MICROSCOPE ON PATHÉSCOPE 9.5MM PRINTED FILMS

By Gerald McKee

The following excellent article describing the background to 9.5mm printed films issued by the Pathé-Baby company in France and the Pathéscope company in the UK is taken, with grateful permission, from Gerald's book: "A Half Century of Film Collecting" - now out of print.

When collectors get hooked on the 9.5mm cult, their first interest is in the films that are available. As they become more engrossed, they begin to find the fringe topics of 9.5mm films as fascinating as the picture content. But where do you find information on this? Pathéscope provided very little, so one had to rely on personal experience; not easy for the younger collector nowadays, with vintage material getting harder and harder to find. After half a century of involvement, I feel that some of my accumulated knowledge will be useful for collectors.

1. 1922-1927. FRENCH FILMS FOR THE 9.5mm PATHÉ-BABY PROJECTOR

The first 9.5mm subjects were issued only on closed spools (or cassettes) holding 8.5metres of film, which was all the original Patbé Baby projector was designed to show. These tiny films (Pathéscope in England always called them - slightly inaccurately - 30ft. reels) ran for only 1 minute 20 seconds, if projected at the then, "official" 9.5mm speed of l4fps. With the use of the notched titles increasing the running time by almost any amount, some early factual, notched "30 footers" could run for several minutes if they had many stills and titles. In fact, these were a good read rather than actionful entertainment, though this concept could be useful as a teaching aid, making such reels true pioneers of visual education.

Photographic quality in these early films was generally good. There was a tendency to make the prints fairly contrasty to offset the dim lighting of the projector. Definition was variable, some prints being noticeably sharper than others, while steadiness was consistently good. Occasionally, in addition to the Pathé stencil colour films released, there were a few subjects printed on amber tinted-stock looking like their famous 16mm Kodascope rivals.

The earliest French subjects were usually introduced by a trade-mark title of the Pathé cockerel with Pathé Baby written beneath it, or the amusing Pathé Baby chick just hatched from an egg. The earliest English versions simply had a main title without the preceding Pathé trademark. The inter-titles on some of these 30ft. subjects were printed in a small, not particularly clear, type-face. Far better were the hand-lettered titles in bolder style. Early notched titles consisted of a single frame to be held by the de-clutch mechanism, but were soon superseded by two or three frames when it was found that a single frame could be damaged by heat.

Another characteristic of very early French 30ft. shorts was their sprocket holes (with rounded ends) and the centre spindle of the cassettes slightly different to later versions. By the time the design of the 30ft. cassette and its contents was finalised, the 60ft. cassette was introduced. And with it, a modification to the top spool holder of the PATHÉ BABY projector to take the large cassette; the lower take-up chamber could already accommodate the additional film.

Once this improvement was available, Pathéscope issued to their dealers a little 60ft. publicity reel Multum in Parvo ("Much in Little"). This covered their range of releases for home shows in brief clips, the best of which was Ruth Roland trapped on the roof of a runaway coach (from the 2 x 60ft. version of THE TIMBER QUEEN) and Gloria Swanson in The Tempest (their 3 x 60ft. version of STATION CONTENT). Parts of this interesting reel were included in John Burgoyne-Johnsons look at 9.5mm history: LIGHTS OUT AND THE STARS APPEAR (1972 - Super8 and video). [ed: The LIGHTS OUT AND THE STARS APPEAR film is available on VHS video or DVD +R at £9.95 (post paid in the UK) from Grahame Newnham -
presto @ pathefilm.freeserve.co.uk (no gaps in actual e-mail address)]

It was not long before some early subjects had to be split into several 30ft. parts to cover a complete story. This led, especially in France, to longer films being released in numerous 30ft. (or 60ft.) parts - an unsatisfactory procedure analogous to the 78rpm gramophone presentation of symphonies being broken down into five minute parts, each equal to the running time of a single side of a l2in. disc. So, we find LE DROIT À LA VIE (Abel Gance) in no less than 24 x 30ft. parts or PECHEURS D'ISLANDE in 12 x 30ft. or 6 x 60ft. parts. The constant rewinding necessary between reels must have destroyed any dramatic impact these films would have had. It's hard to understand how this form of home entertainment ever became popular. This mode of presentation survived in France longer than in England, with many features issued in multiple 30ft. and 60ft. parts, even when 300 ft. reels became available.

