Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

November 23, 1929 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD 47 GETTING PAID TO POSSESS ALL THAT KNOWLEDGE! YOU KNEW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT THE PAY WAS WHEN YOU WENT INTO THE WORK, did you not???? You knew the conditions of the work, DID YOU NOT? Well, brother, you took the work of projection up knowing it, and in at least a general way, what it paid. If you took it up without the intention of making yourself really competent, then you were ABSOLUTELY UNFIT TO ENTER IT AT ALL. Moreover you were DISHONEST WITH THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY WHICH YOU ENTERED. Think that over a spell, and DENY IT IF YOU CAN ! ! ! The motion picture projectionist must, in his daily work, handle lenses and light rays. IS IT HUMANLY POSSIBLE HE CAN DO THIS EFFICIENTLY WITHOUT AT LEAST A GOOD WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF LENSES AND LIGHT ACTION????? Is it humanly possible he can skilfully and properly select and adjust the optical system of a motion picture projector unless he understands precisely the relation of the condenser or mirror to the rest of the system. Don't say "yes" and appear SILLY. And so, gentlemen, I might proceed at some considerable further length with relation to the silent picture projectionist. Now we have sound placed in our hands — well, it has a FEW problems of its own which the efficient sound projectionist MUST master, if he is to be an efficient sound projectionist. There, Brother Hancock, I had no intention of going so far in answering you, but really the subject is a vital one and I still have only touched upon some of the MAIN points in silent projection. I will close. ERRONEOUS IDEA JC. GOLDSMITH, projectionist, who only O gives his address as Philadelphia, Pa., a fairly large village, seems to have the idea that in the first issue of the weekly department I was "knocking" the projectionist and lauding the service engineer. That was a wrong idea, or at least the article was meant neither to "knock" nor unduly praise anyone. It is not "knocking" to state well known truths, and it is a well known truth that very many men in what now amounts to the profession of projection have made nothing like an adequate effort to educate and improve themselves. It is also a known fact that the service engineer has been, in most instances, literally catapulted into a new and exceedingly difficult field of work. Brother Goldsmith sets forth the facts that installation and service engineers make mistakes, and not infrequently know no more than fhey should. That is all granted. It would be queer if it were otherwise. What I said in the article in question was that people who live in glass houses should be mighty careful about shying stones, and many men in the profession of projection still live in mighty thin glass-walled houses in the matter of understanding the technique of their profession. Goldsmith says, at one point in his letter: "Speaking to one engineer, he said the term 'installation engineer' meant nothing. What the equipment companies need is practical men, not men from schools or the street." Such a remark, if made as stated by Goldsmith, merely exposes the almost total lack of knowledge on the part of at least one man calling himself an engineer. A "practical man" unequipped with very exact technical knowledge would have about the same success in servicing or installing modern sound reproducing equipment that a mouse would have fighting a cat. True, he might possibly keep the equipment operating and HOW. For Brother Goldsmith's information, what I said in that article was all plain truth. It was not designed to "knock" any one. WHY IS IT SUPERIOR? Undoubtedly you ask this question when some one is endeavoring to explain the qualities of their sound screen, if so — technical claims are easily misinterpreted. Sound Screens Must perform a dual duty — reproduce every minute detail put into the film and allow for sound transmission free of muffling, vibration, and distortion — In an AMERICAN SOUND SCREEN We assure you in one statement that we guar' antee absolutely satisfactory projection and abso' lutely satisfactory sound results. That is what you want! Distributed by the National Theatre Supply Company — see your nearest branch for the new attractive American Sound Screen prices. AMERICAN blLVERSHEEl COMPANY SAINT LOUIS, MO., U.S.A. Do not be misled through technical claims. PRIZE PRACTICAL MAN" HAT really seems to be the prize "practical" projectionist has at last turned up. We still have a few men who sneer at what they are pleased to term "book knowledge." Don't believe in it at all. Their idea is that the only knowledge having value to the projectionist is that acquired by practice. What seems to be the prize sample of such geniuses made a hydrometer test of the cells of his storage battery, finding one to have a lower reading than the rest. He was a "practical projectionist." Never read projection department the Bluebook or anything else he was not obliged to, and practice "had" not as yet taught him what to do in such a case. So, not wishing to confess his lack of knowl edge to the service engineer, he proceeded to acquire knowledge by practice. He secured a large hydrometer and, attaching some extra tubing to its tip, proceeded to draw out all the electrolyte from all the cells, dumping it into a tub. He then refilled them all with the liquid he had withdrawn and — ! What's that ? Oh yes, it happened all right ! One way of remedying such a condition, what? Great stuff that practical knowledge, but by itself it is not worth very much. Practical knowledge supplemented by knowledge gained from books is what makes the really competent workman, be he a motion picture projectionist, an attorney, a bricklayer, a doctor or what not.