Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Vintage Ticket Booths !

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 11-29-2014, 09:40 PM:

I came across this Old Vintage Ticket Booth that looked almost identical to a Theater here back in the 50's. This new Generation unless they did some research or heard it from their Grand Parents probably didn't know that at one time when you went to the Movies; you got a Colored Ticket from one of these small one person booths(not a white paper receipt). Usually a Young Girl that was also an Usher and wore the neat little Uniforms they wore back then,were in these booths selling Tickets.

I doubt any Multiplex would have something like this, even just for nostalgia sake. Just like Film, we took all this stuff for granted going to the Movies growing up each week; now their Gone! [Frown]

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 11-30-2014, 02:18 PM:

The old Mann theaters in the Los Angeles area, the old single screens, had these. Makes me think the box cashier had to not mind being in a small enclosed space for several hours a day or night. If the cashier was a social butterfly, it could get very lonesome in there real quick.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 11-30-2014, 03:06 PM:

This style of box office with the gold leaf dates back to the Charles Skouras days at Fox West Coast Theatres. During his days as president of the company they remodeled many of their theatres with the gold leaf treatment. In the early 70's Mann Theatres bought the National General Theatres circuit which was known during the 50's as National Theatres which was the old Fox West Coast Theatres before the Paramount Decree order.

Posted by Terry Monohan (Member # 8285) on 11-30-2014, 08:38 PM:

You can still find this type of box office booth at many of the old closed Fox West Coast Theatres around the West Coast. The Crest Theatre in Sacramento CA still uses theirs. Many have been painted over and boarded up but they are still standing attention 24/7 to take your money and give you a Globe ticket. Fox West Coast Theatres was one of the best run movie circuits in California.

Posted by Terry Monohan (Member # 8285) on 12-01-2014, 10:39 AM:

My friend Gary Parks sent me a note about the old FWCT ticket booths that they had two types of Skouras era pre-fab box office designs, which were modified slightly from theatre to theatre. The one pictured here is the larger deluxe version which we can see today at the Fox Oakland and the Crest in Sac. One still exists at the El Portal in N Hollywood CA and there have to be more out there. The smaller one is simpler, but examples are still around like the Fox California in Salinas. In SF the Crest/Electric had one which they still used until the place went porn and then It was removed. The old torn down Crest in Long Beach also has the deluxe design.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-02-2014, 07:47 PM:

And bet these old booths contained Automaticket machines!!

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 12-02-2014, 09:16 PM:

quote:
And bet these old booths contained Automaticket machines!!

YEP! I remember going to Saturday Matinees and when you gave the Ticket Lady your Quarter;it made a Cash Register Sound and your Red Ticket ejected out of the Top Steel Surface Panel in front of Her. I was always hoping that 2 Tickets would come out one time,but never happen. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-02-2014, 10:32 PM:

Here's our boxoffice. Not as ornate of course, because it doesn't stand alone but is built into the theater office. It's all original from 1930 except for the main ticket window glass. We even still have the original "plug" for the half-circle at the bottom, and the original change machine inside. The wall hanging to the right of the window is a Pepsi-Cola promotional fabric print from sometime in the 1980s with a Norman Rockwell painting printed on it.

We still have the original blueprints for this theater which shows it having a more traditional stand-alone boxoffice in the lobby. I don't know why they took that out and did it the way they did, but I'm glad they did...makes it way more handy.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 12-02-2014, 10:41 PM:

The old Automaticket machines were built like tanks. I don't recall having one fail in the days before computerized box office terminals.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 12-03-2014, 02:36 PM:

That looks like the one at the Fox West Coast's State Theatre in Pomona, California where I started as a union projectionist in 1950.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 12-03-2014, 03:20 PM:

quote: James Westbrook
The old Automaticket machines were built like tanks. I don't recall having one fail in the days before computerized box office terminals.

We still have one, but it doesn't work, or rather hasn't been repaired. The drive belt broke years ago and then someone stole the top. Now it is just a storage box for he tickets we dispense by hand. I keep saying someday I'll get it fixed up.

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 12-03-2014, 04:05 PM:

Here is mine, in Leeds, complete with a never failing fully manual Automaticket. It is faster than any computer and I can reboot it in seconds!!