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Handy (Jam) OrganizationSpot News (1937)

Dramatization of how photographs are transmitted by wire, an exciting new technology in the 1930s.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Chevrolet Motor Company
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Communication: Wirephotos; Media: Newspapers; Technology

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: stephenw_77 - - December 26, 2008
Subject: Truly there's nothing new under the sun.
The saying of Solomon that there's nothing new under the sun seems very true here. Before watching this video, I no idea this technology was even thought of -- much less possible so long ago. How wrong I was! I also have to echo previous comments that this really does foreshadow the use of scanning images digitally (and even faxes). Very interesting.

Reviewer: Classic_TV_and_Radio_Fan - - November 13, 2008
Subject: Amazing
As previous reviewers note, it's amazing just how much this film correctly predicts the future, even though it didn't mean to. Facinating to watch, and with great footage of 30's life styles as well.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 19, 2005
Subject: "Your cat did WHAT?"
TThis is a fun overview of the (then) new science of transmitting photographs over wire. The film begins in a newsroom, where they're taking calls that I'm sure happen every day, stories about non-behaving cats etc. Suddenly, a call comes in aboiut a car equipped with a plane! And that plane was going to take off while the car was moving! Why that's crazy! Send someone out there! They all react like this was front page news. So someone goes out there, and takes a picture, and because of newfangled technology, they can send it over wires! This is then explained to us, but thankfully, since Jam Handy knows his stuff, this is all explained to us quite simply, and although it's really too over-simplified, we can walk away saying, "Oh, I know how this works!". Really quite fun.

Reviewer: uniQ - - May 28, 2005
Subject: Xerography, television, acoustic modems, talkies, telephony!
This is a classic film only because it touches rather closely all of the things listed in the title of this review. Anyone who knows about these things and looks at this will be screaming because if someone had thought to expand on this in just about ANY direction they'd hit some machine or process that's considered standard today. An EXCELLENT film despite a couple minor drawbacks.

Another Jam Handy Org pic with a requisite art-deco background! Also, the "presents" shows up like that in almost all JHO mopics.

More classic newsroom scenes, they're all over the Archive.

Does that dude "Hello? Mr. Smith?" have a telephone headset on?

Ono... not the Jam Handy announcer... I preferred the newsman.

"The Daily News ... Photographic Field Car" is what the side of the thing says.

HaH! Riding ontop of the car taking a pic! The Ohio State Highway Patrol (Signal 30)'ll have something to say about that!

The makeshift telephone hookup is truly great. Also, the Bell Telephone sequence is nice for enthusiasts in that sort of thing.

The "pattern into lines" is what analong (ie. not digital) TV is all about. Also, this process is called "scanning" !

Strange shaped bulb, I'll say that much.

If you used an acoustic modem back in the day and think YOU'RE old, look @ THIS! acoustic modem for a candlestick telephone!

They also do a breif overview of how the pic goes from a picture negative to an actual image on the paper.

When the guy is unloading paper bundles from the van, notice the semaphore traffic signal. the car starts to move when the changes to stop!

Spurious surrounding articles time!

"Professor's System Good for Irking Mothers-in-Law" !? "Doctors Hear Prof. Taussing" is presumable more of the same. "Pension ... periled" is presumably what is says, though whose I'd like to know.

-uniQ

Reviewer: kittyfeet - - April 15, 2005
Subject: Ken Burns Effect?
open letter to editor of Studio Monthly (magazine for video makers).

On page 60 of the April 4, 2005 issue of Studio Monthly, Beth Marchant has a great article on archival footage that credits Ken BurnsÃÂ brother Ric Burns with "pioneering the moving still image".

This is a common misnomer. (The effect is even called "The Ken Burns Effect" in the menu of the grandma-ware video program iMovie.)

The Burns brothers make cool flicks, but neither Burns came up with the idea of turning stills into moving footage. This technique has been around almost as long as movies, and certainly years before Ken and Ric Burns were born (1953 and 1955, respectively).

For instance, the 1937 industrial short "Spot News" uses this technique on a newspaper headline. ItÃÂs starts at 8 minutes and 51 seconds in.

This film is available for download on from the Prelinger Archive at
http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=07837



Michael W. Dean,
Author,
ÃÂ$30 Film SchoolÃÂ



Michael W. Dean
President,
Squitten Pix, L.L.C.
"It's not what you do it with, it's what you do with it."

http://www.CubbyMovie.com

Reviewer: jsa78 - - July 11, 2004
Subject: Very informative!!!
I like this film because, having grown up around computers most of my life, sometimes it's difficult to fathom how something like this was done before modern computers, fax machines, digital scanners, and the internet. I also found it interesting the use of a "modem" to transmit the data over a phone line as well as the application of a neon light much as one would use a laser today. The only way it would have been more impressive to me is if the process would have been digital instead of analog. Plus, I'm sure that this process was what opened the door for Xerographic photocopying, fax machines, scanners, etc. that we use everyday.

Reviewer: djansing - - April 6, 2003
Subject: Interesting - a proto-fax machine.
This reminds me of some stuff I read about mechanical television. I had no idea anyone had the capability of sending faxes back in the 1930's, but once you study pre-CRT television, it makes perfect sense. Interesting and informative.

Shotlist

"DRAMATIZATION OF HOW PICTURES ARE TRANSMITTED BY WIRE." STUNT PICTURED IS AIRPLANE TAKING OFF ROOF OF CAR DRIVING IN DESERT. GOOD MATERIAL NEWSPAPER CITY ROOM AND PRINTING PLANT. VARIOUS STOCK SHOTS.

Ken Smith sez: Much as in AROUND THE CORNER, this Jam Handy film takes a complex technical subject and makes it easy to understand. In this case, it's "the latest miracle in news" -- wire photo transmission. Features a brief appearance by "MacIntyre," who later starred in JUST IMAGINE. Great production and visuals.

CHEVROLET ADVERTISING AUTOMOBILES TRANSPORTATIONS NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHING PRINTING COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA WIREPHOTOS PHOTOGRAPHY TELEPHONES CAMERAS TRUCKS DARKROOMS STUNTS AIRPLANES AIRCRAFT TAKEOFFS DESERTS PRINTING PRESSES EDITORS REPORTERS CITY ROOMS SPEED SLANG