De Vry sound control unit for portable motion picture projector: ANZAC Division, British War Relief Society Inc, USA

Dark grey rectangular steel control unit with two volume controls, two tone controls and one pickup control. Each controller is scaled from 1-10. There are four socket points for attachment of cabling, a power on light, a toggle switch, a fuse point and three connecters (two red and one black) for speaker cable. On each side of the control unit are eight slots to assist cooling. The rear panel is a perforated sheet of steel with the three pin power cord attached. There is also a small red manufacturers plate attached to the top left corner.

This sound control unit is a component of a projector unit made by De Vry; it is provided with two volume controls, two tone controls and a pickup control - probaby a microphone control. It was presented by the ANZAK Division, British War Relief Society Inc of the United States of America, New York and was used by the Mobile Cinema units (part of the Army Amenities Service) to screen movies, cartoons and shorts to troops in remote operational areas such as the Pacific during the Second World War as well as in Korea during the Korean War. They were sponsored by the Red Cross or the Australian Comforts Fund; with this example, the funding for the equipment was provided by the ANZAC Division of the British War Relief Society Inc, USA. Films were usually screened from a jeep or a specially fitted out truck.

The set up of the projector (a projector, a speaker box, the sound control unit and a feeder reel mounted on top of the projector box) is illustrated in AWM photograph 079290. The advantage of this unit is its portability; its quick set up and ease of operation.

A plaque on the projector reads: "Donated by the ANZAC Division of the British War Relief Society of the United States of America for use by the Australian and American Forces in the Land of the Diggers" When acquired from the National Film and Sound Archives, thirty two nitrate 35mm films were offered with this projector on which they were shown. The Memorial selected four films from this offer and the rest were offered back to the NFSA. The films date from 1940 to 1954 and the latest relate to the Occupation of Japan and the Korean War.