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As far as hand cracking a machine with an open spinning shutter and pressurized tanks of combustible gas and bubbling ether vapor inches away from nitrate film winding open-air into a box on the floor....excuse me, but these guys weren't projectionists but kamakazi operators with huge death-wishes. I am not sure I would have the same "love for the booth" that I have if that was what I could look forward to every day. You had to have one set of steel balls to do that on a daily basis. I'll bet there wasn't much time or even inclination for "presentation values" in those days, although he did get to do that creative stuff like running the picture backwards -- evidently that was considered great showmanship -- they get to see it forward AND they get to see it backwards; how can you beat that for the price of a 5 cent ticket?!! I imagine most of the focus for the projectionist skilled in the use of the Power's Projector would mainly be to just keep alive for the next show!

I never would suggest adding splices to the print! Having it hit the floor (or quickly throw a clean trash bag on the ground for a covering)...you can reverse the reel in less time than it would take to run it through. Laying the film takes less than 5 minutes...pulling it up takes little more than a minute or two (high speed on a MUT). You can generally be back on the screen in less than 20 minutes with one more interruption if you don't have a trailer split reel or no more interruptions if you do.

Steve