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The first time I built trailers, I got 2 out of frame. Thats what I get for not pre-screening.

We used to leave John in the booth running the show and would go next door for a beer. It was a glorious time not to be repeated.

The next year, Landmark closed the Vogue, fired John and put Xenon lamps in the rest of the theatres. They cut back the unions hours and trained the managers how to run the projectors. The Union wouldn't train any of us so our city manager did. He told me that it would take two weeks to train me and turn me loose in the booth. He gave me a couple of hours of instructions that first day and told me he would meet me on my next shift. That was the full extent of my training in the booth. He never showed up for my next shift.

My next job was for a 10-plex for UA. I worked with the techs for two weeks before the theatre opened. That was my best education. It helps to see how the booth is put together.

My first movie as a theatre owner was something called "Rivals," it was a four-wall rent-out. Right after that was "Every Which Way But Loose" followed by "Animal House." My partner and I thought we were going to be rich after that 3 weeks!

My mentor was a guy named Carl, who fancied himself a "cool cat" and always dressed in black from head to foot. His day job was as an auto mechanic at a Chrysler dealership. He showed me how to clean, lube, and thread the Century C projectors, and the care and feeding of the Ashcraft Super Core Lites. First changeovers by myself were quite the thrill. First night was a double feature of "Alfie" and "Georgy Girl" in May 1967.

The manager of the drive-in gave us the freedom and responsibility to run the projection as we wanted, as long as the picture and sound quality were good. I built an AM transmitter for radio sound (first in NY), and we installed magnetic sound and played three films in stereo (left channel over the car radio, right channel over the pole speakers). Funniest incident was when we advertised "Funny Girl" in stereo, and the print arrived with mono optical sound the day of the first show. We quickly hooked up a "pan pot", and one of us sat in front of the booth each night with stereo headphones, panning the sound to match the action on the screen (The the skating routine where Fanny Brice skates back-and-forth kept us busy with the pot). Our audience comment cards came back saying "it was the best stereo we ever heard".

Carl and I used to have "contests" to change the intermittent and retime the shutter, or some other type of "emergency maintenance" between reels. We never missed the next changeover.

Biggest negative to working a drive-in: RATS! We had to patrol the lot, and had to be careful not to step on the rats that came to feed on the food thrown from cars. Only real scare was when a rat got cornered in the booth one night. I managed to show it out with a broom.

Worked at the Grandview and a local indoor house until I joined Kodak in June 1970. I filled in vacations for the IATSE local, and their business agent Ken Kavanaugh is the guy who said I should apply to Kodak for a job. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received, as I've been "in show business" ever since.

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John Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Professional Motion Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243

Night two... my instructor is a NO SHOW. The manager is beside himself and I'm told to start the show, help is on the way! Down on the stage is someone givind the audience a motavational talk. H finishes his talk, raises his left hand to the screen and says NOW I PRESENT BLAH BLAH BLAH. I open the big red curtain right on que and hit the screen... TAILS UP.. (but inframe) My instructor had not rewound! (remember tonight was going to be my film handeling lesson, I had never inspected a film, didn't know a head from a tail yet)
The above was at the Jefferson Theatre (now a Chili's Rest. Arlington Blvd & Annandale RD Falls Church VA, XLs with Peerless and the biggest anamorphic head I've ever seen, musta been 24" long)

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A couple of weeks into this situation, it was the manager's night off and an assistant manager was tired of doing everything, so grabbed me (an usher at the time who thought projectors were neat) and she said "You're smart. Come here."

She quietly took me to the booth (because policies stated that only assistant managers could touch the projectors) and showed me how to thread one of the machines. It was one of those confusing, rapid-fire teaching moments when she was saying "Go here. Do this. Over this roller. Under this roller. A loop as big as two of your fingers. Then press start."

Then she unthreaded it and told me to try. I did. She pointed out one mistake I had made and then that was it. She put me in charge of projecting for the rest of the evening. (Unfortunately, she didn't teach me how to thread the machine so that it was already properly framed at start up.) Also that night, I found a 35mm trailer in the garbage and I saw the splicing block sitting on the table. So I took out the trailer, cut it in a few places and taught myself how to splice it back together.

A few days later the real manager asked me to take some boxes upstairs and leave them in the booth. Without revealing how I had gained projectionist knowledge, I asked if I should thread up the machines as long as I was in there. She was surprised that I knew how, but she let me try. She liked my work, but she had to teach me how to thread the film so that the picture was properly framed. Within no time, I was the only projectionist in the place who wasn't also an assistant manager. I read an awful lot of operator manuals trying to improve my skills, but I had no other formal training.

Indeedy do da day!

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