The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

June, 1943 Page 207 woukl be available for use between times in schools. Kven producers were pro- vided for, because, when advertisers would contract for sufficient circulation, their pictures would be made for them without additional charge. And, when the number of shows reached a given number, it would pay to produce enter- tainment subjects as well as commer- cials. Specifically, all this meant that a six-reel, 35mni motion picture program, with projectors screen and operator, would be supplied, during an appointed evening, to any church, school, club or other non-theatrical gathering of not less than two hundred persons, for only ten dollars. The name of the program, identical with the name of the enterprise, was "The Screen Companion." An ample suite of offices was taken in the Ma.sonic Temple Building, and a staff of workers was quickly assembled. Wythe, of course, was the executive head. Hollcy was present, naturally, but he was still well occupied with the final editing of this Holy Land series and could not give full time to the project. In charge of distribution was Major Ward M. Wooldridge, a splendid, sin- cere young man with a proud war record and a Y.M.C..^. background. He was a Pittsburgher. Part of his value to the Companion was a close friendship with Col. Jason M. Joy, non-theatrical super- visor for the Will Hays Committee, under whom he had served in p-rance. Presid- ing in the advertising department was ' Eustace L. Adams. He was an even younger man. He had advertising agency experience and was influential in his contacts as a nephew jointly of Temple Bailey, the novelist, and of Gertrude Lane, editor of the M^oman's Home Companion. I, myself, was placed in charge of pro- duction, having lately come from the Chronicles of America. Under .Adams were Albert St. Peter, the rough-and- ready quondam salesman for Frank Tichenor, who, in a sort of lifelong em- barrassment over his family name, insisted upon being called "Pete;" a quiet but dogged youth named Fisher; and a sharply analytical, direct young man, William Wright Briggs, who had been an assi.stant account executive at the J. Walter Thompson Advertising .Agency. WfK)ldridge introduced into this circle Herbert L. Stephen, a buddy who had been with him in the Army and who had served in many capacities in the amusement field. Stephen had been an f assistant director with the Thomas H. Ince organization at .Santa Monica, a property man for Mary Pickford in Hollywood, a theatre manager and a news- paperman in Los .Angeles. Yes, "Steve" had traversed many ups and downs; nevertheless he had kept a youthful en- thusiasm, an infectious laugh and a clear, straight eye which won us all instantly and never to our regret. He had come with the Screen Companion ostensibly as a publicity man; but he gravitated quickly to a position as office manager, with rapidly accumulating executive duties in charge of the organization's finances. It was "Steve" who brought in Jack De Marr to solicit bookings. De Marr had once been an actor. I had known him pleasantly in a New York stock company years before. In the inter- val he had been a salesman, disposing of goods far harder to place than ours would seem to be. Wooldridge had to mark time at first because, obviously, there could not as yet be any distribution. At the same time he was not by any means idle, being of that nature which is ready and eager to undertake any part of the work which comes to hand. With a view to proper action, however, he had engaged in addi- tion to De Marr, a man who was to be the first projectionist. This was the never-to-be-forgotten Harry Swartz, an For more than quarter of a century Don Carlos Ellis has used his own training as teacher to shape com- mercial films to classroom needs. irrepressible but likeable Jewish youth who could do many useful things and if requested would attempt anything else. For the present Harry was a chauffeur, driving Krippendorf's fine car which had been left in New York for our conven- ience. He had once driven an ambu- lance in Boston; and I never have ridden with a steersman who could weave so speedily through heavy traffic and be- tween Elevated Railway pillars without losing the confidence of his passengers. .As a projectionist lie had been employed by Frank Tichenor in the old Simplex rooms. In my own department, there was no regular production as yet. Nevertheless, there was plenty to be done in an editorial way because it was necessary to have tangible programs as quickly as possible. My chief assistant, pro tcm, was Larry Fowler, who had been Hollcy's camera- man in the Lincoln tests. Larry was willing and able enough, but from dawn to dusk he was vastly amused by what struck him as being a fantastic adven- ture ; and now that I look back upon the experience, there is something to be said for his chuckling point of view. For the present, between sessions with Holley and the film laboratory on the Holy Land material, Larry rounded up quan- tities of old theatrical motion pictures which might be acquired cheaply for the assembly of our first programs. As I recall, it was he who arranged our access to the output of the then recently defunct Thanhauser Company of New Rochelle, where he had once been employed and where he had learned his trade. Wythe had decided at first upon a limit of seven reels as proper for a single program, although it eventually became six. It was composed generally about like this: The start would be a one-reel novelty such as "Tony Sarg's Almanac," with Major Dawlcy's silhouette anima- tion. Came next a slapstick farce in which cavorted, perhaps, some of the now-forgotten Thanhauser comics. Then came a department called "Your Home and Mine," consisting of a reel divided int(j three sections, a trio of short adver- tising subjects dealing with such matters as the use of copper and brass roofing and plumbing fixtures; the importance of fire insurance; and possibly, instruc- tion by a firm of silversmiths on setting the table for a formal luncheon. After that appeared a pleasant travelogue, also in one reel—let us call it one of the Chester subjects entitled "The Hill Towns of Italy." Succeeding that, in turn, came another tripartite reel gen- erally called "Your Health and Mine," demonstrating, .say, the microscopic action of Ivory Soap, how Hills Brothers bring dates from "the Garden of Eden," in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the peculiar virtues of Esmond Blankets. Last of all came a two-reel "feature," a wholesome "family picture," which might be one of the Woman's Home Companion series, carefully reedited to serve these later needs. When sheer accident eventually obliged the Screen Companion to fold its tent and steal away into the night, I used to think of its principle as sort of trade secret which should be hidden jealously thenceforth until it might appear again with Wythe as the engineer. Its plan was well known, of course, during its first life. Wythe made a point then of explaining its action to schoolmen, clergy- men, advertising men, industrialists, the- atrical exchange men and all others who might advance it by their enthusiastic understanding. .And yet, when it missed fire, notxKly seemed to take it up. It appeared that those who might have done so must have been distracted from the idea by .something more pressing, and it seemed that heaven must have been especially smiling to have distracted them all simultaneously. But by degrees I discovered the truth. Many unscrujiulous persons did try to take the idea. The announced but unreal- ized plan of the National Association of Manufacturers in June. 192,3, was sur- prisingly like it. But they failed. Their trouble was that they lacked Wythe's vision with which to see the entire pro- ject in one view. They saw only the immediate |)rofits in single phases, and this myopia, of course, was what hid the interdependence of other phases. In Wythe's plan there was something for ever)' honest worker in the non-theatrical field, and to deprive any one of his ju,st portion was to upset the fine balance of all the re.st. The church, the school, the