Early Radio in Pelham: Pelham Firefighters and Business at Pelham Picture House Installed "Radiophone" in 1922

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By the time of the Roaring Twenties, the medium of "wireless telegraphy" had evolved into the broadcast entertainment medium we know as radio.  Between about 1919 and the early 1920s, crystal radio sets were beginning to gain attention and the infant audio broadcasting industry was toddling along. Crude battery-powered radios came into use in the Town of Pelham. 

I have written of the earliest days of radio entertainment in the Town of Pelham on a couple of occasions.  See:

Thu., May 22, 2014:  The Earliest Days of Radio in the Town of Pelham.  

Wed., Jan. 22, 2014:  Pelham Becomes Enthralled with the New-Fangled Entertainment Medium of Radio.  

By early 1922, "a large part of the people of Pelham" had installed early, crude radio sets in their homes.  The Pelham Sun reported on April 7, 1922:  "Judging by the number of aerials [i.e., antennae] seen in the Pelhams, a large part of the people of this community are daily enjoying the concerts, speeches, etc., that are being broadcasted by the large number of radio phone broadcasting stations now in operation throughout the country."  (See full transcript of article below.)  It appears that as early as March 24, 1922, as many as seventy-five Pelham homes had installed radio sets with aerials.  (See below.)  

Not everyone wanted (or could afford) to install the rather complex radios of the day.  The equipment often included a range of necessities such as electric "storage batteries," a receiver, a power amplifier, an audio amplifying horn like those on old-fashioned phonographs, an aerial (antenna) typically installed on the roof of the home, and the wiring necessary to complete the system.  The more complex systems also could be difficult to operate optimally.  Consequently, local organizations and businesses began to make "radiophone" broadcasts available to their members, their customers, and their prospective customers.  

Thus, the Village of North Pelham firefighters were among the earliest adopters of the new medium of radio in the Town of Pelham.  In a meeting of the firefighters held on the evening of Monday, March 6, 1922, the firemen decided to authorize local radio dealer Scooler and Lynch to install a Magnavox "Radiophone outfit" in the firemen's hall at the North Pelham firehouse.  Scooler and Lynch was tasked with installing the radiophone and a connected aerial on the firehouse roof.

The local newspaper reported that "[w]hen the radiophone is installed, the firemen will be able to listen in on the concerts sent broadcast by the Westinghouse station at Newark.  Baseball scores will be received as the games are played.  Election returns, decisions of important sporting events, etc. will all be at the disposal of the firemen."  The planned work reportedly was expected to cost $350.00 (about $5,125 in today's dollars).

Scooler and Lynch was located at 513 Third Avenue in North Pelham in 1922.  According to its advertisements (see below), it sold and installed "Radio Apparatus and Radio Accessories of All Descriptions."  

The Magnavox Radiophone selected by the North Pelham firemen for purchase from, and installation by, Scooler and Lynch was a fascinating piece of equipment.  Its name was a combination of the concepts of radio and "wireless telephony" -- hence "Radiophone."  It consisted of a receiving set with a large amplifying horn like that of a phonograph attached to it.  Known as a "reproducer with the movable coil," there were at least two models:  (1) the R-2 with "very great amplifying power, yet requir[ing] only .6 of an ampere for the field" with an attached horn 18 inches in diameter; and (2) the smaller R-3 with slightly less amplifying power, requiring only one ampere field current from the filament batter, and sold with an attached horn 14 inches in diameter.  

Magnavox also sold the Model C "power amplifier," saying:  "The Magnavox Power Amplifiers insure getting the largest possible power input for your Magnavox Radio.  They can be used with any 'B' battery voltage the power tube may require for best amplification."

Advertisements for such Magnavox equipment even likened the technology to the well-known phonograph invented in the 19th century.  One example said:  "Attached to any commercial receiving set, the Magnavox Radio makes it possible for you to hear all that is in the air as if it were being played by your phonograph."  

1922 Magnavox Radio Advertisement from the August, 1922

Issue of Radio News, p. 293.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from the Above Magnavox Radio Advertisement

Depicting a Family Listening to a Magnavox Radiophone

in 1922.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

At about the same time North Pelham Firemen were deciding to install a Magnavox Radiophone in their firehouse, the new Pelham Picture House announced that it would offer special events in connection with movie presentations where ticket holders could listen to radio broadcasts via a Magnavox Radiophone installed courtesy of Jerry's Electrical Service Company.

