The Film Daily (1935)

DAILY Monday, Nov. I a, i>^5 a cc TOPICS OF TIMELY INTEREST » » Problems of Television Cited by Radio Editor ^TELEVISION is not just around the corner. It's behind the eight-ball. In the laboratory woodpile two figurative Ethiopians are lurking. It will require a scientific Mussolini to bomb them out, if the interesting process of transmitting both sight and sound simultaneously is to become a public institution by May, 1936, as planned. Problem No. 1 is: Who will service your set when and if you get it? Repair men at present know even less about television than Maxie Baer knows about ducking a left hook. Checkmate No. 2 is the controversy between the Federal Communications Comm i s s i o n and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company over use of the proposed coaxial cables (intercity links), without which nation-wide television would be impossible and would have to remain as local as the sales tax. The coaxial cable is a brass tube sheathed in lead. It was developed by the A. T. & T. The Federal Commission says the company must permit independent experimenters to use it. The phone company, in effect, says "Nerts!" It had expected to charge RCA a million bucks for the first one which would link the Empire State Building studio with Philadelphia and the television laboratories in Camden. But before stringing the cable, the phone company wants to make sure it won't be stringing itself. Ninety per cent of the programs will be on talkie films. That's because the engineers are no dopes. They doped out a system by which the number of frames flashed per second on the television screen matches exactly the speed of an ordinary movie film traveling through a projector. It will be impractical to televise regular entertainment as staged in the ordinary broadcasting studios because television waves and the sound frequencies in connection with them must pop off identical antennas. Otherwise, if you SAW Amos saying "Awah!" you'd HEAR him saying it a fraction of a second later, and that ain't art. 'Uoi, (\ua{ Smeod in knowing how to make life enjoyable. Our atmosphere is truly Continental, our view of the Park is superb, our service is really superior, and our rates invitingly inexpensive. We successfully created the now famous sidewalk CAFE de la PAIX, the popular CONTINENTAL GRILL, and imported America's only RUMPELMAYER'S. S¥. 50 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH NEW YORK For television the sound channel (ultra short waves) must be as close to the sight channel as two romantic waltzers in a dime-a-dance joint. When the time is ripe you may buy a television set in one piece or two pieces, and there the resemblance of a set to a bathing suit ends. A set will set you back from $100 to $800. Don't monkey with it or you'll have a hundred pieces. If somebody has told you confidentially that television is being held back for some dark, sinister reason, skip it. Or, if a wise guy has whispered to you that they're waiting for financing and sponsors it's a lie. Sponsors are waiting for television. Principal clients of televised programs will be transportation firms, mainly steamship lines, railroads and auto manufacturers, who will conduct television tours. It's the wanderlust in you that they want to agitate. Movie firms will want to tease you with previews, the foxy guys! Sight broadcasting will not wreck the movies, but it won't be any health tonic for neighborhood theaters. Movie firms will be more interested in making up shows for television than in supplying reels for theaters. They will be assigned by sponsors to film spectacular presentations. These will be put into cans and shipped from city to New Orleans Notes New Orleans — E. V. Richard's, president of the Saenger Theaters Corp., returned from New York last week. Messrs. Person and Hill, Republic's traveling auditors, are here paying a professional visit to the New Orleans exchange. George Nungesser, formerly with Universal, has become a salesman for F. D. Fred Jack of Warners, Sam Moscow of Columbia and Walter Miller Richardson of F. D. were among recent visitors. Plan Suits Against Infringers Baton Rouge, La. — Indication that owners of copyright money prize nights and other ideas for theaters are preparing to take action against exhibitors who are using their material without obtaining a license, is seen in the action of Fay Barnes, owner of "Lucky Buck Nite," who registered his complete plan at the state capitol last week. Accompanying Barnes was his attorney, W. S. Leslie. "Lucky Buck Nite" is registered in 48 states, W. O. Tuttle, local representative, told The Film Daily. Tuttle acknowledged that action was contemplated. city just as electrical transcriptions are kicked around. The field of action on your television mirror will be about six by eight inches. But don't be discouraged. Once you get interested you either forget the diminutive size, or you get the idea that you're a big guy looking at a lot of smallies. Pictures will be, and they are today, clearly denned and you can see a whole ball game or a parade, with the proper amount of patience. You'd even recognize Dizzy Dean. That is, if you know him. And you could even see the smoke from his cigarette — if he had one. When you get your set don't be silly and invite all the neighbors to see it. Only half a dozen spectators can sit in front of the mirror without getting on each other's laps or in each others' hair. The best nine spectators could do would be a friendly clinch. At that, the idea does have merit. Among the things you have most to dread with the coming of television will be beauty contests. But hardly any of the present radio stars will be asked to take part. —Martin J. Porter, Radio Editor, New York Evening Journal. Nebraska Notes Lincoln, Neb. — Vaudeville stops temporarily at the Varsity here and will probably not be resumed until Thanksgiving week. E. A. Patchen, Lincoln Theater pub man, took his wife into the wilds of Kansas for a family reunion. Milt Overman, Westland's city manager, has signed Jettabee Ann Hopkins to be KFOR's Hollywood Reporter for six months. She's on every day except Sunday. Have Made 1,500,000 Drawings West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — With start of their Christmas cartoon, Harman-Ising have completed enough drawings for every man, woman and child in the city of Los Angeles. They have made 1,500,000 drawings in the last eight years. The new musical, three-color Technicolor short subject, "Alias St. Nick," being produced for M-G-M by the creators of "Happy Harmonies" cartoons, is to be one of the most ambitious ever made. Crowding Out Duals First Exhib — If the producers will make more pictures like "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" they'll soon put an end to double billing. Second Ditto — How come? First Same — Well, how many theaters can get two titles that long in their Marquees?