Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 10

How 10 SECTION A DETROIT FREE PRESS Sunday, July 17. 1949 16mm. Movie Business in Midst of Boom Star Gazing "Detroit Library Leads The McGraw Hill Publishing BY JOHN L. SPRINGER NEW YORK (AP) Here's mora bad news for Hollywood: The movie industry is really hoomins-. Rut it's all in the 16 mm.

Co. produces films to ba used in class along with its textbooks. One of its most spectacular is "Human Reproduction," which also in 1948 was around 12 times that of 1942, and the increase was almost entirely due to the growth of public interest in this type of film. Representatives of sound projector manufacturers say 1,000 new machine users are being aAAeA evorv week. It's not in the 3 OPEN OPEN YI Aleilt SMITH lKn 0TT I Lciww Film Service Training l(M5 has been shown widely to parent Through the Motion Picture Association of America, they have set up an organization to condense old feature films which can be used in English, social science, or history classes.

In addition, as a non-profit public service, the producers let the schools use almost 500 old short subjects, ranging from crossing streets safely to horseshoe "ONE LAST l-UKtf 1 field in the kind of films usually 3 M. A. M. RELIGIOUS FILM companies have recorded almost every New Testament episode on 16 mm. film.

William L. Rogers, who directs the Religious Film Association, official inter-denominational film library, says 20,000 U. S. churches use films more or less regularly. "Our program was set up In 1942," he says.

"Our gross business groups and school boards. not shown in movie houses, but in BY HELEN BOWER home, though, but among organized IIOW MANY Detroiters know that the only audio-visual work HOLLYWOOD'S MAJOR pro groups that devotees or mo j.o mm. film say its continued growth will continue to come. shop for librarians in the United States has just concluded its ducers are themselves a big factor in the school movie program. Film Favorites of Egyptian Fans second annual meeting in Detroit under Wayne University spon sorship For the past two weeks 21 librarians from 14 states and two Canadian provinces have been in Detroit to study informational films and discuss library systems for circulating 16 mm.

film as books and phonograph records are circulated free to the public m. schools, church halls, club houses, sales meetings and even homes. It seems that almost everybody is making movies and showing them. Scores of the nation's top industries spend hundreds of thousands producing films to build good will with the public PROGRAMS FEATURING Bible stories or other appeals for a better life have become musts in thousands of churches. Conservatives estimate that 30,000 of the country's 200,000 school houses now have sound movie projectors, flashing education on the screen from kindergarten to postgraduate school.

cf San Francisco" 1 ROBERT ABMSTBOm C00i Now Superintendent of the workshop and chief instructor was Kurtz Myers, chief of the Detroit Public Library's Audio-Visual Department and president of the Greater Detroit Film Council I .7 BR1SC0U Walk into a hospital, and you find doctors and nurses gathered around a movie screen dramatiz UTRBl ing ways to detect cancer early. In rwR0UGHSH0D a railroad employment office, you for the coming year. Myers, a former assistant in the library's music and drama department, was put in charge of building a library film collection when he returned from Navy duty in 1946. He is a member of the American Library Association's first audio-visual board. 8lri flnlwM Itokwt SterMt find films teaching prospective dining car waiters how to keep their thumbs out or the soup.

In a union hall, workers take lessons on racial tolerance. Since April, 1947, when the Detroit Public Library began to circulate 16 mm. films to local clubs and organizations, its 7 9 A COUNTRY CLUB projects slow-motion studies on the art of film collection has increased to almost 400 films on a variety of golfing. The local fire houses in vite the public to see the ruinous open 'A Man About The House A. M.

subjects. ONLY THREE OTHER AMERICAN CITY libraries top Detroit in size of film libraries. Milwaukee's library leads with 1,171 films which, how-( ever, service the public school system. In Detroit the library's films may be obtained for Parent-Teacher meetings, but are not for use in school class work. The Cleveland library's 982 films circulate through the entire taU of Ohio.

The Dallas, library has 667 films. blazes that can be causea oy carelessness. "Movies are coming back where they belong," gays one of the leading producers of non-theatrical films. "The movies biggest job should be to show what life is really like to educate. "Somehow, In America we got sidetracked and for a long time we thought of movies as merely entertainment.

