8mm Forum: Features On 8mm & 16mm

This is topic Features On 8mm & 16mm in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 19, 2016, 05:27 AM:

As an ex 16mm mobile operator and later, a film society secretary, I would have welcomed such a book as I have now obtained from the U.S. via Amazon. Bought mainly for nostalgia, I am amazed what was available to U.S. 16mm (and 8mm) users in 1974.

"Feature Films On 8mm and !6mm" is a fourth edition of 1974 by James L. Limbacher and was published by R.R. Bowker Co., NewYork, N.Y. Called a directory of feature films (and serials) which were available for rental, sale, and lease in the United States.

The book is a hard-back weighing 1k and measures 28cm x 22cm x 3cm and has 368 pages. More than 15,000 films are listed together with 191 companies and distributors.

Each film is alphabetically listed and includes Country (if not U.S.), original 35mm distributor, running time, colour or b/w, scope, gauge, main stars, director, R.L.S. (rental/lease/sale), code of distributor/s. (Regretfully, no synopsis.)

It really is a formidable piece of work, and as the author says, "no distributor was paid for inclusion, all information was obtained from current library catalogues."

Does any U.S. member remember these books and when did they start and end publication? I see that later issues also incorporated the words "and Videotape". The last I can find via Google is from 1982 and now the book had grown to 512 pages!

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on June 19, 2016, 11:05 AM:

I got the 1979 edition,448 pages.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on June 19, 2016, 01:08 PM:

Had it have ran well into the 90's and included the UK company Derann, surely the list would have been well over 600!

Shame about the inclusion of video tape though!

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