It appears from at least one advertisement (see below) that Jerry's Electrical Service Company had some form of office space at the Pelham Picture House in 1922.  "Jerry's" competed with Scooler and Lynch in the sale and installation of radio equipment.  Jerry's installed a Magnavox Radiophone in the Pelham Picture House theater to receive radio broadcasts on the evenings of Friday, April 7 1922 and Saturday, April 8, 1922 before showings of the silent films "The Flower of the North" with Henry B. Walthall and Pauline Stark (Friday evening) and "The Night Horseman" with Tom Mix (Saturday evening).  Jerry's also offered "Radiophone Concerts on the Hour" in its business at the Picture House.

In early 1922, Pelham clearly was in the midst of a radio "craze."  A regular column entitled "Local Radio News" began appearing in The Pelham Sun reporting on local developments concerning radio installations and radio technology.  The newspaper also began reporting on significant upcoming radio broadcasts in which its readers might be interested.  The new medium of radio was taking root in the small Town of Pelham.  

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March 10, 1922 Scooter and Lynch Advertisement.

Source:  Radiophones [Advertisement], The Pelham

Sun, Mar. 10, 1922, p. 7, col. 4.  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge.  Text Transcribed Immediately Below.

"Radiophones

Radiophone broadcasting stations are now in operation at important centers all over the country.

You can easily receive these interesting daily programs with any of the standard Radiophone Receiving Sets that we sell.  These sets will also be completely installed by us.

We specialize in Westinghouse, De Forest, Clapp Eastham, Tuska, Grebe and Radio Corporation of America Radio Apparatus.

Sets $15.00 and up

Don't take a chance on second hand radio apparatus.  Pay a few cents more and buy it new from a dealer.

SCOOLER & LYNCH

Radio Apparatus and Radio Accessories of All Descriptions

Telephones:  Pelham 4876, 1568-R
513 Third Ave. North Pelham
Go a Bit Off the Beaten Path For Better Values"

March 31, 1922 Scooler and Lynch Advertisement.

Source:  RADIO PHONES [Advertisement], The

Pelham Sun, Mar. 31, 1922, p. 3, col. 6.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.  Text Transcribed

Immediately Below.

"RADIO PHONES
GET IN THE RADIO GAME NOW
We can supply you with Radio Phone Receiving Sets and Radio-Phone Accessories of all descriptions, including DeForest, Westinghouse, Radio Corporation, Etc.
GET IN TOUCH WITH US NOW
Radio Apparatus and Radio Accessories of All Descriptions
Complete Installations -- Aerials Rigged
SCOOLER and LYNCH
513 THIRD AVENUE, NORTH PELHAM, N. Y.
Phones:  Pelham 1568-R, 4576
We Are the Only EXPERIENCED RADIO DEALERS in The Pelhams"

May 5, 1922 Scooler & Lynch Advertisement.

Source:  RADIOPHONES [Advertisement],

The Pelham Sun, May 5, 1922, p. 6, col. 5.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.  Text

Transcribed Immediately Below.

"RADIOPHONES
RADIO STORAGE BATTERIES
RADIO SETS
RADIO APPARATUS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
WE RECHARGE ANY MAKE AND ANY SIZE STORAGE BATTERY.  RADIO ACCESSORIES OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
SCOOLER & LYNCH
Pelham 1568-R, 457"

April 21, 1922 "JERRY'S" Advertisement.  Source:

WHY GO TO NEW YORK for RADIO SETS AND

APPARATUS? [Advertisement], The Pelham Sun,

Apr. 21, 1922, p. 11, cols. 4-6.  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge. Text Transcribed Immediately Below.

