Illinois No State law legalizing or making illegal showing of pictures on Sunday. This is controlled by municipalities. No Sunday shows in Sparta and Waverly. Indiana Not legalized, but Sunday motion pictures are shown in every principal city in State. No Sunday shows in Oakland City. Iowa Legalized by local option. Kansas Has Sunday labor laws which include motion pictures for Sunday showing. Law has never been enforced and all towns operate except White Cloud, Smith Center, Lindsborg, Scott City, Clifton, Baldwin, Greenleaf, Lincoln, Jetmore, Spearville, Oskaloosa. State's Memorial Day blue law repealed, 1945. Kentucky Bill legalizing Sunday performances passed 1934. State court of appeals declared in May 1942, that Sunday motion pictures are allowed by State law and that no municipality can prohibit them. Louisiana Legalized by local option. Maine 1939 law permits Sunday shows between 3 and 11 p. m. Legislature passed local option referendum exercised at regular elections, effective July 26, 1941. Maryland Legislature in 1931 enacted law providing referendum for city of Baltimore which was voted on and passed. Theaters open in following counties: Baltimore, Montgomery, Prince Georges, St. Marys, Howard, Oakland, Anne Arundel, Carroll, and Frederick. Incorporated towns in Allegany County may have Sunday showings if they get permit. By act of 1943 legislature Sunday movies are permitted in Aberdeen and Frederick City and in Washington County from 1 to 7 p. m. Cecil County may have Sunday shows by local option from 2 to 11 p. m. Other counties have not passed laws permitting Sunday shows. Massachusetts Legalized for Sunday showing. A large number of cities and towns are forbidden film showing on Sunday. Michigan Has old blue law statute prohibiting showing of pictures on Sunday, but statute is not enforced. Holland alone has closing ordinance. Minnesota Sunday closing law of 1905 amended 1909 legalizing outdoor sports. In a decision of 1910, motion pictures were classed as sports and allowed to operate. Mississippi Not legalized. One town, Shaw, operates—they open on Sunday, pay fine, and continue to operate. City Commission of Jackson, in May 1942, gave permission for Sunday films. But in October, State circuit court closed Sunday shows. Jackson, Meridian, and other towns operate on Sunday by collecting free-will offering instead of admission charge. Missouri Has Sunday labor laws which include motion pictures for Sunday showing. Law was never enforced and all towns operate except Marshall, Fairfax, Fulton. Montana No State statute prohibiting showing of motion pictures on Sunday and no law legalizing such showing, but all towns run shows on Sunday. Nebraska Legalized by local option. Sunday shows forbidden in Stromsberg. Town council opened Arnold for Sunday shows. Beatrice approved Sunday shows April 1940. Nevada No State ban on Sunday shows. New Hampshire State passed Sunday sports and entertainment bill in 1931 and individual cities and towns may vote on it. Entire State open by local option after 1 p. m. New Jersey Blue laws repealed in 1933. Towns which have local ordinance prohibiting Sunday shows: Belvedere, Blairstown, Frenchtown, Highbridge, Jamesburg, Metuchen, Ocean Grove, Peapack, Ridgewood, Upper Montclair, Westfield. November 8, 1938, Montclair, by referendum vote, made Sunday movies legal. State removed ban on Sunday shows in Princeton to provide recreation for men in training camps. New Mexico Bill passed 1931 legislature legalizing Sunday showings and prohibiting local option measures from closing theaters. New York Home rule law by which towns or cities are permitted to show motion pictures on Sunday after 2 p. m., provided local ordinance is enacted to this effect by local legislative body and ratified by direct vote of people at special election. Under this law leading towns and cities show pictures on Sunday. The following towns have local ordinances prohibiting Sunday shows: Bronxville, Carmel, Middletown, New Paltz, Hancock, Cazenovia. Rensselaer repealed ordinance November 1940. Law passed in 1939 provides referendum by villages on Sunday shows. North Carolina Not legalized. State law, city ordinances, and public opinion opposed to Sunday films, but the following towns do have Sunday shows: Asheville, Benson, Chapel Hill, Dunn, Durham, Elizabeth City, Henderson, High Point, Louisburg, Plymouth, Raleigh, Robertsonville, Scotland Neck, Tarboro, Williamson. Sunday films legalized for Cherokee County. Numerous towns have Sunday shows with percentage of proceeds to charity. 1939 Sunday closing law repealed in Johnston and Hyde Counties. Law also passed in 1939 prohibiting Sunday shows in Yadkin County, and in Northampton between 1 and 6 p. m. Sanford closed by city ordinance April 1, 1940. Sunday films permitted in Charlotte and Salisbury in 1941. North Dakota Sunday shows legalized by referendum in 1933. Ohio Legalized showing on Sunday. Forbidden in Bayesville and Cambridge. State supreme court in 1940 upheld right of municipalities to forbid Sunday performances. Wellsville resumed Sunday pictures September 1946, after being closed since 1914. Oklahoma Legalized by local option. No State law against operation of Sunday shows. No towns of any consequence have closing laws. Oregon Legalized by local option to run shows on Sunday. No closed situation known. Pennsylvania Sunday opening law passed, effective July 22, 1935. Legalized by local option. Law passed in 1941 provided referendum may be held every 4 years instead of 5, on request of 20 percent of highest vote cast for any candidate (old law specified 5 percent). Rhode Island Legalized by local option; 1943 legislature passed law permitting theaters in Providence and several other communities to open at 1 p. m. instead of 2 on Sundays. South Carolina Legislature in 1942 passed bill permitting Sunday films after 2 p. m.. except between 7 and 9 p. m., in cities of 62,000 or more population. South Dakota Has State law prohibiting Sunday pictures. Local option has overruled this law, however, and pictures are shown on Sunday. Tennessee Governor signed bill repealing blue laws in April 1935. Sunday opening by local option. However, few operate. Memphis, Dresden, Savannah, Knoxville, Ripley, Lexington, and Maryville have Sunday shows; 1939, passed State law providing majority in any municipality shall decide for Sunday movies (previous law four-fifths majority). February 1939 Nashville voted for Sunday shows. Murfreesboro theaters closed by poll-tax vote in 1940. Etowah and Clarksville approved Sunday films in 1942. Jackson, which had shown movies on Sunday afternoons, forced to discontinue by referendum vote in 1943. Sunday films banned by city council in Martin, 1943. Lebanon, Dyersburg, LaFollette, and Whiteville voted for Sunday shows. City council of Knoxville passed Sunday opening measure on first reading March 1946, but no further action taken. Texas Governor signed bill legalizing Sunday pictures, which law became effective August 12, 1931, subject to local option. Prior to passage of law, majority of principal towns were open. Most towns now have Sunday shows. Utah No law preventing showing of pictures on Sundays. Former State statute made it illegal to operate a theater on Sunday, but this statute was repealed in 1925. Local-option bill was subsequently introduced but failed to pass. Vermont Sunday movies after 6 p. m., law passed 1939; 1941 legislature eliminated necessity for voting every year on Sunday amusements, except on petition of 5 percent of voters. Virginia Motion pictures are exhibited on Sunday in Richmond, Norfolk, and various other Virginia cities, usually after juries and test cases have failed to convict the exhibitor. In Williams v. Commonwealth (179 Va. 741), decided in 1942, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia approved the operation of Sunday movies where the proceeds were devoted to charity, and three members of the court, in a concurring opinion, held that the defendant was engaged in a "work of necessity," within the meaning of the Virginia Sunday observance law. The effect of this concurring opinion has been far reaching in discouraging prosecutions for the exhibition of motion pictures on Sunday. Washington Sunday opening not legalized except in Colfax where old statute providing Sunday closing was attempted to be enforced, but was defeated. Theaters throughout State operate without interference. Closed in Pullman Sunday evenings as result of friendly arrangement with people of Normal School of Pullman. West Virginia Not legalized, but all principal cities show pictures on Sunday which include Charleston, Bluefield, Huntington, Williamson (theaters in last city open after closing of church in morning and close prior to evening service). Forbidden by local ordinance in Lewisburg, Milton, and Ronceverte. Wisconsin Blue laws repealed in 1933. Wyoming No State law concerning motion pictures. BIBLIOGRAPHY Berelson, Bernard, and Morris Janowitz (editors), Reader in Public Opinion and Communication. Illinois, 1950, pages 397-464. Several sections deal with the effect of the media of mass communication, including motion pictures, on attitudes and behavior. Blumer, Herbert, and Philip M. Hauser, Movies, Delinquency and Crime. New Charters, W. W., Motion Pictures and Youth, a Summary. New York, 1933. Contains results of tests on retention of movie content. One test compared retention of material contained in novels with material in movies adapted from the same books. Much more of the content of the movie was remembered longer. and John Morrison, Motion Picture Discrimination: An Annotated Bibliography. Bureau of Education Research, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1951. A booklet that digests many articles and books dealing with the ways to build taste in motion pictures and television. Doob, Public Opinion and Propaganda. 1948, pages 511-514. For recent surveys of motion picture content which are not limited to categorizing movies by central theme but examine content from a psychological, anthropological, or philosophical viewpoint. Dysinger, Wendell S., and Christian A. Ruckmick, The Emotional Responses of Children to the Motion Picture Situation. New York, 1933. Fearing, Franklin, Influence of the Movies on Attitudes and Behavior, in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, November 1947, pages 70–79. Hearings Before the Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Motion Hodgins, Eric, A Roundtable on the Movies. Life, June 27, 1949, page 90. Results of tests attempting to determine the effectiveness of orientation films used by the armed services during the war. Irving L. Janis, and Harold H. Kelley, Communication and Persuasion. