"No Room at the Movies"

National board of the Y.W.C.A. has established a program in Hollywood to “return film-smitten girls to their homes.” Will Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America will donate $120,000 to the project:

“girls without professional experience have almost no chance of getting into a studio to-day, tho hundreds are reported to be so obsessed with their own possibilities as to be quitting work and school and starting for Hollywood, seeking fame and a million a year.” [ . . . ]

The Presbyterian commented that instead of helping those already in Hollywood others across the nation should be warned.

“Let every girl be sent home as soon as possible, and warning be sent out that no more are wanted. When a life of useful industry is this supplanted by a life of artificiality, imitation and indulgence, we can hope for nothing but breakdown and disaster for the rising generation. These well-meaning agencies must beware lest they sow the seeds of a nation-wide and generation-long misery and shame.”

[“No Room in the Movies,” Literary Digest, August 25, 1923, p.32]