Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Where were you 20 years ago?

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-08-2001, 06:11 AM:

I remember walking to the bus depot as a 15 year old to pick up this new print of some film called 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' and carrying (with many unscheduled stops to recover) all six reels of it in two trunks back to the theatre. I ran it on 2000's and was surprised that this PG film had such violence in it. I watched it in the auditorium that night and was glued to the screen for all 112 minutes of it. It has been my favorite film ever since.

It's a shame Paramount don't seem to want to re-release it for its 20th anniversary, but it looks like the dvd at least will be out soon.

Anyway...thanks Steven for the greatest film ever made.

For those who need reminding how good this film is, go to www.indy20.com and download the trailer.

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"It's not the years, honey...it's the mileage" - Indiana Jones

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 07-08-2001, 08:57 AM:

Hmmmmm... 20 years ago. Well I was in nappies.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-08-2001, 09:46 AM:

20 years ago? I was showing Raiders in 70mm at the K-B Cinema and many other K-B theatres in the DC metropolitan area....Wasn't that the summer for Superman II as well? If so, see to recall getting the Chicken Pox from one of our lovely patrons!

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

Posted by Frank Rapisardi (Member # 435) on 07-08-2001, 12:24 PM:

20 years ago I was teaching high school biology by day and running the booth at the old E.M.Loews Merrimack Park drive-in at night.Talk about getting tired! All in all it was fun.(carbon archs and all) The drive-in was in Methuen Ma.about five minutes from my house.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-08-2001, 01:53 PM:

20 years ago this week we were showing Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in "Stir Crazy." Coming attractions: "Excalibur," "The Cannonball Run" and "The Legend of the Lone Ranger." Sheesh, it's amazing we're still here today!

We didn't get the above-mentioned "Raiders" until Labor Day weekend of that year! Thanks to all the megaplexes (which require more prints), it's actually easier for us small towns to get a print now than it was then. If Raiders had come out this weekend, we'd probably play it on 7/27 or 8/3, if not on the break.

Posted by Ray Faultless (Member # 903) on 07-08-2001, 02:14 PM:

20 years ago, I was at Swank Motion Pictures in New York.Shipping out over 100 prints per day, inspecting returned prints, editing R rated movies into PGs for high schools,repairing sprocket damage on prints back from jails where a cop was shot. They would reverse over and over that scene. Lots of fun. I loved and miss my years at Swank.

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Posted by Rachel Carter (Member # 693) on 07-08-2001, 05:26 PM:

Almost 21 years ago I was born. So, 20 years ago I was probably laying in a crib drooling on my blankie...

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-08-2001, 05:38 PM:

20 years ago I was standing in a very long line at the Century 21 to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in 70mm. Awesome! That was a long time ago. Ah, to be 70 again!

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 07-08-2001, 06:21 PM:

20 years ago I'd never been to a movie in an indoor theatre (since my parents didn't do that). 20 years ago , July 1981, I was struggling through my last year of little league (actually "Dixie Youth" league) baseball in Cherokee County, Alabama. My father was my baseball coach, and he was also my 7th grade math teacher during the 1980-1981 school year. I was a lousy baseball player and always had been and would be, and my father thought by practicing me long and hard, I'd be better. I got one hit in my 3 summers of hell -- oops, little league, in the summers of 1979, 1980, and 1981.

I was 12, just about to turn 13 on August 13, 1981. A few days after my birthday, I had to have my appendix removed.

1981 was a very bad year for me, since there were other bad things. This "20 years ago" thread really brought back some bad memories.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-08-2001, 07:25 PM:

20 years ago, i was running changeovers at the Clover Cinema, Cloverdale, CA, on Brenkert 60's with Magnarcs, running such titles as 'Raiders', 'Superman II', 'Cannonball Run', 'On The Right Track', 'Legend Of The Lone Ranger', 'Clash Of The Titans', and the rerelease of 'Empire Strikes Back' Those were definitely the days...

