International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1947)

y^CIB /zoo* tfR 25 8<7 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIS With Which Is Combined Projection Engineering HENRY B. SELLWOOD, Editor Volume 22 APRIL 194 Number 4 Index and Monthly Chat 3 Background of American Trade Unions, V 18 Screen Illumination with Carbon John P. Frey Arc Projection Systems 5 R. J. Zavesky, C. J. Gertiser, Complete Projection Data Charts 19 and W. W. Lozier Robert Allen Mitchell Two New 35-mm Projection In The Spotlight 22 Test Reels 10 Harry Sherman Altec's ED-35 Sound System I. A. Elections 23 Transmission Test Film ... 12 The 'How' of Motion Picture Concentrated-Arc Light Standards 24 Sources 14 Revised Projection Standards 24-Frame/p.s. Projection vs. 30 Validated by the ASA 24 Frame Video Rate . 16 News Notes RCA Research Labs. Technical Hints Record Papers Program for SMPE Chicago Meeting .... 18 Miscellaneous Items Published Monthly by INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST PUBLISHING CO., INC. 19 West 44 Street, New York 18, N. Y. R. A. ENTRACHT, Publisher SUBSCRIPTION REPRESENTATIVES AUSTRALIA: McGills, 183 Elizabeth St., Melbourne NEW ZEALAND: Te Aro Book Depot, Ltd., 64 Courtenay Place, Wellington ENGLAND and DOMINIONS: Wm. Dawson & Sons, Ltd., Macklin St., London, W. C. 2 Yearly Subscription: United States and possessions, $2.50 (two years, |4) ; Canada and foreign countries, $3; single copies, 30 cents. Changes of address .should be submitted two weeks in advance of publication date to insure receipt of current issue. Entered as second-class matter February 8, 1932, at the Post Office at New/York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Entire contents copyrighted 1947 by international Projectionist Publishing Co., Inc. International Projectionist is not responsible for personal opinions appearing in signed articles in its columns. 420 MONTHLY CHAT STATING that examinations for a projectionist license in British Columbia are reputed to be the toughest in Canada, an exhibitor trade paper laments that only 3 out of 18 apprentices got their tickets at the recent examinations. The 15 who failed to pass the test will, under the law, have to wait another six months before trying again, the report continues, with the added wistful reflection that nearly all the entrants were returned veterans. The implication of this news item is unmistakable: the British Columbia unions, in an effort to limit the number of journeymen projectionists, deliberately make the examinations so difficult as to practically preclude a passing mark for a majority of apprentices. The "veteran" angle is thrown in as an extra touch of sentimentality. Film trade papers, and their exhibitor readers, have strange and invariably conflicting viewpoints anent projectionist competency. At wage-scale time the art of projection and its practitioners is talked down to a point where the process shapes up as a strictly button-pushing function which may easily be discharged by any "hack." On other occasions, and particularly when exhibitors would bke to see the field flooded with nondescript manpower, the unions are "conspiring" to prevent the issuance of licenses by contriving "impossible" examinations. As for the "veteran" angle, the writer, as a veteran himself, can sympathize with those British Columbia fellows who failed to make the grade; but be hastens to point out that one's war service alone does not qualify one for a given job, much less that of a professional projectionist. The armed forces' projection standards, the writer knows, bear little if any relation to the requisites of daily theatre projection. The issue here is competency — nothing else — and neither the outcry of exhibitors, rumbling up from the depths of their pocketbooks, nor the laments of the exhibitor trade press should deter the organized craft from its steadfast insistence upon competency and then more competency. More than a little of this qualityis needed by projectionists in hundreds of U. S. and Canadian theatres to protect themselves and their audiences from the incipient danger lurking in worn and outmoded equipment. I. P. has long advocated not less but more and more exacting standards. And for the information of our exhibitor friends, it may be stated that there isn't a union official in the trade who doesn't realize that competency is all he has to sell. Those shows hitting the sheets smoothly and without mishap in thousands of theatres daily attest to this fact. We say "Stand fast!" Because Mr. Exhibitor, despite his tendency toward ballyhoo and false front and with a penchant for watering the leaves and forgetting the roots, knows that his only merchandise is that image on the screen. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST • April 1947