International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1947)

Russell S. Blake Real Old-Timer Hf\ LD-TIMER" is a term susceptible ^^/to varying interpretations, and in the projection field it is applied with abandon to juveniles who started cranking a picture machine as recently as 1910. Into I. P. offices the other day, however, there strode a gentleman who, being asked how long he was at the "game," replied casually that he signed his first "operating" contract in June, 1901! He proved it, too: he showed the original document. Moreover, Russell S. Blake (for that's his name) still is "operating" at the Loew-Poli Theatre in Hartford, Conn., having opened that house just 27 years ago. Being the wholly gracious gentleman that he is, Blake could only be a New England product. (This should cement I. P. relations with those Yankees — until we do a piece about some Texan. ) While in high school Blake developed a terrific yen to see the world, beginning with that piece of terrain known as the U. S. A. Avidly scanning The New York Clipper, a theatrical magazine, he noted an ad of the Mark Brothers Comedy Co. for an "electrician and property man." Upon getting the job and learning that he was to also operate a picture machine, Blake scurried about and bought an Edison Kinetoscope and a few films, some less than 100 feet long. With Lyman Howe — Inevitably He joined the company in Perth, Ontario, in 1901, and during the ensuing 40-week tour of Canada he learned plenty that wasn't in the Kinetoscope instruction book. During the 1902-03 season he toured New England with the Harcourt Comedy Co. and was much taken with the antics of the Three Keatons, Joe, Myra and young Buster. Many years later this same Buster was to star in many motion pictures projected by Blake. Motion pictures at the time, of course, were mere adjuncts to the "flesh" portions of a show. Between the acts both movies and slides were used, with the former being considered the most effective "chaser" for long-sitting patrons. _ Inevitably a man of Blake's attainments had to run into Lyman H. Howe, whose travelling troupe was then tops in the amusement world. The Howe show provided the fledgling operator with the opportunity for his greatest "scoop" — this in 1909 — movies with sound and color! The color was the result of painstaking hand-tinting, while the various sounds were contributed by a versatile accomplice stationed behind the screen. The ecstatic reviewers were neatly hornswoggled by this dual deception. The employment contracts Blake signed during these years were truly wondrous documents and eminently fair to one party — the boss. Reproduced elsewhere in this issue, we offer one of these "agreements," just to test the credulity of its readers, as well as for the laughs it is sure to provoke. Blake asserts that his biggest thrill was the first time he showed in New York City with the Howe troupe at the famous Hippodrome Theatre, since demolished and now an automobile parking lot. Another thrill of a highly different nature was forthcoming when he and two other Howe troupers were stricken — in White River Junction, Vt., of all places — with scarlet fever. Blake avers to this day that there was not an inch of the Green Mountain State that wasn't fumigated, so terror-stricken were the medicos, and the natives naturally tilted their noses skyward and inquired of each other as to what else could one expect from showpeople. The boys fooled them, however, by not only recovering but also not passing the malady along. The constant improvement in motion How it Was Done in '03 A verbatim copy of the fateful letter which set Russell Blake's feet on the show business path is appended: Wilkes-Barre, Pa., U. S. A. July 12, 1903 LYMAN H. HOWE'S HIGH-CLASS MOVING PICTURES Mr. R. S. Blake Terryville, Conn. Dear Sir: Your favor of the 11th in answer to my ad in "Clipper" received. I expect to be in New York City on Wednesday and would like to meet you there for interview. I will stop at the Morton House (14th St. and Broadway) . I will pay your railroad expenses from Terryville to New York and return. If you are a clean, straight and reliable young man, this will be the beginning of a long pleasant engagement. On receipt of this please wire me stating whether or not you can meet me in New York, between 4 and 6 o'clock Wednesday (15th). 'Very truly yours, Lyman H. Howe picture equipment through the years to its present high performance level has created its own special problems in terms of management-audience relations, according to Blake. "In the old days, he reminisces, "the folks were aware of the equipment's limitations and would wait patiently while a film was patched or a part repaired. "So thoroughly has the excellence of both equipment and technique been sold by ■ the energetic promotional boys, however, that audiences are now resentful of even a flickering or unsteady screen light, which they regard as an intrusion upon their personal comfort and enjoyment." Blake and thousands of other oldtimers go on fooling them every day, however, and that pride of craftsmanship that was born on those rigorous road trips of yesteryear and which has been passed along to the youngsters in the craft will perpetuate the show business ideal of service and then more service to the paying customer. B & L Celebrates 94th Anniversary Bausch & Lomb Optical Company of Rochester, N. Y., celebrated its ninety-fourth anniversary as an optical firm on November 3. Founded by John J. Bausch and Capt. Henry Lomb, with $60 capital in 1853, the firm is the world's leading producer of scientific optical instruments and has offices in the principal cities of the globe. The company's first contribution to the optical industry was the installation of the first power lens grinding machine in America, eight years after its organization. The first large scale manufacture of microscopes in the U. S. was started by Edward Bausch, the founder's eldest son. Within the next few years, photographic lenses were perfected; bifocal lenses, binocular microscopes and iris diaphragm shutters were introduced. During the Spanish-American war, the firm produced the Navy's first fire control instruments, used by Dewey at Manila. In 1915, William Bausch, another of the founder's sons, turned out the first pure melt ever produced in America. During World War I, B&L was the sole source of supply of optical glass and fire control instruments for the American fighting forces. During the last war, the story was repeated on an infinitely more extensive scale. The B&L binoculars, bubble sextants, rangefinders, aerial mapping equipment, radar optics and mobile optical units proved invaluable assets to U. S. combat forces, throughout the world. RCA Net Increases 50% in Year Net income for the first nine months of 1947 has soared to $12,233,758, in comparison with an $8,226,329 figure for the same period last year, RCA has announced. Total gross for the same 1947 period was almost $225,000,000 as compared to $163,500,000 in 1946. After payment of preferred dividends, net earnings are equal to 71.1 cents per common share this year, an increase of almost 29* cents over last year. 24 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST November 1947