Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1936)

'&J z. -u i. '.W/r' m " 1 The League has a birthday party FOR ten years, members of the Amateur Cinema League have wondered what each other was like and what the personalities were behind the membership cards that have been so widely distributed over the whole world. In those ten years, members have met oilier members at club meetings, have encountered them in navels and have seen eaeli other incidentally, if they happened to come together at League headquarters for annual meetings, or for other reasons. But, because the League is primarily a service body and net a social organization, there have been no large assemblies of Miners who write ACL after their names, until Friday, October 23 of this year. On thai dale, the formal recognition of the League's tenth anniversary was celebrated by a gathering of over lour hundred League members and their guests at the Hotel Roosevelt, in New York City, where, with the exception of three non member speakers, the entire presentation was made by League members. This occasion reviewed the course of amateur movies from the beginning and brought it up lo the present. Prior to ihe dinner _ service, quests inspected Guest speakers at m important historical , , , T , exhibit of cameras, pro trie League s lenth jeotors and film, assem . bled by the League's Anniversary Dinner stair, with the generous ' > m Drucker & Balles Co. assistance of the amateur movie industry and individual friends who lent items. This equipment ranged, in date, from the early Twentieth Century. It endeavored to show what had gone before the establishment of the Amateur Cinema League, July 28, 1926, as well as what has been offered since. Early pieces in the exhibit were the Edison Kinetescope, using 22mm. film, which is dated 1912; the Barnes camera, using 35mm. film, bearing the date of 1908; the 9.5mm. Pathex camera, introduced in Europe in the early 1920's, although not offered for sale in the United States until 1925; the first Victor Animatograph 16mm. camera, offered to the public in 1923; the first Cine-Kodak, made available later in 1923, together with two most interesting items, the experimental models of this camera, bearing the dates of 1920 and 1922; the first model of the Filmo, with the date of 1924; the Movette camera and projector, using 17.5mm. film, 1922; the Pathescope camera, using 28mm. film, marketed in 1913, with its companion projector, built in 1928; the interesting Kinedome projector, using 12mm. film, and built in 1907; the Duplex Projectorgraph, using 11.5mm. film, built in 1923; also an early example of amateur movie effort, a home built 35mm. camera, produced by Russell C. Holslag, ACL, in 1917. This equipment exhibit covered monochromatic and color filming and both silent and sound movie making. It was arranged in three classes, each of which was presented chrono 3% ^ iNs "Sfeo K\'. ™y '*HS * v W loH*$ •*•« Joseph Dombroff Rudy Vallee, ACL Beth Brown. ACL Dr. C. E. K. Mees Governor Carl E. Millike" logically, one embracing cameras, one projectors and one films. It contained articles manufactured in the United States and in Europe. It was the most comprehensive collection of historical amateur movie equipment ever assembled anywhere. Regrettably it was impossible to preserve it, because of the expense involved, although its component parts are located and are capable of assembly on future occasions. (Pictures of some of the historical equipment exhibited are on page 537.) A well prepared dinner was served at seven forty five o'clock, under the direction of M. Paul Chatelain, ACL, maitre d'hotel of the Roosevelt. Twenty three persons sat at the speakers' table, these being Wilton A. Barrett, secretary, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures; Harold M. Bennett, manager Cine-Kodak Sales, Eastman Kodak Company; Joseph M. Bing, ACL, secretary, The Oval Table; Mary Beattie Brady, ACL, secretary, Religious Motion Picture Foundation; Beth Brown, ACL; Eugene Chrystal, ACL, Eastman Kodak Company; Willard B. Cook, president, Kodascope Libraries; Joseph Dombroff, president, National Photographic Dealers Association ; C. R. Dooley, ACL, director, Amateur Cinema League; Arthur L. Gale, ACL, editor, Movie Makers; Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, past president, Society of Motion Picture Engineers; Fred M. Hail, vicepresident, Bell & Howell Company; John V. Hansen, ACL, director, Amateur Cinema League; Arthur A. Hebert, ACL, treasurer, Amateur Cinema League; Mrs. John G. (Percy Maxim) Lee, ACL; Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees, vicepresident, Eastman Kodak Company; Governor Carl E. Milliken, secretary. Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America; A. H. Niemeyer. executive chairman. Guild of Photographic Dealers of New York City; Rudy Vallee, ACL; Alexander Victor, president, Victor Animatograph Corporation; Stephen F. Voorhees, ACL. President, Amateur Cinema Lea-ue; Charles G. Willoughby. chairman of the board of directors, Willoughbys; Roy W. Winton, ACL, managing director, Amateur Cinema League. Guests were seated at forty one tables on the floor. Amateur movie clubs and other organizations reserving tables were the Cinema Club of the Oranges. The Harmon Foundation, the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club, the Mount Kisco C.nemats. the Newburgh Cinema Club and the Philadelphta Cmema Club. ♦ I Over 400 attended League dinner for its tenth birthday Among the guests coming from distant places were Ralph E. Gray, ACL, from Mexico City; E. M. Barnard, ACL, from Arkansas City, Kansas; and M. Armour Landry, from Trois Rivieres, Canada. Most of the ana in Southern New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia had representatives, although liegreater attendance was from the metropolitan neighborhood ol New York City. As was announced, in a previous editorial in Movie Makers, League members paid lor their tickets ami for those of their guests. At the conclusion of the dinner service, a program of addresses followed. These were A Welcome to our Guests, by Stephen F. Voorhees, President of the Amateur Cinema League; Our Founder— Hiram Percy Maxim, by Arthur A. Hebert, treasurer of the Amateur Cinema League; The League and the Manufacturer, by Dr. C. E. K. Mees, vicepresidenl of the Eastman Kodak Company; The League and the Dealer, by Joseph Dombroff, president of the National Photographic Dealers Association; Ten Years of Cooperation, by Governor Carl E Milliken, secretary of the Motion Picture Produce] and Distributors of America; Why I Do It, by Rudy Vallee. ACL A Novelist Uses Her Shears, by Beth Brown. ACL. Mr Voorhees emphasized the happy nature of lie evening and asked for an informal enjoyment of the program by all »uests. He recalled the initial luncheon ol the League, in New York City in 1926, under the leadership of the late Hiram Percy Maxim, the League's Founder, and expressed the deep regret of all League members that Mr. Maxim could nol have liv°ed to see the gathering. He gave rerrtiniseenl anecdotes ol the naming of the League and of Movie Makiiis ami told some of his own pioneer experiences in vie making more than a decade ago. Mr. Voorhees said, in conclusion. -Let us hope thai, in the next ten years, we shall ;" ereater advances all the way through those year advances in our equipment and in our film-. Let uall look forward to another birthday party, ten year hence. Mr. Hebert told of the courage [Continued on page 543|