In the Interest of the Moral Life of Our City: the Beginning
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“In the Interest of the Moral Life of Our City”: The Beginning of Motion Picture Censorship in Portland, Oregon Mary P. Erickson Film History: An International Journal, Volume 22, Number 2, 2010, pp. 148-169 (Article) Published by Indiana University Press For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/fih/summary/v022/22.2.erickson.html Access Provided by University of Oregon at 09/14/11 6:34PM GMT Film History, Volume 22, pp. 148–169, 2010. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America “In the Interest of the Moral Life of Our City”: The Beginning of Motion Picture Censorship in Portland, Oregon In the Interest of the Moral Life of Our City Mary P. Erickson “There is an attachment for the automobile those concerns. Cities like Portland, Oregon, scruti- called the shock-absorber, which does away nized motion pictures, relatively new forms of public with the sharp bumps. In the same way the entertainment, for having deleterious effects on soci- moving picture censor board is the shock-ab- ety. Their exploitation of criminal, sexual and other sorber between the people and the film pro- immoral themes served to titillate, and many thought ducers that does away with the bumps, but to tempt, audiences. In many instances, motion pic- carries with it severe criticisms.” tures were thought to directly cause criminal behav- – Eleanor Colwell, Executive Secretary, Port- ior: “A woman in Denver in 1910 saw a film in which land Board of Motion Picture Censors, 1915.1 a person was murdered in his sleep. She soon after killed her husband while he slept”.4 n 1914, William Trufant Foster, President of Reed Motion picture censorship offered a way for College in Portland, Oregon, and chair of the city’s governments to attempt to control these supposed ICommittee on Commercialized Pleasure Resorts, effects on audiences; it was not, however, a formal- concluded that “the weekly capacity of motion ized process that guaranteed the eradication of picture theaters in Portland exceed[ed] the total threats to a moral society. Rather, communities population of the city”.2 Motion picture attendance across the country had only begun to address the around the country hit fantastically high numbers; in issue, shaping standards as they went along. Be- 1909, over 200,000 people attended movies in New cause there were no established guidelines or defi- York City every day, while the weekly seating capacity nitions of what constituted objectionable or immoral of Boston motion picture theaters was over 400,000. content, trial-by-error approaches shaped the bulk of Roughly 90 per cent of schoolchildren in Portland, motion picture censorship. Varying interests vied for Oregon, attended movies on a weekly basis.3 It was control over who could best speak for the community this frequency and popularity of movie attendance as a leisure activity that, particularly during the medium’s Mary P. Erickson is a Ph.D. candidate in Communi- infancy, spurred attention towards movie content and cation and Society at the University of Oregon. She is subsequent censorship of motion pictures. co-editor of Cross-Border Cultural Production: Eco- Changing economic and social conditions nomic Runaway or Globalization? and has published during the Progressive era generated much concern articles on independent film, Internet movie marketing and YouTube. Her dissertation focuses on inde- over the general welfare of society, and Progressive pendent filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest. governments introduced social reform to address Email: [email protected] FILM HISTORY: Volume 22, Number 2, 2010 – p. 148 In the Interest of the Moral Life of Our City FILM HISTORY Vol. 22 Issue 2 (2010) 149 to determine an appropriate level of motion picture per cent of Portland’s population, the majority of censorship. them the city’s emerging middle class, settled on the The case of motion picture censorship in the east side, while many of the city’s working class, 1910s in Portland, Oregon, is a good lens through minority, immigrant, and itinerant populations tended which to examine this process in depth. Specifically, to remain in the west and north sides of Portland.6 what factors shaped how movie censorship devel- During these boom years, leisure activities for oped in Portland, and why did theater managers and Portland residents also developed. The same sum- the city struggle so intensely over local censorship of mer of 1905 that saw the Lewis and Clark Exposition motion pictures? By analyzing the history of Port- also saw the opening of the Oaks Amusement Park, land’s motion picture Censor Board in its various billed as the “Coney Island of the West”.7 The Oaks iterations in the early 1910s, one can understand how drew crowds who caught the trolley in downtown a city undergoing vast changes in population, eco- Portland for a fifteen-minute ride to the Sellwood nomics and