Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Salvaging booth equipment

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-14-2003, 02:52 PM:

It is my understanding that most companies leave a good amount of booth equipment behind when a theater closes. So, has anyone (not someone that works for the theater) ever gone in and gotten any of it? I dont mean steal.

For instance, a UA6 near my house closed down about 4 years ago and was turned into a grocery store. I thought about asking the construction guys if I could get some stuff, but I was too chicken. They probably just throw most of it in the dumpster anyway.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-14-2003, 02:53 PM:

Generally (and in your specific case), the owner (UA) removed the equipment before it was sold.

Posted by Chris Trainor (Member # 9) on 10-14-2003, 03:11 PM:

The only cases where i've seen stuff left behind have been the follow 2 scenarios:

1: Really old theater, closed for decades, still has 1940's vintage projectors. Generally this stuff is either useless or will take a huge amount of work to get them running.

2: Other places and usually the most you find left behind are things like reel cases and lens cabinets... no equipment.

--Chris

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-14-2003, 03:41 PM:

Don't knock the "vintage" stuff. It can be valuable, and certainly collectable.

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 10-14-2003, 03:49 PM:

Although I've built theaters, my primary business is real estate development, and I've had a number of GCC twins close in older shopping centers. Generally they would pull the lenses and loose supplies, but I've found they usually left the pedestals, projectors, xenons, rectifiers, platters, water coolers, amps (usually mono), VOT's, and seats. Until he got choked up with Griggs seating I used to have a guy who'd pull them out for $1.50, and the equipment I sold to one of two local circuit operators. The standard deal was between $2500 and $5000 per house depending on how beat the stuff was with their techs doing the "pulling". We're not talking prime stuff here, but most of it went back into service.

Posted by Kevin Wale (Member # 1851) on 10-14-2003, 06:45 PM:

I went to visit the theatre I will be working at and upon looking around I found a Kelmar film cleaner. No one even knew it was there much less what it was. I believe Regal had it when it closed down a few years ago. From my understanding there was quite a bit of equipment left behind.

I'm excited to be converting a theatre to a filmgaurd theatre [Big Grin]

They also had one of those dirt transfer roller thingy magigers... Is there a place that might trade one of those in for another Kelmar pad cleaner? I realize it wouldn't be a big trade in value, but if it's worth anything it's better than what it will be doing... sitting on the shelf.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 10-14-2003, 09:14 PM:

Just keep your ear to the ground. Some corporations do abandon equipment. However, the equipment may be too old to use in modern theatres and/or it would cost more to ship the stuff to a corporation warehouse than what it is worth.

When we closed Cinema 5, some of the equipment that was in Cinema 5 as well as some of the equipment we were saving that came from the College Tri Cinema when it closed was disposed of in the dumpster. Some of the equipment was usable, but it was obsolete.

I had two piles going: One headed for the dumpster, and the other pile was headed for my pick-up truck. Most of it found a good home in another theatre.

I personally salvaged some of it for other uses. However, after tripping over it for several years, I finally threw it away or gave it away just to get it out of my hair.

Theatre seating can be a liability. I had many Irwin Rockers and Citations that were still in excellent condition. We tried giving those away but nobody wanted them. They finally went to the dump. It costed us close to two hundred bucks for the disposal fee - not to mention what we had to pay employees to help load the stuff up in the truck.

Posted by Chris Trainor (Member # 9) on 10-14-2003, 09:22 PM:

I don't mind vintage, heck my personal screening room runs on an E7.

however, many of these theaters that have been closed for 20+ years that have 'vintage' projectors are largely beyond reasonable repair. Granted, if you really want to rebuild one of these things it's possible, but it's usually easier and cheaper to get something that hasn't been sitting around for decades.

--Chris

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 10-14-2003, 10:32 PM:

My hometown had two Carmike theaters, located inside and outside the local mall which were closed down rather suddenly a few years ago. At both locations, every single piece of equipment was left there (everything from film splicers to fairly new DTS-6D units!)- and not just upstairs, all of the concession equipment was left in place as well! They terminated their leases with the mall and basically just left the stuff to collect dust.

I cannot recall what happened to all of this abandoned property, but I seem to think that most of it found a good home. [Wink]

Posted by Adam Budweg (Member # 1901) on 10-14-2003, 11:36 PM:

The case with my previous jab was the owner jsut dissapeared. got a sopina and everythign cause he decided not to pay taxes, but tahts another story. anyway all of teh equipment was put up for public auction.

Posted by Serge Bosschaerts (Member # 298) on 10-15-2003, 02:43 AM:

When cinema Majestic closed in 1967, the complete projection setup remained intact in the booth.
It became a theater for two years and then a furniture store until 2000.
The booth was almost like the operator had left in 1967, empty reels in the upper spool boxes and it turned out that the Century C's with Ashcraft carbon arc's had never played cinema scope films !
Also the original rectifiers with the mercury lamps where there and the Westrex Export Co amplifier.
I bought the projectors and the amp and was lucky because the shop had a workshop on the same level as the booth, just had to move everything there and then elevator straight down ... Sometimes you just get lucky but who knows what remains still in closed or rebuild cinema's ?

Only thing I regret, I took some pictures of this setup, only to notice when I got home that the camera contained no film [Frown]

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 10-15-2003, 03:11 AM:

I have only been to two closed theatres, one was a Mann location and one was a UA. Mann left every single piece of projection and concession equipment, while UA stripped the place bare, even taking the mylar holders from over the auditorium doors. (Pictures of the stuff Mann left behind are on this site under the theatre's name, Fig Garden 4. I believe the people who leased the building sold off the stuff -- I just stopped in one afternoon and they let me in to take some pictures before it was completely remodeled)

Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 10-15-2003, 07:01 AM:

Vintage stuff will give great service in a home set up. I've restored two BX-40's, a BX-60, Motio AA, and an E-7. [thumbsup]