Our Movie Made Children

"The basic material which Mr. Forman has used in preparing this volume is found in twelve studies, made during 1929 to 1933 at the request of the Motion Picture Research Council and supported by Payne Fund, an organization interested in the radio, motion pictures and reading in relation to children and youth. The investigators were not expected to pool their findings as a group and make a pronouncement about the movies. They rather conducted twelve independent investigations to furnish data for those who wished to use them. Mr. Forman shows a thorough grasp of the facts in the complicated materials presented in the nearly three thousand pages which constitute the report of the twelve studies. I agree with the author in the fundamental position that the motion picture is powerful to an unexpected degree in affecting the information, attitudes, emotional experiences and conduct patterns of children; that the content of current commercial motion pictures constitutes a valid basis for apprehension about their influence upon children; and that the commercial movies present a critical and complicated situation in which the whole-hearted and sincere cooperation of the producers with parents and public is essential to discover how to use motion pictures to the best advantage of children"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).