We forgot that they could be the most effective teachers ever known. "We're learning the lesson fast now, though." THE LESSON is being learned so fast, in fact, that Hamilton MacFadden, associate chief of the international film division of the CAME LI A Tana Turner of the Levant ANWAR WAGDI He's the Clark Gable of Egypt awVLus Hixzto ft NEW fffMSii War Developed It HORACE HEIDT Movie Stars Twinkling in Egypt DICK CONTINO SHOW StWfina In Person On Stage Department of State, predicts that II DIM within 10 years more Americans BY EDWARD POLLAK CAIRO (IP) Egypt's movie industry has come of age. Just 21 years ago, in 1928, the first Egyptian film was produced. Called "A Kiss in the Desert," it was an awkward imitation of will be looking at 16 mm. "non- theatrical" films than at Holly those in America or Britain.

They work by the film. Sometimes they share in the profits. Contracts run up to $56,000 a film for the top names. Sound tracks are in Arabic with English or French captions. Films are shown in Egypt's 250 theatres and then travel through the Arab and Moslem world.

wood's feature-type attractions. Rudolph Valentino of Accordion JOHNNY MUNGALL RICHARD MELARI The PEPPERETTES "The Sheik," which starred Ru At 19 i 12 BIG ACTS Right now it is estimated that 85 million Americans troop up to movie house box offices every week to see the Gable-Garson-Gene Autry type of feature. Exact figures are not available, dolph Valentino. TODAY THERE'S a booming TWENTY YEARS the Kalamazoo (Mich.) public library pioneered as the first to lend films. But it was not until World War and the increase of 16 mm.

training films that libraries, notably in Cleveland, Akron and Dallas, experimented with film distribution to organizations for civilian defense and OWI programs. Today 62 public libraries, principally in the Middle West, offer films for circulation. FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS the American Library Association has had a film consultant, Mrs. Patricia Blair, of Chicago and Rochester, N. whose office has been made possible by a special Carnegie grant, recently extended for another two years.

"The Detroit Public Library is one of the most outstanding in audio-visual work in the nation," said Mrs. Blair, who attended the workshop. "Detroit has done more than any other library in training other libraries in this work." This comment refers to the workshop instituted last year to meet the need for a short, intensive training course for librarians working with or wishing to establish film services. Hollywood-on-the Nile. Egypt's but it Is conservatively believed filmdom employs 10,000 people.

that more than 35 million includ ing school kids see the 16 mm. Edgewater Books Trapeze Star Winifred Colleano, of the famous Colleano Family, will begin a stuff. THERE ARE thousands of titles WILLIAMS -SKELTON 1 Its films are shown as far away as Singapore and, on occasion, Paris. Naturally, the land of Cleopatra also has produced its own film beauties. It's a far cry back to the two week's engagement at Edgewater Park Monday as the free outdoor to choose from in narrow gauge.

In hundreds of cases, prints of the films can be borrowed free. TECHNICOLOR enthusiastic pioneers, Ibrahim and Badr Lama, who made "A Kiss in the Desert." attraction. The tent-show and big circus star performs aerial feats on the high trapeze. Hig-h-ladder balancers, the Far- GKR 1 kttm IM.5 Egyptian production last year dropped to 41 pictures. NOW EGYPTIAN producers are optimistic again.

The reconversion to normal has been completed and they are confident the swing is back to Egyptian films. Egypt has nine big studios: Al Ahram, hub rah, Galal, Lama (successor to Condor), MISR, Nahas, Nassibian, Togo Mizrahl and RlmL Most important is the studio Misr, which covers several acres not far from the ancient Pyramids. TOTAL INVESTMENT in the film industry is about $8,000,000 (U. Studios have modern U. S.

and European equipment. Films cost about $200,000 (U.S.) and usually make substantial profits. The kings and queens of Egypt's film world have tremendous popularity. Crowds surround them clamoring for autographs when they are seen downtown in Cairo. The reigning favorites include: Leila Mourad, a beauty of the Joan Crawford type; Camelia, shapely blonde, "the Lana Turner of the Levant;" Mary Queeny, an Egyptian Joan Bennett; Loula Sedky, reminiscent of Gene Tier-ney; Anwar Wagdi, Egypt's Clark Gable; Farid el Atrache, singing star; Mohamed Fawzi, who recalls Victor Mature; Bishara Wakim, who plays Claude Rains variety roles; Yussef Bey.Wahbi, a Sir Cedrio Hardwicke type.

