If memory serves, and forgive an old man if it doesn’t, 1965 was also the year we first saw D-150. I seem to recall going to a UA house in Queens (lefrack city?) for a demonstration.
Great find Bill.
I was working at the Syosset on Long Island that year, I recall it being a good year for 70mm.
Also notice the amasing list of plays on B'way at the same time.
Ah, see how much better when all get along. :)
Bye the way MBD, you also need to give credit to movie534 for being able to handle Amboy which was not an easy both to operate.
The booth was huge and the HVAC system was not adaquit, making it hot in spots in the summer and cold in the winter. couple that with a fickle automation system that did not always behave and you have a challenging job at best. Then there was that ex-projectionist turned Managing Director (me) giving the both guys unwated advice. UGH!
I know what you mean Bill, I felt the same way about the 1951 classic “The Thing Fromn Another World” which John Carpenter butcherd in a remake in the early 80s
I am pretty sure I rememnber you from Amboy, and hiring you for
White Plains.The White Plains booth was 100% manager/operator at first and then we brought 306 in to split with the managers.
I recall walking around the booth after you came in and thought, well hiring you was a good decision cause the booth immediatlely transformed into a more professional envirement. I especially appreciated the work you did on setting up the interlocks.
Your apology is accepted and appreciated. Also, I know what you mean by “our disagremnts” we sure had a few of those. I was under a lot of pressure to keep that White Plains theatre from falling into hell, it was a real nightmare at times. I thought I wouild never recover from that IMAX installation. We sure needed,and I fought for, two men per shift running that thing, especially the IMAX 3-D.
After that I retired, I had had enough.
I could be wrong but I think this will only happen over
Shari’s dead body.
Shari has stepped down from her position at Midway games to focus all of her attention on saving NA’s movie theatre division.
I agree with movie534 “let Sheri have it”
I do not see how a restoration is even possible since there is nothing left of the theatre to restore.
Are you speaking only of the lobby? Some part of that still exsists. However nothing remains of the main auditorium.
With the St George we had much to work with since much of the theatre was still intact. Not so for the Paramount.
What do the owners have in mind?
Since new floors are going down I guess it will become some sort of retail space. Since the Paramount theate we all loved is gone, is the plan to try and retain or reproduce some of what was the original theatre?
I also worked on the first attempt at the restoration of the
St George. My main concentration was on restoring the projection booth, but I also helped out on the stage.
dangel that is interesting news, of course since most of the interior is gone I wonder what the plans are there.
Please keep us informed.
I would also like to get in touch with the owner, I have much to share with them. Should you come across any contact info please pass it along.
Well dangel I look forward to yuor post
As to the plaster and wood detail, I can tell you most of that had been painted black by one of the tennants when the theatre was disrespected during it’s run as a dance club during the 80s.
You will have that mess to clean up.
When last I stood on the stage I felt as though the wood was going to give way under my feet, it had a lot of water damage. That was a while back just before the auditorium was gutted, so unless roof repaire have been made, which is doubtful, heaven knows how bad it has beome now.
The sprinkler system in the lobby area is the only way the owners can use the lobby. You will reall, a vender had hoped to use the lobby, but without a sprinkler system use was prohibited by the fire department.
RCDTJ, Thanks for that booth update.
Great to hear you are happy with the results, it sounds like you should have a trouble free and fun time up there.
It was also good to hear you got that exhaust problem resolved,
I recall Rendres was concerned about that a while back.
Please keep us informed and write from time to time about your experiences with the show. It is geatly appreciated.
Oh Bob, 3-D sync problems were often a nightmare for some.
But ss the article pointed out most sync problems could have been easily avoided. The problem was, not to many of the boys took the time to understand the process and its potential problems.
In particular was the fact that in those days the prints were made on safety film as opposed to todays mylar. This meant the film was more easily torn or could have sprocket damage. The new larger 3-D magazines which hosted the 6k reels would give us problems as well. If the print broke, or needed any repair, it was necessary to be sure any missing frames in the right eye print be also cut from the left eye print. This was easily done due to the edgs numbers printed on the edge or the print. But often what would be done instead was to put a slug of black leader in one of the prints to compensate for the missing frame(s)in the other,we also did this for Cinerama three strip. But it was not always done with care causing the movie ot go out of sync.
