Booth / Cinema as "Accidental Museums"

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The amplifiers alone are probably worth about 20 grand... I sold a lot of ancient RCA and Western stuff to a friend of Sam Chavez in past years. Got over 5K for one very rare 20 watt Western Electric amp alone, and this was back in the late 1980's...

[Ryan Gallagher]

Here is another installment from the booth back room of the more angry pixies variety (minus the volts/amps/lights panel which is on the inside of the booth). Several generations on display The switch panel in particular references 3 projectors, 2 spotlights, 2 double dissolvers (lower and upper), and 2 scene machines (lower and upper). The resin fiber board those are mounted too weighs so much it never left the booth area!

An era when projection and projectionists dealt with more than just projectors!

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Here is another installment from the booth back room of the more angry pixies variety (minus the volts/amps/lights panel which is on the inside of the booth). Several generations on display The switch panel in particular references 3 projectors, 2 spotlights, 2 double dissolvers (lower and upper), and 2 scene machines (lower and upper). The resin fiber board those are mounted too weighs so much it never left the booth area!

An era when projection and projectionists dealt with more than just projectors!

Those boards are asbestos most likely. Been painted over, so as long as they aren't disturbed or broken they are relatively safe.

That next to last pic: "Franks Adams Electric, Major Equipment". I used to service the theatre on Catalina Island (Avalon, CA) and it was fully equipped with all Frank Adams electrics, including many panels throughout the entire building. It had Brenkerts similar to yours in this thread, and a Century SA with Nurotic Platter and console. I have the pictures somewhere, and a full set was originally posted on an electrical forum that may no longer have them archived.

[Gordon McLeod]

Those boards are asbestos most likely. Been painted over, so as long as they aren't disturbed or broken they are relatively safe.

That next to last pic: "Franks Adams Electric, Major Equipment". I used to service the theatre on Catalina Island (Avalon, CA) and it was fully equipped with all Frank Adams electrics, including many panels throughout the entire building. It had Brenkerts similar to yours in this thread, and a Century SA with Nurotic Platter and console. I have the pictures somewhere, and a full set was originally posted on an electrical forum that may no longer have them archived.

Most dimmer boards of that vintage were not asbestos but slate in my experience

[Ryan Gallagher]

Here is the last batch of vintage older curiosities found inside the booth itself.

Included are some RCA/Brenkert era wall mounted controls, RCA era wall mounted booth monitor, vintage reel cabinets and reel storage, that classic RCA badged accessories cabinet, a sync control vestige from a bygone 3D era, and the back of our analog rack for good measure (CP200 DMA8Plus, CP650), and an old in wall rectifier rack that now acts as the kitchenette.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Most dimmer boards of that vintage were not asbestos but slate in my experience

Absolutely Slate! I had to drill a bunch of holes through one once. The drill generated mostly powder and some tiny chips. I've serviced countless old dimmer systems that were originally built that way. Most of the actual panels were not in use, but a number of them served as junction panels to connect in later solid state dimmer racks, there were usually old Electro Controls Dimmer Racks into the system. A couple had very early Strand dimmers. All this was kept in a locked electrical room.

[Barry Floyd]

We ran a Brenkert BX-60 on an RCA-9030 soundhead right up until the day we went digital. I couldn't make myself throw it away. It's out in the storage shed at the drive-in. For the 7 years we ran it, it never broke down. Gear train still turns smooth as butter.

[Paul H. Rayton]

Speaking of Brenkerts, please allow a bit of reminiscing here ... when I was a young projectionist (circa 1962 or so), I was really just getting started and was occasionally helping out at the Franklin Theater, in Durham, NH. Durham is a University town, and the theater had evening shows only. The main projectionist (and my tutor) lived over in Dover, NH, about 5 miles away.

There was no heat in the projection room during the winter (although there was some heat that could feed to the auditorium seating area, when occupied.) Anyway, the booth would thus get quite cold overnight during the winter months. The oil in the reservoir at the bottom end of the Brenkerts would get pretty stiff when the exterior temperatures got below about 45°. So, as the one person located nearest to the theater location, on those cold days, I'd occasionally get a call and be asked to please get to the theater in the late afternoon (around ~4pm or so) and turn on a pair of electric radiant heaters, aimed at the lower back side of the Brenkerts. This would heat up the oil reservoir so that when it came time for the 7pm shows, everything would run smoothly. There is a shear pin on the main drive shaft of those projectors, and if the oil was too stiff (because of the cold temperature), the shear pin would break off, and the projector wouldn't run. Those were the days ...