All the 30ft. and 60ft. films had the title of their contents printed on the paper label stuck round the circumference of the pressed steel cassette; a strip of paper including the 'Guarantee Band' that sealed the film exit, ensuring that the customer knew he was getting a brand new film. The labels were normally printed black type on a white, yellow or green background. Some French releases had hand written labels in beautiful French 'menu' script. But, for the collector lucky enough to find them, the most interesting labels (only on a few French 30ft. reels) are those printed in silver lettering on a black background - the identification of films in PATHÉ STENCIL COLOUR. New film releases were announced by leaflets. Even the 'Baby Cine' Film Library catalogue was no more than a folded sheet. Pathé of France Ltd. did advertise the "Baby Cine" system in the general press as well as photographic journals.

2. 1927-1929: 9.5mm SUPER REELS FROM JOINVILLE

In 1927, the 300ft.(100metre) so-called 'Super' reel arrived, which in its original notched title form was considered to be equivalent in running time to the standard 35mm reel of 1,000ft.(300metres). The maximum length of a feature (always condensed from the cinema original) was two reels. Catalogue numbers were prefixed S/ for Super.

Some of the first English releases in one reel did not have the Pathé logo on the front, this was superseded by having the main title card with 'Baby Cine (or Super Cine) Presents' above the film's actual title. Its replacement: an attractively lettered "Pathéscope Presents" on a plain-black background, was an improvement. "The End" was invariably in the same lettering style but surrounded by an ornate Art Nouveau border.

The inter-titles of this era were all hand-lettered. Occasionally, they were decorated with little cartoons appropriate to their content; perhaps the best known film with these is The Leghorn Hat, but this was not unique. Some early Our Gang and Harold Lloyd subjects (e.g. A Trip to Paradise) also had decorated titles.

A useful innovation with these new 300ft. reels was to have a printed label gummed to the clear part of the leader, giving the title of the film and - if needed - its part-number.

Printing standards were high. The projected images were notably steady and the photographic quality was remarkable for its high definition and excellent gradation. These images tended to have a warmer tone than those in later releases. whilst it's an insignificant detail, one notices that the actual developing time was written on the film's master and printed on to the leader. (ed: later this was the actual film length, not developing time)

The cellulose acetate base, the factor determining the longevity of 9.5mm prints seems to have been unusually tough at this time. There is less sprocket hole splitting than in later prints. The only noticeable fault, brought about by storage in too dry an atmosphere is that certain films surviving from this era tend to bow or 'cup' due to shrinkage of the base material. I have also seen as a result of this, instances where the emulsion has stripped from the base.

The earliest single 300ft. reels were sold packaged in rather rough corrugated card boxes with the title printed on a label and a 'Guarantee Band' sealing them before sale. The card boxes usually had a card-carrier for the film covering half of the spool, with the film held in place by 'knicker elastic' fitted with a hook mating with an eye on the card. Over the years, the rubber in these bands has perished leaving the cotton remains ineffectively holding the film in place. In some versions of these containers , two half-boxes hold the spool, sliding into an outer sleeve. A strange feature of this packaging was that it bore no mention of the manufacturer's name. Similar packaging was used for subjects in two 300ft. parts; the maximum length at the time. While these old boxes may cause flutters of excitement for the keen collector, they certainly had nothing in the way of customer appeal (apart from their titles) when they appeared on dealers' shelves back in 1927.

The original 'Super' reels supplied, consisted of steel cheeks each with five spokes, painted in black. The aluminium centre, with tongues to hold the film, was rivetted to the cheeks. The actual core was of brass, with two holes in the steel cheeks to connect with the drive spigots, (imitating 35mm practice). These well made spools bore no manufacturer's name, simply 'Made in France' embossed on a cheek.

Towards the end of this period, Pathé commenced the issue of a new series of British productions especially for the British market. Most of these subjects, for which Pathé only held the rights for a short time, were soon withdrawn. Many of these titles are desirable, not just because of their rarity but because they are unusually interesting. Pathé introduced a new set of catalogue numbers for these: '20000' etc. Even here, with their usual inconsistence, the first titles were given '10000' numbers. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE FLAG LIEUTENANT SB/12058, was the only subject from this series that remained in the catalogue for long.

3. 1929-1933 THE GOLDEN AGE

Pathéscope Factory (North Circular Road, London,UK 1929)

This was the period when features in as many as five 300ft. parts were introduced. Titling for new releases became more standardised. After the aforementioned 'Pathéscope Presents', the main and inter-titles were all lettered in printed type called 'Cheltenham Condensed Bold'. The style was neat but not particularly attractive; certainly not as pleasing as the (stencilled) broader lettering style chosen for the inter-titles in most 35m theatrical prints. One might have thought that the reason for this standardised type was because of the demand for various different language versions of these 9.5m releases. But this does not seem to have been the case. The French Pathé versions had a totally different typeface for their titles.

