AV Geeks Lunch 2-24

women baseball players what a curiosity hey everybody i'm skip alzheimer welcome to the avgeeks lunchtime streaming show um that was a film of little short like news reels but kind of curiosities but really only some of them were but interested but they're interesting nonetheless so they were definitely shot probably in the 20s so um and then they were probably shot 35 for distribution to theaters then they were shrunk down to 16 and mobile brothers had this and this is part of a collection that my friend at the oregon archive had that we scanned so it's silent um but there's some kind of interesting stuff there interesting stuff um and i've got some more films from that collection uh queued up today but first uh we're gonna get started with a film that i have uh set up here it's called story of a check and it's the revised version [Laughter] [Music] hahahaha [Music] many people pay for things with checks what is a check mr baird is finishing a gardening job for mrs menville i didn't want to cut this back to she wants to pay him for his work bill will this be all right yeah it looks just fine forty dollars is that right that'll be fine since cash can be lost or stolen mrs menville is going to pay by check a check is a slip of paper that can be used in place of cash mrs menville writes down the name of the person she wants to pay on the check [Music] she also writes down the date the amount of the check in numbers and the amount in words then she signs her name finally she writes this information on the part of the check she keeps for her own records [Music] here you go thank you mr baird is going to the bank where mrs manville keeps her money he wants to get cash for the check hi i'd like to cash a check please okay would you mind signing the back for me please sure [Music] do you have any identification why is mrs menville able to write a check that can be changed into cash this is mrs menville's bank a bank is one of the places where people can safely keep their money mrs menville is putting money into her checking account banks and savings and loans are places where money can be held in checking accounts [Music] now she can pay people with checks instead of with cash the person she pays can go to mrs menville's bank and get cash for the check this money is withdrawn or taken out of mrs menville's checking account every time mrs menville pays someone with a check the amount of money or the balance in her checking account gets smaller if mrs menville wants to continue paying by check she has to put more money into a checking account mrs menville will mail this check to mr brown mailing checks saves her the trouble of going from place to place to pay her bills this is mr brown's bank in most cities there are many different banks instead of getting cash for mrs manville's check mr brown is going to put the money into his own checking account this is called making a deposit mr brown fills out a deposit slip and takes the slip and the check to a bank teller thank you let's see what happens after mrs menville's check is deposited [Music] mr brown has gone to his bank and deposited the check in his own account his bank returns the check to mrs menville's bank mrs menville's bank withdraws the money from her checking account and gives it to mr brown's bank this money is deposited in mr brown's account so that he can use it to write checks of his own let's follow mrs menville's check as it is returned to her bank after mr brown's bank closes a worker records the amount of each check the amount of mrs menville's check 75 is put on the bottom of the check with a special ink then the checks are sorted the machine sorts thousands of checks a minute both the front and back of each check are photographed mrs menville's check goes into a pocket with other checks going to her bank all the checks going to other banks are gathered into bundles and tied together then the bundles of checks are locked in a bag so that they can be carried safely each bag contains checks going to a different bank the bags are taken from mr brown's bank to a central place called a clearinghouse the clearing house is a place where banks exchange checks messengers from mrs menville's bank pick up the bag containing her check and take it back to her bank in one night mrs menville's check has traveled from mr brown's bank through the clearinghouse and finally has arrived at her bank in mrs menville's bank the checks are sorted again by reading the numbers printed at the bottom of the checks the sorting machine sends information to a computer the computer automatically subtracts the amount of each check from the correct checking account and also stores this information and all of this occurs at the rate of thousands of checks a minute finally all of mrs menville's checks are sorted at the end of the month the computer prints out a statement for each checking account this statement is a record of every check and deposit statements are fed into an automatic machine the checks written that month are combined with the statements then statement and checks are stuffed into envelopes they will be mailed to every person with a checking account [Music] mrs menville will keep her used or cancelled checks as proof that she has paid her bills she compares the balance on her monthly statement with the balance she has kept in her own [Music] records hi can i help you i'd like to make a deposit people who keep money in checking accounts can write checks [Music] the balance in an account gets larger when money is deposited and smaller when checks are written banks work together by exchanging checks automatic machines handle checks swiftly and accurately and keep track of the balance in each account it is because of these machines that new kinds of banking are coming into use automatic tellers allow people to bank at any time of the day or night by using a special plastic card mrs