Republicans Set to Air “Racy” Campaign Film

Oct. 20, 1964 - “Choice,” a half-hour Republican documentary film implying that President Johnson is presiding over a morally deteriorating society, is due to be shown Thursday on NBC-TV.

Officials at NBC in New York, who saw a screening today, are still debating over whether to cut some of the racier portions of the movie.

These include shots of a girl in a topless bathing suit being ogled by young men; montages of pornographic magazines and book covers; scenes in strip-tease joints, and the legends on the marquees of “nudie” theaters.

Tonight, NBC officials would say of the film only that “it’s under review.” But the network’s evening newscast with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley said the movie would be presented.

The film came under immediate attack by John Bailey, the Democratic chairman. He said it was the “sickest political program to be conceived since television became a factor.”

“It appeals to the prurient and the prejudiced in a fashion which makes a mockery of its pretension to be speaking for moral conduct,” Bailey said.

About 200 unexpurgated prints of the film have already been distributed in 47 states by the Mothers for Moral America, a recently organized division within the Citizens for Goldwater-Miller organization.

Democratic sources got a copy of the film and showed it to reporters today.

A recurring theme of the film is that the nation’s morals have gone downhill since the death of President Kennedy. The narrator, Raymond Massey, points out that Mr. Kennedy dreamt of an “honest, decent, law-abiding America.”

“The young inspiring leader is gone,” Mr. Massey says.

The clear implication is that corruption now extends from the White House on down.

The film depicts a society where “no longer is a uniform a symbol of authority,” against scenes of rioting mobs jeering at policemen. Most of the rioters shown are Negroes, with some white teenagers, although the narrative mentions that “chaos isn’t black or white, North or South — it just happens — and they put their gripes into fists and rocks.”

The Mothers for Moral America are being organized nationally from Washington by Mrs. Carol Arth Waters of Laguna Beach, Calif. Mrs. Waters, national chairman of the Young Republicans from 1951 to 1953, was also national coordinator of women’s activities for Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and director of the Nixon campaign’s special projects in 1962.

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