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Author Topic: When was your first booth visit? Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-15-2008 03:04 AM                     (Mine's a bit of an unique one...and I've posted this pix before here in these forums, thus please forgive me on this one..) Have to begin at square one with this one: Had a friend back in 6th grade, who was an avid 8mm film collector and shared the same interest with 16mm (obviously) as I was, and he would tell me about his dad that used to be our home town's projectionist at one of our more famous theatres in the city and even this part of the state. Now, jumping up to our junior year when "The Graduate" came out in 1968: my friend and I decided to go to this film at this same theatre and he was going to show me this booth below where his dad worked at when he was early grade school: My first impression of seeing 35mm film running through these big machines was so fascinating - like seeing a magic show and how changeovers were done. But the biggest thrill of it all was that how one individual can run a show seamlessly and totally smooth without any notice of the reel changes... ..and to this day, when I assemble prints, I do my best to retain that smooth continuity of presentation - why I can't stand opaque splices. For to me, that is pure disrespect of how a movie is supposed to be presented and also in presenting this sloppiness to the patron. Plus, sloppy show startups, trailer pak assemblies, and the like. (sorry to get on this rant a bit here...) Three years later, I pulled my first shift here in this booth as a sub, and in 1976 until 1984, I was chief operator for this booth when I moved over to the Boise area for MANN and they closed this theatre down the following year. Now, the theatre has been fully restored and is a part of the city's cultural arts center. The XL's were pulled out and sold to be installed in the town's three plex and one of the Magnarcs went on display in this cultural center. -Monte  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 09-15-2008 03:48 AM                     It looks like the picture was taken just seconds before changeover, as indicated by how little film is on the reel on the left projector.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-15-2008 08:13 AM                     Or did he miss that changover...?  |  IP: Logged Sean Weitzel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall) Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-15-2008 12:10 PM                     In 1983 I was 8 years old and my uncle took me one saturday afternoon to see "The Black Stallion Returns" at the Town and Country theater in San Jose, CA http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2943 I was already fascinated with our family's 8mm home movies and was accomplished at projecting them as well as sometimes being allowed to help thread up 16mm at school. My uncle knew the girl running the booth that day and we were invited in. I'm pretty sure the projector was a Century and they had a platter. I was fascinated at the fact that the film on the platter "looked like the film in mom's (still) camera!" The girl opened up all of the doors on the projector and turned the motor by hand so I can see how the intermittent worked. They explained that the film came from the center of the platter and wound onto one of the empty ones. I also remember that there was a 16mm machine in that booth as well that threaded on the left side. I think it was some kind of rack mount unit.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 09-15-2008 12:38 PM                     Monte's photo---neither lamp is on. My first booth experience was at the Broadway D.I., Richmond suburbs when I was about 10, ca. 1954. Parents sent me to the concession for some fries which I bought, then discovered the booth door open and stopped to watch. The projectionist saw me an invited me in and was showing me around when Dad found me with by then cold fries in hand and was starting to give me hell when the projectionist gave him an employee coupon to get a replacement order of fries and told Dad I could stay the rest of the evening. I stayed, and Dad was happy. After that night I didn't see a booth again for 30 yrs. The fascination lasted though.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-15-2008 01:05 PM                     quote: James Westbrook It looks like the picture was taken just seconds before changeover Yea, the ball in the Hatke Rell End Alarm had just pinged its three pings when snapped the shutter on this pict. quote: Bill Enos Monte's photo---neither lamp is on We were running rectifier in this booth, thus the light switch on the side of the base controlled the relay to each rectifier, thus the knife blade switch, on both bases, had to be in the closed (handle up) position. True, the alarm had just taken off, why the switch on No.2 machine was still "OFF" whereas you can see the switch in the "ON" position for No.1 machine. It's nothing to strike up a Peerless - one can do it in a flash with one flick of the wrist on the negative advance knob. ..and we did our changeovers inbetween the projectors and we laced the machines sitting down being of the port windows were so low, (this theatre wasn't designed for film, thus this booth was originally a spot light room, and when film came in why of these mods), thus all the curtains, lights and dowser/sound buttons were in the center. Plus, you noticed that the bases had 6 inches lopped off from the top If I wanted to switch over to generator, I threw a couple of knife switches in the other room to bypass rectifier for the generator use. Why we had rectifier, is that we went from 7 and 6mm carbons to 9 and 8mm carbons and our small "gennie" couldn't run both lampshouses during changeovers with those larger rods. BUT, we did have a spotlight "gennie" in the loop that could run both lampshouses during changeovers, but it was close in taxing out the generator until I switched off the one lamphouse. