Oh, so you only have the blimps, got it. If you mean the badge 100 is on the outside of the blimp magazine cover, that would’ve been the camera number too, I am fairly certain. BNC 100 was sold 4/30/1952. I can’t quite make out the name, it’s J. Burgi or Durgi Contner or something similar. It’s written in cursive. BNC 68 was sold to Mark Armistad, a rental house and you are correct on the year. That’s great you have the matching movement to STD 27! I am glad Roy Wagner jumped in. I had emailed him about your posting as I knew he had some interest in an MGM blimp. He is a good guy! I got a phishing warning going onto this website. If you have any questions contact Ed and he has my email.

My Mitchell standard 27 has insides which are stamped 27 except for the motor door, matt box and directors finder. You have a nice Mitchell as well.

The blimp? - actually I have 2. On one of them only has a badge with number 100 on the magazine section. The other one is 68 and is dated 1948.

Very cool camera! Thanks for sharing pictures! Is there a movement inside? You are very lucky to acquire such an old Mitchell, and one that was used by a major studio! I am attaching a picture of my Mitchell Standard, sold to Paramount in 1931. I was lucky enough to learn that when Paramount used their cameras for sound filming, they put it in their own blimp and painted the serial number of the camera on the outside! Plus I have found some records as well. I have documented over 1k movies my camera worked on and found many pictures of the blimp on set.

I see a BNC or BNCR behind your Standard. May I ask what the serial number is? I have some records on about 60+ BNCs, 50 Standards, 25 NCs, and other cameras like vistaVision and Technicolor. Unfortunately I don’t have any info on your Standard. If you give me the number of your BNC, I’ll check that.

Good morning Roy. Thank you for a most knowledgeable answer. You clearly know what you are talking about. The interior of this blimp is something I did not photograph but I can go to where it's stored and I can send you photos. The best way to describe the interior is that it is in excellent condition. In fact when you look inside the first thing that comes to mind is pure luxury. The interior is very classy and it appears that John Arnold (thanks for name of maker) took a lot of time to craft a functional padded area. I was told that the Australian Production Company that acquired the blimp painted it in their own corporate colors. In my opinion they "prostituted" a piece of equipment that would look superb in the bare metal you described. We have never had a camera manufacturing industry in Australia like the USA, Germany or England and we have had to buy all our equipment from overseas. Quite often for reasons of budget Australian cinematographers would buy second hard gear. This is the case with this blimp. It was purchased with Mitchell standard number 27 inside. I have now restored Mitchell 27 to it's former glory (appearance only) and it takes pride of place in my collection. Mark has been trying to help me identify my blimp (please see his photos) and asked me to add a photo of Mitchell 27 so it is attached. Ed Johnson has also been assisting and Richard Bennett as well but we have been "scratching our heads' You have provided the exact information we have sought. It also appears to me that you should be the deserving home for this blimp. I am not a dealer and being a collector would be happy to trade the blimp if you have something that I could include in my collection. If you'd like to provide a phone number I would be happy to phone you over there in the USA.

This was always a silver blimp. It was built by John Arnold ASC, head of the MGM Camera Department. It was much lighter weight than any other blimp manufactured at the time. It was suppose to be aluminum. MGM didn’t own BNC’s for many years. They relied upon this blimp with Standard Mitchell until they wore out and began to be replaced with NC ‘s. I’ve been looking for one for a very long time. Please contact me if you wish to trade or sell. I’d love to see the interior. As I mentioned this is the only one I’ve seen. When Panavision took over MGM’s camera department they tossed the blimps - land fill. I can’t imagine how yours got to Australia and how it got painted that color.
Roy H. Wagner ASC

Do you have any pictures of your camera that you are willing to post here? Mark

Thanks for the great photos. I did not think of looking for photos on EBAY. I'll try to find more photos now that I know what I am looking for.

Wow, very cool about the microphone! It’s wonderful you are interested in preserving the history! I have a collection of cameras that I research to find out what they have filmed. I have gotten lucky and found records and photos of several of mine on many movies. I am going to try and attach a couple pictures of the blimp on a MGM set, which I found quickly on eBay. Also note that this website can go down at anytime. I am friends with Ed and we are in Facebook group. Although I don’t see the number which I am talking about so either they just put it on the right side (which is shaded in the first pic) or it’s something they did later on (the 2nd pic is from 1932).

Many thanks for your prompt and informative reply Mark. It's wonderful to know that it is an MGM blimp. It's also good to know that it was colored gold originally. I'll take another very careful look to see if I can find a number. If I do I'll post it in this forum. As you can see the paint has peeled from one part of the magazine revealing not only the previous paint but both coats of paint have gone in one small area next to it revealing the bare metal underneath. I had an experience once with removal of paint. It was a microphone I purchased in the USA and I was about to strip the paint off when I was told to first check and see if it was an oiled based paint or a water based final coat. Thank goodness for that advice. It was a a water based final coat and after months of slow removal I slowly revealed lightning strikes and the lettering KDKA. This was the first commercial radio station in the World. They had their own orchestra and Louis Armstrong visited the station often. Chances are he played his trumpet and/or sang into my microphone. I have attached a photo. In summary Mark - thanks again for your advice to remove the top coat from my blimp carefully. If it's oil based then I have a problem but I will then do some research to see if it's possible to check for lettering underneath using another method. They do it with oil painting so maybe a similar method could be used to reveal a number.