Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

423 Photographs by Rem Heater AN ADEQUATE STAFF of ticket takers, program girls and ushers will smooth handling of your guests and automatically involve more members in project. Run a Nickelodeon Night! A public program of old films can be fun for all, says this club leader. Here's how to plan it HELEN E. KING, ACL, President Walla Walla Cinema & Camera Club, ACL ARE you looking for a picture program that is difl ferent, dramatic and delightful, all rolled into one? Something for your cine club, your country club, or downstairs in the rumpus room? Then take a tip from this "Roxy" of the Northwest and run a Nickelodeon Night! Old films, that is. An Old Time Movie Night is especially valuable as a movie club project. For example, it enhances the club's local prestige, builds up the club morale, adds new members to the roster and dollars to the treasury, it's lots of fun and (more on this later) it's easy to organize. Nostalgia for the Nineties will sell your tickets like ten percent Treasury notes, while careful planning will make your show so popular you'll need a repeat performance. For, all too late, people have begun to realize the value of the early "flickers," and consequently the supply is scarce. It took the Walla Walla Cinema & Camera Club. ACL, three months of correspondence and the help of the Amateur Cinema League to locate firms with a supply of authentic pioneer pictures. Our final program selections were made from four different companies. f "CATCHY," said the news editor, accepting publicity shot above. "Corny," he cracked, on one below. K. G. Rowlen PROGRAM POSSIBILITIES The Great Train Robbery, circa 1893, was the feature of the evening, since it is considered the first movie to have a plot. The edition offered by the Eastin Company was selected, for they have added appropriate sound effects and running commentary calling attention to the early techniques and photographic differences. For example, closeups and medium shots were completely lacking, but action and pathos were supplied in abundance. Secondly, we decided that no such show would be complete without a newsreel. So Yesterday Lives Again, a Castle film, was rented and billed as Time Marches Back to 1900. The alleged bathing beauties really put the patrons in the aisles. Easter Fashions of 1900 had both men and women guffawing. The inevitable Westerns were represented by Bill Hart in Saved By a Gal, or Delay Does Her Darndest, in which the sultry glances of the hero and heroine survived even the grain of the ancient ortho film. One reel delights were That Villian Must Die, starring Polly Moran and Wallace Beery when they were in their early twenties, and Truth and Consequences, starring Blanche Sweet and Wallace Reid, which contains wonderful suspense, indoor camera work and dramatic acting. To be sure of good measure, Corn Fed, a re-issue of an early boy-meets-girl-and-foils-villain scenario, was added. It is cinematically interesting for a modified use of Griffith's closeup technique. We found all of these effective; but there are other choices. By starting correspondence early, a club can secure catalogs from which many equally entertaining old-time movie programs can be planned. SLIDES ADD ATMOSPHERE Gay Ninety slides added the spice to the evening's program and gave the projectionists a chance to make smooth changes between reels. Authentic old glass slides, 3!/4 by 4A/4 inches in size, are [Continued on page 428]