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Spacewarp, v. 4, issue 2, November 1948
Page 6
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of some well organized minority is drying up their story material. They cannot film sex, race, or political problems with any degree of honesty. The impact on Hollywood is terrific. As the profits dwindle the actors, producers and production men scurry around like ants in a stepped-on ant hill. People get fired over night, contracts change hands, pictures half completed are dropped because of costs. The result has been that since the war, Hollywood has produced the poorest run of pictures in its history. Little experimentation is going on now. The documentary film such as "Boomerang" and "The Street With No Name" is the only new thing that Hollywood has tried. Race prejudice pictures such as "Crossfire" and "Gentlemen's Agreement" have had a small success, but no new ones are on the way. In such a set-up it is not difficult to see why the science fiction film, which has had no outstanding success in the past, is not being produced today. The new cycles are Westerns such as "Rod River" and "Silver River" and musicals such as "Easter Parade" and "The Lady in Ermine," both tried and true formulas aimed at a large mass audience. There are factors, however, which might cause a new cycle of science fiction films when Hollywood catches its economic breath. A larger audience is in the making--read paragraph 1. The kids today are reading SUPERMAN and Captain Marvel and are better prepared for science fictin films than were the kids of yesterday who read western stories and dime novels. The atomic bomb has stirred the imagination of the average man like no other event in history and he is better geared to accept the science fiction premise than he was ten years ago. Science fiction writers are writing better stories--some of them are getting into the slick magazines, almost unheard-of in the thirties. Some producers are predicting that television will take over the mass audience entertainment and that the movies will produce pictures for select groups to be shown in small theaters. This would work in our favor as our ever growing numbers could put out a strong bid for science fiction pictures. And one of the days some happy-go-lucky Irishman is going to fly to the moon. If nothing else will jolt the Hollywood producer, that will! How would you guys like a couple of seats for "The World of A," by van Vogt, in technicolor and three dimensions? On the aisle, you say? Right this way, boys! - END - THE GHOST The ghost walked the streets of old Saw how it had changed today; He had lived there long ago He knew not how far away His old friends he could see-- But talk with them, oh no! Nor did his friends know that he Was so near to them, oh woe! Sad he returned to his haunts, To go on his way alone; No one could know his wants. He looked back once -- then as gone. by RUSSELL WATKINS 203 Wampum Louisville 9, Kentucky 6
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of some well organized minority is drying up their story material. They cannot film sex, race, or political problems with any degree of honesty. The impact on Hollywood is terrific. As the profits dwindle the actors, producers and production men scurry around like ants in a stepped-on ant hill. People get fired over night, contracts change hands, pictures half completed are dropped because of costs. The result has been that since the war, Hollywood has produced the poorest run of pictures in its history. Little experimentation is going on now. The documentary film such as "Boomerang" and "The Street With No Name" is the only new thing that Hollywood has tried. Race prejudice pictures such as "Crossfire" and "Gentlemen's Agreement" have had a small success, but no new ones are on the way. In such a set-up it is not difficult to see why the science fiction film, which has had no outstanding success in the past, is not being produced today. The new cycles are Westerns such as "Rod River" and "Silver River" and musicals such as "Easter Parade" and "The Lady in Ermine," both tried and true formulas aimed at a large mass audience. There are factors, however, which might cause a new cycle of science fiction films when Hollywood catches its economic breath. A larger audience is in the making--read paragraph 1. The kids today are reading SUPERMAN and Captain Marvel and are better prepared for science fictin films than were the kids of yesterday who read western stories and dime novels. The atomic bomb has stirred the imagination of the average man like no other event in history and he is better geared to accept the science fiction premise than he was ten years ago. Science fiction writers are writing better stories--some of them are getting into the slick magazines, almost unheard-of in the thirties. Some producers are predicting that television will take over the mass audience entertainment and that the movies will produce pictures for select groups to be shown in small theaters. This would work in our favor as our ever growing numbers could put out a strong bid for science fiction pictures. And one of the days some happy-go-lucky Irishman is going to fly to the moon. If nothing else will jolt the Hollywood producer, that will! How would you guys like a couple of seats for "The World of A," by van Vogt, in technicolor and three dimensions? On the aisle, you say? Right this way, boys! - END - THE GHOST The ghost walked the streets of old Saw how it had changed today; He had lived there long ago He knew not how far away His old friends he could see-- But talk with them, oh no! Nor did his friends know that he Was so near to them, oh woe! Sad he returned to his haunts, To go on his way alone; No one could know his wants. He looked back once -- then as gone. by RUSSELL WATKINS 203 Wampum Louisville 9, Kentucky 6
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