To be sure the publicity is great. I never said they come up with anything they believe is fake, what I think is that they are conviced that what ever they “detect” is otherworldly. I’ve been at the Byrd for 20 years and have never seen or heard anything that isn’t totally explainable. The ghost hunters don’t want to know about real world explanations
To be sure the publicity is great. I never said they come up with anything they believe is fake, what I think is that they are conviced that what ever they “detect” is otherworldly. I’ve been at the Byrd for 20 years and have never seen or heard anything that isn’t totally explainable. The ghost hunters don’t want to know about real world explanations
For a very early exterior photo of the Byrd, check www.richmondthenandnow.com the click Richmond Then and Now the Byrd photo will be on page 7 of the photos
The ghost hunters set up quite an array of “detection equipment” that night and detected nothing that their over active imaginations didn’t cause them to find. They got annoyed when we referred to them as ghost busters. Mr. Coulter, if he really is here is much too evasive for these people to detect.
The vertical sign was taken down in ‘71. It was in poor condition and was moving back and forth with the wind because the original stabilizing rods had rusted loose inside the sign. Cables installed after the rods cam loose were working loose too. The problem was that there was no access to the inside for maintenance and repair and even if there had been there was nothing inside to climb on to get to problem areas. Once it was down it was found to be in much worse condition than anticipated and couldn’t have been put back up even if they wanted to. The blue neon marquee lights and sign were installed in the early '30s. The marquee as original had no sign or lights other than lighting for the sidewalk on the underside. Movie signs were on banners above the doors. The ends of the marquee were cut off and angled at time too.
Our best seller is Reeses PeanutButter Cups second is Twizzlers. We started selling bottled water in April, should have done it years ago. We sell 6 cases a week of 22 oz. Deerpark in 24 bottle cases. All candy is $2.50 water is $2.00. This is in a single screen in town second run.
I worked for one of the last to attempt movies at the Colonial. The facility presented some issues that undoubtedly contributed to its downfall as a cinema. The auditorium was long and fairly narrow, with an even narrower screen. The projection throw was about 135 feet which combined with the narrow screen made it necessary to use an odd combination of lenses incorporating a reverse anamorphic for widescreen. Sound was made difficult by the high barrel vaulted ceiling and the length to width ratio, intolerable reverb, customers complained constantly about unintelligible dialog. The projection room floor was so limber that one had to tiptoe when in there in order to prevent the picture from bouncing.
I’ll agree that it should have been saved, but not as a movie house.
The Byrd Theatre has been purchased by the Byrd Theatre Foundation. After 3 years of negotiations with the estateof Samuel and Irma Warren, the foundation closed on the building a couple weeks ago. Operationally the transition was seemless. The former operating company, Nelson Commnications moved out one morning and the foundations LLC opened at 6:45 pm, the normal time that evening. There will be fund raisers etc. to raise money for some much needed repairs as well as paying off the mortgage.
Some updates on the Byrd. Yep! All the carbon arcs are now gone, along with the dust and the associated mess. We now have a much brighter and cleaner metal halide lighted follow spot. Also during the first week of November ‘06 we were closed for 3 days for the removal of the old sound system and the installation of a new Dolby Digital system. There are new left, right and center channel speakers as well as 4 sub woofers behind the screen. Twenty surround speakers have also been installed, giving equal coverage to the balcony as well as the main floor. The processor is a Dolby CP 650. Connecting the speakers required 5700 feet of 12 ga. speaker cable all but about ten feet of which is out of sight.
To be sure the publicity is great. I never said they come up with anything they believe is fake, what I think is that they are conviced that what ever they “detect” is otherworldly. I’ve been at the Byrd for 20 years and have never seen or heard anything that isn’t totally explainable. The ghost hunters don’t want to know about real world explanations
To be sure the publicity is great. I never said they come up with anything they believe is fake, what I think is that they are conviced that what ever they “detect” is otherworldly. I’ve been at the Byrd for 20 years and have never seen or heard anything that isn’t totally explainable. The ghost hunters don’t want to know about real world explanations
For a very early exterior photo of the Byrd, check
www.richmondthenandnow.com the click Richmond Then and Now the Byrd photo will be on page 7 of the photos
The ghost hunters set up quite an array of “detection equipment” that night and detected nothing that their over active imaginations didn’t cause them to find. They got annoyed when we referred to them as ghost busters. Mr. Coulter, if he really is here is much too evasive for these people to detect.
The vertical sign was taken down in ‘71. It was in poor condition and was moving back and forth with the wind because the original stabilizing rods had rusted loose inside the sign. Cables installed after the rods cam loose were working loose too. The problem was that there was no access to the inside for maintenance and repair and even if there had been there was nothing inside to climb on to get to problem areas. Once it was down it was found to be in much worse condition than anticipated and couldn’t have been put back up even if they wanted to. The blue neon marquee lights and sign were installed in the early '30s. The marquee as original had no sign or lights other than lighting for the sidewalk on the underside. Movie signs were on banners above the doors. The ends of the marquee were cut off and angled at time too.
Our best seller is Reeses PeanutButter Cups second is Twizzlers. We started selling bottled water in April, should have done it years ago. We sell 6 cases a week of 22 oz. Deerpark in 24 bottle cases. All candy is $2.50 water is $2.00. This is in a single screen in town second run.
I worked for one of the last to attempt movies at the Colonial. The facility presented some issues that undoubtedly contributed to its downfall as a cinema. The auditorium was long and fairly narrow, with an even narrower screen. The projection throw was about 135 feet which combined with the narrow screen made it necessary to use an odd combination of lenses incorporating a reverse anamorphic for widescreen. Sound was made difficult by the high barrel vaulted ceiling and the length to width ratio, intolerable reverb, customers complained constantly about unintelligible dialog. The projection room floor was so limber that one had to tiptoe when in there in order to prevent the picture from bouncing.
I’ll agree that it should have been saved, but not as a movie house.
The Byrd Theatre has been purchased by the Byrd Theatre Foundation. After 3 years of negotiations with the estateof Samuel and Irma Warren, the foundation closed on the building a couple weeks ago. Operationally the transition was seemless. The former operating company, Nelson Commnications moved out one morning and the foundations LLC opened at 6:45 pm, the normal time that evening. There will be fund raisers etc. to raise money for some much needed repairs as well as paying off the mortgage.
Some updates on the Byrd. Yep! All the carbon arcs are now gone, along with the dust and the associated mess. We now have a much brighter and cleaner metal halide lighted follow spot. Also during the first week of November ‘06 we were closed for 3 days for the removal of the old sound system and the installation of a new Dolby Digital system. There are new left, right and center channel speakers as well as 4 sub woofers behind the screen. Twenty surround speakers have also been installed, giving equal coverage to the balcony as well as the main floor. The processor is a Dolby CP 650. Connecting the speakers required 5700 feet of 12 ga. speaker cable all but about ten feet of which is out of sight.