Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Peepshow machines from the 1970's

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Posted by Vaughn Hamrick (Member # 4092) on 01-10-2007, 03:08 PM:

Back in the 70's I used to work in an adult movie theater.I used to service the 8mm and 16mm peepshow machines as well.I haven't seen one since 1977.Does anyone have any pictures of one of these old machines they can post or send to me?

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 01-10-2007, 05:08 PM:

Can't help you there, but I'm sure some of us would love to hear stories about your experiences working in the theater. One guy that I met that serviced our theater one time used to service and work in porno theaters back in the day and he had great stories about the mob guys, etc. [thumbsup]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-10-2007, 06:08 PM:

Not that *I* would personally know anything about porno films or porno theatres (Be nice, Mike!), but below is a pic of a coin-op Mills Panoram. The coolest thing about these machines is the continuous 16mm film loop on one reel.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-10-2007, 07:03 PM:

..take a peek at this link on the Mills Panoram unit. Quite interesting of an unit and makes one wonder if the film would get scratched being fed vertically from that continuous loop system.

Phil, the guy who has this restored Panoram is close to you in the LA area with the area code being posted.
- Monte

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-10-2007, 07:23 PM:

Last time I saw one of these was in a warehouse many moons ago. The head is basically a RCA PG-201 which also became the basis for their 1st commercial telecine system.
The endless reel concept works fine with proper initial set up and film loading.....I am servicing several of these for a show in Miami, mounted horizontally with 5 to 40 minutes of film.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-10-2007, 07:30 PM:

There was these units as well - the Scopitone. - Monte

Posted by Vaughn Hamrick (Member # 4092) on 01-10-2007, 08:20 PM:

quote: Mike Heenan
I'm sure some of us would love to hear stories about your experiences working in the theater. One guy that I met that serviced our theater one time used to service and work in porno theaters back in the day and he had great stories about the mob guys, etc.

Don't know much about the mob,except that the theater I worked was owned by a guy who definitely was connected.I also shot some of the films that went into these machines.The "talent" we used in these films came from another porn theater that featured live acts.That establishment was owned by Micheal Thevis who was known as "The Godfather of porn",owning some 40% of the industry at the time.I never met Thevis,as he was in prison at the time I worked at the Roxy Theater in Jackosnville,Florida.Thevis's place was the Ellwest,where he had peepshow machines and booths with girls behind glass who would entertain as the patron put quarters in.
I worked at the Roxy during the summer of 1977,I was 17 at the time,a little shy of a year to be legal to even be in the theater.
The peepshow films were shot in 16mm and super 8 reduction prints were made and loaded into cartridges,some 400 to 600 feet of super 8 print,notched every 25 feet or so to trigger the machine to shut down so the viewer would put more money or tokens in to see more of the film.
The Roxy had six peepshow machines and a full screen theater that was originally built in the 1930's.We ran two Simplex machines with Brenkert carbon arc lamphouses and RCA soundheads.We also ran a 16mm xenon arc Eiki with a reel extender to accomodate 4000 foot reels.
Thanks for the really cool pictures of the machines,guys.I was hoping to see pictures of the ones like I worked with,they reminded me of those Fairchild and Technicolor cartridge projectors married to an automated coin vending machine.
The machines were emptied nightly,each one bringing between 120 to 200 bucks a night in quarters.
Hard core porn was outlawed in Jacksonville in 1980,the Ellwest was shut down in 1981 as was the Roxy's bookstore and peepshow arcade,the main theater continued to run soft core and died a slow death.They briefly switched to a really crappy video projection system and that was the final nail in the coffin.They closed in 1985 and the theater was demolished shortly thereafter.
The sheriff's office confiscated the peepshow machines and no one seems to know what their fate was.I'm guessing at least one of them is in some judge or other public servant's basement or den.Here is a picture of the Roxy Theater taken in 1984 just before it closed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/193717358/

quote: Richard Fowler
Last time I saw one of these was in a warehouse many moons ago. The head is basically a RCA PG-201 which also became the basis for their 1st commercial telecine system.

The Ellwest had 16mm peepshow machines that had optical sound.Probably this type.I never worked with these,but I did see them.

[ 01-11-2007, 03:42 PM: Message edited by: Vaughn Hamrick ]

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 01-14-2007, 04:02 PM:

In the lobby at the West Newton we have a Capitol Midget Movies machine that the owner found in a barn and I personally got working again. Feed it dimes and see one of two silent shorts. It runs only double-perf 16mm and is not particularly easy on film. Luckily I've found Ebay to be a fount of inexpensive old silent cartoons and such, and I change the program once or twice a year. Here you can see a machine like mine. I've made a bunch of modifications to it, including replacing the original dead motor with a spare 35mm drive motor, which is super-overkill I know but it sure gets the job done.

Oh yes, I keep the dimes, and they do add up - woo-hoo!

Posted by Vaughn Hamrick (Member # 4092) on 01-16-2007, 10:11 AM:

Thanks for sharing.That's the closest I've seen to what I saw and worked on,except they had been "modernized" for the 70's.Some even had magnetic sound.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-16-2007, 02:26 PM:

quote: Peter Mork
It runs only double-perf 16mm and is not particularly easy on film.

If the shuttle pulldown is outboard, one could almost take the sprockets off and grind down the inboard teeth to accept the single perf sound film (even though there is no sound assembly).

But, if the shuttle pulldown is inboard, have to give that idea up.

Posted by Vaughn Hamrick (Member # 4092) on 01-17-2007, 08:39 AM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
If the shuttle pulldown is outboard, one could almost take the sprockets off and grind down the inboard teeth to accept the single perf sound film (even though there is no sound assembly).

But, if the shuttle pulldown is inboard, have to give that idea up.

Couldn't you just replace the sprocket alltogether?There should be plenty of single perf sprockets lying around that can be canibalized.