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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: who uses motor-generators?
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-11-2003 12:10 PM
John wrote:
quote:
The cabinet is for storing Vitaphone discs.
Bob Furmanek showed me the cabinet last year when I was first there. I wouldn't have guessed what it was for, I've never seen another one, it's got to be very rare. There's even a disk in one of the drawers.
Are you involved with the Vitaphone Project? I believe that it's based somewhere in NJ.
I met Bob Eberenz last year, when I was there for the 'Forbidden Planet' screening. I came over again in October, when 'King Kong' was on, and then again a couple of weeks ago.
I think it's an important theatre for a number of reasons, it's a fine example of a theatre building of the perion, it's survived relatively unaltered, even the'70s tripling didn't make any really major, irriversible changes to the building, and it still contains a lot of the original equipment, including the original stage lighting board, and buch of the electrical equipment and plant below the stage. The 1986 closure may have been a good thing, if the theatre had remained open longer it may well have received much more drastic alterations.
When I first saw the Brenographs, I thought they looked a mess, but, on closer inspection, I really don't think it would be too difficult to get one of them working.
Where is Trenton, by the way, how far from Jersey City, or New York? One of my other interests is in transport, and I have read about the new Diesel-powered light rail system they are building, from Trenton, to somewhere I had never heard of. I'd be interested to see it when it opens.
Frank wrote:
quote:
I don't know the manufacturer of the arc followspot that we found up there, but it is an amazing instrument with dozens of pulley's and controls to change the color gel boomerang and to pull multiple lenses back and forth to size the spot. It is made of brass so no rust, and the balance is so precise, that you can move the large, heavy body smoothly in all directions with one finger -- just a beautiful thing to look at and touch. And it's not DIGITAL....imagine that!!
It's not a Stelmar, is it, they had wire operated colour magazines.
Wht's happeng to your theatre, you said you had some major building work about to take place last year?
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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 147
From: Old Coulsdon, Surrey, UK
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 05-11-2003 03:58 PM
We used to use the Ross Scenograph at the Odeon Leicester Square in the 1970s, about twice a week, before the programme, or when we had organ shows.
We were able to cover the whole of the front tabs with effects from either a clockwork operated gelatine colour wheel or an electrically driven glass flame effect wheel.
This was using the low intensity carbon arcs, and caused no trouble, but somebody at head office engineering dept thought that as we were installing xenon arcs on the projectors we might as well have the Scenograph converted as well.
Morganite xenon houses were installed with 1600 watt lamps.
This was a terrible mistake as the heat from the xenon evaporated all the water from the cooling jacket, and shattered the glass in the expensive colour wheel.
After this, to my knowledge, it was never again used.
Picture on www.cinephoto.co.uk/odeon_leicester_square_14.htm
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 05-11-2003 06:36 PM
Stephen and John,
I've seen cabinets like the ones in the photo in Loews Paradise
Theatre, the chain's flagship on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York City. It had a full stage with spots & floods. The cabinet was full of gelatine sheets for lighting. The theatre was a huge palace type, with gilded putti on the ceilings and walls, and outside, on the facade, a clockwork animated St.George killing a dragon, in metal armour.
The 1934 Neumade catalog has pictures of a 12-drawer and a 24- drawer model, the latter on legs, exactly like your photo on the left from the 24th drawer up to the middle section, where you may have a shorter model attached on top, or a UK manufacture.
Neumade was located in NYC, but moved upstate. Bob Maar has been connected with them for years.
The catalog reads:
S-551 GELATINE CABINET (table style) Same construction as S-550.
Twelve drawers Overall height 16: $75
S-550 GELATINE CABINET For storing gelatine sheets. Keeps them moist and flexible. Twenty-four drawers, each 24"x22"x7/8" Push-hole in bottom of each drawerto lift sheets. Brass index card holder and two pulls on each drawer. Stands 59" high Standard finish baked-on olive gray enamel $165
The drawers are large enough to accommodate 16" sound-on-disk records, so the same cabinet may have been dual-purpose. [This Neumade catalog does not list a disk record cabinet as such.]
