Nice early sound picture

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:22 am

This was recently posted to another group - the poster said it was taken near Paducah KY.

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/downlo ... &mode=view

Sorry, for some reason I can't embed it.

Scoundrel · Post by **Scoundrel** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:12 pm

Brooksie · Post by **Brooksie** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:14 pm

There were a lot of travelling picture shows like this in rural Australia - they'd pitch a tent in a paddock somewhere, show the films, and move on to the next town. It must have been a pretty hairy way of making a living.

One of the projectors that travelled around in the back of one of these vans is still extant, and apparently still in use - see http://www.amusutheatre.com.au/inside.html.

I've seen some terrific old pictures of these things, but as luck would have it, I can't find a single one online. I'll have to dig one up.

Jim Reid · Post by **Jim Reid** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:33 pm

Not to pick a nit, but they used projectors, not cameras to show films.

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:35 pm

depends- a few systems used cameras that converted to projectors.

Jim Reid · Post by **Jim Reid** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:48 pm

FrankFay wrote:depends- a few systems used cameras that converted to projectors.

Another nit to pick.

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:31 pm

Check out the book High Class Moving Pictures: Lyman H. Howe and the Forgotten Era of Traveling Exhibition, 1880-1920 for lots of information on traveling exhibitions.

Brooksie · Post by **Brooksie** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:23 pm

Jim Reid wrote:Not to pick a nit, but they used projectors, not cameras to show films.

The source I referred to described it as a `camera', but you're right, the source was probably inaccurate.

I have cheekily corrected it in the original post.

Rather than waste a post, I'll add a link to a couple of clips from `The Picture Show Man', a very sweet Australian movie from the 70s based on the memoirs of one of the travelling showmen from that era, Lyle Penn - http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/pictu ... man/clip3/. Gives a pretty good idea of what it must have been like. Thousands of those little country town halls still exist today.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:58 pm

The story, in a fashion, in Australia was told in the film, The Picture Show Man with Rod Taylor, John Meillon & John Ewart. The war was on with two opposing service running around with covered wagons & horses.

There was another interesting experiment. A film team would descend on a town and entice the town to appear as extras in a short film. They had a small cast to pad out the item with them and then developed the film quickly and screened it to the town for admission fees then move elsewhere & repeat it over again. I have seen a couple of these reels probably about May 1978 in nitrate 35mm reels. Not sure but I think these ended up in our national film archives under the name of the guy who screened these for me and a friend and died of a heart attack soon after(a former newsreel, then outside film cameraman for early TV & noted collector of nitrate with one huge house fire to his memory).