Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Century 35mm Only Mag Penthouse?

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 02-13-2008, 08:12 PM:

Is there such an animal?

I know the 35/70 ones are common. But I have never seen a 35mm only one.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-13-2008, 08:56 PM:

I don't know how many they sold, but I do remember that they were available. (Looks just like the bigger 70/35 one.) Louis

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-13-2008, 09:23 PM:

Century provided the Westrex 35mm penthouse for 35mm use on C or H or SA machines

picture of the Centurys at the Royal toronto

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-14-2008, 08:29 AM:

Ampex made a drag-through type penthouse that was compatible with Century or Simplex. Note the Ampex heads were standard on the Century R30/31 penthouse.

Whereas I have seen the Ampex head on Simplex XL projectors too, I would think that a Simplex penthouse would also work on a Century.

Steve

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-14-2008, 08:50 AM:

The Simplex Mag Penthouse had the 4 hole layout that allowed it to be directly screwed down to the top of an X-L in place of the upperX=L style reel arm or X=L reel arm mounting plate adapter... Kind of an oddball design made it difficult to mount to other machines but it has been done. Worst penthouse by far the RCA... Best Penthouse... Ampex...certainly the heaviest of the bunch too!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-14-2008, 10:03 AM:

After working a bit with both the Ampex and the Simplex penthouses...I actually preferred the Simplex...not to just be contrary to Mark...though that has been fun on some subjects...but I feel that the Simplex afforded the best ability to get the head alignment dead on without messing up other adjustments...that is, you could work on tilt (zenith) without messing up azimuth. One could precisely set up the tensioning on the Simplex well too.

Steve

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-14-2008, 10:25 AM:

The same adapter plate used for a Simplex E7 mated the Simplex penthouse to a century nicely
The Motiograph was a common penthouse up here on century but the most common was the Westrex I can't remember the R number for it
RCA and Ballantyne were the hardest penthouses to align Simplex was one of the easier ones

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 02-14-2008, 01:38 PM:

I recall the mag penthouse on top of my SA-35 at the UA in Lubbock was a Simplex.
Ben Kehe removed it in the late 80s (before he left UA) as he determined the penthouse was a source of scratching as one of my fellow crew members was skipping a roller when they threaded through it. "When was the last time you ran mag here?"
"1981...Fantasia."
"I'm taking it off."
We never did need it again.

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-14-2008, 02:03 PM:

quote: Steve Guttag
Ampex made a drag-through type penthouse that was compatible with Century or Simplex. Note the Ampex heads were standard on the Century R30/31 penthouse.

Whereas I have seen the Ampex head on Simplex XL projectors too, I would think that a Simplex penthouse would also work on a Century.

Steve,

The first projectors I ran had the Ampex heads they were XL's vintage 1955 - 1958 not sure the exact date on the projectors! I know the theater had the sound added in 1958.

It was 1973 when we tried to fix up the stereo system it was an RCA Vacuum Tube System as I recall and my boss wanted to start to run in stereo when he could possible get a print that was equipped with such.

We worked for days he had a reel of film, I think it was Ben Hur the big Race scene. We would get it running sounding good and a Tube would run out. He would go threw his personal stash of tubes and off to the race were again and about 3/4 of the way though the reel another would burn out.

He ordered tubes and still we burnt them out. After a long time (several weeks of several hours a day) he gave up. He only rented the theater in that location and couldn't see putting more money in to their system that he didn't think would ever work.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-14-2008, 06:16 PM:

Back to the topic: the Century ones were the "brainchild" of Bob Fidel back about 1975-76. They were actually made by Century when there was a minor resurgence of 35mm-4 track. I recall that they had a driven sprocket like the JJ. Apparently no one else actually made 4-tr new at that time. (Plenty of one ones around here; mostly Simplex & Ampex.)

Too bad they could not forsee Dolby. Louis

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-15-2008, 07:49 AM:

Why Louis? In truth, SVA was a pretty piss-poor alternative to 4-track. Had VKF been the standard sprocket, sendust heads (Teccon) and Dolby NR rather than some stupid pilot tone...4-track could have had a much longer life. Unfortunately, the pieces did not come together until after 4-track had a bad name for being expensive and somewhat problematic.

Steve

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-15-2008, 08:24 AM:

But alas, optical sound was and still is the world standard... which is why the industry really went away from 4 track and embraced sva... an sva print will still play anywhere in the world on any 35mm projector. Had 35 mag gotten as widespread a 70mm did then just like 70mm... 35 mag would have seen the same demise anyway.

Mark

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-15-2008, 07:52 PM:

I loved 4 tr. Instead of interlock, I had my premieres printed to fox hole film, striped and sounded all four tracks as mono.I carried a CP-100 with mpu and an XL mag head instead.

Less trouble, less worry for the average projectionist. Louis

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-15-2008, 10:28 PM:

Just a little question here! I assume that glue splices were used but if they weren't if tape were used would the sound have an interrupt when the tape went through the reader?

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 02-16-2008, 12:49 AM:

You lost a bit of the highs, not great. That happened of course before you saw the splice go through so it wasn't quite the distraction it would have been were it the other way around.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-16-2008, 04:45 AM:

quote: Steve Guttag
Why Louis? In truth, SVA was a pretty piss-poor alternative to 4-track. Had VKF been the standard sprocket, sendust heads (Teccon) and Dolby NR rather than some stupid pilot tone...4-track could have had a much longer life. Unfortunately, the pieces did not come together until after 4-track had a bad name for being expensive and somewhat problematic.

All of those things would have given you a better mag system, but wouldn't have made the prints any cheaper.

Posted by Ben Wales (Member # 92) on 02-17-2008, 04:38 PM:

In the UK we had the Westrex 4trk 35mm mag head (can't remember type number) I had one for a while and also we had Kalee 4trk Mag Heads, both which were Pull Through versions.

BTH also produced one for the Super 2 Projector range.

Posted by Phillip Grace (Member # 2262) on 02-18-2008, 07:02 PM:

In Australia the Westrex 35mm mag head was known as AR9. It had a pair of mounting holes on top and another on the bottom at the standard Simplex upper magazine bolt hole pitch. The feed magazine is offset towards the lamphouse when mounted on top of the mag head.