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Richard P. May Expert Film Handler Posts: 243 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 09-15-2008 01:11 PM                     Harding Jr. High School in Oklahoma City had 35mm projection equipment. The school was built around 1925, and I guess was a pretty deluxe instituion. The machines were Motiograph, complete with the original hand cranks. Motors and sound heads were added, of course. There were not very powerful carbon arc lamps. When I went there, in the late 1940s, we ran cartoons and short subjects at lunch time when the weather was bad. We ran about two features each school year to raise money for the graduating class. Making a changeover when running a feature was a privilege. There was a cabinet in the booth with several reels of old film, including some silent. It was very smelly, and some of it sticking together. When we had nothing else, we would experiment with this very volatile nitrate film, hand cranking the projectors to see if we could get the sound to play properly. At that time, of course, all of the 35mm prints were nitrate. Thinking about it today, it is amazing that the fire department would let school kids run the projectors. Not knowing the danger, we had no problems, or even thought about the fire danger. That started my fascination with movies, and I'm still completely involved with film preservation, and have always found projection to be the closest thing to showmanship in the exhibition world. RPM  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-15-2008 07:16 PM                     My very first visit to a booth was at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson in 1982. Simplex XLs, RCA 9030, Peerless magnarc with 1kw Xenon conversion, mono Altec sound. Cassette deck for non-sync. No automation of any kind, all lights, curtains, etc. on wall switches, the changeover buttons were big "mushroom" buttons on the floor. No masking, just a curtain on the stage and a single Altec A7 behind the screen. Talked to the manager who brought me to the booth and introduced me to the projectionist. He showed me the basics, and after a few visits he let me do a changeover, then thread the machines. A week later I was hired on to run the shows. We later converted our lamps to LP Assoc. 2kws. I got my engineering start as I had to wire up the lamphouses when the AAFES engineer had to handle an emergency phone call. The Peerless lamps and Strong rectifiers we pulled sat on the roof for several months and were still theer wehn I was re-assigned. I later got to see the booth of the Mann Twin in Tucson, it was after a 70mm showing of TRON where we had a film break. The operator was a nice guy and the equipment was Simplex 35/70 and CP-200 sound. Wish I had taken pics of that booth on the base.  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-15-2008 08:18 PM                     I visited every booth my father ever worked starting in the 30s. I became an IA apprentice in 1950. My first full-time job as projectionist was at the State theatre in Pomona, California the newest of four Fox West Coast Theatres to be built in that city and the first to be torn down.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-15-2008 08:30 PM                     22th Street Causeway Drive In, south of the port of Tampa, Florida. It has been closed for more than 35 years but you can still see the "drive in layout" on Google Earth....The pillbox booth was at the front of the drive in, shooting across a turgid mosquito laden pond, to a Cinemascope screen. The projectionist, running the giant machines (Ashcraft for sure), gave me some black and white green tinted dater strips......I was eight years old, the movie on the screen was..."Queen of Outer Space" with Zsa Zsa Gabor; this exactly 50 years ago........  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 09-16-2008 05:22 AM                        First booth visit was my first day of work at the local Carmike in 2000. Yeah, got hired as a projectionist, and I hadn't ever seen a projector first hand. Oh, I had seen slide projectors, and I believe an 8mm movie projector at school, but we're not talking those toys, we're talking the real deals. Heh, kinda comforting that carmike'll hire someone totally inexperienced with cinema equipment as a projectionist. Though I believe it was my technical experience with electronics and mechanics that probably sold me to them. I guess. They pretty much hired me on the spot. So yeah, I was all wide eyed my first day of work.  |  IP: Logged

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