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The Jerome Howard Notebook
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as assisted by Dan Fiorella
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by Jerome Howard
WWN, 1/10/2005
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As classic films are released on DVD, there are efforts being made to edit these films, removing dated humor that might be offensive to today's audiences. Gerry Muthers, president of Filmco, has announced plans to release a box set of Marx Brother films that would digitally remove Chico, who portrayed a stereotypical Italian immigrant. “I’m sure it’s an insult to all Italian-Americans,” says Mr. Muthers.
“Back in the olden days of movies, people could do anything! It was terrible the way movie characters treated each other back then. There’s no need for that,” states Mr. Muthers. “And now we can fix it.”
Film scholars note that while Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s had the Hays office to monitor and censor language, sex and violence, there was nothing in place to protect people’s self-esteem.
One scholar, Otis Rexman, states, “It must have been terrible for people to go to a movie and watch them make fun of blacks or Asians or the French. These new DVDs are a start. I was hoping they’d get rid of Harpo, too. Mute-Americans would probably tell us they are insulted by him if they could talk.”
But others disagree. Marlow Biggits, of the Society of Film Preservation says, “You can’t erase the past. These films are what they are. Do we pretend people never thought this way? Or do we learn from it? I can’t see how digitally replacing Stepin Fetchit with Adam Sandler is an improvement of any kind.”
With modern computer technology, companies now copy a movie by digitalizing it. Once the film is converted into computer data, they can then make any number of changes, such as restoring the quality of the picture and sound. But the technology also permits companies to colorize black and white movies or compress movies to fit set running times. Or make more wide-scale changes.
For years television broadcasters have edited films, such as Bug Bunny cartoons and Our Gang comedies, removing scenes with characters appearing in blackface or impersonating Native Americans. “What we are doing is the next logical step,” explains Mr. Muthers.
"And this is just the beginning,” Muthers adds. “We're also going to release a collection of Charlie Chaplin shorts, without Charlie Chaplin. We feel his portrayal of a 'tramp' is degrading to the homeless today." Other releases include "The Wizard of Oz" without the munchkins, "Gone With the Wind" without the slaves and several Jerry Lewis movies where he wouldn’t be as spastic and insulting to people with handicaps.
Marlow Biggits argues, “For broadcasting on free TV, we understand certain edits. But for a product that is going to be sold to private citizens to be seen in their own homes? These changes are sacrilege to any true cinemaphile! These people should lighten up. They’re just movies.”
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by Jerome Howard
WWN, 9/5/2005
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Sioux City, IA -- Wall Street investors are closely watching the plans of Faxteria Inc., a Midwest-based company which has developed technology which will allow them to fax pizzas to customers.
Ronald Hubberd, president of Faxteria, states, “The food home delivery service is about to enter the 22nd century.” The company says it is about to leap frog over home delivery and quick pick-up restaurants.
“People will be able to phone in their orders. The meal is then prepared fresh. It is placed into the patented Faxteria Food Fax machine. Then using the coordinates ascertained by the phone call, the food order is transported to the customers home,” explained Mr. Hubberd. “All our customers need is a credit card and a phone.” There are plans underway to utilize the internet in some manner because “the kids love the internet.”
The company is rolling out the technology with its pizza parlors and then it hopes to expand to burgers and chicken. While industry insiders are very excited by this break-through, others are quite upset.
Dr. Lawrence Bender of the Technology & Knowledge Federation is outraged by this announcement. “What this pizzeria is telling us that it has in effect developed a matter transmission device and plans to ‘beam’ pizzas with it. This is ludicrous!”
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