International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1939)

FOREST 'TOP VALUE' ALWAYS Forest Rectifiers are more than just a collection of features! They are designed for motion picture projection and are built to 'take it'! Priced to enable more exhibitors and projectionists to own real protection and economy. There is a Forest Rectifier for every purpose. All Forest Products! • FOREST Thermionic Rectifying Tubes, 7^4-15 amperes. Built to rated capacity, with high safety factor. Guaranteed Performance. • FOREST Low Intensity Rectifiers. Typo LD 15-15 DC amperes and Type LD 30-30 DC amperes. • FOREST Bulb Rectifier for Suprex, Simplified High Intensity or Low Intensity projection. Type LD 60—3 phase, 220 volts, 30-60 DC amperes. • FOREST Magnesium-Copper Sulphide Rectifiers. Designed for Suprex or Simplified High Intensity projection. 5 models— 30 to 100 DC amperes, all for 3 phase operation. Using exclusively the P. R. Mallory rectifying units. Made in the Forest "Twin" models. Authorized Forest Distributors in All Key Cities Forest M.CS. "Twin" Rectifier s™ RECTIFIERS big business to the New Deal which results in frozen capital, paints the unemployment curve blacker and brings about shrunken audiences for pictures. Product Quality Factor 2. — Public interest in films rises, falls or remains static in direct ratio to the quality of the entertainment offered. There is no reason for anyone to calculate films are indispensable to a degree which automatically guarantees a prosperous industry. Going to the movies may be a habit. We believe it is and that it wilt continue. But the significant gauge by which the situation must be calibrated is will they go frequently enough if the studios do not furnish them with a sustained line of attractions they want to see? To harbor the idea, on the other hand, that grosses will never again attain their one-time peak is to dabble around in unsatisfactory and unpredictable futures. No one can answer such a question conclusively, for this business is too sensitive and too volatile to remain permanently anchored to a given set of conditions. Old Faces, Old Stories 3. — If the public is not tired of "the old faces and same old stories re-made and re-hashed," they ought to be by this time. Both equations have been played to death. More particularly does this apply to story re-hashes, but the difficulty there flows to the answer to our first question. It is a herculean, as well as impossible, job to make them all click when a single studio is committed to as many as 40 to 60 features each twelve months. The old face, and its complement, the new face, of course, always has been a baffling problem for Hollywood to solve. The indications . . . are that the effort at developing fresh personalities is cur rently a trifle more serious than usually is the case ... It is as essential a task as any confronting the studios. This time, perhaps, it will succeed. 4. — Public apathy toward films, undoubtedly, exists, but it is this opinion the drift has some distance to traverse before it accumulates to the degree prevailing before sound came in. Every time apathy seems to gain, the good luck star under which this business proceeds twinkles brightly again in the guise of unusual attractions which save the day. The future? It is up to the men who make the product and, while this assuredly is the easiest way to toss off a perplexing question, the obviousness of the approach cannot belie its essential truth. SLASH TELEVISION SET PRICE Prices for television receivers will be generally slashed by at least one-third in the near future and wholesale prices will be cut even further to permit a wider margin of profit for dealers. The move follows a successful test in upper N. Y. State where sales increased measurably after the reductions. Radio officials have been openly disappointed at the failure of the dealers to place the sets on the market. Dealers, on the other hand, took the position that it was considerably easier to market $600 worth of inexpensive radio sets than one television receiver, and that the returns were greater. As a result, only about 1,000 sets have been placed in the metropolitan N. Y. area. Whitehead Sues for $100,000 from Actor Unions' Execs. Libel suit for $100,000 damages has been filed in the N. Y. Supreme Court by Ralph Whitehead against Edward Arnold, Frank Gillmore, Kenneth Thom How Many? Was this copy dog-eared when it came to you? How many men read it ahead of you? You would receive a clean, fresh copy if you had a personal subscription— and you wouldn't have to wait — you would be first to read it. Use coupon below. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST. 580 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. D 1 year — 12 issues — $2.00 D 2 years — 24 issues — $3.00 Foreign: Add 50c per year. Enter my subscription for Name . . Address City State 22 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST