What 16mm Films Did You See Last Night?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Ken,

I remember Look Who's Laughing because there's a number of radio stars in the cast, including Fibber McGee and Molly.

[Ken Souza]

I watched a cute little Lucille Ball, Edgar Bergen comedy called “look who’s laughing “. I forgot it’s a fun comedy

[Brian Fretwell]

A Peak Films silent B&W short "Big Top Olympia" a record of Bertram Mills Circus at the West london exhibition centre from the late 1940's. A remeinder of the times I went to see that circus there at Christmas in the late 1950's -early 60's, mainly as a prize in a UK comic's colouring competition. Coco the clown was the star attraction and was also in this film. I certainly brought back memories of the cirucs in the Grand Hall and a small fairground in the National Hall.

[Janice Glesser]

No baseball game on TV... So watched a film. We watched Baby Boom and my son was the projectionist. No need for a screen...... We just project to the wall.

[Steve Klare]

Last Night: From the Bottom Up

This is a film by the Minnesota Historic Society about archaeological expeditions made to find artifacts of the Voyageurs.

Thousands of years before there were canals or railroads or even roads wider than a footpath, the main vehicle of commerce in North America was the canoe. After Europeans arrived, this became the means that the deep interior of the continent was connected to the East Coast and sailing ships headed across the Atlantic: furs eastbound, iron goods, guns and liquor westbound.

The canoes in question were not two-seat recreational ones like we know today, but large ones seating more than 15 paddlers plus a steersman. They were big enough to carry hundreds of pounds of trade goods, but not so large and heavy that their crew couldn't pick them up and portage overland a couple of miles to the next waterway. The mountains and valleys of early America were not laid out for easy travel between two points, so any means of transportation had to be amphibious over a network of lakes, rivers and portage trails. The earliest Europeans to organize this trade were from New France, hence The Voyageurs.

This was not an easy way to make a living. There were rapids, sub-surface boulders, downed trees and sometimes even waterfalls in unexpected places and there were a lot of accidents. The Minnesota Historic Society used Voyageur diaries to pinpoint locations where Voyageur canoes had wrecked and dropped their cargoes on the bottom. They sent their own canoes out (This time: aluminum, with outboard motors) and even portaged them to bring divers to these sites and discover artifacts.

Their discoveries were quite valuable as historical finds. The cold, fresh water of a northern river is actually a lot more preservative than destructive to an iron artifact, and once cleaned off, they were found in remarkable condition, basically new from the factory. Since these were goods meant for sale, they were also in quantity. Someone interested in studying 18th century axe-heads could learn a great deal more about how they were made from a dozen like-new ones that had been found in a river than a single one that had been on dry-land for 250 years and been sharpened several dozen times.

This is a beautiful color print that looks pretty low-mileage. The scenery the expedition travels through is beautiful and the story it tells is interesting. The fact that they used outboard motors feels almost canoe-cheating, -but time is still money and they weren't out there for recreation! (They made up for it by carrying several outboard motors plus a bunch of SCUBA tanks a couple of miles on portage!)

One of the nicest things about all this, is a friend from CineSea happened to obtain a 16mm collection from a local library and this was among the prints. He knows I love both canoeing and history, so one day it arrived on my front porch!

I feel honored to have it in my collection.

[Steve Klare]

Tonight was something a little bit special: a 1943 US Navy training film: The Precision Spin.

It began "This film is not classified." (-always good to know!)

In this film, student Aviators are shown how to put the US Navy T-6 Texan trainer aircraft into a spin and then pull out of it. For those of us that never fly higher off the ground than driving over a suspension bridge this seems like a really silly thing to do with a perfectly good airplane, but there is a really valuable lesson here: Getting the new guys out in the plane and inducing a spin and then pulling out of it a couple of dozen times might save their lives the day that the spin wasn't induced and they had to cope with an emergency.

It is a lively watch: my son rated it "N" for "Nauseating"! The Narrator/Instructor keeps telling us to "watch the horizon". The problem is that as horizons go, it doesn't stay very Horizontal!

There are all sorts of controls to operate and precision settings to configure: a lot to consider for someone who is several thousand feet in the air potentially plummeting towards their own death if they get it wrong!

"Don't fully close the throttle: vapors may accumulate in the intake manifold and cause the engine to explode." (Whattt? Can't they fix that in the software???)

Even setting the aerial hi-jinks aside: this is an 82-year-old film from a critical moment in World History, maybe a little window into life at a time a couple of decades before my own. (It also pays to consider that many young men who watched this film never lived to be very old.)

