att Mark G RE: technalight kits...replacement parts...

[John Eickhof]

hi mark, looking for info on technalight...did you install two of them at the egyptian in boise? i have been trying to resurrect the 35/70s im worried that with the age etc if they lose a lamp where to get a reflector...rfs website is gone, email too, as well as fone number if you did the job, did you leave the original reflector parts on site? do you remember the size lamps used, 3k, 4k? pls let me know

[Gordon McLeod]

Technolight was a product of Roberts Film Service and was a off brand retrofit reflector kit was never impressed with it. That company is no more except on EBAY so I would put the original optics back in Nothing shappy with a the Strong Ultra80

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Hi John,

What you see in the picture is what I installed. The whole debacle with Reel Theaters and the Egyptian came up suddenly with almost no notice. So what you see is what we were able to get quickly at the time. We re-used that original base. Marvin wanted 70mm, and I am pretty sure that the digital penthouse is also brand new. I may have also put in a CP-500 as this was during the era of those, and I had installed quite a few others. As you can see, the lamp house is a Super 80 running a 3kw lamp. Reel didn't want to run any 4K lamps, any place. Reel also paid for and had the aisle lighting and seating installed. After all that, I think Marvin only ever ran one 70mm show.

As for the Technalight's... I only installed those for Technicolor 3-D, if it was a console. Otherwise I found used lamp house's if that's what was already there. Most of the Technalights went in Westate's Theater locations.A few in other places in Wyoming, but not Randy's theaters. Their reflector generally doubled the light output of the old Strong reflectors. The Technilight kits did not come from Roberts though... They came from Cinema Supply and Equipment in Miami ( Guillermo Younger), and they are still alive and well. They stocked them back in the day and shipping was easier than from Canada.

I also think Robert may have retired. He had been selling off a lot of his rental gear on Ebay over a several year period, so that would be my guess. Like me, he probably did not want to invest in Digital to run location dailies... The rental money was there for me do it, but in hindsight Series 1 stuff would have been a PIA on the road and I would have had to replace 4 complete dailies systems.


Egyptian Booth.jpg to

[John Eickhof]

thanks Gordon and Mark, I think GTS must have installed them, your pic is from the late 90s, I remember the aw3 and single machine, then I sold the them highlight consoles (2) w matching pair of 35/70s out of a 10 screen in s. cal, the one in your picture moved on to california...I still have the LL1 pedestal~ anyway, with them running some film again, I was worried about a bulb explosion...unfortunately, Monte thinks the original reflectors etc were thrown out! oh well, we will see what happens! do you know if the thechnalight reflector from a slc console would be a decent fit ? all the robert film stuff happened when I was winding down my biz im unfamiliar with it

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I installed the above system when I was working at GTS, and after I left there for CLACO, GTS did not hire anyone else for Cinema work, only for sales. But the Egyptian also ran some sort of big deal premiere there, and Lonnie Jennings came out to tweek things to spec. Since the Premiere was a very big deal, it may be possible that he or James Bond of Full Aperture Systems, who I am pretty sure was also there, installed the reflector kits. All the kits I installed came from Cinema Equipment And Supply in Florida... they may be your best bet for spares. Guillermo Younger told me they were selling quite a few of them. Oh, also... All the reflector kits I installed were in the exact same Strong Consoles you installed there.

[John Eickhof]

thats enlightening Mark, Monte just remembered both Lonnie was there and was James Bond! they had installed vf drives to run at 20 frames Bond put in the reflector kits...questions answered! thanks for joggin your memory! that was right when I was setting up to open the 13 screen in twin for cinemawest...all barfcos!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

John, that sounds correct!! I also installed the original systems at the Mall in Twin for Reel. Don't know if Cinema West took that over or not... The guy that owned that theater, Larry, had a very funny story as to why it was 13 screens and not 12 or 14...