"WHY GO TO NEW YORK
-- for --
RADIO SETS AND APPARATUS?
Tell 'JERRY'S' Your Wants
Electric Service
Questions Answered and Sets Installed By Competent Radio Men
RADIOPHONE CONCERTS ON THE HOUR
PELHAM PICTURE HOUSE"

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"Radiophone To Be Installed In North Pelham Firehouse
-----
Scooler and Lynch Will Place a Magnavox Instrument Which Will Enable Radio Concerts to Be Heard Any Place In Concert Hall of Firehouse -- Westinghouse Concerts Will Be a Feature.
-----

North Pelham firemen are nothing if not up to date.  At a meeting of the members of the fire companies last Monday it was decided to install a radiophone outfit of the very latest design.  The work of installing the new wonder phone will be carried out by Scooler and Lynch, the North Pelham radio firm.  Specifications call for a magnavox [sic] instrument which will amplify the sound so that whatever is being broadcast the phone will be loud enough to be heard all over the big hall.

When the radiophone is installed, the firemen will be able to listen in on the concerts sent broadcast by the Westinghouse station at Newark.  Baseball scores will be received as the games are played.  Election returns, decisions of important sporting events, etc. will all be at the disposal of the firemen.

Scooler and Lynch will install the aerial on the roof of the firehouse.  The entire outfit will cost in the neighborhood of $350.00 and the work will be carried out at once."

Source:  Radiophone To Be Installed In North Pelham Firehouse -- Scooler and Lynch Will Place a Magnavox Instrument Which Will Enable Radio Concerts to Be Heard Any Place In Concert Hall of Firehouse -- Westinghouse Concerts Will Be a Feature, The Pelham Sun, Mar. 10, 1922, Vol. 13, No. 2, p. 7, cols. 3-4.  

"Picture House Will Have Radiophone
-----

Manager Clint Woodward, of the Pelham Picture House, has arranged a special treat for the patrons of the Picture House tonight and Saturday night.  A radiophone will be installed for the two performances each evening.  Through a Magnavox loud speaking attachment the program broadcasted from the various stations in this section will be heard from every seat in the theatre.  The instrument will be installed through the courtesy of Jerry's Electrical Service Company.

The picture for the evening's program will be James Oliver Curwood's thrilling story of the Canadian Northwest, 'The Flower of the North,' with Henry B. Walthall and Pauline Stark, as the leading artists.  The stories from the pen of James Oliver Curwood have interested many readers, and they will be afforded a real opportunity of seeing the stories enacted through productions such as the 'Flower of the North.'

Tomorrow's feature will be Tom Mix in 'The Night Horseman,' a thrilling western drama, and Larry Semon in 'The Show.'  An interesting program of new weeklies and comedies will make up the rest of the bill."

Source:  Picture House Will Have Radiophone, The Pelham Sun, Apr. 7, 1922, p. 8, col. 4.  

"LOCAL RADIO NEWS
-----

The people of Pelham are becoming more interested in the Radiophone every day.  They read the programs in the papers and are realizing what pleasure can be had from getting first hand the latest news, sport news, weather reports, correct Eastern standard time, and to hear concerts in which world famous artists take part.

It is the opinion of many that radio is not the case [sic].  Anybody can operate is not the case.  [sic]  Anybody can operate the simpler sets which many companies are now putting on the market.  There are among the residents of the Pelhams about seventy-five persons who have radio outfits.  In the comparatively short time that radio has been public this is a good showing.  The novelty of having radio shows has become quite popular.

All of those who were lucky enough to hear Ed Wynn's radio production, of 'The Perfect Fool,' are anxiously waiting for the broadcast of another such sterling production.

Don't worry, there will be another soon."

Source:  LOCAL RADIO NEWS, The Pelham Sun, Mar. 24, 1922, p. 5, col. 3.  

"LOCAL RADIO NEWS
-----

Judging by the number of aerials seen in the Pelhams, a large part of the people of this community are daily enjoying the concerts, speeches, etc., that are being broadcasted by the large number of radio phone broadcasting stations now in operation throughout the country.  Those who have not heard a concert over the 'wireless' are yet to have the real treat of their lives.  On Sundays, church sermons and good choir music are broadcasted by several stations.  Throughout the week fine, thoroughly enjoyable concerts are broadcasted.

Don't think that you will be unable to operate a 'set.'  Anyone can operate some of the simple sets now on the market.  If you want to be kept up to date in baseball scores, etc., radio will do it for you as soon as the season begins."

Source:  LOCAL RADIO NEWS, The Pelham Sun, Apr. 7, 1922, p. 8, col. 4.  

