HOLLYWOOD SECTION MEETING REPORT
FEBRUARY 21, 2006  

The February meeting of the Hollywood Section was the fifth year of an annual evening of archival theatrical short subjects.  This year’s program concentrated on films preserved by the UCLA Film Archive and the Warner Bros. preservation department.

 The pre-show reception was hosted by FotoKem, and started at 6:30pm .  Dessert and beverages were served in the lobby of this historic theater, which first opened in 1928 as the flagship of the Warner Bros. theater circuit.

The venue no longer operates commercially, but is run by major studios as a facility for experimentation with digital cinema.  The main floor, which is about 1000 seats, has been maintained in excellent condition.  The screen size is proportional to the auditorium, about 30 feet high, so the image is quite impressive.

Film is run on a Kineton projector.  

The program opened with the 1947 George Pal Puppetoon “Rhapsody in Wood”.   It then went back to early sound with a 1928 short from MGM “Bernardo De Pace – Wizard of the Mandolin”.  This was followed by “Norman Thomas Quintette – Harlem-Mania” (WB 1929), “A Minute from Death” (WB 1939),  “Hollywood, City of Celluloid” (UCLA restoration 1932, with a shot down Hollywood Boulevard showing the theater where we were sitting at the moment), “Hollywood Rhythm” (Paramount-1935), “Shoestring Follies” (WB 1935), and ended with the grande finale, a new CinemaScope and stereo sound print of  “Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor” (MGM 1953 – Winner of the Academy Award for one reel short).

 In between each short, Dick May made some short comments about the subject coming up.  The meeting ended with a reminder to the audience to attend the March meeting.

 SUBMITTED BY:

 Name:_Richard P. May              Section Officer Title: Past Chair

 Company Affiliation & Contact Tel. No.: Film Technology -  310 251-5495