Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

the M O Y I E S Whif Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater in Lo« Angeles (left, above and the Metropolitan Opera House (right, above) are two of America's best-known show places. Are they destined for the television spider's web? David Samoff (right; is optimistic r By CAMPBELL MacCULLOCH thing like a true commercial development that would put current events or pictures in the home, as current music is broadcast to-day, is a long, long way off; and that the present state of the art will not justify a tithe of the newspaper claims. But I wanted to be sure. Let us first have a little history. Five years ago — in May, 1925 — I visited David SarnofF, then vice-president and now president of the Radio Corporation of America, and said: "Do you see television on the commercial horizon?" "Yes. Probably in five years," he replied. "I say that, considering the progress made by radio in four years, and always with certain reservations." Mr. Sarnoff Is No Prophet I inquired again of Mr. v3 SarnoflF, this time in May, 1930, and he wrote: 'While a good deal of constructive work has been done in the field of television and I am optimistic about the ultimate possibilities, I can only say that it is still in the laboratory stage and I doubt whether anyone can speak with certainty as to the exact time when television will be a commercial reality. The role of the prophet is always hazardous, and if I have learned nothing else in the last five years, I have at least learned to be more cautious about prophesying." So, I had one confirmation, and here is the other, from a man who — because of certain professional relationships — must remain in the background. (A man, by the way, whose inventions are in use in the transmission of photographs by trans-Atlantic communication; whose developments are in use in making talking pictures, and whose television work has been in association with one of the foremost experimenters in America.) ■Ania tmmtHtmxrtox Partly Possible I 'ELEVISIOX — of a sort — is commercially possible J_ to-day," he said. "But when I say that, I mean that it is feasible to place a simple subject before a televisor and to transmit — either by radio or wires — that vision. However, neither the subject nor the audience will be enthusiastic about it. The subject won't like the heat from the amount of light that is necessary, and the audience won't be very appreciative of the ill-defined, uncertain picture on a very small screen. "Unfortunately, television is not like photography, which is more or less an instantaneous process — a flood of light reflected in various intensities from an object or objects, and falling simultaneously on a sensitive emulsion to be recorded as one efl^ect. Television is to-day a building-up process, and the more surface it is necessary to display, the longer time is required to build it. "The only television principle with which I am familiar is that of the scanning disc. There is no need to go mto detail, but until this scanning process — which involves time — can be replaced with some method which requires no time, relatively speaking, there will be no wide commercial application of television on a practical scale." •kit ■•ral»l fr««tia«t. Television Movies? THE other well-touted phase of television has to do with the transmission of motion pictures. To-day, this is not Practical in anything like a commercial sense. Nobody nows when it will be. There are such elemental and experimental things as "radio movies," which are merely minute silhouettes or outlines; iTut they are experimental and nothing else. 25