Aaron

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 07-08-2001, 07:46 PM:

July 1981....Great summer in New York. I was working on putting together a Multi media show for the South Street Seaport in New York City. The area was in the process of being renovated by the Rouse Company. The show was being written by Rusty Russell and we were in the production stages. Story Boards were being drawn at this time. The building where the theatre was to be built was landmarked on the outside and we were digging inside. As the construction company dug out the inside of the building they came across the hull of a ship that had sunk before the landfill extended the island of Manhattan into the East River. Well this stopped construction for the next 14 months while they poked and probed the site.

This became a 120 Slide machines, 35 and 16mm film. Talking heads apearing in windows, lightning flashes and bows breaking on the "Seaport Adventure". Show lasted five years 7 days, show every hour on the hour from 12 noon to midnight. Good Year.

PS to Evans I also had a son 15 years old in the Pony leagues and I was his manager. He didn't do math as well as you...but he could hit.

Posted by Stephen Jones (Member # 16) on 07-08-2001, 08:26 PM:

20 years ago I was working in a twin cinema with Bauer U3s and Specco platters and earning a lot more than I am now.One of the films and one of my favourites was Raiders actually I liked all of the raiders films but never had the opertunity to see it in 70mm.Also worked the odd shift at the two drive ins in town which were owned by the same company.I used to with another collegue rotate between the twin and a single screen,which used to break the bordom of running with platters and automation as the single was a change over theatre using Bauer B11s on 2000' spls.Back then you had to be licensed,things have changed over the last 20 yrs.The two drive ins in that town were closed in 85 the single theatre closed not long after, it used to be a news reel theatre in the early days then changed to screening feature movies up un till it closed about 87 I think,
(I'm not sure of the actual year) it only seated 250 people and was used to screen 3D when Jaws 3, Coming at you, Friday 13th 3 and the re release of the House of Wax, how many of you remember those and the twin was changed to 7 screen theatre in 89 and the 2 Bauer U3s are still running.

Steve

Posted by Robert Golding (Member # 746) on 07-09-2001, 03:27 AM:

20 yrs ago I was doing the same thing I'm doing now. I didn't have grey hair and didn't have any children. I presently have 5 wonderful and active children. Some people just start the family a little late in life.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 07-09-2001, 11:08 AM:

An 11 year old running carbon arc changeovers in a college auditorium and xenon changeovers at the local twin. Scary, huh?

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 07-09-2001, 12:26 PM:

OOoooh I can't wait until I can tell people that I was running some old movie 20 years ago --

Unfortunately I was three 20 years ago... so I wasn't running much of anything. Although I'm pretty sure I knew how the remote control worked for the tv.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 07-09-2001, 12:40 PM:

Jeez, when I was three, I was the remote!

Let the "uphill both ways through snow" tales begin!

Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 07-09-2001, 04:39 PM:

20 years ago I was getting geared up to see Raiders at a drive in. I was very excited because my mom told me Han Solo was in it. At 7 years old, I didn't know Ford by his real name. Only that he was that guy that drove the Millennium Falcon

At the time, I actually thought Tron was a better movie. That's probably only because the opening of the Ark sequence scared the shit out of me. I remember when Jones was marching in line with the Nazis towards the end right before breaking off to get on that ridge asking my mom if we could watch this again. She said we'd have to wait until after Urban Cowboy to see it again and by that time it'd be pretty late, but after closing my eyes when those people melted (and on such a huge screen), I didn't seem to have a problem leaving. I can't help but laugh about it now.
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The man with the magic hands.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-09-2001, 05:19 PM:

I guess that would've made me 11 years old. Back about that time I was tinkering around with 8mm and 16mm projectors and designing some homemade platters for them out of inverted ceiling fan motors, round discs cut from masonite and drawer track rollers. Who could've ever known that 20 years later I would've ended up talking to Steve Guttag! Wow.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-09-2001, 06:34 PM:

Twenty years ago I was repairing typewriters, fax machinee etc. and 4 years away from the projection room. Typewriters are fewer and fewer though there are still a lot out there, projectors will be heading the same direction eventually. No change I guess.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-09-2001, 08:12 PM:

Twenty years ago I was designing the Kodak LAD Girl control film, a tool to help labs improve quality and consistency of color duplicating. I also was working on the development team for Kodak's "low fade" color print film 5384, introduced in 1982. I had just completed a study of the causes of print damage for the SMPTE Theatrical Projection Committee, after visiting labs, film exchanges and theatres throughout the country. And worked on developing the SMPTE Theatre Quality Evaluation Program to provide immediate feedback on presentation quality to theatres from SMPTE experts.

