Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Talking Pictures explanatory lines, calculated to make those in the audience wish to see the picture thus graphically advertised. The trailer is usually shown for a week before the main picture is to be exhibited. Office boys would not, it would seem, be anything but office boys, whether working in a studio or the outer office of a chewing gum factory. But office boys in motion picture plants are chosen with great care. Inasmuch as most of the work in a studio requires specialized training, there are few places for ambitious young men without such special training, except as office boys. Therefore one finds that a large percentage of youngsters in a film making establishment are either college graduates, or honor students from a high school. It is known that these minor jobs furnish the best way to get into a studio, in which one can be in contact with all the various technical activities. For this reason studios have long waiting lists and pick and choose carefully. As studios are immense places, running errands is a tiresome chore and an office boy will easily cover twenty miles on a busy day. But he sees everything, meets everybody, and after two or three years may be taken into one of the departments to begin his education in film making. It should be evident by now that no man or woman in any profession, no tinsmith, no manicurist, no marine engineer, to mention only a few, can stand back and say, "The movies. I haven't anything in common with them." There is hardly a world activity that regularly or periodically does not make its contribution to a motion picture. Rven the science of bacteriology offered [124]