EGYPTIAN MOVIE stars are not under long-term contracts like On a sand desert east of Alexandria they built their first studio The Ford Motor Co. spent on a SO-minute color movie showing how Cape Gloucester fishermen live and work, which it lends to organizations with sound projectors. Apart from the company's name DULCIMER off Trio, conclude their billing a big tent, a few carpets and a Am coHOnort STREET after Sunday's evening few pieces of furniture. The desert supplied natural back ilmm ROBERT NtWTON DiNNIS PRKt at beginning and end, and a fleeting glimpse of one of its cars in ground. My Ml ff't in nus Columbia st 1 1 Wyvrrf rr one scene, the film carries no www A KISS in the Desert" had a FROM INDUSTRIAL firms, Sphinx-like reception.

Undiscour-aged, the Lamas produced three more films and then set up Egypt's first official film company sound projector users can borrow movies showing how steel is made. h. Mill Condor Films. how electricity works, how the DURVri aluminum industry. was born.

BaslitulBend' a Hmu The American Association of Railroads lists 140 free films offered on railroad subjects alone. Pan-American Airways has made Others became interested. Capital poured in and the Egyptian cinema was in business to stay. During World War when WESTWrti M.H'i'.'i.l.h UHICR MRS ta. RIVER mt color movies of most of the countries at which its planes stop, and it projects them for interested groups.

COOLED BY RtrRIOeR aTION foreign films were hard to get, Egypt produced an average of 110 films DAN "TTYCRABIF Duryea After the war. United States, British, French and Italian movies WHEN MANUFACTURERS keep the "commercial" unobtru itMb It fought to regain the market. Dorothy Lamour Dan Duryea sJ DOROTHY LAMOUR sive, thousands of schools show their films in class. TONIGHT! EXCLt'SIVK SHOWING -7i AT BOTH COLOR BY Ui In many sections of the country, pupils now start seeing films when they first step into a school house. Thev view "Animals of the Zoo Vtf.V'Ti fit 1111 FllllSie HA DARING MOVIE A WML I UIOIXCI Missouri and Ohio Experiment IN DETROIT, a large city, 800,000 persons saw library films in 12,897 showings during the fiscal year just ended.

To measure the value of film library service in small communities and rural areas Carnegie grants have been made to the Cleveland Public Library and the Missouri State Library. Miss Helen Miller, county librarian from Independence, told the Detroit workshop how films are transported by bookmobiles and shown by librarians to rural audiences who had never before been able to see educational films. Western Canada is also working out film distribution programs for thinly-populated areas. A guest speaker at the workshop was Charles Marshall, of Ottawa, in charge of non-theatrical distribution for the National Film Board in Canada. OTHER GUESTS AT THE WORKSHOP included two American Library Association representatives: Margaret Rufsyold, of Indiana University, a member of the ALA audio-visual' board and John M.

Corey, ALA executive secretary. Detroiters were among the guest lecturers. They included Fred Herrman, of the Ford Motor training division; Alec Sinclair, of the British Consulate-General, who discussed government information films; Viola Currie, of the Detroit Council of Churches; H. Gordon Anderson, of Encyclopedia Britannica Films; Mrs. Mary Dearing, of the Detroit Public Library, who spoke on children's recordings; and Dr.

Arthur Stenius, of Wayne University, who explained the university's audio-visual consultation service. Dr. Stenius is the brother of the Hollywood director, George Seaton. FIELD. TRIPS ARRANGED for the visiting librarians took them to the Jam Handy Organization and the General Motors Film Library.

