|
1930
 
Victor Animatograph 1930
16mm
sound-on-disc Animatophone
projector
The Victor
Animatograph Company is
the first to introduce a 16 mm sound projector, using the Warner
Brother's 35mm Vitaphone sound on disc method, employing a vertical turntable
with a floating pendulum tone-arm, mounted on a rocker support. Needless
to say the venture was not a success. It was Kodak laboratories, after 3
years of experimentation, that set the standard for the future with
the development of 16 mm sound on film in 1930, with perforations down
the left side and the soundtrack on the right.
1932
Since
America was in the mist of the Great Depression, people could not afford the
expense of the 16 mm equipment. Kodak was looking for a more inexpensive
film gauge that would gain a wider acceptance. They introduced a new
format, the Cine
Kodak 8.
In
Sept. 1932, RCA
Victor gets
into the 16mm home market by
demonstrating
the first sound-on-film 16 mm projector to the photographic trade,
called the Photophone Junior Portable, it's on the market the following year.
March 14, George Eastman, aged 77, writes suicide note--"My work is done. Why wait?"--and shoots himself.
1933
RCA
Victor
announces in February, the formation of it's 16 mm
sound-on-film
library, on a variety 400
ft educational subjects.
Bell & Howell
introduces
it's sound-on-film Filmosound projector and the following year opens
it's Filmosound film library for sound 16 mm rentals.
HOME
MOVIES, A
magazine devoted to the Home Movie Industry begins it's publication. Published monthly by Ver Halen Publications it offers articles about film collecting, with great
advertisments from Castle, Official, Hollywood Film
Enterprises, etc.
WALTER
O. GUTLOHN CORPERATION
is founded Gutlohn, a doctor, and Harry Kapit, an
attorney, is the
first independent national 16mm rental library, Gutlohn dies in 1938, and
the company continues operation by his partner Kapit and Gutlohn's
widow. The corperation is one of the first to distribute sound 16
mm films, on
disc, followed by sound on film, The CORP. is sold in 1945. Always involved with universities the company pioneered film libraries in schools. The
Company and it’s 3.000 16mm films is sold in 1945 to a theatrical & television Corperation.
1934
DeVry introduces it’s first sound-on-film projector
1935
The Era of color photography
begins
Kodachrome
color film, based on three colored
emulsions, is introduced.
The
Era of color photography begins. Kodachrome becomes the first commercially
successful amateur
color film on 16 mm. The following year it's introduced in 8 mm and 35 mm slides.
Kodachrome color energizes amateurs and helps establish home moviemaking as a phenomenon.
Home Film Libraries Inc.
becomes
Films Incorperated.
Started
by Orton Hicks in his home in 1927, as a part time business.
By 1929 the company grew large & profitable enough that he went
into it full time. He began supplying 16 mm projectors and Hollywood
features to small steamship lines that couldn't afford the
investment of the 35 mm equipment that the big ship lines could. In
1935 to make Hollywood sound features available to 16 mm renters, Hicks
made a deal with Paramount to release their features to Films Inc.,
making Paramount the first
studio to
release sound
features on 16 mm.
By the early 1960's Films Inc. was the number 1, 16mm distributor in
America. It reached it's peak in 1983 by grossing over 30 million
dollars that year. By the early 90's with the bottom falling out of the
16 mm rental business, Film Inc. hits hard times & is out of
business by 1996.
1936
Kodak introduces
it's first sound-on-film 16 projector,
the
Sound KODASCOPE Special Projector.
|
Castle
Films
formed
in 1924, by
Eugene Castle (1897-1960),
a
former Pacific Coast film editor at Fox
Movietone,
on an investment of $10.000, which
grew into one of the largest supplier of shorts & feature
condensations to the home market, started his business by distributing
industrial films and documentaries free to schools and colleges with
sponsors paying the costs.
|
In 1936, when most distributors saw 16 mm
films only as a rental market, Castle realized the potential in the 16
mm home market & the ownership of films by collectors market.
His first two releases
were
"THE CORONATION OF
KING GEORGE" and "THE
HINDENBERG DISASTER".