"LOCAL RADIO NEWS
-----

Through this column we wish to help and encourage the amateur in radio.  Of course, the most help that we will be able to give, will be to the beginners in radio.  First of all, a radio amateur should be careful as to what kind of a set is purchased.  Many of the so-called radiophones, just brought out, since the radio 'craze' has been so widely adopted, are not as good as they might be ,nor as good as money can buy.  Find out what set is best adapted to the conditions of your home before you make a purchase.  Any questions of general interest to radio fans will be gladly answered through this column."

Source:  LOCAL RADIO NEWS, The Pelham Sun, May 5, 2017, p. 6, col. 5.  

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The Recently-Saved Pelham Picture House Was Saved Once Before in 1928

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In 2001 and 2002, a group of civic-minded Pelhamites and others set out to save the Pelham Picture House, a large single-screen movie theater located at 175 Wolfs Lane.  The theater, built in 1921 by Clint Woodward of Bronxville, was set to be sold and demolished with plans to erect a retail bank branch on the site.  The citizens created a non-profit organization named "Pelham Picture House Preservation."  The organization spent the next four years raising the money to acquire the theater.  On May 28, 2010, the Pelham Picture House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Nearly everyone in Pelham knows of the intense efforts to save the Pelham Picture House during the 2001-2005 time period.  Few know, however, that the Pelham Picture House had to be "saved" once before in 1928.

The Pelham Picture House in 2011.

Source:  Wikipedia.  NOTE:  Click Image to Enlarge.

In late 1927 -- even before the advent of "talkies" in Pelham -- the management of The Pelham Picture House found itself in "severe hardship" due to competition from "larger theatres in neighboring communities."  A decision was made to pull the plug on the theater.  It went dark, disappointing residents throughout the Town of Pelham.  The owners of the theater sold the property which sat, unused, for months.

In July, 1928, a local real estate company, Lander Realty Corporation, applied on behalf of the property to the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham (today's Pelham Heights) to reopen the motion picture theater.  The application was met with enthusiasm and was approved unanimously by the board.  

The move by Lander Realty Corporation seems to have been prompted by an initiative to renovate the Pelham Picture House and have a New Rochelle motion picture theater operator named Carl F. Michelfelder operate the Pelham Picture House.  

On Thursday, August 16, 1928, after a shutdown that lasted more than eight months, The Pelham Picture House reopened.  The new management showed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film "The Crowd."  A large audience attended and enjoyed the newly-renovated theater under the management of Carl F. Michelfelder.  The single-screen theater had been saved -- nearly eighty years before Pelham saved it yet again!

Below is text from a series of articles reflecting this interlude in the history of The Pelham Picture House.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

The Pelham Picture House in an Undated Photograph,

Ca. 1920s.  NOTE:  Click Image To Enlarge.

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"Pelham Heights Village Fathers Like the Movies
-----
Proposal To Reopen Pelham Picture House Pleases Members Of Village Board; Permit Granted
-----

The Pelham Heights Village Board is going to the 'movies.'  The application of the Lander Realty Corporation for a permit to operate the Pelham Picture House on Wolf's Lane was greeted with much enthusiasm by the Pelham Heights Trustees Tuesday night.  The permit to reopen the motion picture theatre, which has been dark for the last six months was granted without a dissenting vote.

Trustee Talbert W. Sprague, who attended his first meeting,, announced that he had stopped going to the 'movies' since the picture house closed.  'I used to enjoy sitting in those comfortable box seats and going to sleep during the picture,' he said.  

Mayor Maxwell B. Nesbitt, none the less appreciative of a community motion picture house, agreed that he had missed the performance and welcomed the proposal to reopen the theatre.

Inasmuch as the former management of the Pelham Picture House operated the theatre under severe hardship due to competition of the larger theatres in neighboring communities, the enthusiasm of the Pelham Heights Village Fathers is assurance that the programs will receive some patronage, and evidence that the little theatre was an important part of the local community life.

Alterations are being made at the theatre.  The opening date is soon to be announced."

Source:  Pelham Heights Village Fathers Like the Movies -- Proposal To Reopen Pelham Picture House Pleases Members Of Village Board; Permit Granted, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 20, 1928, p. 13, cols. 5-6.  