With the introduction of the more powerful LUX projector, 300ft. reel releases with notched titles were gradually phased out - without any positive announcement by Pathéscope in their own journal! One result of this in longer films was to have superimposed sub-titles; a useful way to save valuable footage. But this technique was not used consistently and many films had an uneasy mixture of separate and superimposed dialogue titles. The catalogue numbers for the new 'running titled' films were pre-fixed SB/ for Super Bobine.

This was the time of the release of most of the UFA and Vitagraph subjects, invariably of excellent print quality. The definition, steadiness and overall photographic gradation were probably the best ever achieved by the Pathé laboratories. The images were of a colder black than those. in the earliest super reels, indicating that a different emulsion was used. [ed: by now Kodak Ltd in France, had merged with Pathé's film coating division and all printing (and camera) stock was made by Kodak-Pathé in France]. The base was different, too. Over the years, this has not "cupped" in the way of the first super reels, but well-used prints do suffer from sprocket hole splitting. It is noticeable that some of the sprocket holes had square-cut corners, rather than the (correct) "cushioned" corners. But examination of many prints indicates that corner-splitting can occur with both types.

To celebrate their UFA collection, Pathéscope released another of their rare publicity films: Extracts from the Pathé Catalogue, a selection of well chosen film releases like SIEGFRIED, THE SPY, THE PRISONER'S SONG etc. with other items. It was well presented with animated titles and intercut shots to give this reel the look of a superior trailer. Pathéscope sensibly ensured that its print quality displayed the finest films in their archive at their best. Today, this reel is ideal for giving audiences an impressive view of the heyday of the home cinema.

To identify titles and part numbers on reels, there was a improvement on the paper labels. These were superseded by printing title information photographically on leaders and trailers. Another innovation, and an admission that the notched title idea had its snags, was the provision of a double set of main titles at the start of a film. If the first set became damaged by heat and wear, there was a second set to replace them.

With the arrival of longer features, a superior style of container appeared. This was a blue card box imitating a film can, with the lid completely enclosing the lower part. The title was printed in blue on a label edged with yellow and the 'Guarantee Band' was two labels printed in enlarged imitation of 9.5mm film to seal the film in its box. The manufacturer was fully identified now with a triangular Pathéscope 'Safety Film' label stuck on the lid. Many of the UFA subjects and other important multi-part titles (like LES MISERABLES) were supplied in these attractive containers. Soon, single part subjects were issued in the same form.

Two excellent new spool designs appeared from France. One, bearing the name 'Pathex' was made completely of unpainted aluminium. This lightweight spool with three double-spokes on each cheek, was probably the best of all Pathé's spools. The other design had the two steel cheeks, with three double spokes, bearing the name Pathé and the French 9.5mm logo. The centre was of aluminium with a brass core. An English made version of this also appeared, this having 'Made in England' and Pat. no. 360307 stamped into the steel.

For a brief while, during the changeover from notched to un-notched titles, Pathéscope provided sets of running titles for popular notched films. These were simply spliced in by the customer. To accomodate the extra footage a special 400ft. spool was available to hold a 300ft. notched film with replacement running titles. This had the same appearance as the original five spoked Super Reel but with a slightly larger diameter and smaller centre. It would have made sense for Pathéscope to switch permanently to a 400ft. reel, the correct equivalent to a 1,000ft. 35mm reel; just as 400ft. 16mm and 200ft. 8mm Kodascope reels were. As it was, the 300ft. reel with running titles remained as an awkward, non-standard length, with a silent (16 fps) running~time of 12 minutes.

The simple lists of new releases were superseded by the "Pathéscope Monthly", which first appeared in August, 1929. This new magazine, well printed in sepia ink on cream art paper, gave illustrated details of all the new film releases along with hints for the home movie maker. It was sent free to customers on request. At its time, it was probably the first movie magazine for amateurs to appear in this country. The objective of "Pathéscope Monthly", given in issue One, was "...It will be a great help to readers in making their choice of film". In other words, its prime target was the home projectionist interested in films to buy or hire. In Autumn 1929, the first film catalogue appeared, a bulky 92 pages of synopses of subjects, well illustrated and matching the "Monthly" with its sepia on cream combination.

(continued in part 2)

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