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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Westrex Tower Capacity w/36" reels
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-07-2005 03:29 PM
'Not recommended' would apply to practically everything which went on in that place. From the fuse box with 3-inch nails soldered across the terminals to the popcorn machine which hadn't been cleaned out in living memory, it would make The Smallest Show on Earth look like an object model in good practice.
All making up and breaking down happened in screen 1's booth, and yes, it was straight onto the tower. I did as much as I could to improve presentation standards - for example, I smuggled a role of Jack Roe splicing tape in from the student film society I also projected for at the time, as an alternative to the masking tape provided!
Nine times out of ten, the film in screen 2 would have played in 1 previously, so the tower spool was simply manhandled between the two. Splitting it into 6k reels to shift it would have made negotiating the spiral staircase a bit safer, but thankfully it wasn't me who ultimately ended up his regretting the idea. I needed the £3.50 an hour he paid me at the time (allowing for inflation, that's just under the legal minimum wage now), and so put up with it.
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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-08-2005 07:51 AM
Anyone know the most screens in a complex all running with Towers. I have visited the Classic Moulin cinemas in Piccadilly Circus that had six screens with Towers. There were three projection boxes, Screen 1 being in the original old Newsreel Theatre. Screens 2 – 5 was the new construction. Next door was the Dilly Cine which was incorporated into the complex as Screen 6. All showing triple bills of sexy ‘X’ films with very choice titles continuous daily from 11am until after midnight with late shows!
There were two projectionists on duty who obviously were kept very busy. Mostly made up on all the Towers, on the ‘A’ side were the first two features, ‘B’ side for the third feature. The Moulin closed around 1990 I believe.
quote: Pete Naples
Good choice on the Westrex 5035, they are easy enough to use, and indestructable. Contrary to popular belief, they do not damage film, if used correctly, follow the makers instructions and all will be well.
Pete is so right about the Westrex 5035. I had years of trouble free service. When I bought the tower 2nd hand I had all the motor bearings replaced. One spindle was slightly worn, which was replaced with an exchange unit supplied by Omnex. In later years a good chief projectionist friend gave me a set of spindles which he got made himself.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-12-2005 01:58 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
Touché - but this was an independent. The reference to Basil Fawlty should give you a geographical clue.
You mean the one next door to the transport undertaking? I've never used either the transport or the cinema, but I have been to the town, and seen both. If this is the one you mean, wasn't it owned by the transport undertaking, who wanted to convert it into something other than a cinema, but the application was refused, so it was simply closed, and was boarded up the last time I saw it, probably about 5-6 years ago?
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-12-2005 02:27 PM
I couldn't possibly comment! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
As for the Plymouth Odeon, I saw a few films there when I was a student living in the city from 92-95. Interesting that it was built as recently as 1958 - it didn't strike me of having quite the layout of a 1930s single screen picture palace, somehow. But my visits had to be surreptitious ones, because I worked as a relief for the opposition at the time (well, it wasn't really the opposition, as it was an arthouse with very diffrerent programming).
Also interesting that the author of the page David linked to claims that parking charges killed the place off. There's been a parking charge controversy rumbling on in York for three years or so now, when the newly elected Lib Dem council decided to show its green credentials by whacking the charges up. At one point it was £4 an hour, including evenings and weekends, but it's come down a bit since (a posse of activist grannies complaining to their councillors that they could no longer go to their knitting clubs in the evening without being raped in some dark alley saw to that). Both the Odeon and City Screen don't have on-site car parks and so were especially vulnerable to the price hikes. I gather from chatting to people that both places did take a substantial box office hit, so much so that the Odeon was rumoured to be on the verge of closure at one point. City Screen was less vulnerable, as the cinema also has a public bar (an upmarket pub, to all intents and purposes), which probably does as much if not more business than the films.
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