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Author
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Topic: Old school projectionist
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Steven Winner
unregistered
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posted 05-30-1999 02:01 AM
I work at a movie palace here in Richmond VA, the Byrd Theatre. We still use
Peerless Magnarc lamphouses on our Simplex XL projectors...approximatley 40
years old!...and running strong. We have no automation in this house whatsoever,
and are still using the old Westinghouse lighting board origionally installed in 1929.
Sound system is fully analog, and uses Altec "voice of the theatre" speaker
systems. With all this ancient equipment, you'd think we put on a pretty lousy show, but
myself and many other theatre employees have been complemented several times
about how smooth the show runs in comparason to the chains in the 'burbs. We
have been told that we have the brightest, clearest picture in town, and the best
sound. 6 to 12 watts of audio power off of our tube amps is all that is needed to
fill our acoustically perfect auditorioum with warm, full range sound. I have noticed that there are many old movie palaces out there that are getting
restored and placed back into operation, but I was wondering what happens to all
their old projection gear, since most of these places are getting platter systems,
and Xenons. I am only 24 years old, and after being an avid movie-goer to this second-run
house through high school, became a projectionist part-time a few years back.
More as a hobby, than a job for the money. I really enjoy this job because there's
lots to do, and I enjoy running and maintining a piece of the past!
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Brad Miller
unregistered
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posted 05-30-1999 02:02 AM
That's great to hear! No one hardly ever actually takes the time to compliment a
nice presentation. Projection is typically taken for granted. Send pics of that theater if you can! I think a lot of other people would like to see
them posted on the site. If you don't have a scanner, I will be happy to scan them
for free and return the pics. As to your question, most equipment ends up being sold to dealers who fix it up
and sell as parts or to collectors or independent theaters trying to get up and
running.
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Scott Norwood
unregistered
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posted 05-30-1999 02:02 AM
Yes, the Byrd is great! Probably the best value-for-dollar (well, actually $2) of
any theatre that I've ever been to. If you're ever in Williamsburg, feel free to stop
by the Williamsburg Theatre (my place of employement, at least for the next
couple of weeks)...it's nowhere near as nice as the Byrd, but it's pretty good for a
small-town art house. See my photos in Brad's picture gallery. Our equipment isn't
quite as classic, but we can claim to have the oldest air conditioner in Virginia still
in use (original from 1933!), which also happened to be the second one installed
in the state (the Byrd had the first).
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Randy Loy
unregistered
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posted 05-30-1999 02:03 AM
I'm quite familiar with the wonderful Byrd Theatre. My wife and I visited the Byrd
in the early 90's as part of a tour of Richmond area Theatres sponsored by the
Theatre Historical Society. Besides the fact that it is a gorgeous movie palace (I
keep a framed postcard of the auditorium on my desk at work) two things
immediately come to mind when I think of the Byrd. One was how Lynn Lundy
brought us out of our seats with several numbers on the theatre's organ (very
exciting). The second is that to the best of my recollection, the Byrd's projection
booth was the first one I ever had the pleasure of visiting. Since then I've visted
literally hundreds because my wife and I now have a lot of friends in the business
and we do free-lance photography, research and writing involving exhibition.
However, the Byrd's booth is what sparked my interest in projection. We have been back to the Byrd since that first time, but it has been about two or
three years since our last visit. If the showmanship is anything like it was then, it is
FIRST CLASS. By the way is your Brenograph, Jr. still working? The visual
effects it created on the closed curtain during our tour were great! Again, it all
boils down to good showmanship. My wife and I volunteer in the booth at the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown,
Maryland. The Maryland was the town's former "A" house as part of the Warner
circuit and is now a performing arts center. We still run Ashcraft arc lamps and
Super Simplex projectors. The Chief Projectionist at the Maryland is 85 and has been there since 1936, for
years as an employee and now as a volunteer. Talk about "old school," the man
certainly knows his stuff and is a big believer in showmanship. He keeps the
equipment in pristine shape at all times and does everything in accordance with the
wealth of knowledge he has developed since his days as a union apprentice in the
30's. I did talk him into switching to tape splices several months ago, as we
realized it was only a matter of time until we saw a print show up on a film base
that we couldn't wet splice. We need more people like him, people who know
that the film is only PART of the overall experience of going to the movies. Good
presentation and overall showmaship can make even a mediocre movie a special
event. Keep up the good work at the Byrd!
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 11-25-2004 05:13 AM
..Sounds like my theatre in my home town that I worked at for 12 yrs: Simplex XL full mag-optical setup, SH-1000 optical heads, Simplex sound, Altec "Voice of the Theatre" speakers (which, when driven from a pocket transistor radio they can still sound good-being that the Altec's were such an efficent speaker design..-thanx to James B. Lansing on his part..), Peerless "C" lamphouses burning 9's and 8's running from a "Gennie." Full adjustable motorizd dbl maskings-which I can set from 1.37/1 (4.3 to you TV big screen owners) to 2.55/1 (magnetic only) ratios, two sets of curtains-title curtains, and waterfall curtains. Only thing that was modified was the removal of those old rotary dimmers to simple switch/contactor house light controls. This was the main palace in my home town to go see a movie. True, carbon arc projection is the "reel" way to present a movie-not with xenon bulbs.. Was a fun place to work at, but time took the toll whereas, luckilly the building is still standing, but was restored back to a playhouse-not showing films anymore. Mall cinemas and megaplexes changed that part of history. These old "palaces" is where the fundamentals of "old school" training takes place.
I like to see these "kids" nowdays run a carbon arc booth-PROPERLY!. No visiting/loitering upstairs in these classic old booths. It was serious work to maintain a perfect presentation. Keeping the carbons trimmed properly, focus maintained, always have that next machine laced, carbons changed and ready to go (framed, and the proper number in the frame/apeture box for proper and clean light/sound changeover) when the reel end bell chimed, keeping the booth clean, clean out chimney stacks one a week of carbon soot, keep the copper drippings for recycle, (just don't burn up the Philips carbon savers..please use the simple copper sleeve variety...lol), use carbon stubs for short reels, like the classic advertising/cartoon reels...et.al. Any goofups, and the Union Rep would come around and give you the ear bending,chewing out you'd never have received.
Yes, the posts of the BYRD are fantastic-just brings back a good bunch of memories.. - thx Monte
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