I also was enjoying 70mm prints in theatres, and agree that films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" deserve to be seen in "The Splendor of 70mm".
The Splendor of 70mm

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 07-09-2001, 08:51 PM:

20 years ago? Working at a television station in Syracuse, NY and acting as relief projectionist for the old CinemaNational chain. I relieved all the singles: The Cinema North, Cinema East, Genesee, Westvale, North DI, Dewitt DI, Lakeshore DI (the most ambient light polluted DI screen in America, bar none. If anyone ever told me that they "saw a movie at the Lakeshore", I told them they were lying). And now they are all, every one, demolished.

Actually, almost 20 years ago tonight, I was nearly getting myself shot to death in the booth of a porn theater in a argument over the actress who played the blond nurse in 'Deep Throat', but that's a 'nother story. If anyone ever starts a "Ever Been Nearly Rubbed out by a Mob Faction While on the Job?" header, I'll spill.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-10-2001, 01:36 PM:

20 years ago I was flying Grand Canyon tours, charters, and prisoner transfers part-time by day. By night I was a relief operator running spotlight (carbon-arc short-throw Super Trouper) and projection (35mm mag stripe on a Simplex) on the 15th edition of the Follies Bergere at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. In my spare time I was a student at CCCC (now CCSN) working on an A.A.S. Electronics Engineering Technology degree. Those were the days...

Still recovering from Anime Expo 2001,

Paul
Temporarily Unemployed Mercenary Projectionist
"When the money runs out, so does I."

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 07-10-2001, 04:05 PM:

20 years ago I was a slip of a lad, aged seven. So mainly I was at school, learning to read and write etc etc. Twenty years on I'm still learning.

Way back then when my parents took me to our last remaining local cinema (we didn't have a tv, so we went to quite a lot of movies) I was always that kid that probably annoyed the hell out of the projectionist (his name was Jimmy, I learned some years later) by always sitting in the back row below the port, and spending most of the film watching the projector (a GK21) and not the screen. Many years later I began running 16mm films at school, then when I left school I wound up with a part-time job at that same cinema, same old guys that ran it, Jimmy and Sandy, same old worn out GK21's. I moved jobs, away from that town, now I've moved back and the old cinema is still there, boarded up now, covered in graffiti. As far as I know the Kalee's are still there too.

One of these days if my numbers come up I'll buy the place and put it back to it's former glory. ) I believe it's the oldest cinema in Scotland, having first opened about 1912. The oldest currently operating is the Cameo in Edinburgh, having opened in 1914.

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 07-11-2001, 05:03 AM:

20 years ago I was running Westar mechs & towers,in our twin here in Banbury & B T H monsters on my days off at night, in another town.
Sadly the films playing, have been removed from my memory banks.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 07-11-2001, 09:52 AM:

I can't believe when I first responded to this thread that I got so caught up about mentioning the bad things about 1981 that I totally forgot the most important thing to mention here:

During my 7th and 8th grade years (1980-1982), I was the one responsible for taking the 16mm projectors to the classrooms for teachers showing films each day. There was an average of about 2 per day. I'd not only take the projectors, but I'd go ahead and set them up and thread them so all the teachers would have to do is turn the projector on for their first class. The library got a lot of positive feedback about it and sometimes, when a projector would be acting up, they'd get me out of class instead of the librarian. Our library had two Bell and Howell autoload models (an older, noisier model and a new, quieter model), and one Bell and Howell slot load machine (which most people preferred since it jammed and damaged film less frequently). The science and history departments had their own older style Bell and Howell Autoload models, which always ran well, and those departments seldom used the ones the library had.

