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Author
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Topic: Who the HECK are you??
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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 09-07-2002 08:38 PM
I grew up in movie theatres. My father was a projectionist from 1916 until a few years before his death in '77. He saw the industry through sound, color, 3-D, CinemaScope, mag stereo sound and into automation. He took me through most of it with him. I began as an usher in 1945, became a union operator in '50, owned and operated theatres in Solvang, CA, Portland, OR and Kathlamet, WA. (The theatres no longer exist.) Also worked as an Ad Manager for Shaw International Theatres in San Jose, CA. Worked as projectionist at more theatres and drive-ins than I can count from from southern California to Everett, Washington. Left the industry to enter radio broadcasting. Retired from that last year and am working on building a single screen in our little community which I hope will be the first of many rural single screeners in the underserved rural areas of our state and country. (I'm also going to send Brad another pic as I sure look red faced in that one. Yes, that's what I look like today. I'm 70 years old, healthy and excited about the potential in our industry and hopeful that one day the good product will outnumber the garbage Hollywood is throwing out).Bob
The Old Showman
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 09-08-2002 11:26 AM
Gordon: Does the IATSE represent operators at the four Regal Cinema sites in the Buffalo area?Daniel: Tom Sauter, a participant on Film-Tech, is at the UB Center For the Arts Theatre at SUNY Buffalo (your college?) sauter@acsu.buffalo.edu
Homepage: http://www.arts.buffalo.edu
http://www.arts.buffalo.edu/html/screening_room.html
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
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Tavis Delahunt
Film Handler
Posts: 3
From: SI, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 09-30-2002 12:14 AM
Ok, lets see...
My name is Tavis, not Travis. Nope, no 'r'.
I am an assistant manager, projectionist and maintenance guy at my theater. Thats right, I fix seats, change light bulbs, start movies, fix the machines and even close out at the end of the night. =)
I'm in Staten Island, NY. What was once United Artists, but is now owned by Regal.
I've been in the company for exactly one year on the 20th of next month. I know, I moved up very quickly.
I really love my job, its the best thing I've ever found, and although the change over was a real pain in the neck, I'm planing on sticking around for a long time, after all, I still have three years of college left.
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Lindsay Morris
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 233
From: Darlington, WA, Australia
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 09-30-2002 06:11 AM
Hi Everybody,
I have just discovered this wonderful thread and had a bit of a look at what many others have written and it seems to me that we are all the same..."Got The Movie Bug" be it in whatever form it comes.
My movie bug bit when I was about 7 yo talking to my Great Aunt who had been a cleaner at one of the Hoyts chain cinemas in Fremantle WA Australia.
That set me going and the local movie house (just a multi-use hall down the road) also used to transfix me as a 15yo watching a pair of Raycophone J3's whirr away and put those magical images up on the screen. Raycophone was an Australian made projector using a C&W proj head also OZ made and the soundhead was made by Raycophone and badged as same. The soundtrack system was what I believe is now the "reverse scan" method where the sound track itself was projected onto the slit.
I acquired my own 8mm gear and made many, many home movies but always hankered after the bigger stuff.
The chance came in 1958 when as a trainee telco tech for the PMG I was posted to Rockingham and there the local postie ran the local picture palace, the Melody.
I chummed up with him and in no time I was into the bio box and into it all...wonderful stuff. Carbon arcs and a wonderful auditorium with curtains and all. At that location I studied for and passed the Projectionist Licence that one used to have to have to run the plant. In 1960 the owner decided to build a drive in at Kwinana also called the Melody.
When the DI opened I ended up running the bio box at the hard top Melody and the outdoor Melody in summer and for a couple of years it was really great fun. Especially so when we switched programs between the DI and the outdoor and my machines ran slightly faster than theirs so I was almost always out of film as the next reels came in the door... I reckon I could still thread a Raycophone in seconds with my eyes shut.
The PMG decided that I was needed as a Senior Tech at a couple of country locations so my foray into cinema ceased but I still kept close ties with friends in the industry.
Some of the country locations also had small local cinemas and I frequently ended up in various bio boxes all over WA for the next 20 years.
Some of the more memorable ones were up north at Port Hedland in a DI and the old picture gardens (outdoor) in the port as when the iron ore carriers were ship loading and the wind was the right way most patrons left looking somewhat "purplish" from the dust carried on the wind.
After just over 40 years with PMG/Telecom/Telstra the digital revolution threw many techs onto the scrap heap as the digital conversion of the phone network went ahead.
At that stage I was in a technical managerial role looking after a group of 28 staff and over 3 years all those jobs vanished.
At 56 I was not about to put my feet up and do nothing and as in the last few years with Telstra I had been helping a couple of smaller DI operators in country locations train staff to run projectors the movie bug had bitten again.
As a collector, I had acquired quite a bit of plant from various sources and a couple were almost complete and ready to run so I rebuilt them with the intention of selling them off to get a bit of cash and clear my shed at the same time.
The sale fell through and at that stage I was pondering just what to do and reckoned that where I lived (in the foothills of Perth) could do with a good old fashioned "outdoor cinema" as we used to run. Maybe I could do this when the chopper fell at Telstra.. gotta do something! rather than just retire and sit about.
I hunted about for a site and finally found a pleasant little spot in a National Park area midway between 2 local towns and started to build our own outdoor cinema.
