The main difficulty then was the portability of equipment. Magic magnetic 1/4” tape hadn’t yet arrived. As a recorder I had to use a 1000ft 35mm newsreel film camera with a glow lamp up the back, focussed on to the main sprocket. The accompanying valve amplifier required a 6 volt car battery for the filament supply and 360 volts of B batteries were needed for the plate supply and glow lamp power. The amplifier and B batteries were contained in a heavy duty case approximately 7” x 18” x 30”. I can’t remember the total weight of the camera and sound gear except that it was bloody heavy. However in those youthful enthusiastic early days, weight didn’t seem to be a problem. What a difference a Nagra would have made but that was still 20 years into the future.

I bought my first Nagra 3 in January 1964, although I had used one on several occasions before that, rented from Edgar Vetter. who like Dudley Plummer had the imagination to see the Nagra’s potential. It cost £340 plus 13 guineas for an ATN power supply unit. A little later on I bought a BM microphone mixer unit and a DH speaker amplifier. I already had a pair of AKG D25 mics and two pairs of RCA BK6 lavalier mics that had been part of my Leevers-Rich outfit.

So now I was equipped with a recording machine that I could carry almost anywhere slung over my shoulder, able to record music (even bells) let alone good dialogue and all manner of natural sound effects.

Besides countless documentaries, short films, commercials and episodes of TV Series, 42 of the 54 feature pictures I recorded production sound for were recorded on Nagras (3, 4.2, 4S). During all those productions, using over 2000 5” spools of 1/4” tape, my Nagras never failed me.

I would like to say an enormously grateful public thank you to Stephan Kudelski for designing and manufacturing recording machines that for 28 years of my career enabled me to produce quality results without undue worry or hardship, and added greatly to my financial well being.

And why shouldn’t all producers whose movies were recorded on Nagras and all production mixers who used Nagras, along with facilities companies that rented out Nagras, also extend grateful thanks to Stephan Kudelski and the people he employed in his factory manufacturing the precision recording equipment produced by Kudelski SA in Lausanne Switzerland.

Footnote: Nagra became a name as well known as Kodak but unlike Kodak it was a proper word chosen by Stephan Kudelski from his native Polish language, meaning “It will record”. Another fact for Michael Caine to add to his collection of ‘not many people know that’.

BOB ALLEN

The Newsreel sound-on-film outfit

Side view of wall camera showing glow lamp

 A 1960s Nagra 3 outfit as rented out by location sound facilities. Can you list the gear?