In article <CANij+dfiAS_TypWhGhzhq_v7nQrxx7WoFEzDJED2TJkV88LGqQ at mail.gmail.com>, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> writes: I worked as a projectionist at the State Theatre in Newark, DE, around 1984. They used 35mm reels and two carbon arc projectors with a manually triggered changeover system. Even then, most new theatres used a platter system where all the reels of film were spliced into a single continuous film and spooled onto a large diameter platter. This meant you could basically automate the projection of the movie as all you had to do was start the projector and let the entire film run through. No need for a projectionist, just have someone go up and press a button to start the movie. With the reel system, you did a changeover between reels about every 20 minutes. Ever notice that little white dot in the upper right hand corner of a movie? That is the changeover indicator to the projectionist. There are two dots 7 seconds apart. When the first dot appears you start the motor on the 2nd projector to get it up to speed. When the second dot appears you press a button that lowers a gate to block the current projector's image and raises a gate to show the new projector's image. This happens fast enough and in time with the film that as a viewer, you don't even notice it (when it's done right). In between changeovers you would be rewinding the just-finished reel and threading the next reel and doing any projector adjustments. All this mucking about with the reels every 20 minutes means that when you're a projectionist in a system like this, you never actually see the movie you're projecting, just 5-10 minute chunks every 20 minutes or so. The cabinets shown in the picture would be used to store the movie reels, not for shipment, but for projecting. The reels were shipped in large steel cases that held at most two reels. These cases were quite heavy when loaded. When a movie arrived, you'd unpack it from the cases and check the film for integrity (you don't want it breaking when you project it for the first time), applying any necessary splicing patch tape to compensate for wear and tear on the film and sprocket holes. After doing this, you place the reels in these cabinets in projection order. You would dedicate each one of these cabinets to one of the movies. Since reels were only 20 minutes long, a 2 1/2 hr movie could easily span 7 or 8 reels. We had cabinets very similar to these at the State Theatre. In the picture, the cabinets are actually on their side. The reels would have been stored left-to-right and the door is connected to a round piece of metal that causes the reel to roll out when you open the door. You can see just barely this in the picture for the one door that is open. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>

On 03/28/2014 09:54 AM, Richard wrote: You forgot a step--taking the film off the distributor's reels (using a rewind machine) and putting them on house reels before showing--and then repeating the process in reverse when the film was left for pickup by the distributor. Distributor's reels were really cheap stamped sheet-metal affairs, while house reels were usually cast aluminum. As a drive-in projectionist nearly 20 years earlier than your stint, life was comparatively quiet between reel changeovers. I can remember to this day, big swaths of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and the theme from "Georgie Girl" will never leave my head, I fear. I think things really changed when Xenon-arc lamps supplanted carbon-arc lamps. I still wonder about how much arc-produced carbon fullerene went up the chimney with nobody noticing. When you no longer needed a lamp-tender (You'd strike the arc, back off a bit and then periodically tweak the feed to keep it positioned at the focal point of the lamp's parabolic mirror--and then change carbons every couple of reels), you could use giant reels of film and fight the union who insisted that a projectionist always be present. Some nasty fights with management back then. The gear was built to last forever. The projector heads ran their innards in an oil bath--the optics were high-quality (remember the Cinemascope lenses?). Solid state hadn't yet hit theater audio, so you had a rack of equipment with 866 rectifiers, 811 triodes and other goodies provided the sound amplification. --Chuck

This is an example of the kind of projector I worked on: <http://www.unicornbookshop.com/trappehistory/artifacts-2/super-50-5.html> The glass plate reading "Peerless" on the top would be illuminated The window in the side curved door was welder's glass so you could look at the arc and adjust the rods without blinding yourself. The big round knob on the left center and bottom right were used to adjust the distance between the two carbon rods that formed the arc. Even though our theatre was running into the late 80s, they continued using these projectors. I don't remember dating them specifically but I would not be surprised if they dated from the 30s; the theatre itself dated from the early teens. It was torn down in the 90s, IIRC. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>

On 3/28/2014 12:21 PM, Jules Richardson wrote: I doubt any modern theatre (as in since the 1920's) could operate with a single projector. I ran projectors in school and they were single projectors and you not only had to run the reel but rewind would be in there too. I ran movies at UMR in Rolla Missouri for our dorm groups in a theater on campus and they had two projectors. I usually caught Richards dots, but wasn't that good at it. We finally got yelled at after I'd run the shows for 9 months by some idiot that thought we should pay him to run the films, but on campus, sorry guys, we don't pay when we're on student budgets and it is for running movies. 16mm isn't rocket science. We ended up canceling one show because we had no money, and he was useless anyway.

On Mar 28, 2014, at 4:16 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: Sounds like the obsolete standard slightly-smaller plug you still find on aviation headsets. I?ve also seen that on WW2 era transmitters or receivers; forgot the details but it might be that 1/4 inch was used for headphones and the smaller one for the microphone, or perhaps one was for headphone and the other for telegraph key. paul

On Mar 28, 2014, at 4:27 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote: Or not quite, perhaps. Wikipedia mentions them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)#Less_common (including a still current use) ? 0.210 inch size. It also mentions the aviation plug, 0.206 inch size (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)#Aircraft_headsets) paul

On 03/28/2014 12:21 PM, Jules Richardson wrote: A lot of projector heads were made during the 1930s and still in service in the 70s and 80s. They were incredibly rugged. RCA serviced most of them, regardless of make. All projection setups to my knowledge were at least 2 projectors--on the high-volume setups, you could have 3 or 4, reserved as backups. I'm trying to remember, but I think the lamps I used were Ashcraft Super-Cores, running between 95-105 amps on about 50-60VDC. Water-cooled carbon holders with a rotating anode to keep the wear even. DC supply was by a 40hp MG set in its own fire-safe room (concrete block). Ballast resistors were mounted in cages attached to the walls (the MG set had to be able not only to supply current for the initial arc strike, but also had to have enough reserve to power two arcs during changeovers without the one in use dimming). Sound pickup was via simple phototube (not PM). Switching sound between projectors was accomplished by keeping the inactive exciter lamp at a dull red glow and then switching lamps, rather than audio at changeover. The drill for a changeover went something like this: Thread the second projector so that the "7" was framed in the gate. Wait for the "reel almost empty bell" on the active projector and strike the arc on the second projector. Wait for the first set of changeover dots on the screen, start the motor on the second projector. When the second set of dots showed, pull the lamp dowser (an asbestos gate behind the (water cooled) film gate and kick the changeover pedal. Go back to sleep. It all seems to be horribly imprecise, but it did work. --Chuck

Should probably mentioned that those slots in the cabinets were labeled by reel number, which could go to more than 20 for longer flicks. You'd take a just-shown reel off the projector and put it in the rewind machine, the stick it back in the next empty slot when rewound. Woe befell any joker who'd swap the reels in the cabinet. --Chuck

fre 2014-03-28 klockan 16:04 -0600 skrev Richard: Not a problem if it is like that everywhere... New Order (the british band) got a surprise while on tour in the States (i think it was in Boston), their act was a short one (i think 42 minutes) so they did the act and went back to the lounge. 15 minutes later the local constabulary came in and escorted the band, some people in the audience had by that time started a riot (because they were disaffected by the short act and the non-appearance of the usual EXTRAS !) New Order at that time didn't play extras at all, in fact they didn't have any suchs prepared.