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Can you imagine the box office selling tickets to tour the booth? Selling tickets implies a right to go into the booth, and no longer becomes something where the operator can say "no" if he feels it is not a good idea with those particular customers or at a good time.

Let's go into the land of make-believe: A busy Friday night and a family of 8 comes by the theater with kids under 5 years old, complete with popcorn butter who simply MUST TOUCH EVERYTHING tours your booth? Of course, the parents will be the type who let their kids run around screaming at the top of their lungs doing whatever they want to, tripping over the film on platters, sticking their fingers into the turning reels on changeover systems, flashing their hands in front of the lenses (of course touching them as well), turning random knobs, etc.

EGAD! I can see it now, and all too vividly because I gave a similar "tour" to a bunch of cub scouts a few years back. The parents thought it was cute and did nothing to stop them! I got complaints from customers about the screaming kids echoing through the port windows, their hand puppets, the kids were touching the film while it was running and when one kid actually tripped a failsafe I think the parents then got the hint (despite my directly telling them to get out) that they needed to GET THE HELL OUT!

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Those things would squash me, let alone a small child!

The booth is not a freak show and shouldn't be treated lightly by anyone giving or organising a tour. There's all sorts of nasty shit that can happen. The speed IMAX runs at, a touch of the film path by anyone can put you off screen for the whole day. Then we'd find out the real value of selling tickets to the booth.

Print costs...projector repairs...ohhhhh, my head is acheing just thinking about it.

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What we do is split them up into 4 or 5 groups...

1) Goes to Box Office.
2) Goes to Concession Stand.
3) Goes to Auditorium.
4) Goes to Booth.

The box office Mgr. will pretend to sell them tickets and explain about MPAA ratings, etc. The concession Mgr. shows them how to pop popcorn, etc. The usher Mgr. pretends to take their tickets and explains what else ushers have to do. (Cleaning up other people's messes! ) I give them the booth tour.

I've done it so many times I can do it by heart. Usually, it takes me about 15-20 minutes to give my lecture. It takes about 60-90 minutes to rotate 100 kids (and teachers) through all 4 places.

Right before I take them upstairs I tell them that I have 2 rules:
1) "There's nothing upstairs that you can get hurt by IF you don't touch anything unless I tell you it's okay."
2) "I like to answer questions but not if everybody's talking all at once. Raise your hands and I'll call on you."

As far as the content of the tour, I think it's about the same as most other people... Explain how stuff works, thread up a projector and "start" it. (Just motor the leader through, they don't know the difference.) Show them how to splice film. Answer questions and give them a film clip as a souvineer, then send them on their way.

After everybody is done, sometimes the kids all pack into the auditorium to watch whatever kid's movie there is. (Pre-negotiated price for the group)

Of course, this is all done early, before the theatre opens. I wouldn't have that many kids in the booth during run-time.

If you lay down the law right at the beginning, you shouldn't have trouble. I've only had one group get out of hand in all the times I've done this. I just cut the tour off and sent them downstairs. When the kids in all the other groups showed them their film clips they were all upset that they didn't get any!

Most people are curious as to why we have three machines in the booth for a single screen. Actually there are five because of the two side booths. It is fun to explain how the machines run different formats of film. In addition, special care was taken last year in restoring the theater to be historically correct, so it is exciting to explain why we have the Norelco AAII and the Kineton FP-75 for 35 and 70. Basically, from what I understand, the Norelco was used for Cinerama 70. It is especially fun to show off the three Cinerama machines that have been restored to perfect condition after coming out of a closed down theater in Peru and being all rusted up.

Tourists are common at the Cinerama and quite a few projectionist who ran Cinerama stop in. It is exciting to see their reactions to the machines and how everything is put together today. It is also fun to hear their stories from the days of Cinerama.

A few of us from Kodak are driving to Dayton Ohio this weekend to see "Seven Wonders of the World" and "How the West Was Won" in 3-Strip Cinerama at John Harvey's New Neon theatre. Would love to tour your booth when you open 3-strip in Seattle later this year. Please keep all of us on Film Forum up to date on the plans and schedule. Any chance new prints are being made?
http://www.neonmovies.com
http://www.seattlecinerama.com

Recently, one of my theatres at Boca Raton gave a tour to a Girl Scout troop while the shows were going on. One of the little girls leaned over to peer out the projector port and her hair got caught in the motor. It quickly ripped out a big hunk of her scalp.

This was a foolish, foolish idea on the part of the theatre. I haven't heard the latest, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to learn that a sobering lawsuit was pending.

I enjoy showing off the equipment, it's something I'm very proud of. I got a booth tour of this theater when I was 19 years old, and was just as fascinated, if not more, as a 6 year old. I was asking seriously technical questions too! This is what got me interested in film handling, collecting, and this part-time fun job!

I approached the box office and the gentleman there was very polite. He told me to go into the theater and talk to the doorperson about locating a manager. I got into the theater and was greeted by a friendly albeit obviouly bored ticket taker. I told that I was interested in taking tour of their projection booth. She attempted to get a manager on her headset but couldn't. She then called over a floor manager and this is where things got bad. As the floor manager was walking over to the ticket lady he made some rude comment about not being able to hear her till he got closer. When he got there he said in a gruff voice to her, "What do you want." She said I could tell him, which I did. "He gave me a reproachfull look and in a cocky demeening voice said, "What for?" I explained it was professional interest and he just shook his head and said, "No, they're (the manager) busy right now," and walked away.

Ok, 3:15 on a Wednesday afternoon. No one standing at the box office (the guy in there was reading a book), no patrons in the lobby, no movies opening that day (nothing to tear down then), and the manager is too busy to even give me a 5 minute glimpse of their booth? Not too mention the way the jerk treated me (you really had to be there to understand how rude he was).