burro through mountain trails. The distribution of motion pictures for Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, made through Lima, was based, therefore, on a system worked out by C. V. Griffis, commissioner of the Committee in Peru, head of the American Society, and editor of the only English weekly on the west coast. Mr. Griffis owed much to the assistance of Mr. Handley, American consul-general at Lima.

Arrangements were made for the showing of the films in Peru through the Peru chapter of the American Red Cross in each of the cities and towns having a Red Cross branch. After this showing the films were turned over to the only important distributing corporation in the country, the Impreso de Teatros y Cinemas, Limitada, which agreed to play the films in every city and town having a cinema theater (26 towns and cities with a total of 34 theaters). That gave us over a period of time a very efficient distribution. Bolivia had five towns in which we made the same arrangement as in Peru. Ecuador likewise had eight towns in which the same arrangement for distribution was effected.

In Chile the official films of the Committee were turned over to Mr. Sevier, the Compub commissioner, and in the larger cities they were shown in conjunction with various charities. In the American mining towns and camps the films were shown by the American Red Cross under the auspices of the local chapters, and at the completion of these showings the Southern Pacific Paramount Company released these pictures in two or three reel lengths, in every city and town and camp having a cinema theater.

It was not only that the Committee put motion pictures into foreign countries. Just as important was the work of keeping certain motion pictures out of these countries. As a matter of bitter fact, much of the misconception about America before the war was due to American motion pictures portraying the lives and exploits of New York's gun-men, Western bandits, and wild days of the old frontier, all of which were accepted in many parts of the world as representative of American life.

What we wanted to get into foreign countries were pictures that presented the wholesome life of America, giving fair ideas of our people and our institutions. What we wanted to keep out of world circulation were the "thrillers," that gave entirely false impressions of American life and morals. Film dramas portraying the exploits of "Gyp the Blood," or "Jesse James," were bound to prejudice our figbt for the good opinion of neutral nations.

Our arrangements with the War Trade Board gave us power and we exercised it. Under the direction of Lieutenant Tuerk, offices were opened in New York, and when applications for export licenses were made the pictures themselves were examined by competent committees in which tne army, the navy, and the customs were equally represented. As the motion-picture industry commenced to understand our purpose and realized that we stood ready to expedite all proper licenses, as well as to make the fight for shipping space, the co-operation became enthusiastic. Not only was it the case that all harmful film was barred from export, but producers became more and more willing to incorporate a large percentage of "educational pictures" in their shipments. "Educational" in our sense of the word meant film that showed our schools, our industrial life, our war preparations, our natural resources, and our social progress.

The spirit of co-operation reduced the element of friction to a minimum. Oftentimes it was the case that a picture could be made helpful by a change in title or the elimination of a scene, and in no instance did a producer fail to make the alterations suggested. During its existence, according to the report of Lieutenant Tuerk, more than eight thousand motion pictures were reviewed, the greater percentage of which went forward into foreign countries with the true message from America.