It was 19 years ago (Starting with the 1982-1983 school year) that Georgia stopped having the 16mm educational film library available to schools and everything went to VHS videotape. We went from having nice 6-foot-wide images in the front of the room to little 19 inch TVs (for an entire classroom to watch). It was certainly a downgrade.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-11-2001, 01:13 PM:

I got my first VCR in 1981. A Sony VO-1600 3/4" tank that weighed about 50 pounds. I had it running on a 21" round screen RCA console TV that was built in 1960.

They are both still with me and running!

In 1981, I was in my 20's and working with a brilliant film handler in Nashville TN named Sid O'Berry, who was the first TV news cameraman in Nashville at WSM-TV. We worked together at WZTV Nashville until he retired. I picked his brain for everything that he would give me. I learned alot, and wish that I could have learned more. After his death, I got a massive collection of films that I made available to the Historical societies of Nashville. Some of the film is still with me today.

I've had alot happen to me in the last 20 years. Aaahhh.

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 07-11-2001, 07:42 PM:

20 years ago, are you insane? i have trouble remembering what i had for tea last night! Seriously though, i was seven, which now puts me in par with the only other film-tech poster from Scotland, Pete. If i recall right i was rescuing 1/4inch tape players from rubbish bins and placing them under the telly pretending they were "video players", whatever the hell i thought they were. I always thought i fell into this job totally by accident but now i realise that the foundations were set quite firmly 11 years before i even stepped into booth. As Iain Banks would say (and Pete, i do sincerely hope you have read The Crow Road) "Ha!"

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-11-2001, 07:51 PM:

quote:
i have trouble remembering what i had for tea last night!

Wouldn't that have been "tea"?

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 07-11-2001, 09:58 PM:

I forgot what I was doin 20 years ago. Drag racin and crusin down Speedway in Tucson--labeled the "Ugliest Street In America" by Time/Life!

Mike Blakesley mentioned the film "Stir Crazy". I watched it being filmed at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds---BORING!!!!!!

Tucson was a very small and relativly dead town back then.

Back then there were just a handful of multiplexes in town, and these generally were not the first-run houses. The excellent first run houses were mostly 1 and two screens. And they are all gone now.

1978 through the early 1980's saw the demise of I.A.T.S.E. and a dead profession for an aspiring Projectionist!

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 07-11-2001, 11:13 PM:

I was trying to save our radio station from a massive flood where the water line got within 3 inches of the base of the series fed Marconi antennas. Unfortunately, we lost the station and were off the air for 23 hours and 30 minutes while we moved the transmitter to higher ground. It was a "Bad day at the Office"...

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-15-2001, 01:03 PM:

20 years ago? I was 14, living in Gretna, LA (just on the other side of the Mississippi from Downtown New Orleans). I had seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that summer and was so impressed with the film I sat through it twice. I got my older cousin Randy to get me in to see "Heavy Metal" that summer as well. Kathy Heilman...where is that girl now? Atari 2600 was really popular, but I liked funneling quarters into the Tempest machine at Woolworths. Probably the biggest event was seeing "The Day of Rock in the Dome" --a summer extravaganza featuring Heart, Foreigner, Ted Nugent, Foghat and some band called the Rockets. Funny thing is I just say Ted Nugent play again up here at Fort Sill's Polo Field (along with the original line up of Night Ranger). Talk about flashbacks from the past!

Posted by Mervyn Collard (Member # 916) on 07-16-2001, 06:32 PM:

20 years ago I was running a company in the UK called Rebel Films, a production company, but also distributor of trailers and publicity material to cinemas in the UK. I would have been making trailers then as well for films like, Emmanuelle in Soho, TV ads for Escape to Victory, Green Ice, Gregory's Girl and theatrical trailer. Lone Ranger TV spots, The Muppet Caper, s.o.b., Touched by Love. We also made that year the 'hard core' inserts and prologue for Emmanuelle in Soho for the Hong Kong market - it got to No1 there.
Happy days.

