Our Movie Made Children

''Our Movie Made Children'' was written by Henry James Forman and published in May 1933. Commissioned by W.W. Charters, the Chairman of the Committee on Educational Research of the Payne Fund, Forman was "entrusted the task of preparing a popular summary" of the conclusions found by the various scholars who conducted the studies.

The investigations were conducted between 1929 and 1933 at the request of the Motion Picture Research Council and include:
* ''Motion Pictures and Youth'' by W.W. Charters, combined with
:: ''Getting Ideas From The Movies'' by P.W. Holiday and George D. Stoddard
* ''The Content of Motion Pictures and Children's Attendance at Motion Pictures'' by Edgar Dale
* ''The Emotional Responses of Children to the Motion Picture Situation'' by W.S. Dysing and Christian A. Ruckmick, combined with
:: ''Motion Pictures and Standards of Morality'' by Charles C. Peters
* ''Motion Pictures and the Social Attitudes of Children'' by Ruth C. Peterson and L.L. Thurstone, combined with
:: ''Relationship of Motion Pictures to the Character and Attitudes of Children'' by Mark A. May and Frank Shuttleworth
* ''Children's Sleep'' by Samuel Renshaw, Vernon A. Miller, and Dorothy Marquis
* ''Movie and Conduct'' by Herbert Blumer
* ''Movies, Delinquency, and Crime'' by Herbert Blumer and Philip M. Hauser
* ''Boys, Movies and City Streets'' by Paul G. Cressey and Frederick M. Thrasher
* ''How to Appreciate Motion Pictures'' by Edgar Dale

The Payne Fund, an organization "interested in the radio, motion pictures and reading in relation to children and youth", supported these independent studies. ''Our Movie Made Children'', aimed at middle class mothers and religious groups, echoed the pro-censorship attitude behind the Payne Fund, and dramatized the threats movies posted to children. Criticized today as "emotional and inflammatory" the book, in its time was widely read because, although each study and the popular summary was to be an independently written volume of a series, Forman’s book was the first published and therefore often viewed, at the time, as the "authoritative public source".

Although Charters stated he had examined the accuracy of the claims made in ''Our Movie Made Children'' in his introduction to the book, he goes on to say that " isinterpretations of the studies, however, his selection of illustrative material, his literary style, his dramatic and emphatic presentation are of necessity entirely his own".

Despite these loose interpretations and individual style, Forman delivers exactly what the supporters of the studies desired: to show that movies can have a powerful and influential effect on the attitudes, emotions, and behavior of children, to appeal to parents to understand that there must be further study on how to use film to the best advantage of their children, and to put pressure on filmmakers to produce better quality, morally agreeable products. {{Citation needed, date=March 2011

Sources

* Forman, H.J. ''Our Movie Made Children''. The MacMillan Company, New York, New York, May 1933.
* Jarvis, Arthur R. ''The Payne Fund Reports: A Discussion on their Content, Public Reaction and Affect on the Motion Picture Industry, 1930-1940'', Journal of Popular Culture; Fall 1991; Vol. 25; Issue 2.
* Nichols, John. ''Countering Censorship: Edgar Dale and the Film Appreciation Movement'', Cinema Journal 46; No. 1; Fall 2006

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