Till
the early 1940'sScenics, reality shorts & Terrytoon cartoons
made up the bulk of Castle's sales. You could buy a 3
minute "Star Spangled Banner" recorded on 16 mm film with patriotic scenes in the background for $2.75. Castle
was famous for his yearly
News Parades from 1937 to 1975, he narrated
some of the newsreel shorts himself. Castle Films were sold in 16 &
8 mm, silent & sound versions in all the major department stores,
toy stores, camera shops etc. By the middle 40's a one reel
Castle sound short cost $17.50 in 16 mm,
& $5.50 in 8 mm.
|
BOY MEETS DOG
In
1938, Walter Lantz produces a Technicolor cartoon called Boy Meets Dog (based on the comic
strip "Reg'lar
Fellers"). This was a soft-sell commercial for
Bristol-Myers' Ipana
toothpaste. Bristol-Myers
planned to give theaters 50 cents a seat to run the cartoon, but something happened,
and
the deal with Lantz fell through.
Castle bought the cartoon (removing two plugs
for Ipana) and releases it for the home market in black & white in 1940. It was
never released
theatrically by Universal, and is in Public domain
|
Castle
offered the earliest color films for sale in 16 mm with the UB Iwerks
library of cartoons in the
original stunning Cine-Color
process in 1941
(See 1940's
page). He made a lucrative deal to sell Soundies in 1944 under the name
'Castle
Music Albums'. When
Official Films got the rights to sell the soundies in 1946, Castle countered by compiling "Music Albums" of segments taken from Universal's musicals.
These "Albums" proved to be an even bigger windfall for Castle
than "Soundies."
In December of
1946 Eugene Castle sells 75 percent interest in the company to United World Films,
for $2.25
million. At the time, Castle Films had a gross annual income of about $130 million.
United World Films is absorbed by Universal in 1947. Universal, in 1949, adds
condensations of their comedy films, including Abbott & Costello,
W.C. Fields, their extensive Western collection including Tom Mix &
Hopalong Cassidy films and their entire cartoon collection to the Castle
catalog of films.
In 1949 Castle Films also released 9 Walter Lantz cartoons in the stunning
Technicolor process, but the cost in printing was too high and was abandoned in
1951 for the cheaper Eastman color.
The Abbott and Costello condensations became so
popular that in late 1951 Bud and Lou filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Universal and Castle Films.
One year later, the suit was settled out of court.
 
1n 1959 Castle starts
selling condensations of their horror films, beginning with Abbott &
Costello Meet Frankenstein. During the 1960's the horror & science fiction shorts
had become Castle's headline attractions. In 1971 prices range from from $2.25
for 8mm silent "Headliners", Super 8 "Complete" shorts, for $6.95
to $29.95 for 16mm with optical sound. Universal operates Castle Films under their United World Films
umbrella till 197 6
and then renames it Universal 8 & 16. Selling 8 &
16mm 20 min. condensations of much later films like Airport, Smokey and the Bandit, Rooster Cogburn, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
By 1984 with the Video
Tape revolution well underway Universal 8 had disappeared.
1937
Kodascope
Libraries
An ad in the 1936
Kodascope Catolog,
proudly proclaims:
("Now comes color!,
Realizing the revolutionary nature of color on 16 mm, KODASCOPE
LIBRARIES INC. has contracted with DUNNING
OF HOLLYWOOD for exclusive
production & distribution of
16 mm short subjects.").
Two
of the first 400 ft. Dunning color live subjects the Kodascope Libraries
offers are "Maude Miller" & Romany Love.
click on ad below to enlarge Kodascope, Dunning ad.
|
In 16 mm color &
sound.....Another example of Kodascope Libraries efforts to provide the
finest for rental patrons.........
|
The
above proclamation introduced Disney's Silly Symphony's in the new
Dunning,
2
color process in 1937.
Dunning color had the range of greens &
reds but lacked the blues. The film stock
did not last long
. Color
would not gain wide acceptance in 16mm until Cinecolor & Kodachrome begins
printing on 16mm stock in the 1940’s. Dunning was distinguished by it's emerald green soundtrack. Dunning
was distinguished by
it's emerald green soundtrack.
Click on the picture to see a enlargement
Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. is founded in
1937 and begins renting 16 mm films to non theatrical revenues like cruise
lines, hospitals, churches, recreation departments, high schools, elementary
schools and various other institutions. Privately owned by the Swank family.
Swank is one of the few rental companies still operating by the 21st
century with over 1,000 employees.
