International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1949)

X INTERNATIONAL RQJECTIONISI With Which Is Combined Projection Engineering HENRY B. SELLWOOD, Editor Volume 24 JANUARY 1949 Number 1 1/ Index and Monthly Chat 3 Sound System Components, III . 5 Robert A. Mitchell The Concave Screen 10 Projected Light and the Curved Screen 10 Historical Sketch of Tv Progress 11 L. R. Lankes Emphasis on the Port Side ... 12 A. Buckley Sound Kodascope FB-40 Projector Again Available 14 Ultrafax: New Communication Marvel 15 Expanding Use of Infra-Red Film 16 Archie Stout Flicker in Motion Pictures .... 17 Effective First-Aid in the Event of Electric Shock 17 In The Spotlight . 18 Lumens and Electrons 20 W. W. Lozier F. T. Bowditch I. A. Elections 24 News Notes Technical Hints 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 194'8/'by International Projectionist Publishing Co., Inc. "Jnternational Projectionist is not responsible for personal opinions appearing in signed articles in its columns. MONTHLY CHAT WHILE there were few outward signs of any sharp advances technologically within projection circles during 1948, it would be less than wise to mark '4 II that period off as a wholly static year. Plans formulated and research, development and testing effort expended during 1948 will blossom into actuality during the coming year and, possibly, through several years thereafter. No branch of the motion picture industry— from managers and projectionists in theatres on up through the studio artistic and technical forces to the higher echelon of management (and not forgetting those hard-headed fellows from Wall Street and its counterparts who supply the wherewithal) nobody is unaware of the tremendous task that confronts the industry in its life-or-death struggle to combat the many forms of entertainment which now compete with the film boxoffice dollar. Rampant though it be at the moment, television is by no means the only threat to the theatre box-office; Tv merely intensifies the competition. If the film industry is to continue as a healthy economic organism, it appears certain that the life-sustaining energy must flow from its technicians. Films must be made very much more appealing to the increasingly discerning eye of the amusement-seeker, not only in terms of story content and artistic execution but also by means of vastly improved technique in production and presentation. Three-dimensional pictures, stereophonic sound and greatly improved color processes are but three of the advances long promised by the film industry; but it begins to look as though the Big Brass executives have become very coy about putting money into technological developments on behalf of an industry which, while the source of their opulence and personal power, might possibly be in for a bit of rough going. Difficult of accomplishment though the aforementioned developments might be, complete candor compels the observation that they would be duck soup for that gang of technicians who have brought Tv to its comparatively high estate. There is more than a suspicion that the Big Brass is flirting with the notion of going over into the Tv camp en masse (strictly as a production enterprise in studios already available) and let the exhibition field make its own way. This suspicion is strengthened by the strange apathy displayed by film executives in moving to avail themselves of even a single Tv channel for theatre use. So, whatever the desires and capabihties of its technical forces, the immediate and long-range welfare of the motion picture industry will be decided largely by the decisions made in executive eeries in New York. We shall know the answer before 1949 is very far advanced. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST January 1949