Checking I Don't Have a Rarity !!

[Melvin England]

I think this must be my very first post in the 9.5mm section of the forum.

My first ever 9.5mm films have come into my possession recently. They are both about 30' long, black and white, silent on metal spools.

The first one is a Paramount Popeye cartoon entitled "Calling On Olive" and the second is a Mickey Mouse cartoon called "Holding The Dummy."

Quite honestly, I do not know what to do with them. I do not have any 9.5mm equipment and both films are in fairly rough condition. My main concern is that I am not unwittingly in possession of two "lost" cartoons that some archive would love to have a copy of.

Can anyone please advise me if these are unusual or not and whether they are available in other formats?

I look forward to your responses......

[Maurice Leakey]

Melvin

1) "Calling on Olive" is a cut-down from the full length "Pleased to Meet Cha" (1935) which is available on 9.5mm silent and sound.
2) "Holding The Dummy" is a cut-down from the full length "Mickey Plays Papa" (1934). This is not available on 9.5mm.

As regards 1) it's not worth anything.
As regards 2) no doubt it's available on 16mm sound but I can't confirm.

As the two are in such an abbreviated form and were both originally sound they are not in any way rare.



Maurice

[Melvin England]

Thank you for the information, Maurice. I just didn't want to be the one to dispose of them and later find they were sought after items.

[Maurice Leakey]

In the book "A Half Century Of Film Collecting" by Gerald McKee he says "Each 9.5mm sound release lost Pathescope £500, it was only the sale of Disney cartoons to the juvenile owners of Ace projectors that earned profits."

As a schoolboy in the 40s I saved my pocket money to buy the 30ft films. In front of me I have the 1954 Pathescope catalogue and they were priced at 5/- (25p). My pocket money was 2/- a week! Kids like me could only drool at the 200ft Disney cartoons at £1.12s.6d. (£1.63). A few were 300ft at £2.10.0. (£2.50).

The above catalogue lists 30 Disney titles in 30ft lengths, 47 in 60ft lengths, and 33 in full length of 200ft and 300ft.

I must admit that the 30ft and 60ft were well edited by featuring just a little episode from the compete versions. 30ft would run 80 seconds at the Pathescope speed of 14fps, but as the Disneys were mute versions of sound film they needed to be run much faster. So, probably 30ft lasted about a minute!

Regrettably, these edited short films have no real value.


Maurice

[Trevor Adams]

Maurice,did you have a 30fter silent about Spitfires?regards,Trev

[Maurice Leakey]

Sorry, Trevor, no.
My 30 footers were reduced versions of cartoons.


Maurice