CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 26

CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 26 • 6/29/2002
20 Years Ago In CED History:

June 30, 1982:
* Efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution end
in failure when legislators in three additional states cannot be persuaded in
sufficient numbers to vote approval of the measure before the midnight
deadline.

July 1, 1982:
* A mass ceremony conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification
Church in New York City's Madison Square Garden weds more than 2,000 couples.
* Starch blocker diet pills are declared to be "unapproved new drugs" by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are ordered off the market.

* CED Title Releases for July 1982:
10
Adventures of Robin Hood, The [RCA]
Baseball Fun and Games/Greatest World Series Ever
Blazing Saddles
Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The
Dr. No [RCA]
Jane Fonda's Workout
Last Tango in Paris (2)
Love At First Bite
Pirate, The
Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, The
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Stripes
Tarzan, The Ape Man
Three Musketeers, The [1974]
Tom & Jerry II
Viva Las Vegas
Westworld
White Lightning [RCA]

July 2, 1982:
* The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a Mississippi Supreme court decision that
held the NAACP liable for damages that resulted from a business boycott
organized in Port Gibson. In another ruling, the Court declares child
pornography is not automatically entitled to First Amendment protection.
* Future CED title in widespread theatrical release: The Secret of NIMH.

July 3, 1982:
* In Tel Aviv, Israel, 100,000 Israelis march for peace.
* Martina Navratilova defeats Chris Evert Lloyd to win the women's singles
title at the Wimbledon tennis championship. The following day Jimmy Connors
defeats John McEnroe for the men's singles title.
* "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League becomes the No. 1 U.S. single.

July 4, 1982:
* Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado of the Institutional Revolutionary Party is
elected president of Mexico with about 75 percent of the popular vote.
* President Antonio Guzman Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dies of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was reportedly depressed after discovering
that some of his most trusted aides had been stealing government funds. Vice
President Jacobo Majluta Azar succeeds him.
* The U.S. space shuttle Columbia completes the last of four scheduled test
flights.
* Independence Day celebrations take place in the United States. Deely Bobbers,
the summer fun fashion of 1982, are worn on the heads of many participants.

July 5, 1982:
* Federal regulators declare the Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma City, OK
insolvent because of huge losses it has sustained on loans to small oil and gas
companies whose collateral only partially covered the amounts they borrowed.

July 6, 1982:
* President Reagan announces conditional agreement to the use of U.S. troops in
an international peacekeeping force in Beirut, Lebanon.
* An estimated 90 people are killed in an Aeroflot jetliner that crashes
shortly after takeoff near Moscow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 17:52:37 -0400
From: "Forrest Proctor" <FORRESTP>
To: <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Widescreen VS Pan N' Scan

A response to the posting from Guy Krause, CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 25

I'm Forrest Proctor, also a subscriber to CED Magic.  I read your posting about
your fear that older movies will be re-mastered in Wide-screen instead of Pan
and  scan.  Most older films shot before 1952 were photographed in the same
Aspect Ratio (Height to Width) as a television.  The television industry got
their design for an image from film screens of the era.  

The Film industry was in such an uproar about Television because of it's
growing popularity, and they assumed that "TV" was going to put Hollywood out
of business.  Not to mention that a television screen looked the same as a
movie screen, just smaller.  Hollywood began to explore new avenues of
presentation and came up with Cinemascope, Flat, 70mm, Vistavision etc. all of
which were large format and/or Wide-screen resulting in a size up to 40% wider
than your typical television screen.  When these films are presented on
television, they can only show a portion of the frame on the screen;  the rest
is lost because of the limitations of the television set, which is why they
have to "Pan and Scan" across the frame to follow the action in hopes of
leaving the Director's original view intact.  When presented as the Director
intended, it appears (especially in 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio) as a thin band of
picture in the middle of the screen.  2.35 to 1 would make a 20 ft tall screen
approximately 47 ft wide (some theatres cheat and make the screen measurement
actually 2.0 to 1 to save room).  The size and aspect ratio of today's films
makes them incompatible with TV.

The upshot of the whole thing is that no, you don't have to worry about the
older Cary Grant/Marx Brothers/Kate Hepburn films to be put in Wide-screen:  It
simply cannot be done.   

Forrest. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 18:22:03 -0700
From: Neil Wagner <orac>
To: _CED Magic mail list <digest@cedmagic.com>
Subject: RE: Shortest "full-length" movie

> That got me thinking what the shortest CED movie might be, and I came
> up with "Reefer Madness" at a total length of 66:40. Side 2 of that
> disc is only 9:14 in duration.  Can anyone think of a CED movie title
> shorter in either total length or the length of Side 2 ?

It's a shame the old Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and
Nigel Bruce were never released on CED, since several of them would
easily top your mark.  The shortest appears to be "Terror By Night"
which clocks in at just 60 minutes.

Sorry, no other ideas for short movies.
____
Neil
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