TODD-AO FEARLESS 65MM MAGAZINE
Fearless Camera Company, 8570 Santa Monica
Boulevard, Hollywood, California 1931-1932?
Black-finished 1,000-foot 65mm magazine used on the first
Todd-AO Cameras, originally
manufactured by the Fearless Camera
Company for their Fearless 65mm Super-Film Camera.
From The International Photographer,
June, 1930 Courtesy of The Online
Books Page
Ralph G. Fear was granted Patent No. 2,007,468 dated July
9, 1935 for the magazine's design. Many
of these later production black magazines, which have no Fearless maker's tags,
found new life when Fearless Cameras were being reconfigured for use in
Thomascolor about 1942, and again when these same Fearless Cameras were once
again being reconfigured in the early 1950's by Mitchell Camera Corporation for
Todd-AO.
These first (or prototype) Todd-AO cameras used Fearless-built
magazines, two of which are shown here with Todd-AO markings. During this period, these magazines are
believed to have been equipped with "feet" like a pot trivet,
allowing them to be placed on a flat surface for loading/unloading without the
pulleys touching the surface. This is presumed, since photographs found of Todd-AO
Camera magazines show them with "feet", whereas Thomascolor magazines
don't appear to have been equipped with them.
Seven of these first (or prototype) Todd-AO Cameras are
believed to have been constructed from a complete Thomascolor Camera and enough
components to construct six more cameras.
At least one is known to exist in a museum.
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office