In addition, the sync motors themselves would sometimes work irratically, and that was big trouble.
If a movie went out of sync during the showing, a good projectioist could remady the problem by lining up the edge numbers on the print ih the gate.
Ah, the good ole days :)
Thanks for that Bob, it reminded me of all the madness and confusion we had during the 50s with another new film format or gimick jumping out at us on a regular basis. I have to admit it was fun though, kept us on our toes.
I remember it well.
Two other things not mentioned here yet,
Some theatres did not have proper cold splices to accomadate the
Fox spicers. Many instead, filed down the pins so the film would fit. This of course meant being very careful when splicing optical prints due to the play (up/down movement)which resulting in the filed down pins.Of course that was not the norm since most booths had two splicers, to accomadte both type of sprockets
We had a couple of circuits that chose to simply buy only the magnetic penthouse readers and Fox sprockets, and then route all four magnetic tracks into one amplifier and speaker. that basically turning a four track stereo print into a mono one. I must point out that was not done very often, but some of the smaller circuits in the 50s just could not afford the cost of a full blown stereo upgrade. Of course it was not long at all before the started to get mag/optical prints, which had Fox sprockets but could be used in mono (optical) only theatres equipt with Fox xprockets.
I did not recall Carols last name but that sounds about right. She she was a part of the wonderful family of people I worked with.
Yup that’s Toms last name, I recall that now. He was very protective of the booth door to cinemas 1 and 2 on the lower level. Used to tell me “Vito when you go upstairs to Cinema 3 never leave that door unlocked”, he was one of the best.
Tom was also financial secretary on the union executive board.
What an absurd idea. I am willing to bet that decision was made by theatre execs with no background in projection,took advice from the people manufacturing those projectors. They will learn a hard lesson, and perhaps teach them in future regarding such issues,to get imput from technical folks who could have warned them of the danger in such an operation. It reminds me a few years back,
IMAX began telling theatre owners that the projectors thread themselves and anyone can operate them. What a load of bull that turned out to be. Yes, the IMAX projectors do basically thread themselves, but IMAX did not speak to the fact that the film needs to be laced very carefully, or that there is intense cleaning required after every showing.
As to the Digital projectors mounted in the theatres, it should be fun when a Xenon bulb blows up in one of those projectors and the audience go running out screaming from the theatre. Have you ever heard a Xenon bulb blow?? Well if you haven’t allow me tell you it can be very loud and will easily be mistaken for a bomb going off. Yes,they will soon learn, opps, we may not have thought this through
Oh Warren I am so graetfull for those photos
I was born and raised in Rosebank and lived there until 1961
I worked the Paramount for many years and attended St Marys church as well. Those photos are a truely wonderful trip down memory lane.
I am a bit confused by the post by StGeorge.
He mentioned the electrical in the booth had been compromised by the previous owner and is nor longer working. I was there during the first attempt at renovation prior to Ms Rosemary coming in, and at that time I ran film on the two Century projectors, I found the
1 machine to run perfectly. However the #2 machine needed work on the intermittent movement and also had a sloppy main drive gear assembly which concerned me. I could not access the Xenon lamp house because it was locked and the keys were no where to be found, the plan was to have a locksmith come in and replace the keys. Both lamps fired up powered by the rectifiers in the room next to the booth and worked perfectly. The Altec single channel sound system, although rather old, also worked well. It is a mono system which would serve perfectly for the showing of classic movies which as we know were all optical/mono prints. There was an Altec A4 speaker system on stage and it also worked just fine, the last time I saw that was when I covered it in a blanket and stored it away stage right next to the rigging. We also had a full size screen which was in the fly space. I lowered on a couple of occasions and found it in decent shape. The screen could be lowered/raised by the second set of ropes on the rigging. The first was labeled â€Rag†which was the stage curtain and the second was labeled “sheet†for movie screen. The lenses in the projectors were for flat 1:85 projection only, the anamorphics were missing.
The gal I was working with on the restoration turned out to be a phony and suddenly disappeared without notice. Shortly after that, the marvelous Ms Rosemary and her family came along and saved the theatre with a magnificent restoration.
