Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

62 MARCH 1953 This department has been added to Movie Makers because you, the reader, want it. We welcome it to our columns. This is your place to sound off. Send us your comments, complaints or compliments. Address: The Reader Writes. Movie Makers, 420 Lexington Ave., New York 17, N. Y. NOTES FROM MAGNETIC NOTEBOOKS Dear Mr. Moore: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Haven Trecker's interesting and informative article on magnetic sound recording in the December issue of Movie Makers. For some time I have felt that there is a real need for impartial how-to-do-it information on magnetic recording. I am sure that Mr. Trecker's account of his experiences will be of immeasurable help to other owners and prospective owners of magnetic sound projectors. Movie Makers is certainly to be commended for the timeliness and interest of its articles. C. H. Percy President Bell & Howell Company Chicago, 111. Dear Sirs: You had a very nice article in your December issue by Haven Trecker, ACL, called Notes from': Magnetic Notebooks: 1. I wonder if I may make a copy of this article and have it mimeographed for inclusion with other photographic notes? W. G. DWINELL Ames, Iowa. SAFETY FACTOR Gentlemen : With reference to the article Protect Your Projection Parties, by George Merz, ACL, in the November issue, I'd like to comment on a point I think the author may have overlooked. With the plug securely bolted to the wall socket as he suggests, anyone walking across the room may do one of two things : either trip and fall, or pull the projector off the table. It would seem to me that the standard, unaltered plug provides a rather nice safety factor to prevent this sort of accident. Lt. Herbert M. Federhen, ACL Fort Monmouth, N. J. THE TOP OF THE TEN BEST Dear ACL: I have just finished looking through the February issue of Movie Makers which came today. After reading the advertisement on the Top of the Ten Best program, I want to add my congratulations to the many you must be getting for producing this film. I am sure that the Top of the Ten Best will be enthusiastically received everywhere, and I hope it will become an annual event along with the Ten Best contest. Herbert D. Shumway, ACL Greenfield, Mass. Thanks to 8mm. Ten Best winner Shumway. Our only regret in planning the Top of the Ten Best program was that we could not include the two 8mm. winners — Backyard Birding, by Mr. Shumway, and Outsmarted Smarties, by George Valentine. Dear ACL: Wonderful news about the Top of the Ten Best program! I hope our Amateur Movie Society of Albany. ACL, will be able to use it soon. The program should be very popular. Helen C. Welsh, ACL Albany, N. Y. Gentlemen: Please send me complete information and rates for screening the Top of the Ten Best program on April 14 or May 12. Will appreciate hearing as soon as possible if one of the above dates is open. Harold M. Thompson, ACL President Color Camera Club Waterloo, Iowa DEAR ACL: LOS ANGELES 8MM. CLUB WANTS TOP 10 BEST PROGRAM FOR FIRST LOS ANGELES SCREENING ADVISE BY RETURN AIR MAIL. SORRY CANNOT ACCEPT WASHINGTON INVITATION TO ATTEND WORLD PREMIERE. Fred Evans, FACL Sound Committee Los Angeles 8mm. Club Los Angeles, Calif. ACL: CAN I HAVE TOP OF TEN BEST FOR SHOWING MARCH 31? TRYING TO ORGANIZE ACL CLUB HERE. C. S. Hoag, ACL Cleveland, Ohio ACL: REGARDING TOP OF TEN BEST PROGRAM. COULD WE BOOK SAME MARCH 18? INDIANAPOLIS AMATEUR MOVIE CLUB MEMBERSHIP DRIVE SHOW. WIRE COLLECT. Walter R. St. Clair, ACL President Indianapolis Amateur Movie Club Indianapolis, Ind. Gentlemen: We would like to present the Top of the Ten Best program at Dartmouth College under the auspices of the Dartmouth Film Society on March 17 or late in April. Your offer will prove to be one of the outstanding events of the year in the field of amateur motion pictures. J. B. Watson, Jr., ACL Dartmouth Film Society Hanover, N. H. Dear Sirs: We have received your recent letter and are very glad to hear of the ACL package program, The Top of the Ten Best. All here are agreed that the plan is a splendid one and should be a great help to clubs which put on Gala Nights. Please book us at once for May 15. A. Theo Roth, ACL President Golden Gate Cinematographers, ACL San Francisco, Calif. Gentlemen: Please send me complete information and rates for screening the Top of the Ten Best program. This will be shown before the Glens Falls Camera Club, which does not have a movie section at this time. But we hope to stimulate enough interest with this outstanding ACL feature film to start one. Richard K. Dean, ACL Glens Falls, N. Y. Dear ACL: I think ACL is to be highly complimented on this very progressive idea of a package program of the Top of the Ten Best. We are delighted to have it available for our coming banquet. Our club being strictly a non-profit organization, we were thrown for a loss at first at the rental-fee angle. But several individuals in the club have contributed enough to see us through. That's what you might call enthusiasm ! John C. Sherard, ACL Program Chairman 8-16 Home Movie Makers, ACL Kansas City, Mo. Allowing only one booking per week, to avoid all possibility of disappointment, the senior Top of the Ten Best program is already booked solid through the month of June. Good dates after that time are still open. However, in view of the unprecedented popularity of ACL's new film feature, we have prepared a second, or junior, Top of the Ten Best package. It is comprised of Duck Soup, the Maxim Memorial Award winner for 1952; Muntre Streker, a Ten Best winner, and (in excerpt) Birds of Washington, an Honorable Mention winner. The total screen time is 41 minutes, and the rental rates are commensurately lower than those for the senior show. Booking dates for the junior Top of the Ten Best are generally available from the middle of March on. CARRY THE LOAD Dear ACL: In sending you my renewal of membership at the new rates, I realize that the cost of everything is rising — especially service. Since I feel that what the ACL has done for me, as well as for movie makers in general, is well