Headpin Hints

This RKO Sportscope short begins with a chorus line of kids throwing their balls beautifully down their lanes at the Dreamland Bowling Alleys in exotic New Jersey. Then a couple of adult, professional bowlers show up to show them how to do it properly. We are also treated to such secrets of the sport as the fact that the ball returns to the bowler and the "Pindicator", which shows the pins left standing if somehow you can't see them at the same distance as the Pindicator.

Although the Sportscope series was a legitimate if eccentric series, offered for those theaters which still legitimately claimed "A feature movie plus selected short subjects", this strikes me as an industrial film: something commissioned by a firm to show off its goods and services, sometimes shown in a movie theater as advertising. If you made the advertising subtle and entertaining, the theaters might even pay you to rent the picture! Here, it's AMF, a leading name in bowling equipment. You might have to look for it specifically, but their triangular logo is shown several times, and the narrator mentions them by name once.

Headpin Hints (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent entry in RKO's Sportscope series has professional bowlers Lee Jouglard and Sylvia Wene showing some kids the proper way to bowl. After about six-minutes worth of rules the duo decides to show us some of their most difficult spare shots, which of course they make look easy. These Sportscope shorts are always hit and miss and more often than not they feature interesting stories or people but the end result is just a bore. That's not the case here because the short is mildly entertaining but at the same time it had me scratching my head in regards to who it was meant for. A quick look at Wikipedia says that standard bowling rules went into place on September 9, 1895 so I'm curious why sixty-years later a film would be made showing off these rules. I'm going to guess that by 1955 the majority of Americans would know how to bowl so I'm really not sure why this thing was made. With that said, there are a few good trick shots shown but it's doubtful anyone is really going to walk away thinking they're a better bowler for having seen this thing. An interesting time-killer but not much else.

This is an RKO-Pathe Sportscope short. In New Jersey, it is kids day at Dreamland Bowl Arena. Professional bowlers Lee Jouglard and Sylvia Wene give tips to the young bowlers. They show off their skills at knocking down spares and a really long roll.

This is Bowling 101 for beginners. The two pros do some fun trick shots while they teach the basics to the kids. The girls wear poodle skirts and the boys dress like nerds. It is all very 50's and that is more compelling than the bowling. It is a slice of life at a time and place. It is white America doing recreation in their new nuclear family life.

At Dreamland Bowling Lanes in Newark, N.J., professional bowlers demonstrate their skill in knocking down those pins with a certain finesse and strategy that provides a strike.

Kids are shown being taught the right stance and finger technique to assure that the bowling ball goes where it should when they let go of it and fling it down the lane.

Obviously, only of interest to those sports fans who dig bowling, but interesting from the standpoint of technique for the casual observer.

This is from a series of "Sportscope" films made by RKO during the '50s.