The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

September 1956 CINE TECHNICIAN 133 FIVE SHILLINGS A DAY HOLIDAY HOW would you like your holiday food and accommodation to cost you only five shillings a day? That is what is paid* by the Hungarian who goes to the large hotel on the beautiful Lake Balaton, run by the Central Council of Trade Unions — the Hungarian T.U.C. With a party of tourists I visited this magnificent modern resort situated at Balaton Lelle at the end of July and was shown round by the Director, Karoly (Charlie) Sallay. He told us that the place held 220 guests, who were elected by the local unions; industrial workers, farmers and professional employees, all were entitled to come for a mere 8 forints a day — the rest of the cost was made up by the T.U.C. Priority was given to the best workers, and more women came than men. " Spinach " We soon started firing questions at Mr. Sallay : Is it also open in the Winter? Yes, all the year round. What' a die size of the staff ? Sixty, including medical staff and a cultural officer, who every evening arranges a show of some sort. What are the rules of the resort? People can do anything they like, so long as they are back punctually for meals — otherwise they only get " spinach ", which was Mr. Sallay's way of saying they merely get the Hungarian equivalent of bread and cheese. Always Something to do I examined the 16mm. projector they had for film shows — the cinema holds 120 at each performance and the latest films are always shown; the projector was a heavily built model, manufactured at the Gamma factory, and although it appeared in good working order was soon going to be replaced by a more modern one. * Estimated (as other calculations in this article) at the old rate of exchange of 33 forints to the £1; if worked out at the new tourist rate, the cost would only be 2s. 6d. a day. By evening or during the day there is always something to do — everything, it seemed, from a quiet game of chess in the lounge to ■By Chris Brunei tennis, volley-ball or skittles. But the main attraction is the warm water of Lake Balaton for swimming, rowing, riding water-bikes, fishing, or sailing on one of the establishment's 40 yachts. Money is constantly being in Lake Balaton vested in the hotel, half a million forints (£15,625) being paid this year for new fabrics, crockery, glass and so on. This sort of thing is typical of Hungary, which is at the same time rapidly raising its standard of living and cutting down its armed forces. No credit squeeze there. The resort exchanges guests with other European countries — France, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, East and West Germany — and Mr. Sallay gave us the broad hint that he would dearly like to practise his English ! I am sure that if British trade unionists were to stay there — or at any of the hundreds of smaller trade union resorts along the shores of Lake Balaton — they would soon be getting the T.U.C. to build a similar place on our South coast, in the Lake District or some other beauty spot in the British Isles. A far larger proportion of the workers belong to the Hungarian T.U.s than here, but I am sure a scheme could be devised that would raise the money to give good, cheap holidays to British workers. The Last Man to Hang The Last Man to Hang, A.C.T. Films latest production, commences its Gaumont Circuit Release on 17th September. We print below a recent mention of this picture carried in the Daily Film Renter : "That British films, even modest ones, can command wide showing in the United States is shown in a heartening piece of news which I heard yesterday. Congratulations After viewing it in New York, Leo Jaffe and Lacy Kastner of Columbia, its distributors, telephoned congratulations to Irving Allen in London. They told him they could guarantee a minimum of six thousand bookings for it ! It looks as if, at long last, A.C.T. Films have really pulled one out of the bag with a modest picture made for the domestic market."