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Steve

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"Old Projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

Ran a special show for school safety patrols one year. Brought my dog to the booth with me. He realy wasn't a dog yet, still a puppy and he wasn't housbroken.

I was inspecting the print when the manager (relief manager and drinking buddy) comes into the booth and informs me that I should go get my dog in the upper lobby, behind the cry room... and bring some paper towels with me.

I had entered by the close booth door, and closed it but the far booth door was open to the lobby. And, yes he did... right in the middle of the upper lobby.

Good news, It was just the manager and me.

Bad news, He brought it up for years,, second or third beer and .. did you guys hear about the dog.....

The MacAuther where Star Trek (I think) premered is now a CVS Drug store...

It was probably Crocodile Dundee - I got that silly film 5 times that summer - 5 different weeks. They kept sending it back to me. Chanses are that was my first.

Silly?

Strewth, mate! Just waddyya think you're goin' on about. THAT, my friend, is an Aus-tra-lian CLASSIC!

Any more talk like THAT an' I'll get Bruce and me mates to take ya' out the back an' try and talk some sense inta ya!

Pickle me grandmother!

When we opened the tt17 there were so many other problems that the 'trainers' were to busy to help anybody. Luckily they hired about a DOZEN projectionists at opening. Every projector was literally double-teamed and was baby sat 100% of the time.
(Eventually, all the Goof-up projectionists washed out in the first month and we were left with about 6 good guys.

Wile E. Coyote is the patron saint of all techs. You can brain it all out perfectly, but stuff can still go wrong...

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The lamps were Strong Futura IIs

My first feature in a commercial theatre was THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX. Century's, Ashcraft monsters, 4 track mag. It was a Fox film with the Fox CinemaScope logo. Warner cartoon and trailers first. The old guy showed me how to thread and the rest of the stuff in the booth and left after I ran my first two reels. Then after the first show, I got a little cocky.

I started the cartoon and turned up the sound abit to give it a little drama. Then when the feature started, and the fox logo music played, I grabbed the fader and turned it way up. Nothing more exciting than hearing that music with the surrounds kicking in at the CinemaScope frame and the curtains opening up simultaniously. The NEXT time around, I did the same thing, but when I turned up the volume, I took my hand away and saw the fader knob go back down to the original setting. This really puzzled me, so I turned it right back up again, only to see it return to its original setting. How freaky is that?! So, I grabbed the dial and HELD it at the higher position....and felt it forcing itself back down. I just stared at it in disbelief. When the old guy came back at the end of the day to show me how to close, I was very hesitant to tell him about the fader dial that had a life of its own. Finally I blurted it out asking him how the control could reset itself and especially how it could fight me when I tired to turn it back up. He asked me if I was on some kind of drugs....damn hippies, he said. I thought better if I just dropped the subject when he began laughing himself silly. I asked what was the joke. He explained that the volume fader was outfitted with a small selsen motor that is in turn connected to its selsen counterpart down in the theatre. The manager with a key could adjust the level from the theatre floor. Either control mimiced the other. If he turned his control down, the booth's followed. If I resisted, I would be able to feel his movements.

He told me he wanted to keep a straight face and not tell me about the interlock controls, but he couldn't do it. He asked why I wanted to turn up volume and I said, just at the beginning when the curtian opens and the Fox music plays. He said, "kid, you have the showmanship spark....don't pay any attention to the manager, and don't worry, in most booths they don't have an idiot box that can overriding the booth."

Little did I know that the days of the big, classy, first-run movie houses was about to come grinding to an end, and there would be little need for showmanship in the dank, dark miniscule boxes that would come to pass for cinemas.

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Frank Angel,
Brooklyn Center Cinema

To all the new projectionists out there, remember... always imagine you are in the theater watching your shows. If you think there may need to be focus adjusted bcause it has drifted a little and you feel for a moment, ah it'll be alright, think for a moment that just maybe it's not and you're in the theater watching it. Wouldn't you like to have it in focus? It's up to you.

On Wednesdy I ran MAN ON THE MOON for the
staff the focus was a little soft the manager
who considers himself a professional did not
move I went up and fined it up when I got back everybody 5 to be exact thanked me now
you don`t get that every day.