Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1918)

1220 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD March 2, 1918 Novel Motion Picture Camera G. Bettini's Invention Takes Animated Pictures on Photographic Plates — Definition of Exposures Sharp. AN invention that is novel and really remarkable has recently been perfected by G. Bettini of the Bettini Syndicate, Inc., New York City. This consists of a camera for the taking of motion pictures on a photographic plate, five inches wide by any reasonable length. The standard, however, in that dimension is eight and a half inches. The Projector with Plate in Pocket, Another Being Projected and a Third Ready to Follow. photographs are taken in horizontal, parallel lines, and are about one-quarter of an inch square. Each plate can accommodate 576 photographs and, due to the fact thai the views are taken at a speed reduced in comparison with the speed at which the standard motion picture film is taken, the plate is the equivalent, in action, to seventy-two feet of standard film. The taking camera constitutes one part of Mr. Bettini's invention. A simple little projector for the throwing of the positive on the screen completes the device. Each of the 576 photographs may be successively projected, and since there can be no possible danger from fire, the photographic emulsion being carried on an entirely incombustible base — glass — any single picture can be left standing on the screen for an indefinite length of time. This is likely to be a highly important point as applied to educational methods in schools, colleges, and other institutions of learning. A prominent featuer of Mr. Bettini's invention is that the views are taken with such sharpness as to admit of any one of them being enlarged to almost any desired size, even to a picture six feet high. Hundreds of enlargements, ranging from a miniature to as large as eighteen by twenty-two inches are shown by Mr. Bettini. The definition of these enlargements is remarkable, and owing to the fact that the subject was not conscious of posing for a "still" photograph he acted natural. As a consequence there was a pronounced absence of the "stiffness" or "consciousness" which usuallv is apparent in portraits of persons who are aware that their pictures are being taken. With the aid of still another machine, also the invention of Mr. Bettini, the director of motion pictures can reproduce any portion of his production and get lifelike "stills" at a very small cost, plates containing 576 views being obtainable for five cents. The invention can also be used to advantage in domestic life, photographic records of marriages, parties and members of the family in different stages of life can be made at a very low price for the family archives. The possibilities of Mr. Bettini's proposition is so numerous that it may revolutionize the method of taking pictures with the present hand camera. The mechanism of the invention is simple and easy of operation. Walter R. Liebmann, Moore Manager MOORE'S Theaters Corporation, Tom Moore, president, franchise holder in the First National Exhibitors' Circuit for Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia, announces the opening of the Washington Branch Exchange of the First National at 419 Ninth street, Northwest, Washington, D. C, under the management of Walter R. Liebmann, formerly Washington manager for Goldwyn. The new exchange is on the first floor in one of the busiest downtown blocks on "the Broadway of the Capital," and is being equipped with the most modern devices for the handling, protection and distribution of films. t The ground-floor exchange room, directly between Moore's Strand and Garden theaters and only two blocks distant from Moore's new Rialto theater, to open in the early spring, has the advantage of one of the most accessible and most central locations in the city of Washington. It is, in fact, one of the few exchanges in the Capital City that takes its place among the real business enterprises of the downtown section by occupancy of a splendidly located firstfloor room of large area as opposed to the customary second or third floor room on a side street. Mr. Liebmann, who has been appointed branch manager, is a native of Deadwood, N. D., and has had a continuous experience of about fourteen years in the theatrical business. Leaving college to enter the profession as an actor upon the vaudeville stage, Mr. Liebmann by force of personality and merit climbed to the position of stage director for Joe Weber — for whom he produced "The Climax," "Alma, Where Do You Live?" and other successes — and later to the same position with Werba & Leuscher, under whose banner he staged "The Rose Maid." Later Mr. Liebmann served with success as branch manager for Mutual, Boston manager for Triangle, and subsequently Washington manager for Goldwyn. Walter R. Liebmann. MRS. THOMPSON WRITES FOR WORLD PICTURES. Mrs. Marevene Thompson, novelist, playwright and short story writer, whose work appears regularly in several magazines, has given World Pictures the first call on the screen rights to all of her work. The World has just secured two stories from Mrs. Thompson — "The Blood of the Trevors" and "The Heart of a Girl" — which will shortly be screened. Mrs. Thompson brought these stories to the World scenario department on Thursday afternoon, February 14, at five o'clock, and by ten o'clock Friday morning, February 15, they had been accepted and the check in payment for them delivered to Mrs. Thompson. This makes a new record for quick action between an author and a film concern.