In the reports from Detroit the visitors were told of film showings in Detroit branch libraries in the past eight months which were attended by 44,145 library patrons. They heard also of the 30 film discussions on child care and development presented jointly by the library and the Merrill-Palmer School. Plans were announced for a contract arrangement with suburban libraries through which film privileges can be extended to organizations outside the Detroit city limits. "What Makes Rain?" "A Planter Of Colonial Virginia" When thev GBAIIOT AT 13H Mllo Rd. I mill a intML tH SH reach college they will see subjects AK In AT MAUL THE PLAY liKe Jiiiectrodynamics "SO DEARto my HEART" Color by Technicolor wlfh BURL IVES BOBBY DRISCOLL THE TALK OF BROADWAY and Disney Characters I uitr 12 fgE wymyy t-A YG BOUNDS I FRFF DETROIT DEMANDED THAT WE SHOW THIS PICTURE! CHA.SU RIVER Near 8 Mile Rd.

OPEN 6:30 P. M. JrtK ROBERT PREST0NW 1 vmmce snMirrrn cure Wftf tlSi It TELEGRAPH 1. THE PUBLIC WILL HOT LET IT GO! BETWEEN JOY ft FlYMOBTII 60e Students if 80c SI Erenincs COLOR BY Bni Sunday has been moved over to our TECHNICOLOR ALL SEATS RESERVED 1.20-1.50-1.80 1.20-1.8O-2.40 KRIM PRICES: STARTS JULY. 24th THEATRE Woodward Nr.

Dayison. TO 8-3050 METROPOLITAN vmsj. opening i Centlnuent from 6:00 P. M. Weekdays, from 1:00 P.

M. Sat. San. I I i i i I I I STARTS TODAY LIMITED ENGAGEMENT I 7 DAYS ONLY Admission mm They Saw Typical Neiv Films CHARACTERISTIC OF the subject range in 16 mm. films were the following new ones screened for the workshop.

"Picture In Your Mind" is the animated color film created by Philip Stapp which just won an international award in Belgium. It is a successor to his original human relation film, "Boundary Lines," and the two have earned Stapp a Guggenheim award for technical pioneering. "Princeton" is a film interpretation of the philosophy of education, with flashbacks to critical decisions made in college by four Princeton seniors. CHILDREN UNDER 12, FREE! KIDDIELAND PLAYGROUNDS NO PARKING PROBLEMS! EN' JOT THE PICTURES IN VOCR OWN CAR I Wyandotte 4M DIX HIGHWAY mm mi "The Loon's Necklace" in color re-enacts an Indian legend Son. and Mon.

HrMPHRKT BOOART In In "KNOCK ON ANY DOOR' DOOR" In Color A and carries its action forward with the use of carved Indian masks from the Canadian National Museum. SECOND IN A SERIES OF "MENTAL MECHANISMS" Cartoon and Novelty Starting "BAMBI" films produced by the National Film Board of Canada is "Feeling WayM S42S of Hostility," case history mental hygiene presentation for the i nwty Rnu(RR i Jf also 1 MICH. AVE. 7 MSe W. Telernpk fiy Uiffhlitrhfe frnni mm- mp qv Alan lllglllltlllD II Hill i nr.

a nr tin. I inn i. eauttPul Z3 ramuus miss iuu diars 2 BIG HITS JLJJL1PJLJI13JIL9JLZ. with Margaret Loekwood londe from tho wickedest woman who ever lived! J. A.

RANK production the beautiful RTTMPHREY BOOART In ON 'ANY DOOR" layman. Musical sequences from all the late Grace Moore's Hollywood films have been combined in an "operatic pastiche." miniature concerts are played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. "To Hear Your Banjo Play" is a new folk music film. Documentaries made by OWI for overseas exhibition have teen re-released and these also were viewed. uaiirui i I In Arctfon! "SOME OF win nnffff" "COVER CP" oH AND i Li Woodward wyys continuous from 5:50 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. COOLED BY REFRIGERATION TO 8-4110 BUY AND SELL THROUGH FREE PRESS WANT ADS in ui.tM cnu five See oar- "RED SHOES" ad this ps.