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Narrow Gauge Films
by Ed Mauget
I read that 16mm film was introduced in 1923 for use by amateurs.
It quickly became an educational film vehicle. When television
appeared, 16 mm was the medium used to distribute television
programs and movies for television broadcast.
Remember when we first got TV in Spokane? Some material was produced
locally. Recall KHQ Channel 6 with Mr. Engineer, Dale Starkey, or
Cliff Carl (with Curley)? Those pictures were crystal clear,
provided that you could see the tower at Moran Prairie or had a big
mass of aluminum rods mounted on the roof - an eyesore today - a
status symbol then.
A while later, the "live line" transcontinental coax cable
arrived that piped live network TV to KXLY, KREM, and KHQ where it
was relayed over the air to your house. Those pictures were a little
less crisp, but the nationwide broadcasts of live flubs were fun.
There was also much-less crisp third way to deliver television shows
that provided our only television outside of locally produced
material.
Until the advent of much cheaper zero-processing-required magnetic
videotape, most programs were recorded by filming them onto 16 mm
film directly from a monitor screen. Remember, "By Kinescope
Recording?" The 11 o'clock news used the reverse process. A
remote crew filmed a news event on 16 mm celluloid, and then showed
this on a TV camera to the news audience at 11 PM.
Aside from this use of 16 mm technology, there were many well known
Hollywood productions distributed on 16 mm in addition to the normal
35 mm movie house medium. However, original productions were mostly
educational, training and industrial films. These were the maligned
movies that many of us remember being watching at Rogers. We
associate these with earnest, bespectacled scientists performing
experiments, or "Father Knows Best"-like characters
delivering stilted dialogue about history, geography or even moral
rectitude.
A student from an audio-visual staff would set up the screen and
projector. I cannot remember a specific individual in this role, but
it was always a male, for some 1950's reason. I think it was a
volunteer position, so I'm not sure what the carrot was. Maybe it
was getting out of a boring class.
The film always broke, jammed or rolled frames. No Dolby Surround
Sound, or stereo, or even hi-fi. Let's face it: the sound quality
was profoundly terrible - it was produced by optical squiggle at the
side of the film. The operator compensated by cranking up the
volume.
I recall specifics of only two films I saw at Rogers. In my first
semester, 1956, in Mr. Dombrosky's general science class, I saw a
film about making maple syrup by tapping maple trees and boiling
down the sap. The setting was Northern Michigan in late February.
Winter was solidly in sway. I was impressed that they were using
horse-drawn sleighs to haul the sap. Four years later I found myself
in Hagadorn Woods, hard by the Red Cedar River, at Michigan State
University. The agricultural school tapped the trees, but used a
tractor-drawn wagon to haul the sap. Boo! Hiss! I guess the film I'd
seen was created at the dawn of the film age.
I saw another 16 mm film about D-Day in Mr. Mabbot's history class.
As the narrator droned on about each participating country in the
Allies, the screen showed a shot of a soldier from that country.
Each soldier was serious and somber. The final country was the USA
and so a GI appeared. He had a saucy smile and eating an apple.
Everybody laughed. It was a put-up shot, of course, but it made me
proud to be a US citizen - the desired effect, I'm sure.
In 1964, four years after leaving Rogers, I saw army training films
at Ft Knox, while trying to stay awake after four hours' sleep and
much "exercise." The 16 mm age started its demise a bit
later. Because Hollywood printed many of its35mm movie house films
on 16mm also, these films saw usage until comparatively recently. By
1995 we were solidly into the VCR age , but a campground we used to
frequent would show movies such as Charlotte's Web or Willie Wonka
(the original one) in an outdoor pavilion on Saturday nights. That
ended shortly afterward when campers were sold with VCRs and even
satellite dishes.
Today, I assume that when Rogers classes view an instructional film
the medium is either a VHS cassette or a DVD player. Oh well, we are
from the dark ages, so we are likely fortunate the pictures even
moved and were talkies even if the sound quality of those narrow
gauge films blew.
-Ed Mauget.
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