MAYOR BARS PICTURES OF FIGHT
San Francisco Call, July 7, 1910
Mayor Declares Exhibition to Be Just as Unlawful as Battle Itself
Movement Against Films Assumes National Proportions, but Trust Smiles
Motion Films Can Not Be Displayed in City, is Declaration of McCarthy
BOARD OF CENSORS IN FAVOR OF EXCLUSION
Nationwide Movement – May Wreck Gigantic Plans of Show Trust
EXHIBITION UNLAWFUL, CLAIM CITY OFFICIALS
THERE shall be no counterfeit presentment of the Jeffries – Johnson (or Johnson – Jeffries) boxing exhibition (or prize fight) in San Francisco. With the real affray thrown into the outer darkness of Nevada by Governor Gillett, the moving pictures of the battle are to be barred as effectively by Mayor P. H. McCarthy and the board of motion picture censorship. The censors last evening said they would support the mayor.
It is feared that the moving pictures of the fight would be too moving. A question that may well disturb the motion picture magnates is “Where may the pictures be shown?”
From all corners of the country there came word yesterday that the authorities would bar the pictures. While the north is tolerant of the proposed films, the south, already touched on the raw by the dark cloud that emanated from Reno, is for unconditionally switching off the current of the biograph. New Orleans is a little more liberal than some of its sister cities, as it is willing that the pictures be shown, but not to mixed gatherings of black and white. No checker board effects will be tolerated in the New Orleans nickelodeons while the prowess of “Li’l Arthur” is being exploited.
Mayor Issues Ultimatum
Mayor McCarthy Issued his local ultimatum yesterday. During the day he had a conference with Governor Gillett on the armory site project, but said that the governor did not speak of any aspect of the fight question. His. move was volitional. In his statement Mayor McCarthy said that his decision to prohibit the Reno fight pictures from contaminating the youthful mind and the adult morals of San Francisco was taken “after due reflection.” Then and only then did he forward the letter to the board of censorship requesting that they consider the wrongfulness of the motion pictures exploitation of the Johnson-Jeffries contest.
The mayor would have it understood that he is a supporter of all legitimate athletic exercises, an “earnest advocate of legitimate boxing contests,” but that he was not in favor of “brutal and demoralizing slugging matches” and he said, “I shall not permit lifelike pictures of any unlawful affair to be exhibited in this city while I am mayor.”
The mayor’s reasoning was that if the Johnson- Jeffries affair was such as to exceed the spirit of the contests countenanced by the law in this state and would have amounted to a violation of the law had it been perpetrated in this state, “photographic reproductions of the same should not be exhibited in this or any other community.”
Furthermore, he reasoned, that if the fight had been held here only adults of incorruptible and calloused and imperturable morals would have been admitted to the spectacle, while if the pictures were exhibited any child who boasted of a nickel could witness the fall of the “hope of the white race.” In that way the spirit of the law would be “plainly and definitely defeated.”
Show Hadn’t a Chance
So the mayor took the step toward stopping the show before it started.
The fight pictures were taken under the direction of a corporation known as the J. J. company, specially organized to handle the now disturbed enterprise. This company was composed of a union of the “trust” and the “independent” motion picture corporations of the United States. They purchased the right of the contestants and promoters.
Henry G. W. Dinkelspiel, the local attorney, is president of the J. J. company, but he modestly explained last evening that his duties were representative rather than executive or directing, and he said that he was in no position to speak for the corporation on the present plight of the pictures. Tom O’Day, who controls a third interest in the pictures, has just suffered the loss by death of his mother, and he stated last evening that he had not been able to follow the fortunes of the films. W. P. Rock of the Vitagraph company of New York, who is looked upon as the head of the fight picture combination, is on his way east with the films. Attorney William K. White of the firm of Miller & White is the local lawyer for the motion picture trust.
Attorney Noncommittal
He considered the question lightly last evening. “I can’t say what the company will do with the pictures,” said White. “You see, they will not be ready for exhibition out here for about a month, and by that time the people will be too much interested, in the election fight to bother about stopping fight pictures. Anyway, one city is a small consideration. There is no state law to stop motion picture exhibitions, and we can show everywhere except in San Francisco.”
J. J. Lodge of New York, representative of the “independent” picture company, who is at present at the St. Francis, spoke more freely and optimistically of the situation.
“We will not bother much about the agitation to stop the fight pictures,” he laid. “On the whole, Mayor McCarthy is just trying to grab a crumb off the Gillett table. We won’t lose any money by it.
“If it is widely advertised that the pictures are immoral there will be all the greater demand to see them. More attention will be drawn to them, and they will draw better houses than if they were merely presented as the routine program of motion picture houses.
“With the ban put on a public exhibition of the pictures, we can give private exhibitions to clubs and societies which can not be stopped. Clubs could be organized especially to give exhibitions of the pictures.
“Then, as there is no state law to prevent the exhibition of the fight pictures, there is nothing to prevent us from going across the county line and giving an exhibition in a tent.
PICTURES BEST EVER
“The pictures are ideal, probably the best ever taken. If the fight had been staged for the sole purpose of the pictures and had it been rehearsed before the machines, the result could not have been better. Taken as they were, with Jeffries knocked down three times in rapid succession, they are of greater commercial value than they would have been if Jeffries had knocked out Johnson.
“The company which controls the pictures will lease the rights in different states. In New York it is believed that the rights will bring $100,000. it has been estimated that the California rights will be worth $20,000, and so on through the union and in foreign countries.
