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RAY
9.5MM FILM CATALOGUE

Nice looking cardboard box, but no film inside !!

Rather like the little 15 foot silent 9.5mm films, supplied unspooled for the "Bingoscope" or "Bing British"; there also seems to have been another short series of just 10 foot silent 9.5mm black and white unspooled short films destined for sale with the 9.5mm "Ray" toy cine projectors. The "Ray" 9.5mm tin-plate simple 9.5mm cine projectors were manufactured by a maker of simple optical type toys - Construments Ltd, 18 Grays Inn Road, London, UK, and distributed by Leon Rees & Co. 12 New Union Street, London EC2.

I guess these little 10 foot 9.5mm film clips were not titled and seem to be short extracts from Pathéscope 9.5mm releases. So it figures they must have beeen produced by Pathéscope Ltd. for Construments Ltd. Or were they? Currently non of these little shorts have appeared, so we must wait for more information until some turn up. .

Luckily, thanks to a lucky find by 9.5mm film historian Maurice Trace in 2015, we now have an actual box but infuriatingly - no film yet!

Although it is pretty obvious that Pathéscope printed the original film prints, but who actually produced these short 10 foot extracts for use with "Ray" toy 9.5mm projectors, the titles were never mentioned in Pathéscope sales literature or the Pathéscope Monthly magazine. No doubt they were destined just for toy shops.

My own theory about these little rolls of 9.5mm printed films, is that Construments just bought a full '1 reel' 300 foot / 100 metre release like "Prowlers of the Prairie", then just cut all the 15 foot / 5 metre extracts in order from the print. So a 300 foot / 100 metre 9.5mm print would yield about 20 'extracts'. So Pathéscope themselves were not involved. As this titlw was only released in the early 1930s, it is likely the Ray films may be of a similar date, unless the company used secondhand prints to cut up!

Ray 9.5mm 15 foot / 5 metre printed film

Thanks to 9.5mm film historian Maurice Trace, a 15 foot / 5 metre 'Ray' printed film has also turned up - amazing what is still lurking out there to find!

I have listed educated guesses as to each film's origin, but I would be pleased to have any additions/comments/corrections.

I would love to hear of any other titles in this series, and purchase titles not in my collection.
Grahame Newnham:- presto @ pathefilm.uk (remove spaces for correct e-mail address)

                         9.5mm 10foot / 3 metre PATHÉSCOPE SHORTS FOR RAY ETC.
                         -----------------------------------------------------

   
          CHRISTUS                  Drama             - CHRISTUS              IT  08/04/1916

          LAST CRUSADE (THE)        Drama             - THE LAST CRUSADE      GB  ??/??/1922

          LOVE GAME (THE)           Comedy            - MADELS VON HEUTE      GE  05/11/1925

          WONDERFUL LAMP (THE)      Comedy            - ALIAS ALADDIN         US  17/10/1920 

 

                     
                         9.5mm 15foot / 5 metre PATHÉSCOPE SHORTS FOR RAY ETC.
                         ----------------------------------------------------

   
         PROWLERS OF THE PRAIRIE   Western           - LAND OF THE LAWLESS   US  ??/??/1927

(An * asterix means a copy is in gln 9.5mm collection - if only!)

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Created 26May2015 .......... Last updated: 24 March 2020 .......... 95flmcatray.htm ............... ©MMXV G.L. Newnham
27Apr2017 - tidied, email address updated / 22Dec2019 - "Prowlers Of The Prairie" added - thanks to Maurice Trace