Using the Simplex pair (pre E7 style modified from front shutter) over a pair of Westrex 206A soundheads and a pair of Calder (Oz made) carbon arcs onto a 10m (scope) screen seating 150 we opened in Jan 1977.
It was a busy time as we only got access to the site in November 1976, worked like beavers and opened with Gallipoli as the first film. Kookaburra Outdoor Cinema was born.
At that stage we had two kids at Uni so I told them that if they wanted to eat they had to work for me for free for the season which to their credit they did.
We survived that first season and have built on that every other season since and now seat 310 in deckchairs with lawns and planted out areas about the place to make it quite inviting to patrons.
Season 7 is rapidly approaching and if I get organised in time we may see a Century CC with Lumex Xenon and Eprad MUT running this year and with that will come stereo/surround sound.
We are basically now a mono only site with a 35watt valve amp for main speakers and a small 50 watt sub woofer for a bit of extra bass. Have tinkered with a bit of stereo simulation onto left and right speakers.. reasonably effective but cannot match good surround sound.
We do all our own marketing, even make my own screen slides and drum up the business for that as well. The slides are the old 3 1/4" square with a carbon arc lamphouse on that "rescued" from a DI closure here in Perth and it works extremely well.
I have no idea just how many feet of film the Simplexes have run through in their previous days but they still purr along with rock steady image and are so reliable they never cease to amaze me.
Even the old Westrex soundheads are still running the big fat bulbous photo cells with the 90v bias, no wow, flutter or hum and the huge flywheel just keeps spinning around and everything just moves along nicely.
A Bell & Howell 666 is installed for 16mm shows and it has fitted to it a long play unit which carry 6000' reels.
16mm up to 7.5m picture looks good if the print is OK.
Initially we only screened two nights a week but last season ran 4 nights and sometimes 7 nights if the film had "the legs" to carry it over 7 nights... watching for all those cues gets a wee bit tiresome after a bit.During winter I provide projectionist services to International Film Theatre who screen Sunday nights at Alexander Library in Perth where there is installed a Ballantyne Pro 35 and a Speco platter along with a Fumeo HL2000 16mm machine. I get plenty of practice making up and breaking down as it is one show each night. So I make it up, screen it and then break it down. Would be nice if it had two machines and I could go 6000' reels but no way only one machine and no space to spare.
That is about the lot except to add that both wife, Jan and I have great fun running each summer season and meeting hundreds of wonderful patrons who support us each summer.. it is an absolute blast for us.
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Dan Lyons
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 698
From: Seal Beach, CA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 09-30-2002 06:02 PM
First post, here we go!
Personal info, I'm 22, and live in Orange County Ca, home of multiple megaplexes! (within a 5 mile radius we have an AMC 20, AMC 30, Edwards 25, Edwards 10, Regal 16, Century 25, and several others ranging from 4 to 15 screens!!!)
I've been reading and lurking here for almost 3 years now. I started reading the forums when I got into collecting 16mm "old home movie"  . I also bought my first bottle of FilmGuard at that time.
I do not work at a theatre, as I WILL NOT sell popcorn or any of the other nonsense the places around here seem to only care about.
Lately I've decided that I want a real projector (35mm) to fix and play with at home. No luck yet, everything i've been offered has been way out of my range. Can you believe someone tried to sell me a Super Simplex w/mono soundhead and 500watt xenon for $4800!!!! I could have just died, that was about 10 times over my budget!
That's all I have to say for now... Danny
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Barry Martin
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 203
From: Newington, CT USA
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 10-01-2002 12:36 AM
For once I see this thread and don't have that "20 pages...it's time for bed" feeling.  I was born the exact day John Lennon was shot and killed (I know, morbid way to remember your birthday) My new favorite month is April, this past one I became a husband and father for the first time. I work (or at least worked...still unclear whether I can go back) at the Loews Cineplex Liberty Tree Mall 20-plex in Danvers, MA about 30 minutes outside of Boston. I started there in December of '98 as a "floorstaff" (which means: concessionist, usher, box office attendant, kitchen cook, and Nescafe server) and was pushed up to supervisor in January of '99 (which means: all of the above plus dishing out breaks, inventory counts, and cash accountability). Became curious about projection in March of '99 and soon got transferred in thanks to having a friend as the head projectionist as well as a "knack" for things up there. In December of 2000 we decided to join the union in hopes of increasing our wages, benefits, (both were pretty non-existent) and settling down this monster of a manager we had whom nobody liked. Worked there and a few other Loews theaters in the Boston metro area until June 11, 2002 when we were put on lockout. Applied to Best Buy at the Liberty Tree Mall since I had worked there before and had enjoyed it fine for retail and I realized unemployment would only pay 25% of what I was making as a projectionist getting 50-70 hours/week. Now being promoted to Senior and looking forward to advancement there while keeping film handling on as a "hobby-job" as it is apparent that the projection job well is drying up around these parts. Also partnering with a good friend in his DJ business, so if you need some good tunes/lights/effects for a show, give a shout. Hobbies include hanging with the family, camping, long road trips, video games (sadly, yes, I haven't outgrown them yet..but my wife isn't helping by introducing me to Age of Empires  ), laser tag tournaments (yes, also seemingly pathetic but it ties into the long road trips hobby), acting (stage...no film yet), and singing/playing the trumpet and french horn. I guess that is all I can say about me...oh, and I hate broccoli.  Read you later! ------------------
"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return." Barry C. Martin
IATSE Local 182
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