[John Eickhof]

Reel is owned by Bob Denning in Boise, I remember that you did the install for GTS, when Denning was forced out of biz by Larry Roper, Roper named it the oddesy 6, then times got tough and Roper ( interstate amusement , dba twin cinema 12 and jerome 4 and the two drive ins) bowed out of the 6, the Mall had a lien against Reel and seized the gear! about that time Cinemawest was working the deal to do the 13 screen, but it was going to be all digital! some how Reel got the equipt from the mall and installed it in a new 6 screen he built in Nampa! From what I know the new theatre used 5 of the six auds, and I went to Barfco school so I could do the install and became the opening gen mgr of the 13... I lasted 3 years till Roper was put out of biz and Cinemawest bought the old Cin 12 so no one could reopen it, the Jerome 4 was sold to a trucking co and is now a trucking yard, the theatre bldg is a drive through repair / truck service shop! for about a year or so the Balco PRO 35s, christie consoles, and new SPECO platters were piled up in the parking lot!, even ILOLInt want any of it! lol, i pleaded with Dave at Cinemawest to save the drive ins but he wanted no part of that...too bad! And so the saga goes!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Reel is owned by Bob Denning in Boise, I remember that you did the install for GTS, when Denning was forced out of biz by Larry Roper, Roper named it the oddesy 6, then times got tough and Roper ( interstate amusement , dba twin cinema 12 and jerome 4 and the two drive ins) bowed out of the 6, the Mall had a lien against Reel and seized the gear! about that time Cinemawest was working the deal to do the 13 screen, but it was going to be all digital! some how Reel got the equipt from the mall and installed it in a new 6 screen he built in Nampa! From what I know the new theatre used 5 of the six auds, and I went to Barfco school so I could do the install and became the opening gen mgr of the 13... I lasted 3 years till Roper was put out of biz and Cinemawest bought the old Cin 12 so no one could reopen it, the Jerome 4 was sold to a trucking co and is now a trucking yard, the theatre bldg is a drive through repair / truck service shop! for about a year or so the Balco PRO 35s, christie consoles, and new SPECO platters were piled up in the parking lot!, even ILOLInt want any of it! lol, i pleaded with Dave at Cinemawest to save the drive ins but he wanted no part of that...too bad! And so the saga goes!

That's pretty much how it went... except Larry didn't force Denning out of biz. He had way more screens in more locations. Denning's problems began shortly after I had finished installing the equipment in the Ontario 8 when Reel went bankrupt. Bob was a nice guy, and very experienced banker, so this surprised all of us. Turned out he just got too large too quickly, as he also took over the shuttered Cineplex locations in Nampa and Boise. GTS almost didn't get paid for the labor, equipment or seating in Ontario. But that theater did well from day 1, so Bob got an investor to cover the balances owed on it. Everyone got paid and lived happily ever after. He shut one Cineplex back down and pulled out of the Egyptian. As for the new site in Nampa, it was digital from day 1 with NEC's, and does good buisness. The Cineplex he took over in Nampa was demolished. They also have one location somewhere in California. Oh, the equipment Reel had in storage was taken from the shuttered Cineplex's. Not from the 6 in Twin Falls.
When I went over to Claco, I ended up servicing Larrys stuff for a number of years. He was a character! He actually saved the owner of Claco's life when he went up there with me on a service visit the first time. The boss came out of his motel room the next morning obviously having issues. I thought he had a stroke, yet he told me not to call an ambulance. We went over to the 13, and because Larry had a similar sugar problem, I followed Larry to the hospital... 40 mph through school zones and all. Cop stopped Larry but when Larry told him what was up the cop led us to the hospital at even higher speeds. After a good part of the day in the ER, he was fine again.
I was never told about this "problem" when I was hired, and is why I ultimately left Claco. On another big install in Logan he was working in the back of an audio rack and when it was lunch time one of the electricians found him almost passed out. I felt bad about him having this issue, but I began to feel more like a baby sitter that was responsible for someone's life. I finally refused to go on big installs with him, and a while later left Claco.