This is topic goodbye to an old friend in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Carl King (Member # 398) on 07-14-2000, 10:25 PM:
I'm a little depressed. The old single house that Istarted my career in is falling to the wrecking ball. A sad day indeed for me and my family. My late father managed that particular theatre for 40 years before his death. I was a year old in 1952 when he started there so I grew up in that theatre. At 17 I went on the payroll as an usher and 3 years later went to the booth. Two of my three sisters worked in the theatre as did my Mum and a cousin or two. The company I work for sold the building a few years ago after building a beautiful new multiplex. A couple of local entrepeneurs tried to find a use for the old girl but no luck and now it is coming down.It was great old theatre in it's day. 653 seats including 200 in the balcony. Until this week it was the oldest cinema in Canada. I don't think I will watch it come down. That would be a tough thing to see.
You know, we can't stop progress nor should we want to but once in a while let's stop to remember things from days past. As we do our work today we are standing on the shoulders of all those people who went before us. The next time your having a beer raise your glass to the fine old theatres of days gone by and maybe, just maybe, somone will do the same for us someday.
Good bye old friend, I'll miss you
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-15-2000, 01:57 AM:
I know how you must feel. Alhough I never worked at the place in its heyday, the old Warner Theatre in my town is starting to fall apart.When I was 10 years old, I used to go ther to watch movies like Herbie the Love Bug. I used to spend more time trying to find/sneak into the booth than watching the picture. I've probably been tossed out of the balcony 100 times!
The local civic center authority has control of it now and they use it kind of like a "civic auditorium". They bring in small rock concerts and stuff.
They've got a set of Norelco AA-II proj in there and nobody ever touches them except when I go in once or twice a year to give them a little "exercise". (To keep them from rusting apart, etc.) They seem to treat them like museum pieces, or something. They don't believe me when I tell them that they are some of the best projectors ever made and that there are a LOT of them still running film every day, as if they were brand new.
There just doesn't seem to be enough interest in showing movies there anymore. Not even for "special occasions" and stuff. Everybody seems to say things like, "We ought to save the Warner" but nobody ever seems to do anything about it. There has been a movement to restore the place going on for YEARS but just when they say they're going to do it "NEXT YEAR", nothing ever happens!
I just resign myself to going there once in a while to dust off the equipment and hope the place doesn't fall down in the mean time. (Sigh......)
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 07-15-2000, 07:39 AM:
I'm reminded of the end of Cinema Paradiso when everyone is standing around to witness the demolition of their beloved movie house. For me, this still ranks up there as one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever put to film.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-15-2000, 12:45 PM:
My theatre will be 70 years old this September. Our town is on the freeway so we get a lot of tourists in the summer. Many of them come into the theatre just to look around. The older ones often describe their old hometown theatre and get pretty misty-eyed. I think people really developed an attachment to their local moviehouse in those days. Just last night there was a 70+ year old man in our lobby....he saw the stairway leading to the balcony and said, "My God.....I didn't think I'd ever see a theatre with a balcony again."
Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 07-15-2000, 10:37 PM:
Cheers, Carl (putting down beer).I know exactly where your're coming from. Having watched the theatre where I apprenticed (and where my father spent so many nights of his life for so many years) I felt sort of "un-grounded" watching this old palace come down.
As a technician, I thought I would no longer experience this melancholia, until I began removing equipment I had installed only 20 years before in some of our smaller theaters that fell "before the wrecking ball".
