Machine Shows Cartoons Without Screen
A NEW idea in motion pictures machines has just been developed. by Max Fleischer, the well-known movie cartoonist. The mechanism, shown above, consists of a large cylinder on which are attached cartoons of the various comic characters, and a large rotating shutter with two narrow slits on either side of it.

As the cylinder is rotated, the shutter revolves in unison, so that by standing at a point in front of the machine and looking at the right portion of the shutter, animated cartoons of amazingly smooth action can be viewed.

In contradistinction to the common movie projector, Mr. Fleischer’s machine has no intermittent action, and the big wheel never stops but revolves continuously. A full picture with smooth flickerless action is the result.

ACTORS’ BREATH MADE VISIBLE FOR WINTER FILM SCENES
Motion pictures of winter scenes may be made realistic by a device that makes the actors’ breath visible, just as it would be at low temperatures. The device resembles false teeth. It enables the actors to keep Dry Ice in their mouths without harmful results. The warm breath causes the Dry Ice to give off vapor not unlike that produced by persons breathing in cold weather. The device does not interfere with speech.

view additional pages

MOVIE CARTOONS Gain THIRD Dimension

MAX FLEISCHER worked a full year to produce 250 feet of motion picture film on one of the first animated cartoons ever to reach the silver screen. Alone, he made thousands of drawings, wrote the story, and did the photography. The animated cartoon was “Out of the Ink Well.” It made movie history just after the World War.

Today he has a staff of 225 people who turn cut a 650-foot animated cartoon every ten days. All of them are in sound, many in color and, latest of all, with three dimensions. The famous “Popeye the Sailor” animateds are leaders in the field; “Betty Boop,” “Ko-Ko the Klown,” and the familiar Screen Songs with the famous bouncing ball are known to every movie-goer. They are released through Paramount Pictures Corporation.
Read the rest of this entry »

According to wikipedia this was the 3rd drive-in to open in the U.S.

California Autoists View Movies in New Open Air Theatre

LOS ANGELES motorists, movie bound, may now sit in their cars and enjoy the latest sound pictures in a giant open air theatre recently completed.

The frame which holds the 40 by 50 foot screen is a structure 72 feet high and 132 feet wide. Three huge loudspeakers, each 22 feet long and 7 feet across the mouth, are mounted on top of the structure. These loudspeakers are directed at the tops of the cars, whose soft fabric is said to make an ideal sounding board.

The fenced – in spectators’ area holds 450 cars which are parked in lanes graded at an angle so that the cars point up at the screen. This inclination enables back-seat spectators to obtain a unobstructed view of the screen. Projection machines are in a low building in front of the screen, said to be the largest in the world. Installed in a low building in the second row, these machines work at an up-shot angle, instead of the customary down-shot used in indoor theatres.

view additional pages

MILLIONS for MOVIE IDEAS

By Frank Lloyd

Paramount Producer-Director

THERE is upward of one million dollars waiting for you in Hollywood if you can find a satisfactory way of projecting motion pictures in three dimensions. There’s another million for some device which will create a universal focus for a camera. Possibly you could drive an even better bargain.

But before you start, remember that the best brains in the industry have been struggling with the ideas for years and nothing worth-while has been found. Hundreds of letters come to the studios, containing both shrewd suggestions and fantastic ideas, and still the search goes on. Scores of patents have been issued on both subjects and yet nothing good enough seems to have turned up.
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

H. G. Wells Photographs the FUTURE in His Motion Picture “THINGS to COME”

SUBTERRANEAN cities flourishing under the scientific miracle of weather manufactured by machines—

Light-ray traps which recapture the very incidents of long vanished centuries so that you may watch Columbus discover America if you wish—

Flowers and vegetables grown without soil or sunlight—

Personal radio telephones carried on the clothing in a space no larger than a coat button—

An electric Space Gun powerful enough to rocket human beings around the Moon—

Boring machines which carry joy-riding passengers to Aladdin’s caves ten miles beneath the earth—

These are some of the amazing achievements predicted for the world of tomorrow by H. G. Wells, world-famous British novelist who is hailed as the greatest prophetic genius of our day. With other miracles of the year 2054, they will soon be seen in Mr. Wells’ startling motion picture, prophetically entitled “Things to Come.” Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

How THREE COLOR MOVIES ARE MADE

WOULD you like to know how the color in a Walt Disney Silly Symphony or in “La Cucaracha” is obtained? Have you ever wondered how a motion picture film, in which each picture is about the size of a postage stamp, is colored so it can be magnified 35,000 or more times and still retain the beautiful coloring of a Silly Symphony?
Read the rest of this entry »

Synthetic Scenery Eliminates Movie Sets
HUGE, one-sided sets built at great cost in Hollywood movie studios to recreate for the camera famous buildings and famous settings, are fast becoming obsolete. Stored away in round metal cans in the film vaults of Radio Pictures, are hundreds of well-known synthetic settings, and cameramen are now being sent around the world to gather thousands more, to be used in a revolutionary new process called “rear projection.”
Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

Thanks to Stannous for the tip about the anniversary site.

Science Creates a Monster

Hollywood has produced some weird costumes but this $18,000 horror-suit tops them all. By Harvey B. Janes

AN ominous order rang through the studios of Universal-International pictures recently: “Gill-Man—report to the underwater tank to test your three heads!”

Accordingly a horrible monster, half man and half fish, lumbered menacingly across the lot, stopped at the huge water tank, poised for an instant and then plunged into the murky depths.

To the casual observer it might have seemed as though the studio was being attacked by a frightful sub-human creature from out of the past but the camera and set crews, producer, directors, actors and script girls all held their ground bravely. Were they too frightened to move? Or did they all know it was a trained monster?
Read the rest of this entry »

COLOR TV FOR THEATERS
PROJECTED color-television pictures of theater-screen size were shown recently at the Colonial Theater in New York City by the Radio Corporation of America in tests that revealed further advances in the RCA compatible, all-electronic color-TV system. The color show, produced in the NBC studios at Radio City, was broadcast on channel 4. This enabled owners of all existing television sets in the area to view the same program in black and white.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, that guy looks scarily entertained by his movie. Think of it as the Video Ipod of 1952.

Now! SEE MOVIES without SCREEN OR PROJECTOR with Melton Pocket Movie Viewer

Men, you’re going to have a world of fun with the MELTON MOVIE ‘ VIEWER, and you’ll think of a dozen pals overseas to send one to. With the Melton, you can view a complete 50-foot roll of any standard 8 mm. film, without screen or projector. Easy to operate; just look in viewer and turn handle. You see clear live-action picture in color or black and white. A precision instrument you’ll be proud to own. Satisfaction, or money back. Only $4.95, ppd. Send to
MELTON INDUSTRIES, Inc.
Box 390 Dept. MI-3 Reno, Nev.
Add $1.00 ea. for film:

• Beauties of Bali
• Robinson-Turpin Fight
• Danger Trail
• A Thrill a Second
• Bathing Buddies
• Hit the Silk
• Grand Canyon