menville can deposit or withdraw from her account mrs menville is able to contact a computer she can instruct the computer to pay a bill for her without having to write a check herself because of their safety and convenience checks are an important part of our lives and because of computers and automatic machines new kinds of checking and banking are being made available to us all [Music] wow that was uh fascinating fascinating in a way because we the way we bank now is so radically different and it just mentions at the end the fact that there is these magnetic cards uh that allow you to uh do these transactions electronically without a teller um it's interesting i was digitizing a bunch of ads for a duke university and there was ones for new york chemical bank uh which was based in manhattan and it was basically talking about these creating these check cashing cards or these bank cards they weren't magnetic but they were basically an id card that would allow you to go to a different branch of your bank and do banking there uh it seemed like um this was a convenience thing so that they didn't have to like call another bank to see you know what your deal was um but you know you think about back in the day most driver's license ids didn't have photos um and so this was this added way to see like is this the person that they say they are they have this card that was issued by the bank to them but uh yeah it's it's kind of crazy the idea that someone could write a check or even figure out ways to print checks um that had no basis on anything and there was a lot of phone calls that had to take place a lot of all this other stuff so banking is interesting um except that it's really not uh and so this would have been shown probably in like i was on a college track in uh high school but there was a thing called consumer math that a lot of people were required to take if they weren't going to take algebra and calculus and um i realized i should have taken consumer math too because there are certainly times that i've been bit in the in the butt uh because i haven't um made i didn't know i just really didn't know how that worked uh and i had to kind of learn it on the fly um certainly i did not there's that joke about the you know the it's always a woman um who is overdrawing is she's writing bad checks and they confront her about it and she said well i still have checks left in here so they should be okay you know not realizing that you're drawn against it's not a very good joke all right uh so i said that there were other films from the orgone archive this one is an interesting curiosity and maybe it knows maybe it features people that you know i don't know [Music] hi there friends and welcome to new york harbor today we're the guests of the canard white star line above the beautiful and palatial 80 000 ton ss queen mary we have a host of travelers out here today and some people we think you'd like to meet today we'll be talking to melodies from the world of the films stay in laurel and oliver hardy mrs may go throw run over if i can get between the boys and meet stan laurel and oliver hardy we have we have done excuse me fellas huh if i can get in here we we've done uh wonderful interviews with both laurel and hardy but separately we've never had them together and i want to develop and build and try and get as much of the stan laurel and all of a hardy story if i can but try and keep it on a straight plain basis you know no comedy that's going to be awfully hard huh what do you mean hey stan when did you and oliver first get together oh i think it was about uh 26 years ago to my way of thinking that's somewhat of a show business record when it comes to film it's film's a team being together that long isn't it oliver i think so and as much as we've never had any pluses or fights or squabbles of any kind always friend where how did it all come about how did you first you know sort of form together in a team oh i was directing at the time and he was the lover no not not uh quite that no the leading man well no not quite that the second lead well maybe yes i think the secretary they're heavy and then what happens then two of you uh you directed here in the picture yeah well he burnt his arm one day and couldn't go into the picture so i went in for him and when he got better and came back then we decided to work as a team oh you ruined my story i thought he was going to say he could do it better than you and he was trying to show you well he did 100 percent better incidentally that picture was the origination of the cry that stan does in the film he did a butler in the picture and had to do the cry and he's he's spontaneity [Laughter] you know you you fellas sort of originated a lot of things in the movies i believe in your early pictures like the flying deuces and many others you were the first ones to come up through the grounds from a tunnel yeah and we've been through a lot of tunnels yes that was the one we did that we were escaping for president we had dug through the ground for about three weeks and finally thought we were outside but when we dug up we were in the warden's office so we had to go back you always get out though somehow when you're in prison uh what you what what's the favorite picture that the two of you have stamped oh i think one of my favorites is fraud diablo that was a costume picture with music that's a great big deal the opera yeah was he the uh romantic lead in that well he uh tried to take the place of diavalo but failed miserably how about you oliver do you have any special part that you like that's my favorite uh jack and incidentally that picture has been revived 12 times in italy it was running in palermo when our boys went into palermo and uh you know that's something that that we don't have i don't think in pictures too much today and that is the comedy pictures that you fellows make sort of live on for years and years