"PELHAM PICTURE HOUSE SOON TO OPEN
-----

When renovations are completed Pelham Picture House will be opened by Carl F. Michelfelder, New Rochelle motion picture house operator, who has had long experience in the business.  It is expected that Mr. Michelfelder will announce his plans next week.

Pelham Picture House on Wolf's Lane at Brookside avenue was built by Clint Woodward, of Bronxville.  It was opened in 1921 and continued until late last year when the building was sold."

Source:  PELHAM PICTURE HOUSE SOON TO OPEN, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 13, 1928, Vol. 19, No. 20, p. 2, col. 4.

"PELHAM THEATRE OPENED LAST NIGHT
-----

A large audience attended the opening of The Pelham Theatre on Wolf's Lane, Pelham, last night.  The theatre, which has undergone a complete renovation and is entirely re-decorated, is under the management of Carl Michelfelder.  Under the new management, first run pictures will be shown for the entertainment of Pelhamites."  

Source:  PELHAM THEATRE OPENED LAST NIGHT, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 17, 1928, p. 1, col. 3.  

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The Earliest Years of The Pelham Picture House

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The Pelham Picture house is a movie theater located at 175 Wolfs Lane in Pelham.  It opened in 1921 and has been claimed to be the oldest continuously-operating movie theater in Westchester County (although it has been closed temporarily for renovations and for other reasons over the decades).  The Pelham Picture House was named to the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 2010.    

In the application for inclusion of the structure in the National Register of Historic Places, the Picture House is described as follows:

"The Pelham Picture House is significant in the area of architecture as an intact-representative example of an early-20th century movie theater in Westchester County.  The building typifies early-20th century commercial architecture of New York City commuter suburbs with its eclectic styling reflective of the Mission style.  Its stuccoed facade has angled end bays, a distinctive round-arched entrance, tiled hoods over the large windows on the end bays, and a wood open truss ceiling in the auditorium.  The theater is also significant in the area of entertainment as an important social and cultural resource for residents of the suburban village and town of Pelham.  The Pelham Picture House was built in 1921 by the Pelham Theater Corporation and has been in almost continuous operation since then as a movie theater.  Despite the remodeling of the lobby and minor changes to the auditorium, the theater retains a high level of integrity of location, setting, design, materials, craftsmanship, feeling, and association."

Source:  National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Pelham Picture House, 175 Wolf's Lane, Pelham, New York, Westchester, Code 119, 10803, Section 8, Page 1 ("Narrative Statement of Significance").  

The Picture House held its grand opening on September 10, 1921, featuring the silent film "Passing Thru," a comedy-drama starring Douglas MacLean and Madge Bellamy.  In the film:

"Bank teller Billy Barton shoulders the blame for a cash shortage for which Fred Kingston, a fellow employee, is responsible and is sentenced to prison.  On his way there, the train is wrecked and he escapes.  In the town of Culterton, he meets and falls in love with Mary Spivins, the bank president's daughter, and charms the populace by playing the mouth organ.  He obtains work as a farmhand with Silas Harkins, taking the farm mule as wages.  When Spivins orders Harkins arrested for assault, Billy learns it was a kick from the mule that laid out Spivins.  At the bank he finds Spivins bound while Fred and the clerk are robbing the safe; Billy is locked in the safe, and all efforts to save him prove futile until the wall is kicked out by the mule.  Through the efforts of Willie Spivins, the bank is dynamited, but all ends happily."

Source:  Munden, Kenneth White, ed., The American Film Institute of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1, "Passing Thru," p. 592 (Berkeley, CA:  Univ. of California Press, 1997).  

When it first opened, the Picture House was billed as "Pelham's Newest Place of Amusement, Up to Date, Airy and Comfortable."  Only two days after it opened, the first paid advertisement for the Pelham Picture House appeared in the September 23, 1921 issue of the local newspaper, The Pelham Sun.  The theater showed silent films until August, 1929 when it showed "Nothing But the Truth" with Richard Dix and Helen Kane, its first "talkie."  For more about that event (and for information about an earlier movie theater that was the first to serve Pelham even before the Pelham Picture House), see:  Early Films in Pelham at "Happy Land," Then Talkies at Pelham Picture House, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 10, Mar. 5, 2004, p. 12, col. 3.

