Before the appearance of videotape in the 1970s, watching a movie at home involved running real film through a projector, on to a real movie screen. Just like in a movie theatre, although on a much smaller scale.
Movies intended for showing in halls and other large venues usually came on 16mm gauge film, while home movies were usually on 8mm. Standard or Regular 8mm; and Super 8, which had a larger image.
The films could be black and white or colour, and silent or sound. Most feature films were cut-down considerably to fit on to just one or two reels of film. These condensed versions were called digests.
Konga was available on Super 8 from Ken Films, of Fort Lee, New Jersey. The movie came on a single reel of film, packed in a square cardboard box, with a lift-off lid.
The box top illustration is taken from the movie poster, but for some reason Konga is now facing to the right, rather than to the left. London has also been reduced to just a couple of famous landmarks.
The catalogue description reads: 276 Konga - Science Fiction thriller about a small monkey which grows into a huge beast threatening the people of London. An exciting film. (B).
The (B) code stood for a black and white film, on a 200 foot reel, with a running time of approximately 11 minutes. At the time this catalogue came out, the regular price was $7.95, or $5.95 with coupon.
It seems there was also a colour sound version available, but not mentioned in this catalogue. Colour sound films on a 200 foot reel were $15.95, or $11.95 with coupon.
There is no date on the catalogue, but my guess would be early or mid-1970s. These were the prices for an 11 minute film - so they were really expensive for the day. No wonder videotape took over the world.
Photographs from Worthpoint
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Postscript
I just found these interesting little items on You Tube. A Super 8 digest version of Konga, in colour with sound, dubbed in to German. The title is Konga - Schlimmer als King Kong, which seems to be Konga - Worse than King Kong.
The running time is only around seven and a half minutes, so at first I was not sure if it was exactly the same as the Ken Films version. But it does give a good idea of how a one and a half hour movie was cut down for home viewing on 8mm and Super 8.
Then I found a ten minute version in black and white. This one is silent, but with sub-titles on the screen. It seems to be the same as the above version, despite the difference in running times.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
I had SO many 8mm Ken Films back in the day! Even visited the plant - a crummy brick factory in Fort Lee (which was closed the day I went). About $10 for the 200 foot black and white films (rarely saw a color reel in retail stores). Ken Films released several of the Toho Kaiju movies, I had them all! SFZ
ReplyDeleteYou were a real film fan Zigg having a collection like that. And you visited Ken! Did you ever cover this period in one of your written stories?
DeleteVery familiar with Ken films.I still have Destroy all Monsters in Black and White silent.
ReplyDeleteOh Wow! Send us a snap of the box art Brian please!
Delete"Fort Lee New Jersey," as Rosanne Rosannadanna loved to give a shout out to, was about five miles from where I lived at the time. But yeah, their stuff was pricey to me.
ReplyDeleteDid film stock go down in price eventually Baron?
DeleteYou mean movies like Ken's? Not that I recall, Woodsy. When VHS movies came along they were pricey, too. We made a lot of tapes on our own, from broadcasts on TV. Of course, if you had two VCRs you could copy tapes, but I wouldn't know anything about that!
Delete