people go to the theater and they can still chuckle about them is it in the writing stand um oh i don't think so i think it has more appeal over there because there were very simple ideas and wasn't much to think about it was more visual and talk of course and keeping in character yeah and pound of mine well stan is the past master of pandemia and he taught me all that i know about it you do very well and the past master of course does very very well too did you in the early days write all your own scripts oh yes such as they were i take it then that you went out with a piece of paper and an idea and said well we're going to shoot a full picture in two days it was just really a plan that's all we had to follow the rest is what we call shooting off the cuff the thing that i like about the oliver and hardy story is the fact that uh 26 years and we're still together as a team and we're still knocking them out it's sort of a real show business to me have you felt that way about your own association well we get an awful lot of pleasure in making pictures and appearing in public and enjoy each other stan is the funniest thing in the world i mean he thinks i'm funny you complement one another he thinks of things for me to do and i think of things for him to do so in that way there's no friction there's dan loland and oliver hardy i want to thank you both for chatting with us once again we always find you quite the most wonderful people to come out of hollywood and to me of course the the the real top when it comes to comedy because i always enjoy uh seeing a laurel and hardy picture even on television we have them now you know thank you and so friends we come to the end of your ship's reporter program for today ships reporters produced on film by the national television guild and directed by chick vinson until next time then this is jack mangan your ship's reporter wishing you and yours the smoothest in smooth sailing so it's an interesting uh thing and supposedly there's a whole series of these where they talk to various celebrities uh and uh what i was trying to figure out was what ship were they on i think it's the queen mary and it was people that were traveling uh celebrities particularly that were traveling and i guess it was like well they're gonna be on this ship so you know that they got all this free time so might as well come up with some sort of promotional thing and so somebody capitalized on that and you know brought a film crew and did these um and so there's a bunch of them i of this from this collection that they only had this one but um it's fascinating nonetheless anyways let's see what do we got what do we got coming up next um this one is fascinating and i love it because it features another type of old media that people obsess about it and collect and it also talks about the uh the process of making them it's called the sound and the story or no i'm sorry the story and the sound so here we go enjoy [Music] as recorded in new orthophonic high fidelity sound by charles munsch and the boston symphony orchestra tchaikovsky's romeo and juliet plays about 19 minutes its production required the varied skills and talents of some 375 people and some 3 000 man hours of work let's see how some of those hours were spent to bring you the music you want when you want it first stop symphony hall boston [Music] massachusetts [Music] to begin with a new orthophonic high-fidelity recording is not just the mechanical reproduction of a concert performance it's the art of creating the effect of a concert performance there are many stops and starts many takes and retakes that's because the end object is a planned illusion the illusion as you ultimately hear the music played back through your phonograph that you have the best seat in the concert hall how do they do it well the recording music director or any one of the sound engineers could easily explain it all in ten weeks but let's just take a look at three of the fundamental requirements of high fidelity recording the first is full dynamic range that's the spread between the softest and loudest passages in the music in a concert performance the range is as wide as the conductor feels the score indicates these meters on the recording console indicate the volume of sound coming from the orchestra onto the magnetic tape in the old days home phonographs could not reproduce either full loud passages or very soft passages so they were literally kept off the record right here by sound monitoring but it wasn't a faithful reproduction of the actual performance such as you get with today's high fidelity recording techniques today as it should be the conductor and his musicians control all of the dynamics including all of the natural shadings just as they do in a concert and after the recording begins the engineer never touches the controls the full dynamic power of the orchestra is faithfully transferred to the recording table the second requirement is somewhat similar achieving natural balance between all instruments and sections of the orchestra this can only be achieved by precise microphone placement and this varies amazingly with the music the particular artists the hall itself even climatic conditions it is never the same from one recording session to another again an easy solution might be found here by the arbitrary placement and control of many microphones but again it wouldn't be natural or faithful reproduction today the engineers record the orchestra as a complete unit the third important requirement in a high fidelity recording is frequency range capturing high notes as well as low this is actually accomplished before the session begins all it takes is recording equipment of enormous cost and capacity such as this recording console it faithfully handles all sounds audible to the human ear the entire frequency spectrum from 20 to 20 000 cycles per second and with less than two tenths of one percent