It's a nice print in wonderful shape too. The Navy continued to use the T-6 after the end of WW2, so there is no guarantee it is an 82 year old print, but by the same token it is probably a pretty impressive age!

I followed up with a film I recently found that I'd shot about 40 years ago, simply titled "Engines" It is Super-8 Kodachrome of antique engines operating at a county fair followed by an old friend and I operating a couple of my model steam engines out my parents' backyard (-back when it was MY yard too!). I had to operate the engines outside: Mom said they "stunk up the house" -a position adopted by my wife and maintained to this very day!

Kodachrome was so good, it is almost scary! The images on this film look like they were shot six months ago, even if the 20-year-olds on-screen are actually close to retirement age now!

The cut of the leader and the tail being anchored to the reel tell me I last watched this film on my Moviedeck, before I went into sound, which makes it a minimum of 23 years ago. It was like seeing it for the first time.

-but all of this is a part of the magic of film, that some reel of film can sit in darkness on a shelf for most of a lifetime and all of a sudden take us back in time.

All we have to do is give it the chance!
.

[Melvin England]

I think today was probably a first for me! A case of a 16mm MORNING film show ! Cannot remember doing that before and I don't think I have even done one on super 8.

The reason being was that yesterday a film was delivered to my home that I had ordered earlier in the week from one of our colleagues here on the forum. So, as it was pouring down with rain outside and my eagerness to see it was getting the better of me..... come on, you know the feeling..... I gathered in my audience (Mrs. E) and we watched.

It was "Young Winston" starring Simon Ward and a host of other well known faces. 2x 2100' in scope !

The film was exactly as stated. Moderate fade but still some colour. Excellent sound and a very good quality print with the very minimal of scratches. Very pleased with the purchase.

However, this was the first time I used the 16mm scope lens and it seemed to have one or two issues. I will explain why, with an appeal for help, in another topic. Suffice to say it was nothing to do with the print and a very enjoyable, watchable film.

[Ed Gordon]

Steve, I watched it last night. That print posted on youtube is a standard definition copy which was probably made from a 16mm print like yours. That company, Periscope Films, is a name that seems to pop up often lately. When I searched for your film the youtube post on the Periscope came up first. I found more info on your film at the Periscope website:

76474 NASA HIGHLIGHTS OF 1967 NEWSREEL SATURN V ROCKET

Made in 1967, this Aeronautics and Space Report was produced by NASA. Just ten years after the launch of Sputnik, this film shows some of the preparations for the Apollo 11 moon landing. First, the Surveyor probes are shown landing on the Moon and making photographic surveys. The Lunar Orbiters are also shown — 3 of these craft circled the Moon to create photographic maps of the surface. The Apollo 4 mission is also shown, with a successful test of the Saturn V rocket. In the wake of the loss of the three Apollo 1 astronauts, this film shows (at the 4 minute mark) some of the safeguards put into place to prevent a future incident. Other unmanned space explorers shown include the Biosatellite, the Orbiting Solar Observatory series, and more. The Atlas-Agena rocket is shown launching communications and weather forecast satellites. This includes new satellites for communications with aircraft over the oceans, which were often out of range of ground signals for an hour or more. Also seen is the Mariner V program run through the Jet Propulsion Lab, with William Pickering shown discussing the probe at the 9 minute mark. The San Marco rocket is seen, with a launch platform from near Kenya, is seen at the 10 minute mark. Sounding rocket launches are seen as well from Wallops Island. The XB-70 supersonic aircraft is seen at the 10:40 mark, the F-111 with its variable shaped wings, and the hypersonic X-15 rocket plane which was retired in 1967. The X-15 was pushed toward Mach 7 in a specially-coated X-15 (which here appears white). An HL-10 Lifting Body is also seen being tested at Edwards Air Force Base. The film ends with studies of civil aviation including work to diminish noise from jet aircraft.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

PeriscopeFilm.com is a great place to research older films. The "transportation" category includes a lot of films on old railroads. I noticed that you can sign up at their site and download digital copies of old films. Their business is selling stock footage. Which I assume is why the video includes an embedded counter so that customers can specify the footage they want.

Now if only I could find a website hosting those old Movietone and Universal newsreels.

[Steve Klare]

Hi Ed,

Yes, that's the one. I actually had to watch it a few minutes because I've only seen the 16mm once!

1967 was also the year I started Kindergarten, but I don't hold that against the movie!

Mom picked me up that first day:
"So, did you like it?"
"Well, I'm glad It's over with!"