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Posted by Tal Marks (Member # 175) on 07-16-2001, 09:18 PM:

Um, first grade.

Posted by Mike Judge (Member # 558) on 07-17-2001, 08:29 PM:

2 months old....booyah

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 06-30-2003, 09:07 PM:

Working at the Pacific's Picwood Theatre in West Los Angeles.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 06-30-2003, 09:19 PM:

June 30th 1983 we had the opening of the "South Street Adventure" at the South Street Seaport in New York City. The theatre had 110 slide projectors three 16mm projectors 1 35mm projector which paned the 60 wide screen, a twenty foot throw to the screen. Many special effects with a talking head who narrated the show. Written and directed by Rusty Russell and narated by Colleen Dewhurst. Many special effects which led to a great summer. This was the Rouse contribution similar to Fanuiel
Hall in Boston.

Mega Great memories............... No I won't trade.

Many smiles. [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-30-2003, 11:20 PM:

I was running movies at the College Tri Cinema in Mount Vernon, Washington. For 6 bucks an hour. Recovering from the wounds of employment with MTS. Bad year for me. Unfortunately, I remember it. Was broke, butthole deep in debt, almost lost everything I had. I made it - but not without the help and thanks to understanding creditors. [Smile]

Launched 6 "Festival Balls" of fireworks all at once in a single cardboard tube. It sounded like a cannon. Everyone around me ran for cover. Wish the "balls" would have shot in the crotch of a certain person I had to work with at MTS. All six of them with one-second intervals. [Mad]

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-01-2003, 12:46 AM:

Oh, man, I was at the top of my game. I was shop steward of the best booth in town, the 1,100-seat Kentucky Theatre in Lexington. I was working a movie in town, had been part-time with Altec Service for a year or so, and impressed all the girls with my shiny new blue Trans-Am.

In my spare time, I was shooting 16mm - I had it all.

What the hell happened?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 07-01-2003, 01:31 AM:

Joe: "Tea" isn't literally "a cup of tea." It's actually a small meal in the early evening. You could have a soup and sandwich and that'd be "tea."

...getting back on track...

Twenty years ago, I was 13 years old running 16mm movies at home on weekends for the other kids in the neighborhood, as well as for my own enjoyment. I would've been in ninth grade.

I remember going to see RAIDERS without realizing what it was. Back in those days we would see previews on American TV but the movie would take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to get here. By then, I lost track of the titles and plots. It wasn't until we hit the scenes in the desert that I realized which movie this was. I totally loved it and saw it several times in the theatre.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-01-2003, 01:32 AM:

Hey Tim, Have you heard the latest about the Kentucky theater.

It is no longer 1100 seats it is more like 800 now. When the city renovated it they put in a new stage and they no longer use the balcony area. They took the theater that used to play all the porn films and renovated it into a second screen. It is really nice in there now. Much better than before

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-01-2003, 03:40 AM:

Manny: Do the Bahamahamayan releases not have the title of the movie at the beginning? Did the title somehow appear in the desert scenes?

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 07-01-2003, 03:41 AM:

July, 1983 - I was here - celebrating my 10th aniversary.

Just looked it up - Programme was:

July, 1st:
Pippi Longstockings on the run
The Mirror Crack'd
Blues Brothers
E.T.

July, 4th:
E.T.
Jour du Fete (Tati)
Up in Smoke
Day of the Jackal
A Midsummernights Sex Comedy

ET doing no more than fair - rest not doing at all - Must have been some hot summer.

p.

Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 07-01-2003, 04:35 AM:

Twenty years ago, in the summer of 1983, I was on holiday in London with my dad (the annual summer holiday at our family's English friends). We saw Return of the Jedi at the Leicester Square Theatre in 70mm (which was later split in two and renamed the Odeon West End). I remember the sound was terrific. The theatre front was covered by a huge panel with both the title of the film and spaceship laser shots in glittering neon. The whole Star Wars trilogy was also playing in 70mm at the Dominion in Tottenham Court Road.

