International projectionist (July-Dec 1934)

December 1934 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST 21 TWO MILLION GET LOW-DOWN ON PROJECTION WORK Projection was served up piping hot to the more than two million Sunday readers of the New York Daily Neivs through the medium of a feature story therein the material for which was gathered in a tour of the N. Y. Paramount projection room by a News writer. The feature was was worked up by Harry Rubin, projection director for Paramount, and James J. Finn, editor of I. P. Excerpts from the story are appended hereto. — Ed. (Copyright 1934 by Chicago Tribune-N. Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) GARBO earns a million dollars, supervisors, directors, magnates and other relatives earn more millions; fortunes are spent for sets and technicians and artificial eyelashes; staggering sums are spent on theatres with better carpets than the one in the living room — And the net result — a movie — reaches its destination by being put into the hands of a man whom nobody sees or knows or hears of or cares about: the guy in the projection booth. Even when we see him picketing he doesn't strike us as a public character. Some 6,000 men have each paid the city (N. Y.) $10 for licenses to operate movie projectors. Harry Rubin estimates that 1,500 of these are good men. Rubin, who's the big boss of all the projectionists on the Paramount-Publix chain, got his first operator's license in 1907, when the machine was turned by hand and they used to flash a sign: "One Minute While We Change Reels." Film Break a Major Crime It takes a man one minute and thirty seconds to change reels in any of the three huge projectors in the Paramount Theatre, which shoot their images to a screen 190 feet away. In the case of a break in the film maybe it could be done quicker — but in its eight years of existence the Paramount has never had a film break while showing. Nor do other modern movie houses have breaks any more. Equipment has improved since the days when the operator used to hold his watch in the projector and flash the time on the screen right in the middle of the big Indian attack; and carefulness has increased, too. The one great crime a projectionist can commit is to have a white screen. It is 10:59 A. M. A buzzer sounds All Set to Serve You National Service never relaxes. It is ready to help you with your renovation, re-equipment and repair problems. Only equipment of KNOWN QUALITY. Carpets, seating, screens, projectors. Send for catalog. National is PREPARED to SERVE your theatre. NATIONAL 92 Gold St. THEATRE SUPPLY CO. New York, N. Y. or Office Nearest You Clayton EvenTension Take Ups • All projectors in Radio City theatres and projection rooms are equipped with Clayton Even-Tension Take-ups. Radio City thus confirms the judgment of thousands of theatres — the largest and the smallest — throughout the world which found the Clayton to be the perfect take-up. No springs — no adjustments to make. Write for catalog of Clayton aids to good projection and sound reproduction. CLAYTON PRODUCTS CO. 31-45 TIBBETT AVENUE NEW YORK, N. Y. PHOTOPHONE OFFERS: • Unfailing Sound Satisfaction • A Sound Box Office Attraction • Complete Ownership • A Self-Liquidating Investment PHOTOPHONE DIVISION RCA VICTOR COMPANY, Inc. Camden, N. J. A Radio Corporation of America Subsidiary