International projectionist (Jan 1961-Dec 1962)

Projectionist Profile . . . Harry Garfman Serves Charity As Well As I A Local 306 More than a baker's dozen of plaques and scrolls decorate Harry Garfman's office at 250 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, which testify to his spare-time work to making the world of cripples and convalescents a little happier. For more than 15 years, Harry doesn't try to fill all PROJECTION LIGHTING REQUIREMENTS with but two or three lamps The full line of Strong projection lamps for 35 and 70 mm projection includes six different models for drive-in theatres and eight for indoor theatres, including the famous Jetarc, most powerful lamp ever produced. Strong has a right lamp for screens of any type and size — a lamp which can be proved by impartial footcandle meter tests to project the brightest pictures. Send for literature. THE STRONG ELECTRIC CORPORATION 31 CITY PARK AVENUE • TOLEDO 1, OHIO 'Th» World'* target! Manufacturer of Pro/ection Arc Lamps" 10 has been Local 306's business agent for Brooklyn and Queens, but his philantropic and humanitarian efforts has gone on since 1939, when he was elected to the Local's Sick Committee. During his four years serving on the Committee, Harry visited many hospitalized union members, and the loneliness and tedium of hospitalization made a lasting impression on Garfman. His activity in Brooklyn hospitals dates back to 15 years ago. "A projectionist friend of mine," Harry recalled, "had a very sick little boy who was being treated at Saint Giles Hospital in Brooklyn. I visited the boy and saw his loneliness in the hospital since the busy staff had no way to entertain the children. That was before television. So I arranged for a 16mm movie show which the kids could watch from their beds." The films were a tremendous success. The Kings County Hospital soon heard of Garfman's good work at St. Giles, and requested that he extend his program to their institution. Harry enlisted the aid of his friends, all of them members of Local 306. These men organized the Movie Social Club of Kings County. They present free programs of film to entertain the children's wards, and every year, at Christmas time the Club gives parties for the children, for which they solicit toys and gifts from local merchants. Harry was instrumental in helping to organize the Brooklyn Chapter of the National Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation, and served as the first president for three years. Again, his activity was sparked by the plight of a friend's child. A member of the Local had a young daughter who was dying of cystic fibrosis, which was a disease little known to the public five years ago. (Among the scrolls that decorate Harry's office walls is a proclamation from Mayor Wagner in tribute to his activity in the National Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation.) Harry Garfman began his career in the theatre at the age of nine, when he worked as a candy vendor at the old Gotham Theatre in Brooklyn. Before long, the silent pictures began to replace stage shows, and Harry became a reel boy. At 17 he became the assistant manager of the International Harry Garfimn Capital Theatre in Brooklyn, and two years later he was manager of the Ambassador at Saratoga and Livonia Avenues. That same year he married and began the family which now numbers three children and five grand-children. Sound film was introduced when Garfman was 21, and he promptly MONTHLY CHAT (Continued from Page 3) room during the dull spots, and the fact that you are watching in your own busy, familiar home make it impossible to become absorbed in a movie. Rarely does a TV film take you out of yourself and into its own world. "Rarely, after watching a movie on television, does the viewer long to discuss it with others. It's out of sight and out of mind, just like that. So complete is one's absorption in a theatre, however, that it's sometimes a jolt to find out that the picture is over." Unlike a Chicago theatre magnate who predicted in 1957 that "all major Hollywood studios engaged in the production of motion j pictures for theatres will close within the next six months," IP expects the motion-picture theatre to be with us a long, long time, ever growing and expanding and maturing as it continues to fulfill its unique and necessary function in the life of the people.— R.A.M. Projectionist December 1962