This thread was started in 2001 and everybody told about their first Raiders of the Lost Ark performance. My turn: I was 11 years old and again in London with my dad. We saw Raiders in 70mm at the Empire. At that time, the theatre front was still covered with a huge panel advertising for both the cinema and the disco in the basement. I remember a full-size dummy, dressed like Indiana Jones, was hanging on a rope from the theatre roof, exactly like on the poster bill. In the foyer, the Ark that had been used to make the movie was being exhibited.

When the film was released in Belgium, I saw it again in 70mm at the Variétés in Brussels, on their Cinerama screen. One year later the theatre closed...

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 07-01-2003, 04:50 AM:

I was only six months old!

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-01-2003, 08:00 AM:

I was working in Commercial Operations in a big TV station in Atlanta. We were running lots of Toys 'R' Us spots, and running lots of spots on video for a new Steve Martin film, "The Man With Two Brains." I saw "Raiders" at the Fabulous Fox Theatre.

EDIT: Alzheimers has set in. Totaly forgot that I answered this post 2 years ago!

Who? What? [Smile]

[ 07-01-2003, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: Bruce McGee ]

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 07-01-2003, 08:18 AM:

quote:
Manny Wrote:Joe: "Tea" isn't literally "a cup of tea." It's actually a small meal in the early evening. You could have a soup and sandwich and that'd be "tea."

Oh oh.

A mealtimes Vs names debate. [Big Grin]

I say tea is the large meal you have in the evening.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 07-01-2003, 09:44 AM:

Anyway, this "20 years ago thread" is now a couple years old, so my answer will change: In July 1983, I was 14 (about to turn 15 on August 13).

20 years ago, in July 1983, I was taking a Drafting class in summer school for extra credit. This was before computers were around in high school and we did technical drawing all by hand. There was lots of horseplay (throwing eraser dust bags, unscrewing knobs on people's chairs so they'd slip down several inches when people sat down, etc.). The teacher had rigged up a stereo in the room and we listened to Z93 in Atlanta (the school was in Cedartown, GA), which was then one of the most popular top 40 stations in Atlanta. Summer of 1983 had a lot of good songs that I still love to listen to today.

The drafting class was a lot of fun. I remember many of the people that were in there. I wish I knew where they all are today.

Otherwise, in 1983, the places I hung out were two different skating rinks, one in Centre, AL (from March 1982 until 1985 or so), and one in Cedartown, GA (summer 1982 until May 1986), as well as an arcade in Cedartown (Spring 1983 until it went out of business in September 1985). There wasn't much to do in those small towns.

At this time in my life, I'd seen one movie in an indoor theatre. (E.T. at the West Theatre in Cedarotwn, GA in summer 1982).

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 07-01-2003, 10:06 AM:

Summer of 1983....... geesh....

Spent most of my time working thru the summer at a Dairy Queen in Hermitage (suburb of Nashville)... and we'd all go "cruising the mall" in my 1972 Dodge Van on Friday and Saturday nights. We we're Stylin' back then. I had my Spark-o-matic stereo in my van and we played our VanHalen and Twisted Sister cassettes till they wore out! [thumbsup]

We wore cut off T-shirts with something "air brushed" on the front, Jordache jeans, white Nike tennis shoes with the red "swoosh" on the sides, red nylon gym shorts with white trim around the edge of the legs, and color-banded tube socks pulled up to our knees. Man, were we geeks !!!!! What were we thinking?? [Confused]

I guess it could be worse.... 1985 was the year of parachute pants, Miami Vice jackets, Ray Ban sunglasses, and Wine coolers. [thumbsdown]

Well, I take that back summer of 1985 wasn't all that bad.. [sex]

Posted by Michael West (Member # 428) on 07-01-2003, 01:26 PM:

20 years ago;
i was 21 and working part time as a relief projectionist mostly at the lower end cinemas that ran mostly porn and the drive-in all still had tube amps, carbon arcs and change-overs. to make more money for college i also worked as a stage hand for all kinds of interesting shows that came in.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-01-2003, 01:35 PM:

Oh Geez, This one is so easy to remember! I WASNT BORN YET!! I'm glad my memory isnt going in my old age.........