I think that the saddest part, was the memories of the people I had known that had spent so much of their lives in those booths.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 07-17-2000, 02:12 AM:
Well I know how you guys feel. Here in salt lake we had many years ago a single screener that fell down. LITERALLY!!! It was the Center Theater, and was exclusive home to many first run movies like star wars, and robocop etc... it had the best 70MM mag presentation and the sound and screen were just large to see and hear. They were planning on renovating the building when the small building next door to it caught on fire. As a result, the left wall of the building collapsed. The rest was history. They rebuilt a six screener in its place, with crappy sound and teeny screens. Just doesnt do it for me.Dave
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"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"
Posted by Christopher Barahona (Member # 516) on 07-18-2000, 11:54 AM:
I used to go roof-hopping above the Granada Theater and the surrounding buildings in my hometown of Malden, MA. The Granada started as a one screen monster theater in the 1930's and by the time I started going was a two screener, both auditoriums massive making it impossible for me as a kid to imagine it as a one screen.
My father took me to the movies every week and many of them were there. They would still show dbl. features and revival movies like "Bridge on the River Kwai" there. One of my most vivid memories is the comfortable silence my father and I shared before the start of the movie. Him resting his eyes and me staring at the weblike designs on the cavernous ceiling, waiting for the curtain to open. My father took me to that booth and the projectionist let me open the curtain for the film. I was thrilled at the control I had.
Back in 1987 or so they tore it down and I was visiting my dad. I had to go to see it. I snuck into the remains through the gutted roof and walked through the lobby past the remains of the huge marble water fountain and into the theater without a roof where the seats were gone, salvaged.
"Raiders" 13X, "Jaws" 5X, "Star Wars" ???X, "Herbie", "Halloween", "Last House on the Left"-"The Fog" dbl. feature, "Dawn of the Dead", "From Russia with Love"-"Goldfinger" dble. feature. I couldn't help it. I cried. It just came over me like a wave.
Now I work with shoebox cinemas with 16 foot ceilings and a capacity of 166 to our biggest, legroom enuff for Kenny Baker and that feeling I had when I was so young and opened that Granada curtain for the audience only visits me occasionally.
And, definitley Tom, "Cinema Paradiso" was made for us. Everything in that movie is devoted to most of the fine film-handlers and theater employees I have had the pleasure of corresponding with in these forums. When we lose these old theaters we lose the nostalgia of what film used to mean to us.
Posted by John Gordon (Member # 523) on 07-18-2000, 05:57 PM:
For those who would like to see some grand movie palaces of old, today, check out
http://www.laconservancy.org Click on the “walking tours” tab for info on the tours of these grand old motion picture palaces:
“The grand movie palaces in Broadway's Historic Theater District are proud reflections of Hollywood's golden years. Tour the largest concentration of pre-World War II movie houses in America, from the nickelodeon to the birth of the talkies and visit the interiors of the Orpheum and others.”
To learn more about the individual theatres, click on the “Last Remaining Seats” tab, then click on “About the Theatres.”
I would encourage anyone living or visiting Los Angeles to take the walking tour of these grand old movie palaces. Yes, they do not look like they did in the ‘20s (the last Broadway theatre in L.A. was built in 1931) but the feel and atmosphere is there. It can bring back some old memories for those of us who remember going to a movie palace. Highly recommended.
Posted by Phil Radosevich (Member # 508) on 07-18-2000, 08:07 PM:
Hats off to the old theatres. I own one that was built in 1912. October 12 th was the first day. We have a poster that says that the price for adults was 10cents and child is 5. Nice prices. My sister and I bought it 10 years ago from a chain that said to take care as they wanted only twins or bigger. We had a twin move in on us about 5 years ago that was going to run us out of bussiness but as for them they had a fire about a year and a half ago and Im still going strong. We have just remodeled anddid all the work our self took 9 weeks and I also work through the day. We put in new seating sound and screen 15x27. As we were working we found old tickets for 35c 75c 100 and the like old milkdud boxes for 15c.old
theatre are Thingsof beauty. I found lights in the ceiling beams that I relit and all the while the people of the town were asking if we were going to get ride os the balconey. I dont know how rumers get started. Now we have a theatre that is up to date and its still old with all the making of home.If any one know of a chandelear that I could get Id like to put one of them up if I coukld find one. Old theatres old movies old days i just doesnt get any better Phil
Posted by Christopher Barahona (Member # 516) on 07-19-2000, 12:25 AM:
Thanks John. good site.