When the Pelham Picture House faced possible demolition in 2001, it was acquired by Pelham Picture House Restoration, a not-for-profit whose goal is to restore the theater and expand its uses.  After the theater was acquired in 2005, it became The Picture House Regional Film Center and, over time, began to operate as a second-run theater for independent films while also showcasing classic and family films.  The Picture House Regional Film Center since has embraced the mission of providing Westchester residents not only with the opportunity to see such films, but also the opportunity to learn about the filmmaking process.  Additionally, it offers educational courses on such subjects as filmmaking, editing, animation, acting, directing, and screenwriting.

The Picture House in 2004, Shortly Before Restoration Began.

The role of the Picture House has, in effect, come full circle.  Few realize that in its first few years, the Picture House played a role in the education of Westchester residents in addition to its role as a cultural, social and entertainment center.  Indeed, the Picture House received attention less than two years after it opened when it began to show what were considered ground-breaking and awe-inspiring films by a local scientist who used time-lapse techniques and a cutting-edge "microscope camera" to reveal the growth of cells, the growth of chicken embryos inside their eggs, and the like.  That scientist used the Picture House to show his films to other scientists interested in his techniques.

The local scientist was Dr. Charles F. Herm who lived in the Village of North Pelham.  He developed what became known as the Herm Microscope that permitted the creation of time-lapse films that depicted microscopic growth in cell colonies and the like.  Dr. Herm used thd Picture House on occasion to screen his films for other scientists interested in his techniques.  Dr. Herm served for a time as the curator of physiology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. See, generally, First Movies of Nature's Actual Process in Creation of Life, Springfield Missouri Republican, Oct. 21, 1923, p. 23, cols. 1-6.  Herm had been working on his technology since at least 1919.  See Biological Pictures, N.Y. Times, Nov. 23, 1919. 

Below are transcriptions of two articles that appeared in The Pelham Sun describing the films that were shown at the Picture House by local scientist, Dr. C.F. Herm.  The second article has been particularly difficult to transcribe because the very top of the headline and much of the left edge of the article are missing and the quality of the image being transcribed is exceedingly poor.  Every effort has been made to determine what can be determined, however.

"Great Progress of Microscope Camera
-----
Many Close Studies of Nature Revealed in Films Shown to Private Audience Saturday
-----

A small but interested group of scientists and newspaper men attended a private showing of wonders revealed by the Herms' microscopc [sic] camera at Pelham Picture House on Satuorday [sic] afternoon.  Plant life and growth which first taken a single picture every ten minutes and then speeded up to a movie film showed the many phases of development and will be of great aid to botanists.

A film story entitled 'The Life of Robin Hood' showed the nest of a pair of robins with three eggs, from one of which Mr. Robin was industriously picking its way out out [sic] of the shell.  Its growth to a fledgling and final development to maturity was interesting.

A study of the blood circulation, and a closeup of the heart action and its method of blood pumping was weird and uncanny, but its aid to medical research is aparent [sic].

'Life on the Seashore' showed many forms of life invisible to the naked eye but in which a single drop of sea water when enlarged one million times by the microscopic camera became an arena of battle of an army of animalculae which showed amazing rapacity and agility.  

Dr. Herms the North Pelham scientist has been offered a lecture tour of the United States in whcih [sic] to present his microscopic camera revelations, but is understood to be somewhat reluctant to relinquish the scientific studies which he is pursuing."

Source:  Great Progress of Microscope Camera, The Pelham Sun, Nov. 2, 1923, p. 13, col. 2.

"[Illegible] Movies Produced by Dr. C.F. Herm
-----
Pelham Man Gives Exhibition to Group of Scientists at Pelham Picture House Last Saturday--Incubation of Fish Eggs Shown in All Stages--Window in Egg Shell Enables Taking of Picture of Chick Until First Heart Beat Is Shown.
-----

[An inspiring] exhibition of movie films [made] in Pelham at the studio of Dr. Charles F. Herm was given last Saturday afternoon before a group of noted scientists at the Pelham Picture House.  The exhibition was private being principally a demonstration of the marvelous [view] which can be afforded to science now that the new microscopic movie camera which Dr. Herm has perfected at his [?]th Street studios.  Dr. Herm was formerly connected with the American Museum of Natural History but of late [years] has devoted his time to the development of the microscopial movies which have created amazement wherever shown.  The New York Herald contained an interesting account of the exhibition, [a] remarkable film portraying the changes in the contents of an egg during the period of incubation from the start to the first heart beat of the live chicken.  This is accomplished with the use of a time clock which causes the camera to flash a strong light through a glass window inserted in the side of the egg.  The glass window is three quarters of an inch square, sealed in place by paraffin.  A picture is taken every time the light flashes and the [illegible] process of incubation is going on for thirty-three hours, a picture being taken every ten minutes