Josh

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-01-2003, 02:25 PM:

My son just graduated HS. Had my own Biz & made big bucks developing a watermark system for video tapes sent out to Academy members to trace bootlegs. Went to my HS 20th reunion.

Got a divorce...FINALLY! Sold my house. Gave ex everything and said "You can have all this, I will get it all back in 2 years".... HA! What a jerk! I was STILL paying for it all for the next 12 years! [Mad]

Ah, life is great...... NOW! [beer]

>>> Phil

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 07-01-2003, 02:46 PM:

hmmm.... 20 years ago from this point in time, I was enjoying being a kid at almost five years old, and looking forward to starting kindergarten in September. [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-01-2003, 03:48 PM:

Guess I'll update mine too. In the summer of '83 I was 28 and had just graduated from CCSN with an AAS in Electronics Engineering Technology. Was interviewing for jobs in LA since there were no upper division education options for a technology major in 'Vegas back then. Spent much of the summer in Staff College at March AFB, and studying for my Technician class ham radio license. Got to see Howard Hughes' Spuce Goose with my own eyes that summer, along with Return of the Jedi at the newly THX'd Avco and ET at the Cinerama Dome!

'Vegas stage work was slowing down with the big strike of '84 looming on the horizon. I was building hours flying nightly cargo runs to Burbank in both a Cessna 402 and a Piper Seneca and just barely making the rent. I had been turned down at all of the studios and wasn't working very much out of either Local 150's or Local 720's extra boards, so I started interviewing for aerospace jobs. That December I interviewed for a Satellite Controller position with Hughes and by February was living the good life of an aerospace engineer in SoCal.

[ 07-02-2003, 06:39 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 07-01-2003, 04:00 PM:

7th Grade...Enjoying the 80's way way too much! [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 07-01-2003, 04:58 PM:

Must be nice to be young, Josh. [Smile]

[ 07-01-2003, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Paul G. Thompson ]

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 07-01-2003, 05:15 PM:

In the back row of the movies, not realising till half time what a cool movie this was. Coming back tomorrow to see it again.

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 07-01-2003, 05:16 PM:

I was a full time projectionist at a three screen General Cinema theatre "Galvez Cinema III" in Galveston Texas & a part time sound engineer for "International Cinema & Sound Service" in Houston Texas own by a man name Bill Emerson...speaking of Bill I been looking for him...anyone know this man ???

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-01-2003, 06:06 PM:

Summer 1983? My father was stationed at Quantico, VA ("The Crossroads of the 'Corps") and I was just getting used to the place. Junior year at Quantico High was just ahead. We watched "Return of the Jedi" in 70mm Dolby mag at the Springfield Mall theater, which started my fascination with surround sound. I started saving up money to buy my first electric guitar (and purchased the 1984 customized Carvin V220 you see me holding in the photo).

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-01-2003, 09:21 PM:

Ok 20-years ago (which would have been the summer of 1983 for this particular post)...

I was showing WARGAMES in 70mm at the K-B Cinema in Washington DC or possibly servicing K-B Theatres somewhere...I know I started the summer with WARGAMES.

Steve

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 07-01-2003, 10:28 PM:

Steve,

Would you like to play a nice game of chess?

Posted by Michael Harlow (Member # 1353) on 07-02-2003, 06:04 AM:

1983 ? I was 9. Didnt have a clue what i wanted to do (obviously!)

Posted by Jonathan Worthing (Member # 803) on 07-02-2003, 06:53 AM:

Still in school looking at a vocation in the police force.

I miss my school days so much.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-02-2003, 12:28 PM:

Darryl Spicer said:

quote:
Hey Tim, Have you heard the latest about the Kentucky theater.

It is no longer 1100 seats it is more like 800 now. When the city renovated it they put in a new stage and they no longer use the balcony area. They took the theater that used to play all the porn films and renovated it into a second screen.

