Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

November 23, 1929 EXHIBITORS H ERALD-WORLD 49 SOUND SOUNDS THE TOCSIN OF EDUCATION working inefficiently, he gets himself all nicely fired. "What's that? The union won't permit you 1 to discharge a man? Oh yes, it will. Not a union official, no matter how hard boiled, would have the nerve to compel you to retain a man whom you could show was wasting supplies, or not delivering the goods as well as could be expected, considering what he has to do with. "However, don't imagine just because your chief projectionist installs a new intermittent ; sprocket while the old one looks undamaged I to your nude eye, or heaves out an exciting J lamp which has an 'almost' straight filament, that he is wasting. IT IS YOU WHO ARE : WASTING WHEN YOU ATTEMPT TO MAKE HIM USE THE OLD SPROCKET . OR LAMPS. "You must remember, Friend * * * that you may easily 'save' $5 by refusing to permit the I buying of new parts and lose $50 AT THE I BOX OFFICE. It's being done every day. My advice to you is to get those lamps and take j them up to the projection room at a gallop." j GIVES REAL J HELP 1 PUBLISH attached letter not in any spirit of boasting, but merely to show that responsible companies find the Exhibitors Herald-World to have greater value than any other publication in the business. Take note of the next to the last paragraph. It is by no manner of means , the only such letter we have received. I trust Mr. Schulte and the Burgess Battery Company will pardon me for having thus used the letter. "Our firm has been making high voltage 1 radio 'B' and 'C batteries for many years and it was my privilege to be acquainted with the early design of these batteries for army and navy radio equipment. I saw dry cell batteries grow from a small I production to a large volume for war stores for the proposed '1919 spring push.' After the war they dropped off and then climbed slowly through amateur radio to broadcast receiver volume within a year. The last few years there have been no spectacular developments that required dry cells but we did have an idea that in the production of sound from films there would be some place for them. This has been somewhat confirmed through a visit that I have just made to a number of the New York studios and I find that there is but little standardization of equipment and that designs are changed every day. "At the RCA headquarters, the Exhibitors Herald-World was called to my attention and I have now become an enthusiastic reader of it because of your articles that will be so helpful in our work. We wish to call your attention to the enclosed circulars indicating our interest in dry cell uses and say that we have a radio laboratory that can intelligently study radio circuits and amplifying systems. It is our hope that we can make contact with sound-picture engineers and help on the dry battery problems, and probably relieve them of that part of their work. "This letter is beinp written not to solicit or to ask any favors, but more as an expression of relief at having found a magazine and a writer which has given us real help. "We are sending a check of $3 for your Bluebook and we only hope that this will be issued shortly so that we can become better acquainted with the actual problems that may interest us." THE following paragraph is taken verbatim from the editorial page of the American Projectionist. It is presumably written by and expresses the opinion of our good friend, able writer and able projectionist, George Edwards, whom most of you know and for whom I have large admiration. The paragraph reads : "The need for education was strongly demonstrated with the coming of sound and the projectionists did remarkably well under extremely difficult conditions. The need for education and progress in projection is greater than ever, for the motion picture operator of yesterday, who is the projectionist of today, must prepare himself to be the executive of the future." I approve of the meaning friend Edwards apparently wished to convey, but nevertheless feel moved to comment, which same I know Edwards will read with kindly eye and friendly understanding. It is all very true that the need for education in the projection field was "demonstrated by the advent of sound," but it also is very cool, if not an entirely cold fact that the need for education had been very thoroughly demonstrated long years before sound came. It was not the "demonstration" provided by the advent of sound, half so much as it was the SCARE it gave a lot of "practical men" who had sneered at technique, at books, at educational departments and at about everything _ else which meant mental exertion devoted in any degree to study. Sound came upon them right smack out of what they thought would always be a perfectly clear sky. They had absolutely no preparation for it, and those who had sneered at study got the outstanding JOLT AND SCARE OF THEIR LIVES. And I don't mean maybe either! Gone were those lovely "machine operator" days of "practical men." There was no "practice" on which to fall back. They were suddenly, and with some violence shoved right out into the midst of equipment which they who admittedly knew absolutely nothing about technical matters were called upon to handle. And the new equipment and work smelled to High Heaven of the very most technical sort of technique. There was just one saving feature, namely: Most of them were so thoroughly and completely scared, after the first slant at the equipment, that they did not dare do one single thing except follow the directions supplied by the installation and service engineers. Upon that plan they "did remarkably well under extremely difficult conditions." As a matter of fact, however, the men were themselves the chief "difficult condition," as I have been told by many, many installation and service engineers. The fact remains, however, that he might have done very, very much better had he studied the technique of motion picture projection during the years before sound came, thus accustoming himself to the intelligent consideration of such matters. As to the statement that "the motion pic