I also found a very early, heavy-duty turntable with spare brass electrical pickup heads in the theatre. The theatre closed several years ago.
Gerard
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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 05-12-2003 02:25 AM
Wow, thanks for the memories....I once worked at a theatre that you had to change the gears or belt by a lever when the RPM reach a it level then watch the next RPM meter again & push the lever again to reach the correct MG speed & output amperes..the whole process took about 20-30 seconds...strange....all other MG unit was just a start/stop button, they weren't quite by any means, most I ran was under the projection booth, or in a room next to it....thanks for the pictures, these were projection booths when projectors, lamphouses, reels, motor/generator & the booth itself made you feel like a projectionist, they were great in their days, I am glad & thankful to be a part of a bygone era...it's too bad the projectionist of today cannot feel what we had or can understand what a booth was without xenon bulbs, automation, & platters....at the time (1970) I never thought the theatre projection booth would evolve into megabooths, amazing what 30 yrs can do.....
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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted 05-12-2003 07:24 AM
When I was MUCH younger, I hung out around theatre booths. One theatre was the IMPERIAL Theatre in Asheville, NC. It was razed in 1976. It was the Premier theatre here from 1935, or so, until the late 1960's when ABC Theatres got hold of it. Modern Times (Chaplin) played there for several weeks.
I loved the whine of the generator running. When the projectionist would strike the arc for the changeover, the generator would whine a bit louder for a few moments.
The motor at the Imperial was a 3-phase Westinghouse. I remember that you could stick your arm into the running generator. Remember, these units were built in a day when people were smart enough not to stick their body parts in places that were moving at high speeds. My other memory is the organ blower room. The organ was gone, so I was told, and there was no sign of it in the auditorium. The blower was there, though. It was a Spencer Orgoblo, with a big motor... Leece-Neville brand? When the theatre was demolished, they 'found' and removed the complete organ that had been covered in 1955 when they installed a Cinemascope screen.
The organ was restored, and installed in a small church near here. It plays on...
I'm looking for images of this theatre to scan and post. No luck, so far...
AFAIK, this theatre ran with the original M-G set for its entire life.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-12-2003 12:19 PM
Hugh wrote:
quote:
This was using the low intensity carbon arcs, and caused no trouble, but somebody at head office engineering dept thought that as we were installing xenon arcs on the projectors we might as well have the Scenograph converted as well.
Sounds typical,
"it's working perfectly well, and has been for getting on for forty years, so let's change it."
I suppose no spare disks were available, few of these machines seem to have been made, and I suppose the cost of having a new disk specially made, and finding a way to stop that one from breaking, would have been prohibitive.
The Odeon opened in 1937 did'nt it, that's rather late, i think most of the Brenographs date from about 1928-1935; maybe Ross started making this as an alternative to the Brenograph, but it was just too late, and never caught on. Odeon dodn't normally use Ross equipment, did they? It was all BTH at that time, it was ABC who used Ross. Neither seemed to give a very good light output, but, of course, screens were much smaller in those days.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-12-2003 03:50 PM
Bernard wrote:
quote:
The story behind the Ross Scenograph at the Odeon, Leicester Square, is that Oscar Deutsch the founder, would only allow British equipment to be installed throughout his circuit.
I didn't know that Bernard; It would certainly be consistant with the fact that they always installed BTH projectors. It's a good job he's not alive today, you can't buy anything made here now; that's not quite true, I did buy some British-made stainless steel spirals for my developing tanks recently, and very nicely made they are to. The tanks themselves are Japaneese.
Do you know if it is still there, or did it get dumped during the last refurbishment, a few years ago? If It is, I might write to them and ask if I can have a look at it. The only pictures I have seen of it are the two on Hugh's site, and they don't show any great detail. I've only heard of one other being installed, but I can't remember where that was.
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