It's nice to see others feel strongly about preserving the monuments of the past that can exhibit films better than any 12 plex or 4plex for that matter.
Thanks again.
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-19-2000, 01:01 AM:
Tom,Cinema Paradiso, IMHO is the best movie about film, I cried during that last scene
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"where to they teach you to talk like this, in some Panema City wana hump-hump-bar? sell crazy someplace else. we're all stocked up here" As good as it gets
Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 07-20-2000, 10:00 PM:
For those of you with a love of old theatres visit the Theatre Historical Society of America's website at Historictheatres.org.
Lots of links to many historic theatres in opeation and being restored around the country. Based in Chicago Illinois, membership in the Theatre Historical Society is open to anyone ($40.00 per year) which gets you 5 picture filled magazines annually. The Society also hosts an annual 'Conclave' where they go to an area and you get to wander through the theatres on the tour. This year (this week no less) the Conclave is in Cleveland (Playhouse Square), Columbus & Marion Ohio.
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-31-2000, 10:48 PM:
We lost an interesting older house (1926) in Richmond several years ago, the Colonial was an earlier stadium seat auditorium. Much better than the odd risers todays stadium seating has. The booth was just that, a tiny room built at the top rear that looked like it was added as an afterthought, one old projectionist said the architect forgot the projection room and it had to be added. I'm at the Byrd Theatre, opened Christmas eve 1928 & open ever since. About 95% original it has had TLC by all its owners and operators. Multiplex goers on first visit are amazed by a 40 ft. screen and enough seats to accomodate a half way around the block line. For GOOD pix and accurate info. check our site. The whole address is too long, just enter Byrd Theatre, Google finds it easiest.
Posted by Daryl Lund (Member # 356) on 07-31-2000, 11:12 PM:
I bought my home town theatre six years ago to save it. It had been turned into a video store. I learned how to run the booth in high school and also a usher. I now show first run movies with dts sound and new seats are going in the end of august. the best ever was having a midnight movie last year for my 20th class reuion.
Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-02-2000, 01:43 AM:
quote:
They don't believe me when I tell them that they are some of the best projectors ever made and that there are a LOT of them still running film every day, as if they were brand new.
They're old! They're dirty!
They must be junk!
Our present technical staff doesn't understand them, is too lazy to research or train, & resents that the mysterious projectors are there to intimidate them!
They must be destroyed!
Stick with them. We ought to put together a "Big Brother" program for cool theaters turned into PAC's.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-02-2000, 06:14 AM:
It is true about the Norelco AA-II: "They don't believe me when I tell them that they are some of the best projectors ever made and that there are a LOT of them still running film every day, as if they were brand new."
For those who haven't seen it, Thomas Hauerslev of Denmark has a wonderful site devoted to 70mm:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/dp70/dp70index.htm
His site includes a comprehensive list of Norelco installations; hopefully one is in your theatre or near you:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/dp70/countries/serial.htm
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 08-02-2000, 11:18 AM:
Thin is, they're not THAT dirtty! Anybody with a couple of afternoon's time could go in and shine 'em up real nice. I did that once last year.The only thing that does need work are the lamphouses and some of the sprockets are worn. I just flipped over all the ones that were worn. (The botton HB sprockets, mostly) Virtually everything that's "wrong" with them is beasuse they are sitting idle for so long!
Honestly, they do look like Iron Beasts the first time you see them! The only thing I'd ever seen before them was a Century and a Simlplex. I first walked into the booth and said, "Oh, my God!"
There was nobody else who could run them, so I had to learn from the ground up. I said to the person who was "hiring" me (It was volunteer work), "You won't be mad at me if I can't make them work, will you?"
It took about a month to get up to speed, reading books and studying manuals but they aren't THAT hard! Whan you get right down to it, a projector's a projector.