Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

148 JUNE 1953 CloseupS— What filmers are doing H^'^edE For perfect COLOR slides and movies G-E MASCOT is the exposure meter everyone can use . . . just read the exposure setting on the dial. As easy to read as a watch. Pays for itself over and over in film and pictures saved. Every camera needs a Mascot! See it at your photo dealer's . . . SI 5.95* General Electric, Schenectady. N. Y. *Fair traded 606-134 THE NEW There are many movie makers, we are sure, who have made films in which they attempt to interpret their home town to others. But we do doubt that there are many who have received the official thanks of their city's government for such efforts. Well, Dr. Henry J. Sealey, ACL, is one who has, and furthermore he has a piece of official paper to prove it. "Whereas," this document where-ases, "Dr. H. J. Sealey, in pursuing his hobby as an amateur motion picture photographer, has produced a motion picture of Dumont, N. J., entitled My Town; and Whereas the film, in addition to showing great technical skill, also depicts Dumont in full and beautiful color, enabling residents to see their home town as if through the eyes of others; "Be it resolved by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Dumont, N. J., that the said Mayor and Council, on behalf of the people of Dumont, extend to Dr. Sealey the highest commendation possible." My Town, says Dr. Sealey, already has been seen by nearly 1500 persons, and it's still going strong. On a somewhat more international scale, amateur still photographers are now being invited to interpret the country they live in under the aegis of Americas, an attractive monthly magazine published by the Pan-American Union, in Washington, D. C. The contest, it says here, is open to all amateur photographers in the member countries of the Organization of American States. The best entry from each of these twenty one American Republics will receive a prize of $25, and there is a grand prize of $75 for the best in show. For your entry blank and further data on this provocative competition, address: Photo Contest Editor, Americas, Pan-American Union, Washington 6, D. C. hattan are looking for an experienced bank teller, one who speaks both Spanish and English fluently, Chavarria should be your man. For some time, now, we have wanted to bring you the story of David Bradley — how an able, imaginative and, above all, determined amateur movie maker kept hammering away at Hollywood until the jealously guarded gates were opened to him. But, always, there was the problem of who you could get to cover such a fabulous saga. You don't ask the guy himself to write of his adventures: for told truly they would sound unbearably egotistic and boasting. And, from the other Bradley stories we have read, all emanating from Hollywood drum beaters, you don't ask a press agent either. For they give you, with all stops out, the "Boy Wonder" angle, the seemingly inevitable comparison with Orson Welles and the fact (for what it's worth) that Dave Bradley, in his amateur production of Peer Gynt, more or less discovered Charlton Heston. Then we thought of Bill Howe. An Angeleno for years and a graduate of UCLA, Bill knew something of the film colony and its ways with the unorthodox. But even more important, Bill had worked for some four years on the League's staff as head of consulting. Then he had left us, gone back to the Coast and in due course became a teacher of English in a high school outside of Hollywood. So we wrote Bill, and we wrote Dave, and eventually the two got together. Of their meeting, Bill has written us: "I spent a very pleasant evening with Dave last week, had a private screening of Caesar, and the enclosed (He Knew What He Wanted) is the result. I thought I'd do him the honor of writing one article about him in which Orson Welles and the 'Boy Wonder' angle are dropped. For he's a big boy now!" GENERAL m ELECTRIC Speaking of Pan-America, a welcome and friendly visitor to ACL headquarters of late has been Alvaro Chavarria, ACL, of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Without checking the files, we would say that we have been corresponding with Senor Chavarria for a good ten years now. And always his letters have been full of longing to come to New York, enroll in a good school of photography, and learn more and still more about movie making. So now he has made the break: given up his position as a bank teller in San Jose and moved boldly to New York City for a year of study. In the meantime, if any of you people around Man DAVID BRADLEY, with a characteristic lack of side for a big league director, discusses a coming scene with Billy Graham, MGM starlet.