Word: celluloid
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...pants, he had risen to No. 1 U. S. "soap-slinger," become partner of the soap firm of John D. Larkin in Buffalo, N. Y. His supersalesmanship made a household word of Larkin's Creme Oatmeal Soap. He invented the Club Plan, pioneered the premium method of selling (celluloid collar buttons, buttonhooks, "solid silver" spoons, the Chautauqua Lamp). But at 36 (in 1892) he suddenly sold out for $75,000, enrolled at Harvard as a special student in literature and history. Shortly thereafter he had several bad novels to his credit and had launched his amazing literary career...
...novellette effects, "Katia" manages to stir up cavalier emotions in an audience hardened by Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. Despite its shallow "profundity" qui est tres francais, the dialogue sounds surprisingly convincing in the mouths of Alexander and his entourage, who achieved movie sentimentality even before the invention of celluloid. By no means historically faithful, "Katia" catches the spirit of the era it depicts--perhaps because Alexandrine Russia was still so desperately French...
...Nick Carter, Master Detective," hot out of the pulps, supplies some streamlined blood-and-thunder to supplement the drawing-room, farce of "Remember?" There is also an edition of "Information Please," adapted from the air waves. Curiously enough, it isn't as good on celluloid. Canada Dry's experts might better have been cast in some Boris Karloff picture to scare the kiddies...
...they are easier to play. Through some mysterious process inherent in aging, the violin becomes mechanically more responsive-it begins to "speak" a fraction of a second sooner when force is applied to the strings. Dr. Saunders experimented with a motor-operated machine which bowed the violins by elastic celluloid disks in such a way that the force required to produce a singing tone could be measured. In the old violins the force required was slightly less...