Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: W.E. U-Base On Turner Classic Movies

This is topic W.E. U-Base On Turner Classic Movies in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=007451

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 09-19-2005, 02:57 AM:

Just an interesting note. Turner Classic Movies has been running a biography they produced about Garbo.

Anyhow, when they are discussing her transition from silents to sound, they included some extensive historic booth footage of the U-Base in action.

Footage shows a c/o booth with two projectionists (one per machine). Also included was some good close-ups of the projector and disc recording in action...including the Vitaphone disc cue marks.

The footage is probably a few minutes long, or somewhere there abouts.

Cheers

K

Posted by Fred Georges (Member # 505) on 09-19-2005, 07:51 AM:

I'm restoring a U base now (Geez is that thing Freakin heavy!). The base & soundhead were easy. Getting all the turntable parts & the model 49 pre-amp were, shall we say, expensive but, got all my box-o-parts & will spend the winter putting it back together. Got a few vitaphone Discs so I'll be able to play the audio when done. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-19-2005, 08:09 AM:

quote: Fred Georges
I'm restoring a U base now (Geez is that thing Freakin heavy!). The base & soundhead were easy. Getting all the turntable parts & the model 49 pre-amp were, shall we say, expensive but, got all my box-o-parts & will spend the winter putting it back together. Got a few vitaphone Discs so I'll be able to play the audio when done.

Fred,
I still remember the days when there were many U-bases laying around the booths in Chicago and the burbs... they were all free for the taking, usually those running the theatres were glad to get rid of them, or 50 bucks did the trick! Had several of them at one time plus I got the entire W.E. booth(and spkrs) out of the old Times Theatre on north Milwaukee av.... At that time the location was a dance hall and they had placed a wall in front of where the speaker was standing... had to climb over that wall to get the drivers out! First month production Motiograph model K's and WE TA7400 reverse scan sound heads.... before I pulled everything out I turned on all the switches in the fuse panel and everything still worked... it had baan sitting over 30 years unused! Now that locaction is a bus turn around station! There were still three or four U-bases in the Montclair Theatre in various states in a side room just off the booth last time I was in there. Mr. B. and I each got a U-base from on old theatre just a few blocks south of where his loft was at. We got the machines one day and thought about going back and looking for more stuff the next day..... a couple of days later we did go back and down the hall from the booth was another room with two turntables. Mr B. took his U-base to the dump for some unknown reason... but he did keep the TT. I eventually dragged mine out here to Utah.

Mark

Posted by Fred Georges (Member # 505) on 09-19-2005, 09:27 PM:

My first full time booth had U bases & Simplex standards. Ran them for 2 years before we "Modernized" with Brenkert Bx 80's & 9030's. The WE's were quaint & I wasn't sorry to see them go but, In my old age I'm feeling Nostalgic so am wasting My dough putting this thing back in original condition. All I can say is I'll be laughing when I'm dead for the poor Bastard who's going to have to pull that thing out of My Basement! Here's to you whoever you are! LoL [beer]