-------- Original Message --------
Dear Editors and List,
I seem to remember a substance called "blooping ink", which was used to
edit the optical sound track of movies.
It was a bit like the old typists' correction fluid. One day the
projectionist at a Rhodesian cinema (I had the entree to his booth,
being a film critic at the time) showed me how he used it to follow the
orders issued by the Rhodesian Board of Censors. He was following
instructions on a censorshop certificate to "bloop out" every instance
of the word "Christ" on the soundtrack of a new release:"The Odd
Couple" starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
He gave me a wink, then used some thinner on the felt-tipped blooping
ink applicator before he dealt with the offending word in Matthau's
line: "For Christ's sake!" He worked with great precision, removing
every sound except the "For" and the latter half of the "sake". The
thinned-out blooping ink still allowed some of the light from the
exciter lamp to traverse the sound track, in the form of a schwa-like
vowel. And that's when the Rhodesian Board of Censors was heard to be
pushing the Permissive Society with a vengeance. The effect was that
Matthau looked straight into camera and said "Faaaaahrk!"
It was the first time the audiences of that more innocent age had ever
heard the F-word uttered out loud by a screen actor.
There's probably a moral in this tale somewhere.
Regards,
Tom (Rymour)
(As-yet-unsuccessful Zemblan cartographer and quondam Man of Fashion)
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