Cinema: News Parade

One potentially huge and comparatively untapped source of cinema revenue is 16-mm. and 8-mm. film. There are currently estimated to be some 2,000,000 small projectors in the U. S. There would be many more if there were films better worth projecting on them than badly manufactured, pirated "toy" reproductions of antique features or travel films, amateur productions made with miniature cameras, "educational" releases. Recently U. S. owners of miniature projection machines have encountered the first move to bring coherence to the minimovies by developing them as an outlet for newsreels. It was News Parade, a group of three newsreels manufactured and released by Eugene W. Castle for sale in department stores throughout the country.

First issue of News Parade was a film on the Hindenburg disaster which went on sale three weeks ago. Second was the Coronation of George VI. Third in the series, released last week, was a life story of the Duke of Windsor. Said Producer Castle: "We are now planning to provide home movie enthusiasts with pictures of similar interest at regular intervals, probably twice a month." Items in the News Parade are made for both silent and sound-equipped projectors, cost from $1.75 for an 8-mm., 50-ft. sequence to $17.50 for a 350-ft., 16-mm. sound film. They cannot be rented. Producer Castle expects to sell a total of 10,000.000 ft. of film on his first three releases, representing a private investment of approximately $75,000.

A longtime producer of industrial shorts for advertising, Producer Castle last made major cinema news in 1931 when he successfully campaigned to prevent major companies from releasing advertising shorts as pure entertainment. Most major cinema producers, well aware of the possibilities of the small projector market, are wary of it as competition with theatres. News Parade, edited, cut and titled by Producer Castle, consists of reductions of full-sized newsreels which Producer Castle acquires in return for royalties on News Parade sales, after exhibition in theatres has made them worthless to their makers. Precisely what companies give News Parade its material is a secret.