International projectionist (Jan 1961-Dec 1962)

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST Including a special Audio-Visual section relating to the operation and maintenance of A-Y equipment in the educational and industrial fields. Volume 36 November 1961 No. 11 EAST COAST OFFICE 545 Fifth Avenue New York 17, N. Y. Murray Hill 7-7746 RAY GALLO General Manager Associate Publisher TOM KENNEDY Equipment Editor MIDWEST OFFICE 1645 Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis 3, Minnesota FRANK W. COOLEY, JR. Editor and Publisher AL BLOOM Managing Editor In This Issue Sideweave-. Projection's No. 1 Problem 4 By ROBERT A. MITCHELL New York Group's 50th Year 12 Keep the Gleam in the Patron's Eye 14 By ARTHUR J. HATCH Profile: Morris Rotker of New York 16 TESMA Theatre Council 17 News Notes — Technical Hints — Miscellaneous Notes INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST, published monthly by the International Projectionist Publishing Co. division of The Northern Publishing Co., Post Office Box 6174, Minneapolis 24, Minnesota. Editorial offices, 1645 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis 3, Minn. Subscription Representatives: AUSTRALIA— McGills, 183 Elizabeth St., Melbourne; NEW ZEALAND— Te Aro Book Depot, Ltd., 64 Courtnay Place, Wellington; ENGLAND and ELSEWHERE-Wm. Dawson & Sons, Ltd., Macklin St., London, W. C. 2. Subscription Rates: United States, Canada, and U.S. Possessions, $3.00 per year (12 issues) and $5.00 for two years (24 issues). Foreign countries: $4.00 per year and $7.00 for two years. Changes of address should be submitted four weeks in advance of publication date to insure receipt of current issue. Second-class postage paid at Minneapolis, Minn. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST assumes no responsibility for personal opinions appearing in signed articles, or for unsolicited articles. Entire contents copyrighted 1961 by INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST PUBLISHING CO. MONTHLY CHAT SMPTE — Source for Vital Information The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers continues to grow (a new Detroit section was recently formed), though it baffles some film men associated with the organization that so many in the motion picture industry have overlooked the contributions, past, present and future, which this non-profit group has made to the practices and standards of motion picture technology. The society's semi-annual conventions constitute a national forum for the engineering and scientific phases of new motion picture developments and new processes in manufacturing raw stock, its processing, production and exhibition. Its monthly Journal is a source book for reference on the technical advancements of the motion picture. The society, in collaborating with other groups, has set up standards which guide production and exhibition. Its twelve regional units' meetings disseminate information about particular products and processes. One member of the society says his impression is that filmmen — especially exhibitors and some projectionists — have gotten to look on the society as an "egghead group" whose talk and texts are 'way over the heads of practical theatremen and craftsmen." That may be true in some cases by the very nature of the engineering mind, which expresses itself in precise and careful terms. But the society's work was most practically demonstrated in the last decade when so many new developments hit the film industry — Cinerama, CinemaScope, magneti: sound, Todd-AO, 35/70 mm projection equipment, etc. This engineering group did yeoman service in digging up essential facts for the exhibition end of the industry in cooperation with makers of equipment, studios and other such societies in giving techniques for handling the advanced developments and setting standards, presenting papers and demonstrations at its conventions, with the record published in the Journal of the SMPTE as well as International Projectionist. The present president of the SMPTE is a filmman — John W. Servies of National Theatre Supply. The group was formed in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, which later took on work in the television field. All during its years of existence it has contributed much to the film industry with its forums for new devices and advancements of the growing pains of production, projection and screen presentations — it has been a prime source of practical utilization of advances in studio and theatre equipment. Of course, the society's preoccupation with its engineering and scientific work has diverted the organization's public relations in the film industry, since it hasn't been notable for press relations with the film trade press. The film business is sort of 24-sheet-minded, and it takes a loud, and even brassy, voice to be heard around the industry. As a matter of fact, Mr. Servies referred to the lack of the society's press relations in the motion picture trade press at the last convention. The SMPTE now has 75 projects under way in the motion picture and TV field, with 12 technical committees. Every five years the society's committees get together with the American Standards Assn. to revise the standards already established. This takes many consultations and research. While projectionists bulk large on the membership rolls of the SMPTE, it is suggested that other members of the craft should carefully read the society's texts and articles whenever they run across them, in their constant search for better projection hints and developments. iP I NTKRNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST November 1961