My question is who was the “previous owner†who dismantled the electrical system? It was fine when Ms Rosemary took over and I would not imagine she would have bothered with the booth at all. I say that because I spoke to her a few days after she too the place over and offered my services to finish bringing the booth up to snuff. However when asked if she intended showing movies her response was “not really†I then told her should she ever decide to change her mind about movies I would be available to help. I understand Ms Rosemary’s position, she wanted the theatre for live shows and that turned out quite well. We can never thank her enough for all she has done to save the theatre.
So bottom line is when Ms Rosemary took over, the booth was in reasonable shape with only a handful of things that need attention in order to show movies, all of which would not have been a major expense. Certainly the #2 projector would need rebuilding.
I would love to hear more about how the situation deteriated as much as has been written in the previous post. I put a lot of time and my own money to fix the booth and up to know thought it was as I left it.
Down the road, if the theatre does begin showing movies again, a new modern sound system should be purchased as well as the two projectors as well, no platter please. Possibly a pair of rebuilt 35/70mm projectors, a Dolby processor and six channel sound system. But for classic film showings the current mono system would suffice for now, assuming of course the screen and speaker have not been removed.
It sounds lke fun RCDTJ
Please keep us up to date as you prepare for the show.
As an old retired projection man I would be very interested in what has been going on and will be go on in the booth, I would also love hearing about your adventures preparing for and presenting the show.
REndres (bless him) kept us entertained and well informed of what went on in past years I hope you will as well.
I dare say many who read here will appreciate any imput.
Oh, and don’t forget the horror stories, Rob never did :)
Many thanks
It has hard to believe, but it’s aleady that time of year again.
The Christmas show begins on Nov 4th and I wondered if any of our Music Hall insiders can fill us on on what to expect on stage this year. Have they solved all of the problems with the video wall,
I recall that bus set was a problem last year. Also what if anything will be happining in the projection booth.
If memory serves, and forgive an old man if it doesn’t, 1965 was also the year we first saw D-150. I seem to recall going to a UA house in Queens (lefrack city?) for a demonstration.
Great find Bill.
I was working at the Syosset on Long Island that year, I recall it being a good year for 70mm.
Also notice the amasing list of plays on B'way at the same time.
Currect Bill, Carpenters version was true to the original short story “Who Goes There”. I rn it in 70mm and hated it.
Ah, see how much better when all get along. :)
Bye the way MBD, you also need to give credit to movie534 for being able to handle Amboy which was not an easy both to operate.
The booth was huge and the HVAC system was not adaquit, making it hot in spots in the summer and cold in the winter. couple that with a fickle automation system that did not always behave and you have a challenging job at best. Then there was that ex-projectionist turned Managing Director (me) giving the both guys unwated advice. UGH!
I know what you mean Bill, I felt the same way about the 1951 classic “The Thing Fromn Another World” which John Carpenter butcherd in a remake in the early 80s
I am pretty sure I rememnber you from Amboy, and hiring you for
White Plains.The White Plains booth was 100% manager/operator at first and then we brought 306 in to split with the managers.
I recall walking around the booth after you came in and thought, well hiring you was a good decision cause the booth immediatlely transformed into a more professional envirement. I especially appreciated the work you did on setting up the interlocks.
Your apology is accepted and appreciated. Also, I know what you mean by “our disagremnts” we sure had a few of those. I was under a lot of pressure to keep that White Plains theatre from falling into hell, it was a real nightmare at times. I thought I wouild never recover from that IMAX installation. We sure needed,and I fought for, two men per shift running that thing, especially the IMAX 3-D.
After that I retired, I had had enough.
Of course we will want to see “Day The Earth Stood Still” in IMAX.
I will see it in that format soon and will report back.
My God, when did this site become a venue for personal attacks?
You are embarassing yourselves, please stop.
I could be wrong but I think this will only happen over
Shari’s dead body.
Shari has stepped down from her position at Midway games to focus all of her attention on saving NA’s movie theatre division.
I agree with movie534 “let Sheri have it”
We are proud of you RCDTJ, keep up the good work.
Oh, and never allow them to substitute the 70mm with Digital-3D :)
I do not see how a restoration is even possible since there is nothing left of the theatre to restore.