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1953, 300 pages. Hulett, J. E., Estimating the Net Effect of a Commercial Motion Picture Upon the Trend of Local Public Opinion. American Sociological Review, volume 14, 1949, pages 263–274. Inglis, Ruth A., Freedom of the Movies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1947, 241 pages. Jahoda, Marie, Morton Deutsch, and Stuart W. Cook, Research Methods in Social Relations. Volumes I and II, New York, 1951, 759 pages. Describes techniques and findings of various studies to determine the effect of motion pictures on attitudes. Klapper, Joseph T., The Effects of Mass Media: A Report to the Director of the Public Library Inquiry. New York, Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, 1949. Experiments indicated that although factual material presented in movies might be forgotten, attitude changes were actually magnified with the passage of time. Mayer, Jacob Peter, Sociology of Film. Faber & Faber, Ltd., London, 1946, 328 pages. Chapters IV, V, and VI are studies in child and adolescent reactions to motion pictures. Lazarsfeld, Paul Felix, and Harry Field, The People Look at Radio. New York, 1946. and Frank Stanton (editors), Communications Research, 1948-49. New York, 1949. Maccoby, Eleanor E., Television: Its Impact on School Children. Public Opinion Quarterly, fall 1951, pages 421-444. Presents a theoretical discussion of the effect of certain types of story content on children. Why Do Children Watch Television? report printed in Hearings Before the Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Television Programs. Washington, D. C., 1955, pages 20-23. Reports the extent of a child's interest in television as a symptom of a need for vicarious satisfaction through fantasy, when the child is frustrated in his efforts to obtain satisfaction in real life. Mayer, Jacob Peter, Sociology of Film. Faber & Faber, Ltd., London, 1946, 328 pages. Chapters IV, V, and VI are studies in child and adolescent reactions to motion pictures. Mirams, Gordon, Drop That Gun! in the Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, vol. VI, 1951, page 1. Interim results of a comprehensive survey of motion picture content on which the author (chief government censor and registrar of films in New Zealand) worked. He compares violence in American films to foreign product. Motion Pictures and the First Amendment. The Yale Law Journal, volume 60, No. 4, April 1951, pages 698-719. Parents Revolt Against TV. The Christian Century, January 14, 1953, pages 36-37. An editorial on the Chicago revolt against children's TV programs, especially films of violence. Peterson, Ruth C., and Thurstone, L. L., Motion Pictures and the Social Attitudes of Children. New York, 1933. Powdermaker, Hortense, Hollywood, The Dream Factory. Secker & Warburg, London, 1951, 332 pages. An anthropologist studies the movie industry. Preston, Mary, M. D., Children's Reactions To Movie Horrors and Radio Crime. The Journal of Pediatrics, August 1941, volume XIX, No. 2, pages 147-168. In a study of 200 children, addiction to movie horrors and radio crime was found to be detrimental to the general health. Nervousness was increased both in amount and in degree. Riesman, David, and Reuel Denny in Berelson and Janowitz (editors), Reader Schary, Dore, Case History of a Movie. Random House, New York, 1950, 239 pages. Censorship and Stereotypes, in Saturday Review of Literature, April 30, 1949, page 9. Seldes, Gilbert, Previews of Entertainment. New York, Bantam Books. The first of a series planned to give advance information on motion pictures, television, and radio shows, so that adults can select their entertainment. The Great Audience. New York, 1950, pages 64–68. Analysis of motion picture, radio, and television programing, and of the effects on public taste. Outlines possible improvements, mainly the adult point of view. Shurlock, Geoffrey, The Motion Picture Production Code. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1947, pages 140-147. Wagner, Geoffrey, Parade of Pleasure, a Study of Popular Iconography in the U. S. A. New York, 1955, 192 pages. Witty, Paul, Helping Children Read Better. Chicago, 1950. Contains practical suggestions in improving reading skills. Chapter VI on the guidance of children's interests in reading and in other media. Witty, Paul, Research About Children and TV, in Bulletin No. 93 of the Association for Childhood Education International, 1200 15th Street NW., Washington, D. C., 1954. Wolfenstein, Martha, and Nathan Leites, Movies: A Psychological Study. The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill., 1953, 307 pages. A study of the content of contemporary American films to determine recurrent themes and their relationship to public attitudes. Wylie, Evan M., Violence on TV-Entertainment or Menace? Cosmopolitan, February 1953, pages 34–39. Answers to questions on television violence from medical and education authorities as queried. |