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Griffin Daily News
Youths Rate Film Code
Distributed by NEA
Opinions of the nation’s
youth on the motion picture
rating code are widely var
ied. How effective is it? How
do young people react to the
system that is designed with
those age 17 and under in
mind? Does it actually serve
a purpose?
“You get information
about a film from the rating
code, even if you haven’t
read a review or heard about
it from other people,’’ says
one student.
“Many people would never
go to an X-rated film, while
others would make a special
point of seeing something
that might be risque.”
Gilbert Youth Research’s
National Gilbert Youth Poll
questioned high school, col
lege and out-of-school youth
across the country, and
found that most of them (90
per cent) are familiar with
the rating system.
Many respondents (80 per
cent) feel the code’s restric
tions tend to make some peo
ple curious to see films if
they are rated R (restricted,
persons under 16 not admit
ted unless accompanied by
parent or guardian) or X
(persons under 16 not admit
ted). “You know, some peo
ple notice that a film has an
X rating and automatically
decide to go see a dirty’
film,” said a college sopho
more from Indianapolis.
“It’s an easy way to in
crease a movie’s popular
ity,” said a 23-year-old girl
from Dallas. “X means for
bidden—so, even if a film is
really horrible, many people
will want to see it, simply
because it’s got sex in it,”
said a 17-year-old boy from
St. Louis.
Forty-eight per cent of
those interviewed felt that
the motion picture rating
system helps prevent expo
sure to certain films, while
43.6 per cent disagreed. The
younger respondents (under
When The Third Cracked
Europe, by Gen. Paul I). Harkins.
(Stackpole. $5.95)
In the ruins of Nazi Germany,
in the final days of World War 11,
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
commanding the U. S. Third
Army, talks by telephone to one
of his corps commanders, Maj.
Gen. Clarence Huebner:
Patton: “Hueb, congratula
tions on being back with the
Third Army. Where have you
been since Sicily? ”
Huebner: “Makinga nuisance
of ourselves. I'oo bad the damn
war’s over or we’d really go
places. I have some wonderful
divisions in the corps.
Patton: “The wars over'
Who said so? I have no such
orders. I want you to attack
tomorrow morning. I want you
to take Pilsen and then Prague.
Go as far as you can. Do you
understand?
Huebner: “Yes, sir!
This typifies the book and its
story. It chronicles Pattons
crash from Normandy through
France, Germany and into
Czechoslovakia.
Recent historians have tended
to play down George Patton s
activities. They argue he shone
best in publicity. This book coun
ters that-it’s the stuff of Blood
7
* YOUTH RATESTHE MOVIE
RATINGS
Percentage Interviewed: Ratings Tend To:
Increase Protect Aid Serve No
Curiosity Some Parents Purpose
Familiar
With 26
Rating . 48 . ,
S ”"' ” M
Know Erf-Tl <B/y] Eg J j
17) were more enthusiastic
about the system’s effect
than the older (over 22). “It
serves as a form of protec
tion,” answered an 18-year
old girl from Decatur, 111.
“Children should certainly
not be exposed to a lot of
films that are around to
day.”
Os the opposite opinion was
a 23-year-old from Denver.
“It’s totally ridiculous. The
classifications mean less
than nothing—nobody pays
any attention to them.”
Many young people (75 per
cent) feel that the motion
picture rating code definitely
helps parents determine
which films their children
should see; however, those
18 and under were less posi
tive about this than the older
group (19-25). “Parents may
forbid their children to see
an X-rated film and send
them to a G-rated film, but
that just makes the kids
more curious about what
they’re not supposed to see,”
said a 17-year-old from
Books
’n’ Guts Patton, pistols on his
belt, cavalry boots shining, jaw
set.
It is written by an officer who
served with Patton. Later the
author became U.S. commander
in South Vietnam, where the
laurels were fewer.
Richard H. Growald (UPI)
«• * x-
* * *
Zoo Man, bv Herb Clement.
(MacMillan, $5.95)
Herb Clement is a New York
zoo keeper, and his book is a
behind-the-scenes look at his
profession. The profession must
be a fascinating one but, sadly,
the book does not show it.
Clement provides one or two
warmly interesting chapters
about his animal friends, but
most of Zoo Man is a rambling
and not very interesting report
of zoo life.
Perhaps the most important
>ide of Zoo Man is the authors
pica for better zoos and better
zoo-keepers.
One wishes Zoo Man were a
better vehicle for presentation ol
this plea.
Patricia E. Davis (UPI)
Chapel Hill, N.C.
“It’s just a cover-up to al
low filthy movies in first-run
theaters,” stated a college
junior from Boston. “The
movie industry, rather than
censoring itself, which is the
reason the code was set up,
is really saying that any
thing goes as long as it car
ries a rating,” he added.
Only 25 per cent of the 14-
to 25-year-olds feel the rating
system serves no useful pur
pose. College students seem
more favorable (65 per cent
feel it is useful) than high
school students (59 per cent
feel it is useful) or out-of
school youth (only 49 per
cent feel it is useful).
Gilbert Youth Research’s
National Gilbert Youth Poll
is based on a National Prob
ability Sample of 3,000 young
people aged 14-25, which is
projectable to the entire
youth population of the na
tion.
(© Gilbert Marketing Group, Inc.)