Are you speaking only of the lobby? Some part of that still exsists. However nothing remains of the main auditorium.
With the St George we had much to work with since much of the theatre was still intact. Not so for the Paramount.
What do the owners have in mind?
Since new floors are going down I guess it will become some sort of retail space. Since the Paramount theate we all loved is gone, is the plan to try and retain or reproduce some of what was the original theatre?
I also worked on the first attempt at the restoration of the
St George. My main concentration was on restoring the projection booth, but I also helped out on the stage.
dangel that is interesting news, of course since most of the interior is gone I wonder what the plans are there.
Please keep us informed.
I would also like to get in touch with the owner, I have much to share with them. Should you come across any contact info please pass it along.
Well dangel I look forward to yuor post
As to the plaster and wood detail, I can tell you most of that had been painted black by one of the tennants when the theatre was disrespected during it’s run as a dance club during the 80s.
You will have that mess to clean up.
When last I stood on the stage I felt as though the wood was going to give way under my feet, it had a lot of water damage. That was a while back just before the auditorium was gutted, so unless roof repaire have been made, which is doubtful, heaven knows how bad it has beome now.
The sprinkler system in the lobby area is the only way the owners can use the lobby. You will reall, a vender had hoped to use the lobby, but without a sprinkler system use was prohibited by the fire department.
RCDTJ, Thanks for that booth update.
Great to hear you are happy with the results, it sounds like you should have a trouble free and fun time up there.
It was also good to hear you got that exhaust problem resolved,
I recall Rendres was concerned about that a while back.
Please keep us informed and write from time to time about your experiences with the show. It is geatly appreciated.
Oh Bob, 3-D sync problems were often a nightmare for some.
But ss the article pointed out most sync problems could have been easily avoided. The problem was, not to many of the boys took the time to understand the process and its potential problems.
In particular was the fact that in those days the prints were made on safety film as opposed to todays mylar. This meant the film was more easily torn or could have sprocket damage. The new larger 3-D magazines which hosted the 6k reels would give us problems as well. If the print broke, or needed any repair, it was necessary to be sure any missing frames in the right eye print be also cut from the left eye print. This was easily done due to the edgs numbers printed on the edge or the print. But often what would be done instead was to put a slug of black leader in one of the prints to compensate for the missing frame(s)in the other,we also did this for Cinerama three strip. But it was not always done with care causing the movie ot go out of sync.
In addition, the sync motors themselves would sometimes work irratically, and that was big trouble.
If a movie went out of sync during the showing, a good projectioist could remady the problem by lining up the edge numbers on the print ih the gate.
Ah, the good ole days :)
Thanks for that Bob, it reminded me of all the madness and confusion we had during the 50s with another new film format or gimick jumping out at us on a regular basis. I have to admit it was fun though, kept us on our toes.
I remember it well.
Two other things not mentioned here yet,
Some theatres did not have proper cold splices to accomadate the
Fox spicers. Many instead, filed down the pins so the film would fit. This of course meant being very careful when splicing optical prints due to the play (up/down movement)which resulting in the filed down pins.Of course that was not the norm since most booths had two splicers, to accomadte both type of sprockets
We had a couple of circuits that chose to simply buy only the magnetic penthouse readers and Fox sprockets, and then route all four magnetic tracks into one amplifier and speaker. that basically turning a four track stereo print into a mono one. I must point out that was not done very often, but some of the smaller circuits in the 50s just could not afford the cost of a full blown stereo upgrade. Of course it was not long at all before the started to get mag/optical prints, which had Fox sprockets but could be used in mono (optical) only theatres equipt with Fox xprockets.
I did not recall Carols last name but that sounds about right. She she was a part of the wonderful family of people I worked with.
Yup that’s Toms last name, I recall that now. He was very protective of the booth door to cinemas 1 and 2 on the lower level. Used to tell me “Vito when you go upstairs to Cinema 3 never leave that door unlocked”, he was one of the best.
Tom was also financial secretary on the union executive board.