distortion it transfers them to the swiftly spinning magnetic tape a new challenge here is stereophonic recording this requires dual mics dual track tape machines and a stereophonic mixer but for those who have the equipment it also permits two system or stereophonic playback in the home there are other high fidelity requirements such as presence definition clarity but with time and patience and enough retakes they get on the record too eventually there is a playback that everyone recognizes as the image they were seeking both artistically and acoustically they have a truly faithful recording of romeo and juliet and we are one step closer to having it in our homes next stop new york city and the precise engineering business of transferring the recorded sound from tape to a disc called the lacquer master this disc is the grandfather of the records to come later let's look at the steps in the cutting of our lacquer master most of the sound factors are already known the speed of the tape in recording its playing time and the sound level required these factors must be considered for both 45 rpm and long play lacquer masters a special lacquer master disc is closely inspected for the 12 inch long play record the master is 16 inches in diameter for 45 extended play records the master is 12 inches in diameter in both cases the extra width allows plenty of working room in cutting besides a spindle for centering the turntable has a number of holes through these holes air suction holds the lacquer disc down tightly so it is perfectly flat on the turntable the playing time of the music determines the number of grooves per inch that will be cut into the record the sound dynamics of the music determine how far apart the grooves must be loud passages need more space between grooves soft passages need less the cutting machine automatically spaces the music grooves according to the sound signal it's receiving now a test cut to determine the groove width the groove width must be exact so exact that it is carefully checked through a microscope everything's set and a coarse pitch lead-in groove is cut to the music area the tape machine is started and exactly one and a half turns before the music begins the cutting head automatically changes from the lead-in groove to fine pitch music grooves the cutting stylus is a minute piece of sapphire perfectly ground and electrically heated so there is virtually no resistance as it cuts into the smooth lacquer during the cutting operation a constant watch is kept on the groove width to make sure it never varies from the prescribed setting it all sounds so simple when you're just skimming the surface actually of course it's a painstaking and delicate operation but in time you have a perfect lacquer master the original tape goes into the vault for safekeeping to take its place forever alongside many other priceless performances by the world's greatest artists all the artistry of the romeo and juliet performance is being carefully preserved and we're another step closer to having that performance in our own living rooms next stop indianapolis indiana one of three processing plants to which our lacquer master might go we start in production control here every lacquer master is assigned a shadow a special business machine card from now on this card can lead you straight to our particular recording no matter where it might be in processing the processing is identical for long play and 45 rpm records first the grooves in the lacquer master are carefully rechecked through a microscope they have to be perfect now we proceed to make metal copies from the lacquer master the first step silvering this takes precisely 2 minutes and 40 seconds and the lacquer master comes out with a new face now by patient electroplating we add a series of metallic deposits one behind the other first a fine grain deposit of nickel this makes smooth-walled grooves and a quieter surface next a thin deposit of copper over the nickel a nice smooth salmon pink now a whirling bath in another tank a much heavier buildup of copper we'll see why in a moment we now have a master disc that is apparently all back and no front but watch we have two fronts and two masters the original lacquer master is on the left a new silver-faced master is on the right but this is the point where most people long for a road map let's make one we started with the lacquer master to the face of it we added first silver then nickel then copper and finally a lot more copper then we separate the lacquer from the metal now we have both our original lacquer master and a new silver face or metal master the grooves in the lacquer master make it a positive it can be played the matching ridges on the metal master make it a negative it cannot be played we continue work with the metal master repeating the gradual metal build up to make another part then another separation the metal master is at the left and the new part called a mold is at the right we have progressed from the original positive to a negative to another positive the metal master normally goes back immediately to build up another mold but that depends on the next important step the mold can be played so it is promptly ready for a sound test the mold is thoroughly cleaned to prevent damage in the test play in any name that tune contest put your money on a record tester eight hours a day and all kinds of music she loves it more important she is an expert at hearing the slightest imperfection on a record surface and should she find any a new lacquer master from the original tape is immediately ordered from new york after audio testing the mold goes back to the plating tanks it produces the most important new metal part the stamper this completes the cycle lacquer to master master to mold mold to stamper the metal build up to the stamper is exactly the same except for one thing the stamper is nearly all pure hard nickel its ridges