Title: | Total Tractor Concept |
Date: | 1968 |
Material: | Cellulose acetate film, plastic shell, metal hardware |
Dimensions: | Film 16 mm, tape ¼ in., cartridge 6½ × 4 × 1⅝ in. (16.5 × 10.2 × 4.1 cm) |
Company: | La Belle Industries, Inc. |
Location: | Oconomowoc, Wisconson, United States |
A film strip on a 16 mm film loop synchronized with a built in audio cartridge. The strip is a series of still frames and functions like a slide show. The audio tape is simply a Lear Jet Stereo 8 cartridge glued to the bottom of the film container. Auto Mate 8 cartridges were also used (Teoli 2024). Only two tracks are used: one contains the audio and the other the tone that advances the film to the next frame. The film container holds the loose loop of film and a mirror at a 45° angle, which reflects the frame into the device optics.
The projector here is the La Belle Duo 16, which shows the images on a self-contained screen. Other models, like the Tutor 16, projected onto a wall. There is a receptacle to plug in a wired remote control (missing in this example). La Belle projectors were portable and were commonly used by salesmen on the road or in stores at point-of-sale. In this example, both the cartridge and the projector have been branded by Agri-Max Marketing Ltd.
La Belle Industries sold audio/visual equipment. One of their brochures describes the company as "Original manufacturers of synchronized slide/sound equipment for training, selling, promotion, public relations, and production guidance" (Weis 2014). The synchronization of film and audio seems to have been their specialty.
La Belle Duo Tutor 16 - Commpak Cartridge Player & Projector.Aug. 7, 2016. YouTube video, 19:43.
La Belle Duo 16 - Commpak Cartridge Player & Projector.Jul 19, 2016. YouTube video, 11:38.
La Belle Commpak 16mm Film Cartridge with Auto 8 Mate Magnetic Sound.Small Gauge Film Archive. Accessed Nov 15, 2024.
La Belle Industries was a great place to work….Oconomowoc Natives. Facebook. July 29, 2024.