(01-29-2020, 05:59 PM)hmelton Wrote: FIRST
Was a story about a movie house filiming a series of "Flash Gordon" style shows in which two famous actors were playing rival parts. One was the villian and the other was the good guy and both were very competitive. One of the actors that was slightly less well billed convinced the prop department to give him a ray gun that had an actual "flash" even before post editing. This led to a "arms race" between the two for the bigger "FLASH" until finally one actor and the prop department went all out and built a "real" looking disintagrating ray gun that was wheeled around in a modified little red wagon and had a hidden power cord going to one of the studio's plugs usually used for 1000 watt spot lights.
I'm quite sure this one is Arthur Clarke's "Armaments Race" , from "Tales from the White Hart"