New Guy Here

[Nathan Harp]

Hello all and thanks for the membership. Let me preface by saying the film industry is not in my wheel house, suffice to say I am here in hopes of preserving some history and or learning some more.

I arrived here after doing some research about some cool looking, heavy cast iron stands/pedestals that I bought at an auction. I bought these stands not knowing what they were and with the intent to use them as bench grinder stands before learning just how old they are. I was puzzled as to what they were originally used for for a long time! After posting pictures online of these stands/pedestals I was informed just what they were...I was informed they are hard to find, silent era 35mm pedestals and, "it wo uld be a sacrilege to use them as bench grinder stands!". Taking that statement into consideration I don't have the heart to just slap some bench grinders on them if they truly are rare and could be used for their original purpose all the while helping someone out with their resto project. If anyone has the time, please direct me to someone that might appreciate these stands for what they are or has a use for them. I strive to be a general steward of preservation and have a general appreciation for antiques so if I could connect these stands with an appreciative someone, I would be just as excited to help them out. Now, given the weight I am thinking shipping would be kind of expensive but I would make it happen if someone wanted these bad enough.

If this post goes against policy or is in the wrong area please forgive me. Also, I want to be clear, it isn't my intent to get rich by selling these pedestals, I am merely excited to see if I can make someone's day by having them available for their project. Thanks for any help!

Nathan Harp
Pedestals.jpg
Pedestals 2.jpg

[Sean McKinnon]

Welcome! Nice find. If you cleaned them up and painted them you would have a couple of great historical conversation pieces!

[Jim Cassedy]

What you have, I believe look like a pair of "Western Electric 3 point Pedestals". which would date them back to the early days of "talking pictures"- - roughly 1926/27, although Simplex made an almost identical model.

This assumption is reinforced by the fact that one of them still has the remnants of a very early (pre-1930) sound-head (and flywheel) attached. Unfortunately the old sound head is missing enough pieces & is rusted enough to prevent me from identifying or dating it further. I still encountered a few of these old pedestals, still in use, at several old theaters when I first started projecting in the early 1970's. And I still occasionally find one stashed in the basement of an old theater here & there that I'm called to do some work at.

I have no idea if they're worth anything. Most that were taken out of service were probably discarded as scrap metal. These two look quite weather-worn, but I'm no expert in metal work, and I've seen some amazing restoration of old machinery that I would have considered "junk". done by those who know what they're doing and have the time & resources to undertake such a project and make things "like new". So, they are worth something to someone- - and I sincerely applaud your efforts to "find them a good home" and I hope you're successful at doing that.

>> and if anybody is interested, I've got over one hundred, 2000ft foot 35mm film cans (empty) in an old theater that I've been asked to get rid of. 95% of them are steel cans and have been stored in a damp basement for over 20years, so most are quite rusty. I'm not even sure they have any scrap metal value in this shape. Like Nathan, I'm more interested in just 'getting rid of them' than in making any money. They're free for the asking if anyone in the SF Bay area wants to come get them. PM me for more info and a picture. (Of the CANS - - not me!)

Here's a picture, Of A WE-Base With Old Proj & Flywheel Attached, Similar To What You've Got
The proj in this picture is early vintage, but the attached soundhead in this photo is much newer.
WE-BASE.jpg
[photo credit: e-bay]

[Frank Cox]

Back in the days of film (does it make us a bunch of old coots when we write stuff like that?) I was told that there was a theatre in southern Saskatchewan that was still running silent movie projectors from 1916 that had been actually been converted for sound.

I never saw them, but I thought that was pretty cool.

[Nathan Harp]

Thank you all for the information. Are there perhaps any other outlets online where I might run across an individual that would have a desire for these?

Also, I noticed on my pedestals the base was cast as one solid piece. The pictured example above from Jim is a two-piece design that is bolted together. Does this make mine any more identifiable or dateable?