[BC] Old Cannon Mic Connector

[PeterH5322@aol.com]

>The Hubbell Twist-Lock was the WE standard for pre-war and late 1940's 
>equipment. 
>Hardly surprising that you would find it around the film industry 
>considering WE's 
>share of that business in those days. I remember all the war movies I saw 
>as a 
>kid with the "Western Electric Sound" logo in the center of the bottom of the
>credits (Mostly in black and white. <g> )

RCA licensees ("RCA Sound System"/"RCA Sound Recording"/"RCA Photophone", 
et. al.) included ...

Walt Disney (alive and well)

Warners (alive and well)

Republic (bankrupt/abandoned)

RKO (closed/abandoned ... was formerly partly RCA owned, which is why 
they call it "A Radio Picture" on the logo)

Screen Gems (TV arm of Columbia, now merged with Columbia as Sony)

Twentieth Century-Fox Television (TV arm of Fox, now merged with Fox)

Revue Productions (TV arm of Universal, now merged with Universal)


Western Electric licensees ("Western Electric Sound System"/"Western 
Electric Recording System"/"Western Electric Recording", "Westrex", 
"Litton Westrex", et. al.) included ...

Twentieth Century-Fox (alive and well)

MGM (now merged with United Artists, which did not have its own 
production facilities)

Paramount (alive and well)

Columbia (theatrical, now Sony)

Ryder Sound Services (probably merged with someone)

Technicolor Corporation (alive and well)

Universal (alive and well)


AT&T abandoned the Western Electric trademark. It had previously sold its 
Westrex Corporation subsidiary to Litton, and the Western Electric logo 
was changed first to Westrex and later to Litton Westrex.

After Litton closed Westrex, it sold the Westrex name to an investor 
group which makes former Western Electric vacuum tubes.


But ...

All Dolby Stereo sound tracks are shot on a Western Electric RA-1231 
stereo variable area sound recorder, which Litton Westrex commissioned 
Nuoptix to resurrect from a combination of Western Electric's circa 1938 
stereo variable-area light valve and Western Electric's circa 1947 
optical sound recorder, after the success of "Star Wars" and its 
RCA-based prototype stereo sound recorder, which prototype proved to be 
technically infeasible on account of difficulty of manufacture (only 
three were made).

There now exist at least one-hundred RA-1231s, and even Walt Disney has a 
pair of these, as does Warners.

The RA-1231 is even in "new production" today, almost SIXTY years after 
it was first released to its (Western Electric's) licensees.

An RA-1231-shot analog stereo sound track is the backup track for every 
digital sound system save DTS, but the DTS "time code" itself is optical, 
and it is indeed shot on an RA-1231.


Oh, since the Westrex name was sold by Litton, Nuoptix cannot use that 
name for its (and Western Electric/Westrex's former) RA-1231 product.

So, it took the Photophone trademark instead, which RCA had abandoned 
after its takeover by General Electric.