Show Common Sense in n A America Most Mast of I o our our readers are aware that we take a II generally dim view of the Big Brother concept of the good do ers operate under the assumption that Mr Average American doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain and this being so so it its Js s s necessary to establish all sorts of special bureaus committees and departments usually In Washington ashington at taxpayer expense to determine what is best for America But when it comes to simple plain to earth common sense our bet will always be he with John Q Citizen from Main Street America Consider for example the top motion pictures of last year 1969 Judging from the Academy nominators and the avant avant- garde arde critics one would assume that the majority of the movie goers last year had flocked to see the cheap and dirty film fare The record shows otherwise The film that grossed more money at the box office orrice than any other 1969 movie was Walt Disney's The Love Bug featuring Dean Jones Michele Lee and Buddy Hackett American movie fans plunked down 17 million to see the film A close clos second with a box office gross of 16 5 million was Funny Girl starring starring star star- ring Barbara Barbara sand and Barbara St I The fact aar tI oe that Barbara a a seemed e to be out ut to s steal every scene in the picture didn't seem to be a drawback it was an entertaining entertaining enter enter- and enjoyable film and people went to see it Bullitt the Warner Brothers film starring Steve McQueen grossed nearly nearly near near- ly the same amount as Funny Girl followed by Paul Newmans Newman's Butch Cassidy Cas Cas- sidy Other top grossing films for 1969 Included Romeo and Juliet featuring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey True Grit starring John Wayne Glen Campbell and Kim Darby and Oliver with Oliver Reed Shani Wallis Ron Moody and Mark Lester Although there was much talk last year about the smutty films when it came to the vote at the box office the choice was clear what the people wanted and what they were willing to pay to see were good clean thoroughly entertaining motion pictures I |