Hollywood Studio Magazine (July 1971)

Take it from the top News notes on the Hollywood scene by Zelda Cini Concerning nostalgia Despite the technological advancements of film-making today, there’s no putting down an increasing public interest in the less sophisticated product of yesterday. And never has the collector of film memorabilia had it so good. In Westwood Village (Calif.), Donald W. Klipper, a travel agent, recently revealed a personal library of some 2,000 film titles, the earliest from 1906, not all of them pure entertainment. There’s a liberal sprinkling of propaganda movies in the lot, including a primitive Thomas Edison commercial for anthracite coalburning railroad companies, pointing out that their passengers arrive at destinations unsoiled by grime and soot. Klipper, who’s been conducting extension classes in history via film at UCLA, regards his collection as “a window on the world . . . like a time machine,” a visual, moving, documentation of seven decades of change in morals, clothes, manners, furnishings and values. As a sidebar on the same subject, he has also put together a private series on the history of erotic films, less sensational in intent than as an examination of the social mores from the 1930’s to the present. Change, it would see, is only in degree. Old movie hardware Only fitting that the California Museum of Science and Industry should be the setting for the priceless collection of precinema and cinema antiques, thanks to Universal Studios. This exhibit, stripped of tinsel, concerns itself exclusively with the physical equipment which made movie-making possible . . . surprisingly, it did not start in America. The camera used to shoot “Birth of a Nation was built in France by Pathe in 1910, and is on display. So is an English Aeroscope which recorded action on a Belgian battlefield the same year. Earlier still, there’s the Thaumatrope, invented in the 1820’s, and Lee DeForest’s movie-sound equipment, invented in 1923. Despite its availability, Hollywood’s first “sound” film was dependent on an accompanying phonograph record, and it was not until 1926, when Warner’s produced “Don Juan”, that the film capital of the world released a major film accompanied by sound. Future plans call for a Museum screening of a 1916 print from Universal’s archives, showing founder Carl Laemmle conducting the studio’s first tour. This exhibit, by the way, is contracted to run for two years, open-ended after that. In today’s world, where shooting the moon is old hat, there’s genuine escape in going back in time to where shooting a movie was enough to make a tourist gasp. On the lighter side Remember the advent of living color on TV? Remember the NBC peacock? You’d better. That’s practically the only way left to see that semi-retired bird, according to Don Durgin, president of NBC-TV. All part of gaining time by elimination, is the philosophy behind pruning of such trivia as the animated NBC chime logo at the end of all programs, dropping of production company tags at the close of programs, restricting opening and closing credits, except for main titles, to 40 seconds, and eliminating five-second promotional spots preceding station breaks in hour-long programs, among other things. Would you believe this latter item is rumored to account for 25% of NBC’s prime time promotion availabilities? What a trauma for the viewing audience! *** Another collection While commercial broadcasters battle to retain the now-hackneyed formats that served them so well during the infancy of telecasting, Public Broadcasting Service network has scooped up a grant from Xerox Corp and, with it acquired a collection of 26 film classics from all over the world for next year’s audiences to see. Selected for the influence each film exerted on movie-making generally, as an entertainment or art form, they will be aired in their original uncut versions, with no commercials, for 26 consecutive Friday evenings, nationwide, according to an announcement from KCET, Los Angeles outlet for PBS. To give you some idea of the scope of this Film Odyssey (that’s what they’re calling the series), shows will include the works of directors like Ingmar Bergman, France’s Francois Truffaut, Russia’s Sergei Einstein, Germany’s Fritz Lang and America’s King Vidor. On the starring side, beginning in January, Jeanne Moreau and Oaskar Werner in “Jules and Jim”, the 1962 film that established Truffaut as the leader of France’s New Wave directors. The series ends July 7 with Mexican director Luis Bunuel’s 1951 “Los Olvidados” (The Forgotten Ones). Another enriching thought, foreign films will be telecast with original sound tracks and English subtitles, super’d where necessary. Looks like this is the beginning of F riday night at the movies meaning Friday night filmfare for grownups, regardless of age, at home. Even without commercials, it’s unlikely they’ll forget to buy soap, used cars, or deodorants in assorted brands at the competitive prices - and the good (even great) movies are free! *** Never heard of it Out of the mouths of babes (and the archives of the American Dental Association) “Tommy Tucker’s Tooth”, perhaps Walt Disney’s first commercial film, has joined the Disney library. The silent, live-action movie with a few animated inserts, was filmed by Walt himself in Kansas City, Mo., in Dec. 1922, the year Disney founded his first company, Laugh-o-Gram Films. “Tommy Tucker” earned Disney a whopping $500, plus $1.50 bonus, the exact amount needed to retrieve his only pair of shoes from a repair shop. Scarcely what could be called “well-plotted”, the story concerned a good boy, Tommy, who took care of his teeth, and a bad boy, Jimmie Jones, who didn’t, but who does later, thanks to Tommy’s example. Both boys get jobs, because of their good appearance. My gracious, weren’t those the simple days, though. *** 4