press the playing grooves into the finished record now it's prepared for stamping ground perfectly smooth on the back optically center punched for the record press trimmed to exact diameter and coined given a formed edge to grasp the stamping die securely the record press is a complicated piece of equipment weighing two tons it molds records by compression our stamper is mounted on the top die below it another stamper simultaneously presses the other side of the record the record compound the finest pure vinyl obtainable is fed into the press in granular form it is forced by hydraulic pressure into a soft plastic in just the right amount for one record the labels are pressed right into the record now we're ready to roll it has taken many steps and many man hours to get here but a new record is stamped every few seconds the record press automatically heats the vinyl plastic for stamping then automatically cools it so the record can be played immediately and here's the first long play copy of romeo and juliet a collector's item no the first pressing is always carefully inspected for everything from the correct serial number to perfect centering then still another playback test finally the pressing of the romeo and juliet gets going in earnest and for those who prefer the 45 extended play version and for the millions of teenagers anxiously awaiting the latest pop hit an ingenious machine turns them out automatically [Music] it places its own labels feeds itself the vinyl compound removes its own records and stacks them already trimmed and for the fast growing legions of tape enthusiasts equally ingenious machines turn out duplicate copies at four times the playback speed to save time and backwards to save rewinding and no matter what your taste or preference in music in the packaging area you discover unlimited variety the finest in sound and performance children's albums [Music] the unusual show tunes or country music pop hits and jazz classics [Music] dance and party music mood music grand opera vocal or instrumental solos symphonic or other classical masterpieces the world's greatest artists are at your service it's a big operation but no matter what type of music you prefer or whether you want it on 45 extended play or thirty three and a third long play every record is made with the same care and to the same high fidelity standards and the romeo and juliet [Music] getting closer to home all the time a final inspection [Music] every record is carefully checked by experienced packers who know almost at a glance if the record is up to standard in its own distinctive sleeve another new orthophonic high fidelity recording finally ready for shipment a new mechanical shipping technique helps to speed it on its way here in the shipping control room special machines keep track of the quarter of a million new records made here every day which records go where when in what quantities the cards tell you the romeo and juliet recording goes out in both 45 extended play and long play versions the sorting machine divides the romeo and juliet shipping instructions into these two categories now the shippers take over both versions are shipped in the same way in cartons of 25 records but let's follow the cartons of 45 extended play albums [Music] as they're picked from the storage bins the cartons are placed on a unique distribution rank invented here from now on one girl keeps everything running smoothly as each order is filled according to the punch card instructions she changes the setting on an automatic addressing machine and the equipment does the rest the code number and address of the record distributor for this order is automatically stamped on each carton then the cartons pass through another machine where they are bundled together in groups of four and away they go to the accumulation area down below on another floor here the cartons are accumulated for shipment to distributors and record dealers in all parts of the country these long play albums have been through the same shipping process as the 45s and now both versions are on the home stretch hundreds of identical and faithful copies of one high fidelity recording tchaikovsky's romeo and juliet tchaikovsky's romeo and juliet it's traveled a long way for an illusion the last stop home and the best seat in the concert hall well it was pretty great um you know obviously the manufacturing process is fascinating um and uh there's been talk about like well you know final sales are coming back in some way uh something that happened just before the pandemic last year was the apollo uh mastering plant in california had a fire burn basically burnt down and that's important because that's one of only two places worldwide that makes lacquer disks and they were making about set between 75 and 85 percent of all the lacquer disks on the planet uh and those places were always getting uh pounded because of record store day like you'd have all these uh big uh recording companies basically releasing um all these limited edition things and so all the the places that press vinyl would get overwhelmed this is even before the fire so now that there's a fire uh there's there's kind of this freak out going on about like how we're gonna do this and you know getting things so that the released on time and that's of course before the pandemic so that's something to think about is the fact that um you know they can still make these they can still make vinyl discs but it's now getting much harder because you don't have as many uh you don't have the equipment needed to do those masters so it's just something that's kind of interesting to think about uh one last film before we take we take a break for the day this is uh about how great pittsburgh is it's a gateway to the future this is our city located at the juncture of three famous pennsylvania rivers and surrounded by a county whose industry has contributed to the progress of