Longest-tenured 35mm projector? [CONTINUED]

[Kyle Mikolajczyk]

I am continuing this thread from the archived site.

I know of two Simplex High carbon arc projectors that still exist at my university... one is currently in our library fully assembled on display while the other one is in storage. These were installed in our main auditorium around 1940 for the ROTC program. The club kept them running until the early 90s when we were gifted two DP-70s that we still maintain and use to the day. I do not know much about the DP-70s history before 1990, however.

Here is a current photo of the Simplex High on display:

IMG_5726.jpg

[Steve Moore]

Our group of cinemas still has a couple of Kalee machines dotted around, which are still semi-frequently used for public showings. The one I attach a photo of is at the Rex in Elland Yorkshire (so not too far from where it was made in Leeds) This particular machine was manufactured in 1949, so I am told.

[Leo Enticknap]

Someone I know (who I suspect lurks on F-T, so I don't want to break cover) has been experimenting with LED illumination units designed to replace the limelight or carbon arc lamphouses in nineteenth century magic lanterns, putting them behind very early film projectors (e.g. Oskar Messter and R.W. Paul machines dating from around the turn of the c19-c20), and running archival polyester prints of early cinema classics through them.

It would be really cool if this could be done with a surviving Lumière Cinématographe, that is documented to have played movies to a paying audience in the 1890s, and present a public show with it in the 2020s. OK, it would fail the spirit of this thread, because the device would not have been in continuous, revenue-earning service. But an LED unit with a similar output and color temperature to the light sources in use then shouldn't be too hard to make, and it would give us a very useful insight into what audiences in the1890s and early '00s actually saw.

[Simon Wyss]

Unless modified an original Cinématographe has a 20 mm pulldown and a double-sided claw with round tips. 35-mm. film perforated according to ISO 491 would suffer quite a bit, if not the machine. Just saying.

[Kevin Wheelan]

The Picture House, later Astoria, Ware, England opened on 26^th December 1911. The projection room, which was behind the tiny foyer, was a mere 10 ft x 8ft.

In 1928 a pair of Kalee 8 front shutter machines was installed. The photo of the original box projection box shows how cramped it was. The front shutter machines were subsequently either modified or replaced with rear shutter Kalee 8s.

The first talkie was shown at Easter 1929. Strangely, the trade books of the time did not mention the sound system, so it was probably one of the cheap and poor quality ones, which proliferated at the coming of sound. Paperwork shows that it was replaced by BT-H (British Thomson-Houston) type A soundheads on BT-H pedestals on 12^th April 1933.

In 1948 the cinema was remodelled, the rake was reversed so that the screen was now at the foyer end, and a 21 ft x 16 ft projection room was built over the rear seating. See second picture.

This equipment remained in use until the cinema closed on 31^st March 1979.

WARE, PICTURE HALL-CINEMA-ASTORIA 01 ORIGINAL BOX - Copy.jpgWARE, PICTURE HALL-CINEMA-ASTORIA 04 - Copy.jpg

[Kevin Wheelan]

The Premier Cinema, Enfield, England opened on 17^th January 1921. The original projection equipment is unknown.

In April 1930 Western Electric Universal Base Sound Reproducers were installed. They were “TESTED O.K. 15.4.30”, although the first talkie, Sunny Side Up, was not shown until 26^th May 1930.

The arc lamps and projector heads were subsequently replaced with Monarcs and Kalee 12s, both of which first appeared in 1939.

These machines remained in use until the Premier closed for bingo on 19^th April 1961. Although it would be a stretch of the imagination to claim continuous tenure past this date, there is one tenuous link in the chain of continuity - me! The Premier was my local cinema. I was 13 when it closed. In 1977 I acquired the derelict machines and one, after a two year restoration, has been in constant use in my home cinema. The young boy, who once sat entranced by the images on the screen, is now the old man operating one of the very machines that put them there.

Photos show the derelict projectors in the Premier's projection box and the restored one in my garage cinema.

ENFIELD PREMIER 03 - Copy.jpgENFIELD PREMIER 02 - Copy.jpgENFIELD PREMIER 06 - Copy.jpg

[Jesse Crooks]

Just came across this listing in a 1975 equipment catalog for Simplex standards retrofitted with CS sprockets. Pretty wild that they were still being sold in enough volume to warrant the advertising. The catalog is from CineVision in Atlanta.

[Nicholas Dal Porto]

Here's a fun one. Kyle posted the picture of one of the two Simplex Regulars that we still own at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Below is a pic from the early-1960s of one of the founding members of our club running some film through. 60 years later we're getting them running again... full circle.

rsz_old_wpi-006.jpg

Bit more info about the early days here: https://lnl.wpi.edu/history

- Nick

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The longest tenured projector I serviced was in Big Timber, Montana. It was an oblique shaft E-7 on an RCA 9030 sound head. Zeiss Xenesol lamp house when I started servicing it, but we switched to a Super Lumex after a few years to improve light levels on screen. The mate to it was also there and both were pulled from the previous local theater that used to be in Big Timber. I have pictures... some place. I used to tear down this E-7 once a year to deep clean it. The owners of the theater otherwise kept it pretty spotless. Never put a single part in the thing in 20 years!