Hi, Darryl. Yes, I have, thanks. I installed both new booths there, and completely designed the new booth at the (former) Downtown Cinema/State Theatre (which became the Kentucky's second screen). I had it built on the old balcony. (The Kentucky never had a balcony before the renovation, it only looked like one. It was really just the vestibule ceiling.) In fact, didn't you and I meet there during the installation?

Go see Raymond or Rodney sometime and check out the new booth, if you haven't already. All the power and control wiring's in embedded conduit - even the Dolby Digital cable. It's just a projector sitting in the middle of the floor, with no visible means of "support". Wonderful! This is the same booth I talked about in a previous thread, where the portholes are very small, but I located them dead spot-on.

My only regrets about that installation are the architect screwed me on the screen size and auditorium treatment. I had fought to keep a wall-to-wall screen, but he raised the floor on me and built the exits into the bottom of it. He also promised an acoustic covering for that curved ceiling, which he didn't deliver.

And, the back wall of the original Kentucky auditorium was never covered with acoustic material as I'd requested. So, today, if you sit in the middle of the auditorium to see a movie, you can't understand the dialogue because of slap back reflections.

Those would be nearly-perfect theatres if it weren't for that.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-02-2003, 11:28 PM:

Hey Tim,

No we didn't meet down there but Rodney may have mentioned me. I talked to him not to long ago. Yes I agree that they screwed it up by not putting in a bigger screen. The acustics do suck. I always find myself having to sit in about the fourth row from the front to enjoy the picture and avoid all the sound reverb. It has been a while since I last saw a film down there.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-03-2003, 01:27 AM:

Yes, that's embarrassing to operate like that. I confronted the architect on opening night, asking him why he pulled the rug out from under me on so many things, and he just shrugged his shoulders and gave me this "what can I do" look. The City wanted to play artsy-fartsy stage show and have their PA and lighting systems, though, and they removed many of my specifications from the blueprints. They could've cared less about running movies.

They also conspired (the City and the architect - not the Kentucky management) to keep blueprints out of my hands, until the construction was so far along it was too late to make changes. That really burned me, too. Now the theatre has to suffer for the City's shortsightedness.

So, you heard from Rodney? He's the salt of the Earth. We grew up together in those booths downtown, and at the drive-ins (ask him sometime about when we were at the Strand). I just saw him three weeks ago, he was a pallbearer at my Mother's funeral. Mom liked Rodney.

I got to spend some time in Lexington while I was in. I would've dropped by to introduce myself, but I didn't know what theatre you worked at.

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 07-03-2003, 01:31 AM:

Lets see, in '83, that would make me about 7. Going into the 1st Grade

Was living in the great city of Virginia Beeach, VA, while my dad was stationed at US Naval Base Norfolk, attached to the USS Nimitz VF-41. Later that year they shot down 2 Lybian fighers
(my dad wasn't an aviator). To my knowledge only 2 of the 4 aviators are still alive. 1 killed in a skiing accident, and annother test flying the F/A-18.

I remember seeing Return of the Jedi at a UA (I think) there in VA beach. There wasn't just a whole lot to the town that I remember outside of all the tourist traps.

Posted by Mike Fitzgerald (Member # 1304) on 07-03-2003, 07:12 AM:

1983 I was managing a single screen in upstate NY and trying to get the money to buy my first theatre. the theatre was a old one with a very expensive heating plant. It used baseboard electric to heat the building. The theatre is still standing but has not been used as one since the early 90's. Its last use as far as I know was a short lived nightclub

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-03-2003, 12:13 PM:

20 years ago I saw Dave Righetti pitch a no-hitter for the New York Yankees on the Fourth of July -- at Yankee Stadium, against the Boston Red Sox. Immortality assured!

Sad to say, I don't have a program for that day's game. All the hawkers were sold out by the time I got into the Stadium.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-03-2003, 01:01 PM:

Hey Tim, Let me know the next time you may be in lexington. I will drop you a email. Just send me a private message. Or if you see or talk to Rodney again he knows where I work. I got a lot of training through Rodney when He worked for our company. Next time I see him I am going to see if he can arrange a tour of the Kentucky booth.