Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Every "Old Barn" seems to have a creepy dank dungeon. What is yours like?

This is topic Every "Old Barn" seems to have a creepy dank dungeon. What is yours like? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-17-2003, 02:44 PM:

Here is Don's. [Eek!]

Dungeons are cool! [beer]

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 06-17-2003, 03:38 PM:

The basements of the Warner Hollywood, Warner Beverly Hills and the Warner Wiltern Theatres. They all had great old stuff hidden away. I found boxes of old one sheets, old Art-Deco light fixtures, projection equipment, those old box office coin machines, everything. [Eek!]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-17-2003, 04:59 PM:

Who is Don?

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-17-2003, 11:17 PM:

Joe, it is Don Bruchert from the Strand Theatre in my home town. I hope I didn't misspell his name too awful.. [Big Grin]

Bill, do you have any pics of it?

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 06-17-2003, 11:30 PM:

Our baseent is a workshop but there is also a 30'x30' concrete room that a spring that was uncovered whe nthe building was built drains into. The water is usually about 6 ft deep and the temp is about 56 degrees F. There is a pump that runs about 50% of the time keeping the level down. Things discovered in storage spaces include a Vitaphone marquee flag, a wooden Vitaphone shipping crate that originally carried a Vitaphone turntable, a pristine Brenograph Model F7 operating manual, a book on maintaing a mercury pool rectifier.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 06-18-2003, 09:20 AM:

Paul

I will look to see if I have pictures.

Bill

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 06-18-2003, 11:00 AM:

It was in the basement long forgotten of the Carlton Theatre, Haymarket in London, where I found a complete set of projection equipment that was originally installed as a gift from 20th Century Fox to Sir Winston Churchill for his private cinema at Chartwell. The projectors and bases were Standard Simplex with RCA 1041 soundheads in excellent condition. It is said, that Marilyn Monroe pictures were favourites of Sir Winston.

As mentioned before, the equipment found a new home at the Electric Cinema, Portobello Road in London, replacing the clapped out BTH projectors with type D block soundheads. In the basement of the Electric were the remains completely solid crusted in rust that was the equipment before the BTH. Thought to have been installed in the 1920s, which looked like Simplex projector heads, with added unknown soundheads.

Backstage of the large ABC Mayfair, Tooting in South London, were tons of old equipment stored.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 06-18-2003, 12:24 PM:

Why would anybody stop using those AW1 and AW2's??? Those are perfectly good machines... [Wink]

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 06-19-2003, 12:48 AM:

Because they suck!

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 06-21-2003, 11:47 AM:

Electrical Room

The shower for the guy who used to shovel coal into the furnace in the '40's, I bet that sucked for a full time job!

The radiator for heating and cooling the theatre, for cooling we use ground water, after it comes from the radiator it sprinkles the lawn. Out of frame are two blowers.

The furnace room, beyond this is the old coal chute where a truck would dump the coal into the basement.

Sorry for the not so great pictures, my camera doesnt have a wide enough lens to take pics so close.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-21-2003, 06:58 PM:

Adam, is your boiler oil or gas fired?

The electrical room looks good. Some I have seen had old evidence of fire around some of the boxes!

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 06-21-2003, 10:18 PM:

Is gas fired, was converted from oil in the very early 70's. Electrical room hasnt given us any problems, I think it is a bit overdone, the switch box is 440 3 ph., the white box on the far left is a transformer to drop the 440 to 220, The right wall (not pictured) is mostly the old style frankenstein switches.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 06-23-2003, 11:47 AM:

I haven't been on here in a while. I just wanted to take a moment to say it was great to get to meet Paul and Josh when they stopped by a couple of weeks ago - hope you guys liked the tour, and the chance to see film done mostly wrong at its finest!!

Also thanks for letting everyone see what we really think of our Christie crap - relegating it to a junkpile in the basement, next to a leaky standpipe that makes a smell like raw sewage every few days (see pipes to left of junkpile). We could only stay down there a few minutes so we wouldn't come upstairs smelling like giant turds!!!

Anyone wanting to see more of our place can badger Paul for the photos he took while there, or wait till Rachel takes a batch when she's bored... one or the other...