Taking microscopic pictures automatically, every ten seconds, every two minutes, or at any interval desired, this machine can also record the details of clinical reaction, the action of white corpuscles and the growth of new tissue in the healing of wounds, the building up of fine crystals from solutions, or the gradual changes inside the egg of a fish from the original clear fluid to the fully formed baby fish.  

Operated in an observation night and day for two and even three weeks, this camera has made records of scores of biological and chemical processes hitherto incompletely observed.  

To Film Cancer Action

One of the experiments soon to be tried is that of placing a group of healthy cells and a group of cancer cells together in a solution to show the attack by the malignant bodies.  The camera is a development from an earlier type used by Dr. Herm to assist Dr. Alexis Garrel in studying the protecting and healing action of white corpuscles in wounded tissue.  It is planned to use the instrument for the diagnosis of many obscure plant diseases.

One of the most interesting of these films was a microscopial study of the life cycle of the oyster.  This film is expected to have a practical bearing on the problem of rearing oysters artificially and using their eggs for seed to stock beds from which the oysters have disappeared.  The film was made under the direction of Dr. Wells, who has worked out a system of making oysters lay billions of eggs for the State as a means of restoring the breed in part of the Long Island coast and other places where spells of bad weather, parasites or other enemies have temporarily wiped out the shellfish.

Baby Oyster's Life Perilous

The oyster lays eggs by the thousands and scatters them in an unfertilized condition in the water.  The male oyster [sic - omitted] tion by the microscope.  The chance meeting of the two varieties of cells fertilizes the eggs and starts the young oyster on its career which is ended ninety-nine times out of a hundred by predatory minnows.  Those which escape, however, are still numerous enough to keep the oyster industry flourishing.

Dr. Wells improved on nature by opening the female oyster during the egg season and scooping out the eggs by the million and raising the eggs in water which has been intensively fertilized by the male.  The film showed the process from the beginning.  The floating sperm met the floating egg, attached itself to the egg membrane and finally pierced through to the interior and awakened the vital processes.  

Celia or whiplike processes soon appeared with which the new hatched oyster rowed itself through the water with great speed.  Just how the minute oyster forward propelled itself was not known before.  [Illegible]

Taking the pictures through the microscope at high speed and then showing them at low speed, however, made the rowing motion discernible.  After acquiring the whips which enabled it to charge in all directions for food the oyster gradually acquired one shell, then another, and its after life was uneventful.

Another film taken over a period of weeks by the patient camera was the biological history of an infusion of hay and water.  Bacteria first developed in such quantities as to cloud the water.  The water cleared, as the protozoa, the smallest animals, multiplied and ate up the excess bacteria.  Then appeared the rotifers, a little more highly organized, which live on protozoa.  But the rotifers fattened themselves on the protozoa only to become themselves the prey of various water worms.  Hundreds of amazing feats of gluttony were exhibited with one drop of water for an arena. . . . "

Source:  Movies Produced by Dr. C. F. Herm, The Pelham Sun, Sep. 21, 1923, p. 10, col. 1.  

In addition to the above, below I have included two examples of early advertisements that appeared in the local newspaper, The Pelham Sun, in the first months after the Pelham Picture House first opened in late 1921.  Each is followed by a citation to its source.

Pelham Picture House [Advertisement], The Pelham Sun, Dec. 29, 1922, p. 6, col. 3. 

Pelham Picture House [Advertisement], The Pelham Sun, Nov. 30, 1923, p. 3, col. 2. 

I have written extensively about The Pelham Picture House and its history over the years.  For a two examples, see:  

Wed., Nov. 9, 2005:  The Historic Pelham Picture House at 175 Wolfs Lane in Pelham, New York.  

Wed., Nov. 16, 2005:  New Theory Regarding Identity of the Architect of the Pelham Picture House Built in 1921.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

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