|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: industrial accidents
|
|
|
|
|
Hillary Charles
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 748
From: York, PA, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
|
posted 07-20-2011 07:29 AM
quote: Martin McCaffery
There was a story around Local 224 in DC that one of the long haired hippie projectionists got his hair caught in the projector and had a hunk of his scalp pulled out. Could be urban legend.
Not sure about DC, but John Gilbert from Columbus Georgia had that experience, as he describes in Chapter 2 of his "Memories of the Liberty Theater."
http://columbusgeorgiaonline.com/liberty_2.htm
As I sat daydreaming, I remembered that I hadn't oiled the projectors. The right machine was running and the left projector sat ready with the next reel. I went to the gear side of the left projector and gave it a good oiling. I then went to the running projector. I wondered if I could oil it while it was operating I decided to give it a try. I opened the gearbox door, took my oil can and began to oil the spinning gears. The oil glistened on the whirling gears and shafts and would spin off onto the walls of the gearbox. I leaned down to oil the soundhead gears when suddenly something hit my head with the force of a sledge hammer. The gears ground and squealed and the film broke. I was dazed but I could see that the screen was white. I staggered around to the other side of the projector, turned off the motor, and closed the fire shutter in the lamphouse. Instantly, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I re-threaded the projector and noticed something different on the shutter shaft. Super Simplex projectors had a shaft coming out of the front to the projection head. In the old days there was a front shutter but with the advent of Cinemascope, the shutter had been removed to accommodate the larger lens. On this shaft was a huge wad of hair! I had accidently leaned into the spinning shaft and it had ripped a plug of hair out of my head by the roots! I got the movie going and stepped over to the mirror over the sink. A full square inch of hair was gone and my bloody scalp oozed blood into the surrounding hair.
"Gilbert!," Came Freddy Brown's voice from the doorway. "Why did the film stop? What's going on?"
"Mr, Brown. My hair got caught in the projector," I said still dazed and half in tears.
He stepped into the booth and examined my scalp.
"Are you alright?" he asked with a hint of concern in his voice.
"I'll be okay in a minute," I said as I sat in my recliner.
"Do you need to go home?" Mr. Brown asked.
"No. I'll work the rest of the night."
"I'll call Scott Whitley," he said as he left the booth.
As I sat there with my head spinning I had a thought.
"Oh my gosh! I'm going swimming with Lisa tomorrow. What am I going to do? I can't let her see this huge spot on my head."
The very idea was worse that the injury. She was just starting to like me. What would she think of me running around with a plug of hair missing? I must look like some kind of freak. Just then Freddy Brown was back at the door.
"I've got Scott on the phone. He wants to know if you need to someone to come and relieve you.'
"No, no. I'll finish out my shift," I said through tears and by now a throbbing scalp.
He left and I made another trip to the mirror. I must have made a dozen trips to that mirror that night. I couldn't believe that I had been that stupid. What if the hair never grew back? Was I maimed for life?
At 11:00 I made my way to the lobby.
"Gilbert," said Mr. Brown as I came down the stairs. "I called Aaron Coolie, Martin Theaters City Manager."
"What did he say?" I asked.
"He didn't say anything. I told him what happened and then I didn't hear a sound. I waited for a minute and then I heard a sudden roar of laughter. He had been laughing so hard that he wasn't making a sound. It was several minutes before he could speak. All he could say was that he had told you to get a haircut. Gilbert, I don't think that you realized that you could have broken your neck!"
I was a laughing stock! I told Mr. Brown that I would see him Saturday and left.
The next day I drove to Lisa's house to pick her up. I had combed my hair and parted it to the other side of my head. I was also wearing a headband. I looked like a hippy but maybe it would hide my bald spot.
We spent a couple of hours at the Moose Lodge pool but I wouldn't get my hair wet. She finally asked if I was afraid of going under water. I had to tell her. She was going to find out sooner or later so there was no need hiding my freakishness.
"Oh, that's nothing," she said after I rattled off an explanation in one long sentence. "It'll grow back."
All of my fears had been unfounded. Lisa still liked me in spite of my missing hair.
________________________________________________________________
John has written several vivid accounts of his life in and around movie theaters. I found them fascinating, and if anyone else might be interested, they can all be found here:
http://columbusgeorgiaonline.com/reminisce.htm
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic