diff --git a/IPython/html/widgets/__init__.py b/IPython/html/widgets/__init__.py
index 05ce809..af17d03 100644
--- a/IPython/html/widgets/__init__.py
+++ b/IPython/html/widgets/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from widget import Widget
+from widget import Widget, init_widget_js
 
 from container import ContainerWidget
 from float_range import FloatRangeWidget
diff --git a/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py b/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
index 23793cc..bc9696b 100644
--- a/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
+++ b/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from IPython.display import Javascript, display
 from IPython.utils.py3compat import string_types
 from IPython.utils.javascript import display_all_js
 
-def init_widget_js(cls):    
+def init_widget_js():    
     path = os.path.split(os.path.abspath( __file__ ))[0]
     display_all_js(path)
     for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):