social composition, as it shifted from a district, southeast of the city on the banks of the frontier setting to an urban center, struggled to define Willamette River. An estimated 300,000 people vis- its moral underpinnings. ited the Oaks every year from 1905 to 1915, partaking in amusement rides, watching musical and vaude- Portland during the progressive era ville acts, and swimming in the Bathing Pavilion.8 The The United States experienced drastic changes in its Oaks presented a new challenge to city authorities social, economic and political makeup during the because it was the city’s first large-scale venue that Progressive era, generally recognized as the years “encouraged a casual mixing of men and women”, between 1890 and 1920. Millions of immigrants en- often among different classes and ethnicities.9 tered the U.S., settling across the country. Corpora- Other venues posed the same challenges; tions dominated most industries as modernization dance halls and nickelodeons became prevalent in and mass production altered industry structures, and the city around this time. Lower classes who once big business became more firmly tied to government. patronized saloons now spent their money at motion Mass consumption and the leisure class took root picture theaters. As The Oregon Sunday Journal with increased productivity, mass advertising, more noted, leisure time, and disposable income. These radical Local business has fallen away 70 per cent changes were accompanied by anxieties about how since the advent of the motion picture … . to deal with them; many felt that American values and Motion picture houses have been declared to ideals were under threat, while others saw these be the poor man’s theatre and undoubtedly changes as opportunities to shape and democratize the saloons that soonest feel the picture pa- society. tronage are those so situated that they derive Portland, Oregon, was no exception in this their revenue from men of very moderate and movement, as political and social leaders reacted to even slender means.10 the changing nature of the city’s economy and soci- ety. The Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905 spurred Nickelodeons, open to all populations, were an economic boom in Portland, as an estimated 2.5 quickly categorized as “borderline vice”, but as more million people, Portlanders and tourists alike, flooded reputable theaters opened in the 1910s motion pic- into the park grounds in four and a half months.5 The tures soon seeped into the leisure activities of middle years immediately following the Exposition were classes.11 some of the most prosperous in Portland’s history, Corruption among business and government as the city’s population nearly doubled by 1915. This elites overtook much of the city, secretly funding figure was typical of trends across the country as many of the immoral establishments and practices many shifted from rural to urban living. Much of this in town. Portland’s emerging middle class, consti- expansion occurred in the city’s east side; streetcar tuted primarily of professionals, merchants and lines networked mostly east of the Willamette River, clerks, began to set itself in opposition to ruling elites connecting new neighborhoods to downtown. This with strong ties to corporate capital in the East. This expansion also began to reflect the shifting socio- middle class tended to solidarity with the working economic geography of the city. Much of the city’s class in a united effort to “generate a nearly success- upper class lived in homes in the west hills. About 71 ful political threat to the rule of Portland’s elite”.12 This FILM HISTORY: Volume 22, Number 2, 2010 – p. 149 150 FILM HISTORY Vol. 22 Issue 2 (2010) Mary P. Erickson alignment against elites helped Allen Rushlight get of fire, poorly lit rooms and exits and lack of ventila- elected as Portland’s mayor in 1911; he then filled tion posed physical dangers to moviegoers. Con- city positions with representatives from small busi- cerns arose over the personal safety of young ness and began to institute small-scale reforms. The women as they sat in partial darkness with members same year, Mayor Rushlight created a Vice Commis- of the opposite sex. Children’s health was held in sion to investigate the state of the community. It question as kids spent increasing numbers of hours reported 431 of the 547 hotels, apartments, and in theaters each week. Perhaps most troubling to rooming houses to be “immoral” to some degree; many of Portland’s residents, movies began to “in- prominent citizens of the community owned most of vade the better class residence portions” of cities these establishments.13 The Commission also made around the country, Portland included.20 several recommendations to accommodate female The motion picture industry contributed over employees who were subjected to a range of temp- $1,000,000 annually to Portland’s overall commercial tations caused by their inexperience, lack of compe- activity and employed 300 to 350 people.