Mega-Lite lamphouse

[Mike Croaro]

Can anyone tell me / us about this lamphouse? It came from a Jerry Lerry Lewis Theatre.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It's junk. Toss it in the recycle bin.

[Mike Croaro]

I know it's junk. I was hoping someone would provide some brief information about the lamphouse nonetheless.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I've never seen one of those before, but I somehow like the retro-70s labeling. I guess that also gives it a most-likely production time frame.

Instead of throwing it in the bin, you could maybe, convert it into a recycle bin.

[Randy Stankey]

Strip the innards out, reuse or recycle the parts then "upcycle" the frame and outer shell to some other purpose.

[Jim Cassedy]

I like the retro look too. I remember visiting a couple of Jerry Lewis cinema booths back in the early
1970's. I don't recall much about the equipment, other than that the ones I saw (which would have
been out in Long Island, NY) were using 6000ft reels with automated change-over and that the
automation was programmed by a big box on the wall, which looked like a giant punch-board, into
which you stuck metal pins. I think there might have been a small 'patch-bay' of some sort at the
bottom of the unit too, but I'm not sure.

The guy who was working in the booth was bragging about how all he had to do was to push ONE
BUTTON and the xenon would turn on, stage & houselights dim, curtain open, projector would start,
non-sync music would fade out- - etc, etc.
[ In fact, one of the marketing slogans they used to sell the JL Theater franchising concept was:
"If you can press a button, you can own a Jerry Lewis Cinema" ]

At the time, I was running a completely manual carbon arc changeover booth in a first run (Union)
house, and I casually asked him what would happen if one day he pushed the button and the
curtain didn't open, or the xenon didn't light or whatever. I was NOT trying to be a jerk or trip the
guy up. I was asking totally out of technical curiosity. But the guy became all flustered & admitted
that he had no friggin' idea what to do in the case of trouble, except that he had a "technical
support" phone number he could call for advice. (Remember too that this was appx 1970 or 71,
so there was no type of 'remote access' for this type of stuff)

Apparently, The JL Cinemas were a franchise opportunity and were designed to be run as
cheaply as possible. Back in NY though, at that time, they still required that that the booth
be be staffed by either a Union projectionist, or a person more or less 'deputized' by The Union,
who got paid full union wages, but had to kick back a certain percentage of it for the privilege of
being allowed to work a booth without getting his legs broken. That would shoot up the theaters'
labor costs quite a bit.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

One of the early training tools was the "what if ...?" Instead of reading a book or something else distracting, the operator trainee was asked to work through as many possible failures as thinkable. Then each one needed to be repaired or worked around in some way. The process is that once you have thought through a problem and how to solve or repair it when it occurs you will distinctively act out the solution rather than stand by scratching your head.

[Frank Cox]

The guy who taught me how this is done (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth ) set up problems for me to solve. Out of frame, motor not engaged, lamp not on standby, exhaust fan not running, amp not powered, soundhead not threaded, you-name-it. The he told me that there's an issue - get up there and fix it before showtime. Sometimes showtime was in five minutes....

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Here in NJ, all the Jerry Lewis Cinemas were non-union, singles or twins, small auditoriums for the time, and actually rather well designed. There are more extensive threads about JL Cinemas and why they failed if you search the Forum Archive. The short answer to the question on this thread is that some JL Cinemas here in northern NJ had Simplex 35 with ORC Lamphouses, mounted on EPRAD Sabre Systems, that were designed to run the entire show on one huge reel and automatically rewind though the projector head and reset for the next show. The JL in Kinnelon NJ had had 2 EPRAD Sabre Systems in the booth with an automatic changeover, so that the first projector could automatically rewind and reset while the second one was running, shortening the break between shows. This location did not use the automatic rewind as it never quite worked right. They would rewind the reels on the Sabre system bypassing the projection head and re-thread.

Other locations here in northern NJ had either Simplex 35's or Century projectors set up for big reels with automatic changeovers, with various brands of lamphouses.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

There were a couple in a booth in Chicago very briefly. But during an inspection they saw that they were not UL approved or approved by anyone else for that matter Los Angeles approval is acceptable there too. So they got changed out to Super Lumex's. I have no idea where they went as last I saw them was in a side storage room off that booth.