saps, get this. The chief took apart a lens and put it back together with all the elements backwards and a drop of oil on one of the lenses inside. He said something was wrong. I sent it into the manufacturer, and they told me what he did. ummm haaaahehehehe The also have a girl projectionist that looks like a 60 year old Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac. She never wears a bra up there but she wears her 1960 hippie hat. ohhh hahahaha
:( sorry
However, they are nice people in that crazy busy place… I miss them actually.
Nice place for an older place. The owner knows what he doing. The booth is not bad and the management is far better than the last. The theater is GREAT!
Yeah, ask for Bill Wilson, and tell him Meredith said, “Hello Buddy.” One of the best theaters I can ever remember servicing. It is that great. And, they have a NEW million-dollar snack bar installed. The place is ran like, well, like theaters used to be run! I love this place. Tell Bill Hello!
I was the New Jersey and New York service technician. I would go into Amboy to take equipment and share them with other working theaters. Get this, at certain points in the booth, you can look to the outside because the walls are cracking. In the lobby, the concession stand drops over a foot from one end to the other. The place is sinking! Yikes… The booth was very nice, however, people have broken into it to steal copper wiring.
moviefriend73, do you remember the projectionist’s stuff in the booth about B-rated horror films? ehh, hehehe. I was the projection techinican there. His booth is like walking into a director’s louge. Nice Italian guy, but what a riot.
I was their projection technician, as with all theaters in New Jersey and New York, until I got enough sense to quit. Theaters were split and added. It was running good when I left.
When I did relief projection between Pacific’s and Mann’s down the street, it was awkward running Pacific’s because the regular projectionist actually lived in the booth. He had one of those fold-up, drop-down beds. Forget what you call them now. Anyway, the union only let operators work a certain amount of hours, so on the days that I worked, the poor guy didn’t know what to do with himself. Yes, that huge auditorium was freezing.
When I was the projectionist there, Jerry Brown was governor and dating Linda Ronstadt, the singer. Well, Ronstadt’s cousin was the manager here at that time. She and I had a blast. We even had to throw out her boyfriend a few times because he interferred with our working so well together… tee-hee… Oops
This place was great in the 70s. Everything in the booth was brand spanking new. We used 6,000 foot reels to make changeovers, rather than 2,000 foot reels. Wow! The only place more automated was the Marina with its… shhh… platters. This was a classy place in its day to see a movie.
I loved running film here. You could be at the beach or “PIKE” during the day and go run movies with a cool ocean breeze at night. It didn’t even seem like work… boohoo
In 1987, I came over to open the Cineplex Odeon Marina Marketplace. Wes Stockman was the manager at the time. This art-deco place had marble floors, beautiful lighting and a really cool cafe. You could order expresso, have spaghetti, a salad or one of their fine pastries. Finally, you could sit down and enjoy your meal in its own dining area.
Here, with my partner Bob Seeling, we put on a great show in what we had considered to be the best-run, high-tech projection booth in the city. Also, it was the first computerized projection booth in the nation. Oh, and yes, we had curtains to close and re-open between the coming attractions and feature presentation.
Garth Drabinsky, the C.E.O. for Cineplex, said that if we make this thing work, we would have a job for life. We made it work with pride, and Cineplex really took care of us. The 2,500 square foot booth floor was stripped and polished weekly. You could eat off the floor.
It had its own water filter for the coffee maker and a desk for the computer. There were no fingerprints on the walls because we enforced keeping it spotless. Bob and I even won an award from the union for having the best running projection room in the local.
This place hired only off-duty L.A.P.D. detectives for its plain-clothed security. Mark Fuhrman of the O.J. Simpson trial was one of them. It was pretty common to see a couple officers escorting celebrities to and from auditoriums.
In addition to regular public showings of movie releases, the studios would rent auditoriums to do Audience Response Screenings (ARS) and get public feedback while in a film’s production. Then, they would alter a film’s production and make changes based on the questionaires that were handed out to be filled-out by the audience at the end of the screenings. The stars of the films being screened would typically hang-out in the projection booth and peek out the port windows to see the audience’s responses.
Between regular public showings and weekly studio premieres and screenings, the Marina Marketplace was making tons of money. We were all very proud of our baby.
Unfortunately, Drabinsky ended up in prison. Next, Loews bought out Cineplex Odeon in 1991 and threw out the union projectionists and off-duty officers. Today, it is ran like any other ordinary theater, and the stars don’t come out to play here anymore.
