The Exhibitor (Jun-Oct 1939)

BM-17 Leon W. ("Mike”) Conrow, presi¬ dent, Altec Service Corporation, since its formation in December, 1937, has welded together an organization for ser¬ vicing sound equipment that has earned a national recognition for sound business policy, genuine esprit de corps, and a reputation for the highest standards of technical excellence and performance. Conrow himself, very camera-shy, reflects the engineering attitude of mind Leon W. Conrow that asks only to be judged on the basis of work soundly done. Before his Erpi and Vitaphone days, and after his graduation from 5 7 yearold Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey, he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories where he was among the first group of engineers as¬ signed to the handling of broadcasting and the reinforcement of the human voice by means of what are now known as public address systems. An ardent golfer, Conrow is a member of the Monmouth County Coun¬ try Club of Eatontown, New Jersey; he has never made a hole in one, but says he is "still trying.” He plays tennis as well as golf, and is fond of a brace of cocker spaniels he owns. He admits to a personal weakness for shrimp cock¬ tails as Arnaud in New Orleans does them, for the desserts of Chef La Maze at the Warwick, Philadelphia, and for good steaks anywhere. He is inordinately proud of a fine gold watch presented to him several weeks ago when the "Altec Pioneers,” composed of the boys who went with Altec from Erpi under Conrow ’s aegis, threw a party for him and G. L. Carring¬ ton, vice-president-general managei , to celebrate Altec’s first birthday. VOL. 2 MAY 17, 1939 No. 5 Television Dream Becomes Reality At New York World’s Fair Debut Age’s Technicolor Wonder Augurs Aid to Theatres As Medium for Spot News, Picture Exploitation "Gunga Din” Experiment Amazes Invited Guests Ever since Guglielmo Marconi discovered the way to transmit Samuel Finley Breese Morse’s dots and dashes without the use of wires — possibly, before that — and certainly since Lee DeForest invented the vacuum tube that made present-day radio possible, unceasing has been the quest to find a way to send pictures through the air. More than a decade ago its secret was learned, but imperfectly. As the time has passed and the great broadcasting systems achieved that degree of financial success where it might persue purely scientific investigations, they took up the unfinished problem of television, poured more than research into the mysteries of the dream. On Sunday, April 3 0, a television camera of the National Broadcasting Company was set up in the Court of Peace at the New York World’s Fair, and at 12:30 P.M., without fanfare or proclamation, there appeared on the screens of not more than 200 television receivers within seeing-distance of New York’s mighty Empire State Building tower the inaugural broadcast of regular television service, with The Exhibitor’s Will Whitney among those present. What that day and date may mean in the future, time only can tell, but those who were privileged to witness that oc¬ casion could not but realize that tele¬ vision, however, lacking in cinemato¬ graphic perfection it may be, comes to an expectant public in a greater state of perfection than was radio when, back in the early 1920’s, it listened to the fitful squeals that masked the programs of KDKA, WBZ (now WBZA), and those other adventuresome radio stations. One can hardly witness a television broadcast or talk with engineers without feeling that, in this new medium, one is dealing with something vast and of whose awful potentialities one speaks onlv in whispers or not at all. Enthusi¬ asm, of course, reigns, but it is an en¬ thusiasm over a notable problem notably brought to its present state of perfection, and not that enthusiasm which sees in the medium the ultima Thule of transcendant entertainment. Of the future, engineers speak in guarded terms, and when they do let loose with a suggestion it is always circumscribed by the limits $13,000,000 into more investigation and of television as it is today, not as it may be in years to come. Accordingly, it is to spot-news tele¬ casting that many observers look for the medium’s greatest service. Where an event — like sports, civic events, pre-ar¬ ranged meetings — is known in advance, to permit the setting up of the camera and other equipment, television can serve, and serve notably. Such events could be received in theaters, and shown to the audiences. Such, now at least, seems to be the theatrical application of television, and, as an example, one needs but to refer to Gaumont British’s elaborate plans to televise in its London theatres the running of the Grand Na¬ tional at Epsom Downs May 24. But the motion picture world has an¬ other interest in television: in the madium as an outlet for motion pictures. Already many a test program is com¬ posed of motion pictures, taken largely from the documentary files of federal and state agencies. Today plans are under way for the regular telecasting of The March of Time, and Donald Duck has even now made his debut as a television star. For a recent television experimental subject, W2XBS screened an especially prepared condensation of "Gunga Din,” with RKO-Radio Pictures tying in salient episodes of the drama with narrative continuity. It was a truly commendable experiment and, perhaps, shows how pro¬ ducers could give their picture added impetus. (Continued on page 21) May 17, 19)9 QUAD