the state and of the nation whose fine homes make for good living whose agricultural products add to the state's wealth and whose natural beauty is marked by every visitor here in one of the world's greatest industrial centers the people have learned to look for [Music] progress searching for progress not only in their factories but in their five colleges and universities and in their museums as well [Music] here in dinosaur hall at carnegie museum is a world famous exhibit of fossils these relics of the past now etched in stone tell the story of the geologic ages when pittsburgh's natural wealth was formed its deposits of coal and limestone and its great waterways [Music] but the people are not only looking backward through their scientific laboratories like melon institute they are peering into the future studying experimenting testing finding new ways of doing things better and playing a national role in the advancement of science and industry for in allegheny county the people have learned a great secret they have learned how to combine industrial growth with intellectual and cultural advancement to tell this story to the nation is the purpose of the pittsburgh bicentennial association an organization formed to plan the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the city's naming and to trace the development of the area it started here at the site of the old fort when general forbes wrote his famous letter to pitt naming the area after the british prime minister our history will be remembered the days of pontiac's rebellion the indian campaigns and the importance of pittsburgh to the whole state when it provided the eastern country with a gateway to the west but emphasis will also be placed on today's accomplishments how the modern pittsburgh has gained and held its present position of dominance among the cities of the world [Music] here at the point a drama will be presented telling the story of pittsburgh's founding and how it made the change from an important fort to an important city the committee on religion will show how religious thinking has molded the city's growth and given inspiration to its people [Music] several major art exhibits will be held to show the world the part that pittsburgh has played in artistic [Music] development the science committee has planned important national meetings one each month during the bicentennial year and a symposium of leading authorities who each in his own field will prophesy what the future holds [Music] boys like these interested in sports will have a chance to see important events throughout the year events brought here by the bicentennial association music will be featured too with special performances of popular as well as classical works [Music] the committee on health using facilities such as the pit medical school will tell the story of pittsburgh's dramatic emergence as a leading medical center in america while in the schools the students will be working on projects designed to inspire them with an awareness of their heritage social cultural and spiritual industry will have a dominant role in the celebration for carnegie institute of technology has agreed to assume responsibility for planning an industrial exhibit that will tell the story of the area's contribution to american industry both in the past and in the present other committees such as law education and aviation will show what is happening in their respective fields and will highlight the area's progress and the contributions it is making toward the development of the whole state from this program will come better understanding better recognition among all the people not only here but in other cities like this one of what pittsburgh is doing how it has successfully blended all aspects of man's living into a story of human and civic progress how 200 years ago it was the gateway to the west and how today through the efforts of its people it has now become the gateway to the future [Music] gateway to the future um so a promotional piece about pittsburgh pennsylvania uh celebrating their bicentennial back in the day but a wonderful little travel log package programs incorporated if i had to guess i i don't know this for sure this is all anecdotal guessing but i'm guessing that they were probably a promotional uh film company and they would do these special things about a city they would do like a welcome to our city is locate your business to our city move to our city look at what exciting thing is happening in your city um and they just would you know advertise somewhere and you know to all the chamber of commerce's and you know get business visiting the city and shooting all the footage and then editing this beautiful piece it's kind of similar to your name here uh in a way except that it's using just that that stock footage of of whatever the city is thanks everybody for tuning in today um tomorrow we'll be back one o'clock friday is our 300th episode and i'm trying to figure out how to do it what to do special wise um my wife is going to join me because she has been helping me throughout all this and um i don't know i'm still trying to figure out what would be fun like a fun thing that we can do um i can pull all my favorite boring films and we can watch them uh i don't know we can just watch leader just kind of go through i don't know well think of something um but thanks again if you like what you saw please uh you can buy some coffee you can hit like you can hit uh subscribe uh notifications all that stuff helps with some sort of magical algorithm i don't know i have no idea but that's what everybody says you should do so please consider doing that also you can go to avgeeks.com and see other things that we put online and dvds that are for sale so hopefully i'll see you tomorrow everybody have a good rest your day as always we please rewind and love each other including yourself and we will see you tomorrow bye you