“The moving picture trust was rather forced into coming into this combination. The Edison people, who control the trust, have been trying to get away from fight pictures. They have now pending in congress a bill to stop the exhibition of fight pictures in the United States, because they figure that the taking of fight pictures costs more money than ordinary pictures do, and while fight pictures are on exhibition in a town they draw from the regular shows of pictures. But now that the trust has been brought into this company, promoting the Johnson-Jeffries fight pictures, its opposition to the fight picture enterprise will probably cease, at least for a while.”
Harry G. McKannay, attorney for the J. J. company, said last evening that he had acted for the company merely to draw up its papers and was not in a position to speak of the attitude the company might take in San Francisco. “But I don’t think that the company will try to go contrary to public policy.” said McKannay.
Censors Must Act
The task of stopping the fight pictures will devolve on the moving picture censorship commission. The members of the commission are: Chairman, J. C. Astredo. playground commissioner and personal representative of the mayor: Norman Hall for the moving picture exhibitors; Mrs. F. Malloye for the board of education; P. P. Riordan for the police department and Miss Edith Hecht for the society for the prevention of cruelty to children. Norman Hall and Mrs. Malloye both stated last evening that the formal action stopping the pictures would undoubtedly be taken at the meeting next Monday. The action of the commission would be incorporated in a communication addressed to the chief of police requesting him to take the necessary action to prevent the exhibition of the pictures.
In discussing the proposed action Hall said: “At a meeting of the commission held prior to the. fight at Reno we discussed the proposed exhibition in this city of the motion pictures of the contest, and at that time we decided it was too early for us to act; that we should wait until after the contest, so we could know definitely and positively whether it was a prize fight or a boxing contest. Now that the fight has been held, there is no question of what it was. We have considered Governor Gillett’s action in preventing the fight in San Francisco and in California and we have had communications from many prominent citizens opposing the exhibition of the fight pictures in this city.
Police Have Power
“Under ordinances 761 and 826, new series of the board of supervisors of San Francisco, the police are empowered to stop, any portrayal of a crime by means of pictures. Governor Glllett and the authorities have held that a prize fight is a crime in California and under that ruling we are in a position to stop the exhibition of the fight pictures. It is contrary to public morals to have the pictures exhibited and there is the further danger that if the pictures were shown they might incite race feeling or lead to a race riot. The mayor and the governor seem in harmony on the question of the fight and the fight pictures.
“While I do not like to predict what action may “be taken by the board when we meet on next Monday I think I can say that l believe the commission will send a request to the chief of police that the pictures be prohibited in San Francisco.”
In answer to Norman Hall’s argument that the pictures might be stopped, as they would be the portrayal of a crime, Attorney William K. White for the moving picture trust replied that they would not be the portrayal of a crime, as the fight was fought in Nevada, where it was not a crime. However, White did not think that the company would make an effort to force the pictures into the city — at least not for the present.
Mrs. Malloye said: “The recommendation of the mayor to prohibit the Jeffries-Johnson fight pictures will very likely be upheld. The pictures may well be considered objectionable. It seems to me that it would be most inconsistent for the city to have barred the fight and then to allow the pictures of the contest to be exhibited. While our practice heretofore has been to see and pass on all pictures before they are exhibited in public, in this case that procedure may not be necessary, as we are already acquainted with the nature of the exhibition, and there can be no question on that score. While l am not in a position to speak for the commission, I can say that I am sure that the pictures will be prohibited.”
Plans Made to Exhibit
The motion picture people, according to Norman Hall, had already made plans for exhibiting the films of the Reno fight in this city. Hall said that the Novelty theater had been secured and, the pictures would first have been shown there before they were released to the regular houses. The Novelty prices would have been $1 and 50 cents a seat. The pictures would have been on special exhibition for several weeks before the release to the regular moving picture showhouses.
It was predicted that the moving picture people would make $1,000,000 on the Jeffries-Johnson fight pictures. So large was the enterprise considered that the “trust” and the “Independents” joined forces on the proposition rather than bid themselves to death in their negotiations with the promoters and principals of the fight. The combination gave $100,000 for the motion picture rights. This sum was cut up three ways. Johnson and Jeffries each got one-third of the amount, and Tex Rickard and Jack Gleason, had a one sixth interest each, making the other third. Gleason held to his sixth, but the others sold their interest, Jeffries parting with his last one-sixth for $16,666.66 just as he entered the ring on the eventful fourth of July.
The interests in the pictures is said now to be divided as follows: The trusts one-half, : Tom O’Day one-third and Jack Gleason one-sixth. Of the total sum the independents hold one third. The trusts are combined under the name of the Moving pictures patent company of New York. It controls.the Edison patents. Ten large film companies are in the trust, among them being the American vitagraph company of New York, the Selig manufacturing company of Chicago, the S. and A. company, the Biograph company, Pathe Freres, the Edison company, Gaumont, Lubins and two other concerns.
Cardinal Gibbons Says
Show Might Cause Riot
BALTIMORE, July 7.— Cardinal
Gibbons today declared his oppo-
sition to the exhibition of the
Johnson-Jeffries fight pictures in
Baltimore or elsewhere, saying
“It would be wrong to show
these horrible pictures, first, be-
cause the children have to be
protected, and it is the children
who would be most seriously af-
fected if much exhibition were
allowed. The proper authorities
should see to it that the young
men and young women are given
the protection that is their due.
“The showing of the pictures
would have a bad effect upon the
men and women of the commu-
nity also, and would, I think,
tend to induce attacks upon the
blacks.
“The resentment and ill feeling
induced by the result of the fight
have passed and should not be
revived. A pictorial reproduction
in Baltimore of the fight might
cause rioting that could not but
injure the good name of the city.
“The black people could not
profit by seeing the pictures, and
I am sure the whites would not.”