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
BEST SELLERS
(UPI)
(CemplM by FabUihers’ Weakly)
Fiction
THE GODFATHER Mario Puzo
THE HOOSE ON THE STRAND -
Daphne du Mauricr
THE LOVE MACHINE - Jacqueline
Susann
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN -
Michael Crichton
THE PRETENDERS - Gwen Davis
THE SEVEN MINUTES - Irving
Wallace
NAKED CAME THE STRANGER -
Penelope Ashe
THE PROMISE - Chaim Potok
IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE -
Rumer Goddcn
PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT-
Philip Roth
Nonfiction
THE PETER PRINCIPAL -
Laurence I. Peter and
Raymond Hull
MY LIFE WITH JACQUELINE
KENNEDY - Mary Barclli
Gallagher
(HE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT
1968 — Joe McGinniss
PRESENT AT THE CRE ATION
Dean Acheson
THE KINGDOM AND THE
POWER - Gav Talese
THE AMERICAN HERIT AGE
DICTIONARY OF I HE ENGLISH
LANGI AGE William Morris,
editor-in-chief
THE MAKING OF IHE PRESIDEN I
1968 - Theodore H. W hile
MY LIFE AND. PROPHECIES
Jeane Dixon with Rene
Norbergen
PRIME TIME Alexander Kendrick
BETWEEN PARENT AND
TEENAGER - Dr. Hairn G.
Ginott
3F records X
CONCERT
By DELOS SMITH
NEW YORK (Ll’l)—People in
opera have long admired Renata
Tebaldi as a great human being,
and she has now proved it be
vond quibble. She has permitted
her record-maker to celebrate 21
y ears of recording her voice.
Elaborately, too, with pic
tures taken over all those years,
with intimate biographical notes
disclosing, among other things,
that she made her debut in 1944,
and. of course, a large sampling
of her singing which takes up
two records (London- I2B2).
You name the still practicing
priina donna who would be
likely to stand still for such a
documentation of her veteran
status, and to w hat even amounts
to a disclosure of her age! This
reviewer can’t. But she has long
had the reputation of being big
in character.
The records demonstrate her
stature as an artist. Her vocal
longevity is remarkable; she re
mains a top priina donna of the
day. The samplings are all of
fairly recent making-none older
than three years-rather than
having been taken from her old
Tv profile
Little Joyce’s in love
with the art of acting
By VERNON SCOTT
UPI Hollywood
Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) -
Joyce Menges, who plays the
eldest daughter in "To Rome,
With Love,” may frolic around
Italy in the new television series
but she has lived in the same
San Fernando Valley house all
her life.
Joyce has brown hair, hazel
eyes and is a tiny 5-feet, 1-inch
tall. She weighs only 9B pounds.
But Joyce is 19 years old and
in love with acting. This is her
first role aside from about 20
commercials she has done for
a variety of sponsors in the
past three years.
The diminutive actress lives
at home with her parents,
Rowland and Marjorie Menges.
Her father is in the grocery
business.
The only home Joyce has
known is a 22-year-old three
bedroom California stucco
where she was brought from
the maternity ward.
Until her elder sister Mary
was married recently, Joyce
shared a bedroom. Now she
has one all to herself, as does
her younger brother, Donald,
13.
Before turning actress Joyce
studied at UCLA for a year.
She has a Yorkshire terrier
named Jantzen who manages to
get along with Donald’s tortoise
and white mice.
The Menges family’s favorite
gathering spot is the den where
a television set or stereo equip
ment is usually going full blast.
Joyce’s father is an ac
complished amateur carpenter
and has built shelves, cabinets
and desks for almost every room
in the house.
complete opera recordings.
In America she is known en
tirely as a singer of Italian opera.
(inc of the four record-sides
displays her voice in three Wag
nerian roles which she has taken
in Italy-singing them in Italian,
of course. That’s her language
in the recording, too.
Another side is taken up by
her dealings with the principal
arias of Carmen, Delilah and
Manon. These roles she has
never taken on the stage hut she
could with the required impact,
and in Italian rather than
French.
The third side is of the reper
toire with which Americans
identify her Verdi, Puccini,
Rossini. The fourth is of tune
ful encore pieces for priina
donna recitals — “Estrellita,”
“Granada,” and so forth but
ineluding "If I Loved on” from
Richard Rodgers’ “Carousel” in
somewhat strained English.
Opera followers with long
memories will know the voice
has lost its pristine glory. But
it remains a glorious instrument,
and one which its owner plays
with the virtuoso skills that only
hard work over many years can
raise to sublime heights.
Joyce is as unlike an actress
as any youngster in television.
She was chosen from almost
500 hopefuls for the part and is
still astonished that she was cho
sen to play John Forsythe’s
daughter in the CBS-TV series.
Boy friends
She has a steady beau. At
least the beau think she’s going
steady while Joyce occasionally
dates another fellow.
She drives her own small im
ported car to work at Studio
Center, five minutes from home,
arriving at 7 a.m. and working
until 5 or 6 in the evening.
The fact that Joyce has be
come a television performer has
not impressed her family. She
helps her mother with the house
cleaning -- they have no out
side help - and the cooking.
Mother and daughter are hap
piest when Menges barbecues
in the patio.
On weekends Joyce packs
a picnic hamper and rides off
to the beach with her boy friend
where they body surf and sop
up the sunshine. Weather per
mitting, they also water ski.
All would be perfect in the
world of Joyce Menges if it
weren’t for her size. It creates
a wardrobe problem for her per
sonally as well as the character
she portrays on the show.
Much of the wardrobe seen
on television is her own.
“I’m so little it’s almost im
possible for me to find adult
clothes in my size,” she says.
“The things that do fit me are
frilly, little girl frocks. They
are made for children and are
too young for me.”
It’s a difficult decision, but
Joyce is considering making her
own clothes - in order to appear
19 instead of 12.