Random photos, comics, etc.

[Jim Cassedy]

The staff was decorating the theater lobby for Halloween last week. This is how
I found the projection room door when I came back from my weekend break:
BoothCrimeScene.jpg

-jc-

[Randy Stankey]

It needs a (fake) bloody hand print next to the door handle and/or some fake bullet holes in the door panel.

[Leo Enticknap]

At one theater in my (thankfully) dim and distant past, there was a duty manager who had a habit of giving her friends and relatives tours of the projection booth, usually during the Thursday evening buildup/teardown hell when visitors were least welcome. This was essentially a power play "I'm in charge of the whole building and don't you forget it" exercise. Anyways, one day she announced (in a staff meeting!) that she was expecting, whereupon one of my co-workers who was even less able to tolerate her than me procured some of these and stuck them on the doors to all the booths:

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Thankfully, this was in the days before Google or ChatNFG, and so she had to take our word for it that xenon arc lamps emitted low level radiation that could be harmful to a fetus. Worked like a charm. Never saw her or any of her irritating friends in the booth again, and we were left to get on with building up and tearing down prints on Thursday nights.

[Tim Reed]

...so she had to take our word for it that xenon arc lamps emitted low level radiation that could be harmful to a fetus. Worked like a charm. Never saw her or any of her irritating friends in the booth again, and we were left to get on with building up and tearing down prints on Thursday nights.

I used to tell kids who tried to stick their hands in the projection beam at drive-ins, that the light was rich in UV radiation and would give them cancer. At one drive-in, the carbon arc cooling water emptied into the ground in front of the booth. Kids climbing around in there I'd tell them the water was energized and they needed to get out now or risk electrocution.

[Leo Enticknap]

I hope Christie is better at projectors than geography!

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[Jim Cassedy]

One of our corporate clients had a Halloween movie party here yesterday.
This was one of the "guests".
T5Spook_1.jpg

The scariest thing was that he wasn't wearing any pants.
(Then again, pantless people are pretty plentiful here in San Francisco)
T5Spook_2.jpg
Fun Fact: This building was abandoned for almost a decade. The graffitied section
of wall under the stairs was 'preserved' to show what most of this place looked like
before they did a complete restoration of the buidling.
HalloweenStairs.jpg

"Boo"

[Frank Cox]

You're sure he wasn't some guy who was talking loudly while the show was on?

(I have a skeleton I put in my lobby. I tell people that's the last guy who didn't pay for his ticket.)

[Jim Cassedy]

You're sure he wasn't some guy who was talking loudly while the show was on?

At first I thought it was some guy who died waiting for his popcorn, food and drink to arrive. . .

[Randy Stankey]

At first I thought it was some guy who died waiting for his popcorn, food and drink to arrive. . .

Oddly, there was a death at one of the theaters I used to service.

The guy walked in to see a 12:00 show but, when it was over, the guy was still sitting there, apparently asleep. The usher who cleaned the theater just swept around the guy. Come the end of the 10:00 p.m. show, the guy was still there. The usher told the manager that there's a guy who won't leave. So, the manager goes in, taps him on the shoulder and says, 'Hey, buddy! The theater is closing! Time to go home!" The guy was stone dead!

A different usher cleaned the theater after each show and nobody communicated the fact that there was a straggler in the theater. They all just, basically, swept around the guy's feet.

[Frank Cox]

Thankfully I've never had one of those.

The closest I came to that was one night when an elderly chap came out after the show was over and said, "I can't get my wife up." After checking on her I called the ambulance and they took her away.

[Ed Gordon]

This reminded me about a story that actor Ellen Burstyn passed on that a director of photography had told her about and actor who passed away while shooting movie. Shooting was nearly complete. They needed to get a shot taken from behind the actor when he died and slump over in his chair. They discussed it and decided they would prop up the actor and get the final shot. The DP would not divulge the name of the movie or the deceased actor.

Oddly enough the list of performers dying while performing is rather long.

[Randy Stankey]

My girlfriend, whose father was a producer, has told me the same story, before. She heard it from either her father or one of his friends.

Ed's version is virtually identical to the one my GF told me. Given the same story from two reasonably credible sources, I think it's probably true.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Our favorite ghost is of course Walter Norris, a former projectionist and union president who actually passed in the booth during R1 of Casablanca. He crossed over instead of the projectors. The white screen made them go check on him. The building in theory has a few others, never seen any.

We open our summer series with Casablanca every year, unsure if that tradition started after his passing or if it was always the case.

[Ed Gordon]

My girlfriend, whose father was a producer, has told me the same story, before. She heard it from either her father or one of his friends.

Ed's version is virtually identical to the one my GF told me. Given the same story from two reasonably credible sources, I think it's probably true.

I found the interview Ellen Burnstyn did with Alec Baldwin. It was in relation to the 75th anniversary of the Actors Studio. The story originated from Bob Surtees ASC.

The interview is online at https://open.spotify.com/episode/2mCifdhWDezqdRt8NrswhG

You will find the Surtees story at 17:08

[Leo Enticknap]

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I think this must be close to a record. ICMP battery I replaced on a service call earlier this week. I found the sticker on the side intact, as you can see, so I think that 2018 date is genuine (in other words, I don't think the battery was replaced between then and now, and whoever did it failed to label the battery holder cover); Barco recommends every 4 years for the swapout: this battery had gone for just over seven and a half. It measured 2.98 volts after I pulled it out.