Convention Plans and other Prospects

Abstract

By a Happy Coincidence, it was 63 years ago today that the first exhibition of a projected motion picture took place. On a Sunday afternoon, April 21, 1895, Woodville Latham demonstrated an enlarged Kinetoscope to a group of reporters. Instead of viewing the motion picture through a lens set in a peep hole, like earlier systems, the picture was presented by transmitted light on a screen. Although this invention was at best a crude device, it did represent the first expression of a move toward the screen. The industry has come a long way since then and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has been an important factor in its progress for the past 42 years. Recognition of these years of service to the Motion Picture Industry by the members of the Society was exemplified in the recent Academy Award voted to our Society by the Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. Although I had the pleasure, on your behalf, of receiving the “Oscar” from the lovely Bette Davis, it is your award and is here for you to see before it is suitably mounted at Headquarters.