The Girl That Disappears/Chapter 14
XIV
DANGEROUS DARKNESS IN MOVING PICTURE
SHOWS
MUCH has been said of the participation of the moving picture show in the whole question of the social evil. Now the moving picture show and the nickelodeon are not in themselves bad things. The shows are rarely vicious, and within the last two years fully 90 per cent. of the motion picture films have been voluntarily subjected to censorship.
There is only one objection to the moving picture theater, and that is that it is conducted in darkness. This applies to about two-thirds of the cheap theaters. There is absolutely no excuse for this state of affairs. It costs only about $25.00 to properly equip for lighting one of these theaters, and the light does not interfere with the effectiveness of the pictures.
The cheap theaters, the nickleodeon, the motion picture places are to young children from fourteen to sixteen what the dance hall is to the older girls and boys. It is true that in most places there are regulations forbidding the admission of children unaccompanied by their elders, but the regulations are to a very large extent ignored. To these theaters with their atmosphere of darkness and obscurity flock the procurer. No one can tell with any degree of accuracy how great his harvest has been, but it is certain that the dark theaters have been and still continue to be a terrible menace to the morals of young girls.