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Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 06-03-2010, 10:48 PM:
 
I was sorting through my father's and grandfather's papers last weekend and ran across a certification that my grandfather was a qualified motion picture operator. The certificate is from 1915.

Link

A Google search for the National School of Motion Picture Operating turns up nothing (yet). I thought the certificate was an interesting bit of history.

Harold

[ 06-03-2010, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: Adam Martin ]
 

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Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 06-03-2010, 11:18 PM:
 
Harold, thank you for sharing that document.

It harks back to the days when it was considered a skill and fine craft to present motion pictures, unlike the current era of "popcorn kids" and "booth monkeys" who think the automation and platters are the only way to present a film.

Back then projectionists were respected by management as an essential part of a team to give the public the entertainment they paid for.

Current management cares more about how pretty the lobby looks than the quality of the presentation.
 

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Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 06-03-2010, 11:26 PM:
 
I agree with the above. Management doesn't care about the booth until something breaks because they wouldn't get it fixed when it was working.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-04-2010, 01:07 AM:
 
..sounds like the mgrs of some of these complexes loves a war atmosphere ... each man for themselves and quick to point the finger.
 

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Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 06-04-2010, 03:04 AM:
 
I too agree with Tony. By the time I entered the field in 1950 it was pretty well organized and the training was provided by the union. I think today some managers (and corporate big-wigs) assume automation will cover for the "button-pushers" incompetence.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 06-04-2010, 05:26 AM:
 
This was during the silents era, where someone had to provide organ accompaniment to the movie, with the larger theatres in the bigger cities having orchestras play with the movie.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-04-2010, 09:48 AM:
 

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr

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Current management cares more about how pretty the lobby looks than the quality of the presentation

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And lots of times, Tony, even THAT's giving them too much credit.

And yes, thanks for that document, Harold. Great to see a bit our history....really a time gone with the wind.

Many times I've said I was born too late -- wouldn't it have been just incredible fun working during the Golden Age of the Movie Palace and to have been working in those booths when they were installing all the great innovations like sound, 3D, CinemaScope, mag sound, Perspecta Sound and the mother of all film systems -- 70mm? Imagine what fun being a projectionist back then must have been. Luckily I am old enough to have enjoyed some of it having started in carbon arc change-over booths. But soon automation sucked a lot of the joy out of that. Also great luck in that I still work art and specialty houses where the projectionist is still an integral part of the operation.

For at least a little more than a decade I got a taste of that booth magic when I first got into the business -- then the projectionist was still really responsible for the showmanship and the presentation and you really had to run the show and not just build it. Imagine what a thrill it must have been to run a "silent" show with a live accompaniment or to run Vitasound with a record player stuck on the back of the projector! And to witness the transition to sound, 3D, Scope, etc. It was a time when I bet a lot of kids actually aspired to being a projectionist as a profession.

I know I would sneak past the NO ADMITTANCE sign in the balcony stairwell of the Century Meadows in Queens because at 12yrs old, I just HAD to see how that huge picture could come out of that little hole in the wall at the back of the theatre. I'd sit on the step outside the booth door, peering in, wide-eyed and fascinated as I watched the projectionist run the show....threading the machine, tending to that magnificent arc light and making change-overs. I bet if Rockwell were around he could have painted a great picture of that scene.

For me, that guy working intently in the booth on those monster machines with which he seemed to almost become one, was a living Wizard of Oz....and I wanted to do be like him.

Most times if they spotted me, I was shooed away and the guy would close the door. But on rare occasions, there were two kindly gentlemen and would actually let me come into that magic booth and sit in a big chair and watch them ply their craft. I knew I just HAD to do what they were doing.

Of course today there is the transition to digital that a booth worker will witness, but while that might be fun for the installers, once the new technology is in, there isn't a "projectionist" per se who has to operate it, minute-by-minute, running a digital show. He possibly might starting it, but even that is automated; with digital there is no need for anyone to meld with the machine.

Bet pushing the START button to initiate a digital show won't be inspiring a youngster to want to get into this craft. No Rockwell painting that.
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-04-2010, 12:23 PM:
 
Frank: You must arrange a meeting with Andy Marglin of Kerlmar. He was the technical director of Century Theatres.

In my case, I had Norm Schneider (Father of the man-from-Smart) as a boss at Altec Service Corp. He was hired as a kid in high school on Long Island, worked for ERPI/Western Electric/Altec his entire career. Norm p0ersonally lugged the speaker for the Biograph Theatre for sound system #1. Boy did that guy have good stories of Grandeur, 70mm, Mag, 3D (2 projector) etc. Louis
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 06-04-2010, 12:27 PM:
 
I sometimes spotted that little guy staring in the booth door and always invited him in to see the magic. Often is was a not so little guy. I remember running 70mm at the MacArthur in DC and the other operator and I giving a booth tour to some wide eyed patrons. We enjoyed it as much as they did.
 

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Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 06-04-2010, 06:10 PM:
 
Your stories of watching the projectionist remind me of the movie Nuovo cinema Paradiso ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/ ).

Great stories, and great movie.

Harold
 

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Posted by Robert Throop (Member # 61) on 06-04-2010, 06:13 PM:
 
I think that often these operators "schools" were a device to provide management with non union labor.
Bob
 

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Posted by Eric Robinson (Member # 2966) on 06-04-2010, 06:14 PM:
 
I like the certificate, maybe you could dig for information on the name of the person who signed it.

I have never seen carbon arc in action. Antone know where there might be some in use around Santa Rosa, California?
 

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Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 06-06-2010, 05:29 AM:
 
eric,

if you head down to san francisco, the roxie still runs carbons. just make sure it's a 35mm show in the big roxie--they use xenon for 16mm and for 35mm in the little roxie 2 doors up, and they show a fair amount of video.
 

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 06-06-2010, 08:31 AM:
 
Once in a while a manager would decide he was going to learn projection, because of course those damn projectionists get too much money. I usually started out by showing him the arc lamps. I'd fire one up purposely setting the arc too far apart so the feed motors would run a little wild, and loud, trying to catch up. It would make that 'fizzle' noise, humming, etc. One guy actually took a step back. Mission accomplished ...
 

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Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 06-09-2010, 03:18 PM:
 
Good one John!

I have done similar things to discourage the "know-it-alls" from trying to run my machines.
 

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Posted by Eric Womack (Member # 4458) on 06-09-2010, 05:00 PM:
 
I have to say that I have a very unusual job then. I still run Film in a booth that has both Carbon Arc and xenon lamps in it. I am lucky and run previews on the carbon arc and run film on two xenon lamped machines. The projectors were installed in 1954 and we stuill run them today. Check out the summer movie series at the Ohio Theater in Columbus Ohio
 

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Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 06-09-2010, 06:42 PM:
 

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr

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I have done similar things to discourage the "know-it-alls" from trying to run my machines.

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I've found judicious placement of rat-traps and charged-up capacitors in lamphouses and mechanisms a guaranteed deterrent.

..oh, and it's a pisser watching them get bitten.
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 06-09-2010, 06:56 PM:
 

quote: Eric Womack

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I am lucky and run previews on the carbon arc and run film on two xenon lamped machines.

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