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Excerpt from Survey of Progress and Trends in the New Era of Motion Picture Entertainment: Annual Report to the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., March 30, 1936 While the industry on its own behalf must continue to talk with pictures, not words, the record of critical and public opinion with regard to current motion pictures should greatly encourage those who see even larger prospects ahead. Conclusions reached by competent critics and by commentators of the leading organs of the press in all parts of the country are to the effect that there is more intellectual distinction in the movies than ever before that the screen has trans lated into celluloid drama the greatest number of established classics in the history of motion pictures; that the new productions haveexceeded optimistic hopes that pictures of historical on the increase; that the screen has shown its ability to portray the highest concepts of the human mind; that pictures are finer, more interesting, more entertaining and more educational than ever before; that honest and compelling themes are predominating in the outstanding pictures; that more meaning and dignity has been lent to the screen and that the industry is perform ing a great experiment that will help to determine whether the screen is the universal entertainment medium for the expression of the highest forms of art and drama. Such tributes to the progress of the art are perhaps all the more striking because of the fact that the period under review marked only the ninth anniversary of the first talking motion picture. Sound was a revolutionary development which gave birth practically to a new art form, made necessary the development of new techniques of produc tion, the finding and training of many new artists, the creation or discovery of new source material, the need of great new investments for technical facilities, and the creation of self-regulatory measures to cope with the new problems which the addition o