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Author Topic: House Music! John Hegel Expert Film Handler Posts: 166 From: Lake Mills, Iowa Registered: Sep 2000 posted 10-30-2003 11:41 PM                        What do you all think of letting the customers pick what they want to hear? I have a Wurlitzer 1015 cd juke box that I bought with the intentions of installing in the lobby of my single screen theater. Has anyone ever tried this? Am I the only person on earth that likes the looks of the 1015 recreation?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-31-2003 06:49 PM                        Sounds fine, if you keep the volume reasonable so as not to peeve the older folks.  |  IP: Logged Pete Evans Film Handler Posts: 11 From: Church Stretton, Shropshire, UK Registered: Aug 2003 posted 10-31-2003 06:59 PM                     Welcome Stephen....... Gordon's right it should be the Mighty Wurlitzer, but alas that's a thing of the past (almost). I remember when I first started as a projectionist at the Ritz Cinema in Chatham (part of the ABC circuit) in 1969 the Wurlitzer was still in place and regularly tuned, but never used for any performances! Instead we used to be sent records (you remember those big vinyl thingies) of a guy called Joseph Seal playing the organ, they were so damned awful that I don't think we ever played one to the publc....when the theatre closed there was a huge pile of them brand new, although some had previously been turned into flower pots! So if you want organ music, and want to bore your audience to tears, there must be thousands of these bloody things out there as I don't know of any ABC projectionist who played them!  |  IP: Logged Bernard Tonks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-01-2003 12:25 PM                     Joseph Seal who was the musical and variety booking director was based for a time at the ABC Regal Theatre, Kingston-Upon- Thames where he recorded and live broadcasted from the Wurtlitzer organ there. I had just commenced as a third projectionist from an Odeon and had bought with me a few 78s of Reginald Dixon playing the mighty organ of the Tower Ballroom Blackpool which were rather jazzy and cheerful. At the time I didn’t know of Mr Seal until suddenly he introduced himself to me during a matinee and politely forbid any records from the Tower to be played again. I believe Cinecenta Cinemas a small circuit mostly in London used to play classical music from a very early era which was excempt from having to pay any PRS royalties.  |  IP: Logged Ken McFall Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 615 From: Haringey, London. Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-01-2003 03:15 PM                     If I have to choose I'd play easy listening vocal and instrumental with classical if it suited the film. I don't like playing the soundtrack to the film the audience is waiting to see. However all of that is no longer an option as I now have to play the promo music provided. It does remove the problem as to what to play but it's not always ideal. The current promo we are playing has the word 'whore' in one of the songs repeated about five times, playing to 'Finding Nemo'. In context the word is not offensive but on it's own it is not the sort of word that I would be playing to that audience. Possibly the best cinema music album ever, in my opinion, is Bert Kaemphert - A Swinging Safari. It's a very old album now, sixties, but it pops up on television quite a lot recently. I've had the pleasure of running a few shows to the mighty Wurlitzer as the cinema I was working in hosted the American Theatre Organ Society performances. Despite the fact that most of the music played was quite old the audience loved every minute of it. I doubt they would have the same reaction if it was just played on a CD but live it was fantastic.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 11-01-2003 04:19 PM                        quote: I have a... cd juke box that I bought with the intentions of installing in the lobby of my single screen theater. Has anyone ever tried this? I did that at my drive-in, but it was with an older Wurlitzer 45 juke box. Up in the booth I had an old Microprobe broadcast automation sequencer, running 4 cassette machines and a couple of ITC cart playback decks. I played copies of music reels, cast off from a local automated radio station. If someone selected a record downstairs, the jukebox would find it, put it on the turntable & lay the needle on. However, the turntable motor was off. It would also cue the automation system upstairs. When the current song ended, the automation would start up the juke box turntable & put it "on the air", scratches and all, in glorious stereo. The whole contraption worked pretty well, though the audio quality from the juke box wasn't as good as the tapes once the records started wearing. In the end, I pulled it... mainly because people were playing the same 5 or 6 songs all night long & driving us all crazy!... that, and decent 45 discs were getting harder to find.  |  IP: Logged John Hegel Expert Film Handler Posts: 166 From: Lake Mills, Iowa Registered: Sep 2000 posted 11-01-2003 11:18 PM                        I was thinking of setting the jukebox for a random continues playlist and also selecting free play. With free play I will not be making any money, but I will not have any customer complaints about the song they paid for being cut off by the show starting.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 11-02-2003 11:24 AM                        quote: I will not have any customer complaints about the song they paid for being cut off by the show starting Good point, though the few times we had that happen here, it was still playing in the snack bar... the customers who came in to complain usually just left after hearing it play out in there.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 11-02-2003 12:40 PM                     How about *no* music?  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 11-02-2003 03:35 PM                        I think Zero background in an auditorium would make people uncomfortably self-conscious about conversation.  |  IP: Logged Alexander Smith Expert Film Handler Posts: 128 From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Registered: Jun 2003 posted 11-02-2003 07:45 PM                     At the small chain I work for (but not speak for, natch) we play music by only one artist. It's company policy to only play one CD by one artist. Have a listen via www.tobesmusic.com . It's my _personal_ opinion that this music sucks. Sorry Toby if you find my opinion offensive, but it is just my opinion. The front of house staff agree, and even a few customers have complained also, but the company seems to be sticking with it. When we had a choice, we used to play a reasonably wide variety of music. I distinctly remember being complemented on choosing the Mi:2 soundtrack before a show of "Bridget Jones's Diary". I was helping out in the auditorium at the time. If you have a choice at your site, I'm jealous really. ;-) Alex.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-02-2003 11:46 PM                        I agree that you've got to have *some* music playing, or the theater is less warm & attractive. It should fit the program. It's not being programmed for me, but I utterly despise & get screaming headaches from Lite Rock & Smooth Jazz. Anything else please, heavy metal, classical, boom boom house, something with an idea or other reason for existence. We were running an 8 p.m. horror movie for an audience of about 200 kids that had been recruited via their high school media & English classes, & some volunteers. I had been running some movie horror music compilations between the shows. The manager called up with a schedule change which meant the show would be about 25 minutes late, I told him, he said OK & put in that Strauss CD & turn it up. OK, WHATEVER! Cranking & patching a reel listening to a chattery excited HS kids audience coming through the ports with some Strauss waltzes, waiting from the riot, when On the Beautiful Blue Danube ended, there was APPLAUSE! One aggravating show + one freaky moment for the projectionist.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 11-03-2003 11:45 PM                     Okay so we agree then that *some* music is better than *no* music. In that case...the audience should be somewhat appreciative of the very fact that I have arranged to play music at all. For my own part, I am intensely aware of how impossible it is to please everyone and I personally can't find it in my heart to program customized selections for each and every movie. As for radio ads...I used to say "never" but I got an offer today and, well...maybe just this once. -- Manny I'll House You! Knowles.  |  IP: Logged Greg Routenburg Expert Film Handler Posts: 178 From: Toronto, ON, Canada Registered: May 2003 posted 11-03-2003 11:58 PM                     I've always been a big fan of Instrumental Movie Tunes. Disney releases mixed CD's of their classic movie stuff and there are all kinds of compilations out there that cover all kinds of movie genres. Music should reflect the atmosphere that is trying to be achieved in whatever place it's being played. People can get rather nostalgic if they go to a show and hear some old tunes that they know from some of their favorite old films and movies from their childhoods.  |  IP: Logged Daniel Schulz Master Film Handler Posts: 387 From: Los Angeles, CA USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 11-04-2003 12:51 PM                        The Indiana Theater in Bloomington, IN (alas no longer a movie theater) used to play an ever-changing mix of pre-show music in the lobby and auditorium, but they always arranged things so that the last song before the lights went down was Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World. I still associate that song with the joys of moviegoing.  |  IP: Logged

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