Old Items in our theater's basement

[Bill Seipel]

Myself and several other people tried to inventory the OLD projectors & parts in our theater's basement this year.

If you spot anything familiar, please reply. Or anything of interest.

There are NO PLANS for any of this old equipment, so if you have suggestions... I'm all ears.

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[Bill Seipel]

More...

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[Bill Seipel]

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[Bill Seipel]

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[Sam Chavez]

All the projectors have been pretty well stripped of motors and were sacrificed to keep other projectors running. The first thing I would toss is anything that says Ballantyne on it. The Potts platters would be next and the yellow lamphouses. The part I don't know much about are the lights with the fresnel lenses. Others surely do. The oldest of of the projectors might have some value to a collector. The old carbon arc lamps look pretty far gone. I see one 1011 Simplex amplifier, pretty well done for. Someone might want it for transformers. I've seen a lot of these basements over the years but these are pretty mundane.

[Randy Stankey]

Some of those things could be stripped of their old, internal components and be used to house new, modern stuff. You could have the look of vintage equipment but good electrical and electronics stuff inside.

Most of the stuff is already shot. You couldn't make it any worse.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Like Randy and Sam indicated, lots of stuff seems to be far gone, unfortunately. I guess the fresnell lens assembly is part of some kind of stage lightning setup.

International Projector Corp was, afaik, the old name of Simplex? I can imagine that one could become a collectors item for someone who wants to put in the efforts to restore it.

I'd say that the stuff you toss out can best be brought to the local metal recycling shop instead of dumping it in the general trash. Those old power amps could still contain significant amounts of copper. Don't expect any jackpot, but at the very least you shouldn't be paying to get rid of the stuff.

[Bill Seipel]

All the projectors have been pretty well stripped of motors and were sacrificed to keep other projectors running. The first thing I would toss is anything that says Ballantyne on it. The Potts platters would be next and the yellow lamphouses. The part I don't know much about are the lights with the fresnel lenses. Others surely do. The oldest of of the projectors might have some value to a collector. The old carbon arc lamps look pretty far gone. I see one 1011 Simplex amplifier, pretty well done for. Someone might want it for transformers. I've seen a lot of these basements over the years but these are pretty mundane.

There are some motors down there as well. Can't recall how many but more than two. Here are some:

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Thanks to everyone for the commentary. Now I just need to find a collector...

[Martin McCaffery]

If you can't find a collector, find an artist who likes to work with found objects.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The Fresnel lamps make great lobby decorations and can be adapted easily to use LED home type bulbs so they still at least light up.

The two motors are selsyns used back in the 1950's when 3-D came out. 3-D required that both projectors operate interlocked.

The Simplex XL and the Kelmar reel arms are probably the most valualable (sellable) piece's in the photos. The next would be the Century sound reproducer. The rest IMHO should go to the scrap yard.

There are film collectors and at least one equipment collector in Chicago. The equipment collector sells on Ebay, and messaging him through there is the best way to get a hold of him. He goes by WASP3245. I've known him for at least 40 years... Very knowledgable and honest guy.

[Bill Seipel]

The Fresnel lamps make great lobby decorations and can be adapted easily to use LED home type bulbs so they still at least light up.

The two motors are selsyns used back in the 1950's when 3-D came out. 3-D required that both projectors operate interlocked.

The Simplex XL and the Kelmar reel arms are probably the most valualable (sellable) piece's in the photos. The next would be the Century sound reproducer. The rest IMHO should go to the scrap yard.

There are film collectors and at least one equipment collector in Chicago. The equipment collector sells on Ebay, and messaging him through there is the best way to get a hold of him. He goes by WASP3245. I've known him for at least 40 years... Very knowledgable and honest guy.

Appreciate the lead on a buyer for some of these items. The board hates to see some of these items just thrown away.

[John Eickhof]

Mark and Sam say it all...however i am in need of some small parts off the century R3Esound head...do you have one or two? also for my museum stuff the old little box with the light bulb in it, and there are a few other things i might pay shipping on...i will pm you...john

[Bill Seipel]

Just remembered this photo: This was taken about 20 years ago and shows the last, real film projector to be used.
All these parts can be seen in the above photos too. Its all there. Its all just been "separated".


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[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Those Eprad lamps were reliable. I used to put Strong Super Lumex or the Kneisley metal reflector in them. About doubles the light output.

[Randy Stankey]

Just for the record, I want to say that I don't think the Potts platter is all that bad. Potts aren't the best platters but they are certainly usable.

I used a Potts platter at Mercyhurst for years and never had a problem. Several people used to tell me that Potts platters damage film but, in all those years, I never experienced any film damage because of the platter. My stock answer was always, "Platters don't damage film. People who don't do their job right are the ones who damage film."

Yes, they have their quirks that I could do without but, once you understand them, the workarounds aren't too difficult.

The biggest quirk that comes to mind is that you need to put lots of extra leader at the beginning of the movie. You need to give the machine some extra time to get up to speed before the head of your first trailer starts. If you don't, the first few coils of film can rub together. Sometimes, it helps to give the platter a little push to get it started, especially if you have to stop and restart the projector in the middle of the program.

Beyond that, just keep everything clean and check to be sure that all the nuts and bolts are properly tightened.

I wouldn't recommend outfitting a 20-plex with Potts platters but I ran one, weekly, for fifteen, going on twenty years with very few problems.

If all of the parts to your Potts platter are there and nothing is worn out or broken, you could certainly put it back together and make it work.

A fully operational platter, even a Potts, ought to be worth something to somebody.