1938
Agfa,
a company formed in 1867, as a color factory in Germany, introduces a 16
mm color amateur cine film.
|
EVOLUTION
OF THE 16 MM FILM by A.F. VICTOR President of the Victor
Animatograph Corperation for the Film Daily Yearbook- 1938
Although primarily
the 16 mm film was intended for amateur use, it has in these 15
years developed into new although not unexpected channels. From being an
amazing plaything , 16 mm now has become one of the greatest mediums for
education & other purposes. The second step in the evolution of 16
mm to it's present use was it's adoption by industrial
organizations . The next and presumably final step was the
adoption of 16 mm for educational purposes through out the schools
of the world. 16 mm film is not intended by either the sponsors nor by
most of those engaged in the manufacture of film & apparatus to
replace 35 mm film for entertainment purposes. It is a fact that the
larger manufacturers of both of these things clearly understand
that the 16 mm industry would be retarded were it to encroach on the
legitimate theater field, and for that reason both manufacturers of film
& apparatus have tried in every way to discourage the showing of
entertainment pictures on 16 mm. in competition with local
theaters. |
1939
Official
Films,
Founded by Leslie Winik,
Castle's biggest
competitor is formed in 1939 to produce, for sale, in 16 mm,
instructional shorts, but within a year they found a more valuable
16 mm
market in public domain Keystone Chaplin shorts, which the company
added music & sound effects.
In the early 1940's Official acquired the rights to the Van Beuren
cartoons. They changed many of the film titles and renamed characters. Tom & Jerry became
Dick & Larry, and Cubby Bear became Brownie.
 
Winik
entered independent production & sold Official films in 1945 to a syndicate
who expanded the company's overall business, listing over 300 titles for sale by 1948. Official Films in
1948scooped Castle films and acquired the rights to the "Soundies" shorts
(Castle films had the rights in 1946 & 47) and began selling them in groups
of 3 under
the program "Musical Film Revues" for $17.50 each. Official also
issued many individual
Soundies with their original titles,
During the
1950's the company
packaged a
series of Soundies for Television. They were the earliest company to sell the
Roach 'Our
Gang' sound shorts in the late 1940's.
In 1950 Official films got involved with the blossoming
Television
Industry, syndicating live action television shows including
"Peter Gunn", "Adventures of
Robin Hood", "Secret File, U.S.A." (1955) TV Series,
"Survival" (1964) TV Series.
In 1969, Official Films changed its name to Official Industries.
Kodascope
Libraries
1939
marks
the beginning of the end for the historic Kodascope
Libraries.
The company becomes a division of Eastman Kodak stores. While the libraries
are still renting
the old silent prints, Kodak had not printed any new silent tinted
movies since the early thirties, when 16 mm sound films caught on. The
Universal sound films & shorts that the Libraries were renting the
past 4 years, including the 1936 Showboat & My Man Godfrey were
transferred to the Bell & Howell Filmosound
libraries which were handling most of Universal films, no new additions
of
the Kodascope catalogs were issued and the libraries finally
ceased operations completely by 1944. Many of the old Amber tinted
prints found their way into collectors hands.
Eastin
Entertainment Films is
rechristened Blackhawk Films in
1939, named
after the Indian tribe that once lived on the land where Davenport Iowa
now stands. The company was founded by Kent D. Eastman in his home
in Galesberg Ill in 1927. Eastin, a film collector, would buy packages
of 16 mm films from companies that went bankrupt and then resell them to
collectors (actually the first film dealer). By the mid 30's he was
so successful renting & selling films, that he was
Eastin-Phelan Corporation. In 1952 the company
begin's a big expansion by making a deal with the
Hal Roach Company for non-theatrical rights to their Laurel &
Hardy features & the Roach shorts. They made a limited deal for the rights to the Fox Movietone Newsreels & some of Foxes shorts. Kent Eastin was such a railroad buff that he released a series of very popular railroad shorts. Blackhawk became the most prestigious of all the companies that sold films. Under the guidance of
Eastin, Blackhawk worked with the American Film Institute by funding them in the acquisition and restoring of early silent films in return for the rights to sell them. In the 1970's Super 8 overtook the popularity of 16 mm & became the biggest moneymaker for
Blackhawk. The
original owners sold the company in 1975. When Republic Pictures bought
the company in 1986 they, turned it into strictly a video operation.
THE ESSEX FILM CLUB OF NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY
is founded by movie lover Robert E. Lee, He was the dean of film society
operators, and the club becomes the
oldest continuously operated film society in the US operating up to his death in
1992. Running both 16mm & 35mm the club offered one double feature program a
month. Lee also offered 16 mm prints for sale to collectors, under the title
Griggs Moviedrome. Named after John Griggs, his company begin's as a small
business offering copies of films from Greggs personal collection, by the middle
1970's it's 40 page catalog contains some of the best quality prints available
from over 200 features & shorts in both 8mm & 16mm.
Click Below To Continue
1940's
16
mm goes to war & Full
TECHNICOLOR
Back
to 16mm Timeline Main Page
|