What an absurd idea. I am willing to bet that decision was made by theatre execs with no background in projection,took advice from the people manufacturing those projectors. They will learn a hard lesson, and perhaps teach them in future regarding such issues,to get imput from technical folks who could have warned them of the danger in such an operation. It reminds me a few years back,
IMAX began telling theatre owners that the projectors thread themselves and anyone can operate them. What a load of bull that turned out to be. Yes, the IMAX projectors do basically thread themselves, but IMAX did not speak to the fact that the film needs to be laced very carefully, or that there is intense cleaning required after every showing.
As to the Digital projectors mounted in the theatres, it should be fun when a Xenon bulb blows up in one of those projectors and the audience go running out screaming from the theatre. Have you ever heard a Xenon bulb blow?? Well if you haven’t allow me tell you it can be very loud and will easily be mistaken for a bomb going off. Yes,they will soon learn, opps, we may not have thought this through
Oh Warren I am so graetfull for those photos
I was born and raised in Rosebank and lived there until 1961
I worked the Paramount for many years and attended St Marys church as well. Those photos are a truely wonderful trip down memory lane.
I am a bit confused by the post by StGeorge.
He mentioned the electrical in the booth had been compromised by the previous owner and is nor longer working. I was there during the first attempt at renovation prior to Ms Rosemary coming in, and at that time I ran film on the two Century projectors, I found the
1 machine to run perfectly. However the #2 machine needed work on the intermittent movement and also had a sloppy main drive gear assembly which concerned me. I could not access the Xenon lamp house because it was locked and the keys were no where to be found, the plan was to have a locksmith come in and replace the keys. Both lamps fired up powered by the rectifiers in the room next to the booth and worked perfectly. The Altec single channel sound system, although rather old, also worked well. It is a mono system which would serve perfectly for the showing of classic movies which as we know were all optical/mono prints. There was an Altec A4 speaker system on stage and it also worked just fine, the last time I saw that was when I covered it in a blanket and stored it away stage right next to the rigging. We also had a full size screen which was in the fly space. I lowered on a couple of occasions and found it in decent shape. The screen could be lowered/raised by the second set of ropes on the rigging. The first was labeled â€Rag†which was the stage curtain and the second was labeled “sheet†for movie screen. The lenses in the projectors were for flat 1:85 projection only, the anamorphics were missing.
The gal I was working with on the restoration turned out to be a phony and suddenly disappeared without notice. Shortly after that, the marvelous Ms Rosemary and her family came along and saved the theatre with a magnificent restoration.
My question is who was the “previous owner†who dismantled the electrical system? It was fine when Ms Rosemary took over and I would not imagine she would have bothered with the booth at all. I say that because I spoke to her a few days after she too the place over and offered my services to finish bringing the booth up to snuff. However when asked if she intended showing movies her response was “not really†I then told her should she ever decide to change her mind about movies I would be available to help. I understand Ms Rosemary’s position, she wanted the theatre for live shows and that turned out quite well. We can never thank her enough for all she has done to save the theatre.
So bottom line is when Ms Rosemary took over, the booth was in reasonable shape with only a handful of things that need attention in order to show movies, all of which would not have been a major expense. Certainly the #2 projector would need rebuilding.
I would love to hear more about how the situation deteriated as much as has been written in the previous post. I put a lot of time and my own money to fix the booth and up to know thought it was as I left it.
Down the road, if the theatre does begin showing movies again, a new modern sound system should be purchased as well as the two projectors as well, no platter please. Possibly a pair of rebuilt 35/70mm projectors, a Dolby processor and six channel sound system. But for classic film showings the current mono system would suffice for now, assuming of course the screen and speaker have not been removed.
It sounds lke fun RCDTJ
Please keep us up to date as you prepare for the show.
As an old retired projection man I would be very interested in what has been going on and will be go on in the booth, I would also love hearing about your adventures preparing for and presenting the show.
REndres (bless him) kept us entertained and well informed of what went on in past years I hope you will as well.
I dare say many who read here will appreciate any imput.
Oh, and don’t forget the horror stories, Rob never did :)
Many thanks
It has hard to believe, but it’s aleady that time of year again.
The Christmas show begins on Nov 4th and I wondered if any of our Music Hall insiders can fill us on on what to expect on stage this year. Have they solved all of the problems with the video wall,
I recall that bus set was a problem last year. Also what if anything will be happining in the projection booth.