n Gideon Shamir's folders I found letters from 1934 from the Taunus Brothers, importers of trucks and buses, discussing the commissioning of cinema transparencies. Hence I concluded that the Shamir studio also produced cinema transparencies.

Raya Nevo of the Advertisers' Association (now The Marketing Association) referred me to Assaf Reznik, former owner of Shefet Yafe Naeh. He told me that he “transferred” the company to its workers and gave me the name of their senior employee. She told me that they had not kept the slides when they closed down the company.

Raya Nevo referred me to other franchisees of cinema advertising: I spoke with Shimon Cohen, owner of Bar Cohen Advertising and he said that he left the field twenty years ago and did not keep any transparencies. In an evening commemorating the Israeli film industry, Dr. Jacob Gross, an expert in its history presented a number of commercials from the late 20s and 30s. I approached him and he suggested that I call a collector of slides, Attorney Eliezer Rivlin in Jerusalem (now deceased), brother of the then speaker of the Knesset and a collector of transparencies. Rivlin asked me to send him a list of advertisers who worked with Shamir Brothers. A few months later he informed me that his collection consisted only of transparencies from Jerusalem based advertisers.

I checked the archives of the Department of Film at the University of Tel Aviv - nothing. The Tel Aviv Cinematheque - nothing. The Jerusalem Cinematheque - nothing. Even at the "Palestina" shop in the Jaffa flea market – there was nothing.

Raudor Vardimon, son of Vardimon the owner of the Allenby Cinema, told me that cinema owners did not hold on to transparencies but returned them to Shefet Yafe Naeh each week.

I checked with Forum Films where the CEO's secretary informed me that the owner did not know where transparencies were being held.

On 20 Sept. 2008 I received from Micha Riss of New York a catalogue of the Commercial Artists Association of Eretz Israel from 1936. Shamir Brothers were represented by four works:

Two posters [the term used in the catalogue was advertisements], a newspaper ad and a cinema transparency – [referred to as a Diapositiv].

The transparency was designed for The Palestine Automobiles Company Ltd. showing a Ford car. All the works in the catalogue were in black and white as was the Shamir transparency

Transparencies at that time were printed on photo film material in b/w and were then colour-painted by hand. My mother worked at night, after a day of work in the studio, colouring in these Diapozitivs, hence my familiarity with the process.

Yoram Shamir