"The manager of a successful motion picture house in New England recently said: "Every day I open my picture house I am exercising an influence upon hundreds of homes in the city. The workingman comes here and looks at pictures which show homes much more beautiful than his own; he watches men and women meeting according: to the forms of polite society, the man tipping his hat upon the street, or removing It when he enters the house, or stepping aside that the ladies may pass before him: he becomes an observer of the world of good manners (and then tomorrow as he goes to his loll, where his hands and his feet are occupied but his mind is free to roam, he unconsciously lives over again those scenes which he watched in my playhouse). Soon he thinks of points at which he can Improve his own conduct, of ways in which he can modestly beautify his own home, and before the weeks have passed there is a touch of color or an increase of cleanliness In his tenement due to the unconscious instruction which he received at the motion picture show." - From Harvard Divinity School publication 1912.
Interesting quote from the early days of "talkies" We have come a long way in 100 years, and not in a good way. There are very few movies that viewers can "think of ways they can improver their own conduct." Instead they see violence, profanity, and debauchery.
When our minds are free to roam do we still think of the observance of good manners? What is the "influence of hundreds of homes" now? And these hundreds have increased to thousands and millions of homes. Comments welcome - T. Meiers
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