-but they made me go back...all the way through until the end of Graduate School!

[Ed Gordon]

Last Night: Space Highlights 1967

This is a NASA release, with the official looking "NASA, Washington DC" label on the can and all! I'd say it was meant for public-relations purposes as everything is an overview.

'67 was a big year For NASA since they were preparing to send manned-flights to the moon. It wasn't a good year since that January there was a fire on the launch pad and three Astronauts died. They commented on the fire and discussed how the Command Module was being redesigned to prevent this happening again. Because of this, the manned portion of the program was on hold that year while they regrouped.

...

Steve, is this video from youtube the film you recommend?

[Steve Klare]

Hi Melvin,

It runs a little more than 15 minutes (-from a pretty full 600 Foot Reel). It didn’t go very deep into details, just enough to show the Public that NASA was making progress! I wonder if it was meant to be televised.

What's interesting is the Narrator's opening line begins "Just ten years after Sputnik...".

Black and white is an asset here: the color NASA films I passed up on were all quite red.
.

Commander Pete Conrad visits Surveyor 3 after a long trip from Florida.
The camera by his right shoulder is now in the Smithsonian.
(Apollo 12's LEM stands in the upper right.)

[Melvin England]

Steve - There seems to be a lot to see in that film. Sounds really interesting. How long did it run for, please ?

[Steve Klare]

Last Night: Space Highlights 1967

This is a NASA release, with the official looking "NASA, Washington DC" label on the can and all! I'd say it was meant for public-relations purposes as everything is an overview.

'67 was a big year For NASA since they were preparing to send manned-flights to the moon. It wasn't a good year since that January there was a fire on the launch pad and three Astronauts died. They commented on the fire and discussed how the Command Module was being redesigned to prevent this happening again. Because of this, the manned portion of the program was on hold that year while they regrouped.

They showed some of the very earliest Apollo flights, which went no further than Earth orbit just to test new equipment. These are ones we don't often talk about these days since nothing glamorous happened. They showed the launch of Apollo 4: still unmanned, but meant to test the ability of the Saturn V launch vehicle to achieve Earth orbit and the Command Module to safely splash down.

It wouldn't be for another year that Apollo 8 would take a crew all the way out to the moon and return. Apollo 10 actually had Astronauts aboard the LEM descending towards the lunar surface. Still about 50 miles up, they basically said "Nnnnnope!" and went back up to rendezvous with the Command Module and return home. Apollo 11 actually did the deed! (NASA was very deliberate, and very patient!)

They talked about the Surveyor program: how unmanned landers were being sent to potential Apollo landing sites to assess the viability of their plans for manned landings. One of the neat things about seeing a film like this from a fixed moment in time is the viewer knows things that the people in the film don't just yet and can tell even more of the story that within the film is only beginning. Apollo 11 missed its planned landing site by over a mile (the area was much rougher than they expected), so NASA planned to make a test of their real ability to land at a chosen site. Apollo 12 landed well within walking distance of the now dormant Surveyor 3 lander and the Astronauts removed several pieces of equipment off the lander for return to Earth and analysis of the effects of their exposure to the Lunar environment.

They mentioned that NASA had launched an Earth satellite that would allow aircraft to fly all the way across the Atlantic without any period of radio silence for the first time. They also mentioned a fly-by of Venus to measure its atmosphere. A few years later, the Soviets made a series of landings there and got the whole story.

I enjoyed this film a lot: I was a little kid when all this was going on and I just loved watching it happen back then. I made a point of looking up at the moon when there were Astronauts there, just to think about that fact.

This is a nice print: sharp black and white in really good shape with excellent sound. It's natural to imagine how it could be used in shows.

A few CineSeas ago, the Thursday Night Theme was "space". It's a shame it arrived maybe a year too late, but I think the Crowd would love it, so it's going to be there next time!

I do shows at home with mixed formats and an audience and this one is just perfect to be a short for my Apollo 13 DVD feature. That could happen too!

[Ed Gordon]

Ed, that actually sounds like something that a director would do.

Stranger things have happened. In an interview with Ellen Burstyn, the subject of odd things happening on the set while making a movie, she recalled a story that Robert Surtees (cinematographer) told her:

I want to tell you a story he told me. It's a show biz story. He was making some movie. I don't know what the movie was, and the leading man completed his last scene. They did a close up and he died, but they hadn't shot the person he was talking to the reverse of her close up, so they propped him up and shot over his shoulder. Is it even legal? No? Oh god, I can't even believe that.

[Janice Glesser]

Ed, that actually sounds like something that a director would do.