This is topic Kaylee GK21 ? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-11-2014, 04:29 AM:
 
This Projector is a Monster;when I first saw it I thought it had to be 70mm. Nicknamed "The Elephant Foot" Apparently this Forum had a thread about one clear back in 1999-2000. Don't really see a lot of info about it. Mfged 1948-58. Anybody give us a history lesson on it. I'm just curious why it was so massive for a 35mm Machine...


 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-11-2014, 09:49 AM:
 
It was built in the UK by Kershaw as the top of the Kalee line of machines
It was designed by comitte of Gaumont Theatres to be the standard machine in there theatres where odeon had the BTH Supra
It was ahead of its time
there were several versions of it with a diffrenet soundhead combination different bases and slightly different heads
there were 3 lamphouses in the serries the Lightmaster (largest) the president (fairly common) and the Universal
With scope came a colour matched penthouse and a designer matched anamorphic
Kalee also made a lazy eight horizontal machine after Rank decided to back Techniramma system breifly
Kershaws was bought by the Rank orginization and became eventualy i have been told part of the Rank Precision Industry's group
Rank started to import the cinemecanica Vic8 when they dropped the techniramma system and Kalee basically folded up in the cinema market
They also made Dubbers Amplifiers Speakers and Optical Sound Recording Cameras and lens
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-11-2014, 01:50 PM:
 
I brought back a number of these from Canada via a friend of Gord. Had them set up in my home screening room for a long time. They are among my 8 or 10 all time favorite projectors. They are built with the fit and finish of a fine British built master clock.

Mark
 

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Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 03-11-2014, 02:31 PM:
 
We have GK21s in both projection rooms here. Sadly not used much anymore but they are still there waiting!




 

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Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 03-11-2014, 05:09 PM:
 
Phillip, many years ago I installed Dolby Stereo in your cinema. I was a very young and green engineer in those days
When is came to fitting the stereo cell I made a 'schoolboy error', for anyone who's not familiar with the solar cell for a GK21, it has the slit on the cell face, as the optics are a cumbersome reverse scanning design, I seem to remember involving prisms and other forms of light bending witchcraft...

Well to young and uninitiated, that slit looks awfully like the L/R division on most other SVA cells... Could I get this soundhead to line up? NO! Yet flick a torch beam across the cell and I got *THUMP* from the speakers.
After much sweating, stressing and a good deal of swearing I finally made a phone call to one older and wiser than I, who asked if I'd got the cell the right way round. The penny well and truly dropped and I felt a right fool!
Turns out aforementioned older and wiser man had done exactly the same thing some years before me, hence he took a very educated guess at where my problem lay and was able to point me in the right direction very quickly

Even further back in time I ran many a movie on GK21s and GK19s, they were getting really old by then but still kept on running. Like every other piece of British engineering from the post war period, they were utterly incapable of retaining lube oil, so a baking tray was a common thing to be found on the projection room floor.
 

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Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 03-11-2014, 05:43 PM:
 
Once in a cinema in Brazil I saw perhaps the two leakiest devices in our world bolted together; A GK 21 atop an RCA 9030. Big cookie sheet on the floor. I think they just kept funneling it back in.
 

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Posted by Peter Howard (Member # 3491) on 03-12-2014, 05:11 AM:
 
We still have Kalee 21's installed in all 5 of our auditoriums. It was the main machine in only 1 of those auditoriums, otherwise they were the second machine and only were used for the trailers before auto changeover to either a Simplex Millennium or a Simplex PR1014 for the main feature.

All the Kalees were heavily upgraded over the years with many rare NOS parts, re-manufactured and custom parts, and modifications like digital sound, curved gates, and lens rotators.

Not used now that we're digital in all auditoriums, but all we have to do is flick a few switches and run them for a few minutes to get oil flowing into the intermittent and we're GO. They are a most amazing machine, and with proper maintenance would have kept running for decades to come.




 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-12-2014, 09:30 AM:
 
Component Engineering even made a reverse scan reader for them
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-12-2014, 12:01 PM:
 
Peter... That looks to be a Kelmar gate assembly and turret on that GK-21. Nice re-design for sure!

I used a framing handle assembly from a GK-21 on my VistaVision projector. There are pictures of it in the F-T warehouse. It is the only framing handle I know of that also incorporates an internal locking mechanism so framing can't drift over time.

Mark
 

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Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 03-12-2014, 03:46 PM:
 
I too have a Gk21 racking handle. When I get round to it will be adorning my bathroom door (After a bit of judicious machining of some form of adaptor)
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-12-2014, 05:04 PM:
 
Great idea Pete!
 

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Posted by Peter Howard (Member # 3491) on 03-15-2014, 01:01 AM:
 

quote: Gordon McLeod

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Component Engineering even made a reverse scan reader for them

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Yep, my father was the person who first commissioned them to do the job, back in about 1998 I think. We sent them over a complete Kalee 21 head from memory.
 

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Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 03-15-2014, 07:28 AM:
 
Only this week I was servicing the digital machine at the Rex, Elland in Yorkshire, and took a photo of this Kalee, which shows the usual drip tray, however the machine is in full working order and still gets quite frequent runs for special showings or during their monthly organ concert and was in use daily until the digi install last year.



And then again when replacing doremi drives in Bowness a month ago, again another Kalee in frequent use in the background. You can see clearly on the pedestal Kershaw Leeds; the former Kalee factory was only 5 mins from where I live, I can remember it being still there with the Rank logo on the front until about 20 years ago.

I do like this image; it almost looks like the Chrisite has spool boxes attached - perhaps that's the future a dual format machine!!

Apologies for the photo quality, I didn't have a decent camera and just snapped with my less than average phone camera!


 

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-15-2014, 11:13 AM:
 
Great info;Thanks everyone who posted. I was hoping someone had a booth picture similar to the one I posted with the behemoth pedestal.

Sounds like Kaylee carried on the Tradition that was also shared
by British Motorcycles from the 50's and 60's. They leaked oil; it was just something you accepted if you rode/raced a BSA,Triumph,Norton, etc. However around 1969 BSA/Triumph started using Graphite impregnated Gaskets similar to what Honda was using. That cured quite a bit of the leaking Primary & Main Case issues....
 

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Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 03-15-2014, 01:48 PM:
 
have you seen these photos?
https://www.facebook.com/402310479876144/photos/a.433046070135918.1073741921.402310479876144/443321685775023/?type=1&theater
 

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Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 03-15-2014, 03:06 PM:
 
Steve - I am in Bowness on holiday this Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday and am planning to visit the cinema. Will you be about at all?
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-15-2014, 06:18 PM:
 
The Kalee's I owned didn't leak as badly as some of the old black Simplex's that were around. You never drained the Simplex's... you just kept them filled to the proper level. Kalee's had to be drained because they had a fine mesh oil filter that also had to be cleaned out.

Mark
 

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Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 03-16-2014, 02:11 PM:
 
I am going up from leeds on wed to service the servers and coolant levels in screens 2 and 3 on the digital machines on Wed am (there around 9.30) then off over to ulverston around lunch times; then back down via elland to sort an ethernet lead that intermittent..
 

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Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 03-17-2014, 03:43 PM:
 
Peter, did not know about yours being sent. It was my complete GK-21, soundhead, and magazines were picked up by the folks at CE for the LED mod. Both analog and digital versions were made and were in their catalog. Bill stated it worked fine.
Dick
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-17-2014, 04:17 PM:
 
Interesting. When I was working in UK cinemas, there were loads of GK37s around, but I never encountered a revenue-earning 21. I'm guessing that so many of them found their way to Australia because of import/export tax breaks that existed between Commonwealth countries throughout the period this model was in production.
 

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Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 03-17-2014, 07:13 PM:
 
Peter, did your dad come to Seattle with the goal of buying CE?

I later had long phone calls with someone down under by the last name of Howard who was seeking info about building a red LED reader. Small world if you're his son.
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-17-2014, 09:06 PM:
 

quote: Steve Moore

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https://www.facebook.com/402310479876144/photos/a.433046070135918.1073741921.402310479876144/443321685775023/?type=1&theater

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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Interesting. When I was working in UK cinemas, there were loads of GK37s around, but I never encountered a revenue-earning 21. I'm guessing that so many of them found their way to Australia because of import/export tax breaks that existed between Commonwealth countries throughout the period this model was in production.

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quote: Dick Prather

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Peter, did not know about yours being sent. It was my complete GK-21, soundhead, and magazines were picked up by the folks at CE for the LED mod. Both analog and digital versions were made and were in their catalog. Bill stated it worked fine.
Dick

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quote: Sam D. Chavez

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Peter, did your dad come to Seattle with the goal of buying CE?

I later had long phone calls with someone down under by the last name of Howard who was seeking info about building a red LED reader. Small world if you're his son.

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Dad never went over to Seattle as far as I know, but he spoke to CE about investing in them. It never came to pass.

It's awful likely that you spoke to my father Don, if you were speaking to an Aussie surname Howard into red LED readers. He's very proud of the innovations that he commissioned for the GK-21. He sold quite a few items to operators around the world, but a shame that we still have some parts stock that will never find a home.
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-19-2014, 10:40 AM:
 
I'm curious:
Looking at the original "museum photo" of the projector-
It looks almost like the film compartment is hermetically sealed.
Is this one of those machines which had a built in CO-2 fire suppression system?
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-19-2014, 11:50 AM:
 
At least some of the 'Elephant foot' version of these machines, as seen in th picture did contain fire bottles; I've seen one pair which did.

The strangely shaped upper spoolbox was the same on the original Cintel flying spot telecine. Kalee and Cintel were both part of Rank at one time.
 

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Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 03-19-2014, 12:12 PM:
 

quote: Jim Cassedy

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Is this one of those machines which had a built in CO-2 fire suppression system?

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