Posted by Richard Crowley on 12/06/06 00:41

"David McCall" wrote ...
> I wonder where the name "Barney" came from.
> Aparently, in the early days the cameras were very noisey.
> They used to put the camera in a little sound proofed room
> when shooting sync sound. Might that be enough like putting
> the camera "in the barn" to refer to the barn as a barney?

"Back when "talkies" were first being made they had a serious
problem with the cameras being too noisy. At that time a feature
movie was being made of "Barney Google" and his horse "Spark
Plug". One of the camera operators suggested that placing Spark
Plug's blanket over the camera might help, and it did! The blankets
that were used after that were called "Barneys."

http://www.customupholsteryproducts.com/html/sound_barneys.html
At least it is amusing, dunno how accurate?

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