SHORT TAKES : Relatively, It’s a Happy Ending

The theory of relativity may be easier to understand than the saga involving the return today of rare films depicting physicist Albert Einstein that fell off the back of a delivery truck last week.

Nearly 4,000 feet of film depicting the scientist at various functions in the 1930s was picked up from the University of South Carolina on Feb. 27 by Federal Express for shipment to a New Jersey firm that was to transfer the footage to videotape.

But the films never made it out of Columbia. It seems the doors on a Federal Express truck flew open, tossing the films and several other packages onto the pavement. By the time the driver realized what happened and went back with other Federal Express personnel to search the area, the parcels were nowhere to be found.

The university, which kept the films in its collection, put out an urgent plea for it’s return.

The good news came today when Columbia bail bondsman Sam Rivers brought the missing parcels to the university’s Instructional Services Center. It appears Rivers was given the items by an unidentified man who spotted them and picked them up shortly after they fell off the truck.

Smith said the films, which have historical value, will be sent on to the New Jersey firm for transfer to videotape. Federal Express will get another chance to get them there.