Since we are mentioning people like Rick Pollard, Mike Schleiger and Lou Honeycutt, does anyone remember Peterson at Pacific or his son at Disney?
Was a dj at the first FM rock station in 1967. It was KTBT. Graduated from I.B.A. (Institute of Broadcast Arts) in Garden Grove, a joint venture between Gary Owens and Hugh Downs.
The booth and equipment are very nice. I miss working there.
saps, get this. The chief took apart a lens and put it back together with all the elements backwards and a drop of oil on one of the lenses inside. He said something was wrong. I sent it into the manufacturer, and they told me what he did. ummm haaaahehehehe The also have a girl projectionist that looks like a 60 year old Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac. She never wears a bra up there but she wears her 1960 hippie hat. ohhh hahahaha
:( sorry
However, they are nice people in that crazy busy place… I miss them actually.
Yes it is Fred. We did a lot to get the booth up-to-shape. Good place and good people working there.
Booth runs well, not a bad place. Check it out…
Wanna be in Hollywood? This is as good as it gets!
Nice place for an older place. The owner knows what he doing. The booth is not bad and the management is far better than the last. The theater is GREAT!
Yeah, ask for Bill Wilson, and tell him Meredith said, “Hello Buddy.” One of the best theaters I can ever remember servicing. It is that great. And, they have a NEW million-dollar snack bar installed. The place is ran like, well, like theaters used to be run! I love this place. Tell Bill Hello!
I was the New Jersey and New York service technician. I would go into Amboy to take equipment and share them with other working theaters. Get this, at certain points in the booth, you can look to the outside because the walls are cracking. In the lobby, the concession stand drops over a foot from one end to the other. The place is sinking! Yikes… The booth was very nice, however, people have broken into it to steal copper wiring.
that is all, sweet dreams…
Good equipment in the booth. I miss Jerry Lewis, the old projectionist there. Fun place to work!
The booth runs well, not too bad of equipment.
moviefriend73, do you remember the projectionist’s stuff in the booth about B-rated horror films? ehh, hehehe. I was the projection techinican there. His booth is like walking into a director’s louge. Nice Italian guy, but what a riot.
I was their projection technician, as with all theaters in New Jersey and New York, until I got enough sense to quit. Theaters were split and added. It was running good when I left.
John Oblinger or Steve Gates, what happened to him? Did one of you guys pop him? hehehehe
zzzzzzz
saps, if I go to work there, are you coming over to visit? ;)
I am the field service technician at American Theater, and Joe is going all out to enhance this Cinema Treasure! Hip-Hip
…
I believe the place is non-union now.
When I did relief projection between Pacific’s and Mann’s down the street, it was awkward running Pacific’s because the regular projectionist actually lived in the booth. He had one of those fold-up, drop-down beds. Forget what you call them now. Anyway, the union only let operators work a certain amount of hours, so on the days that I worked, the poor guy didn’t know what to do with himself. Yes, that huge auditorium was freezing.
When I was the projectionist there, Jerry Brown was governor and dating Linda Ronstadt, the singer. Well, Ronstadt’s cousin was the manager here at that time. She and I had a blast. We even had to throw out her boyfriend a few times because he interferred with our working so well together… tee-hee… Oops
This place was great in the 70s. Everything in the booth was brand spanking new. We used 6,000 foot reels to make changeovers, rather than 2,000 foot reels. Wow! The only place more automated was the Marina with its… shhh… platters. This was a classy place in its day to see a movie.
I loved running film here. You could be at the beach or “PIKE” during the day and go run movies with a cool ocean breeze at night. It didn’t even seem like work… boohoo
In 1987, I came over to open the Cineplex Odeon Marina Marketplace. Wes Stockman was the manager at the time. This art-deco place had marble floors, beautiful lighting and a really cool cafe. You could order expresso, have spaghetti, a salad or one of their fine pastries. Finally, you could sit down and enjoy your meal in its own dining area.
Here, with my partner Bob Seeling, we put on a great show in what we had considered to be the best-run, high-tech projection booth in the city. Also, it was the first computerized projection booth in the nation. Oh, and yes, we had curtains to close and re-open between the coming attractions and feature presentation.
Garth Drabinsky, the C.E.O. for Cineplex, said that if we make this thing work, we would have a job for life. We made it work with pride, and Cineplex really took care of us. The 2,500 square foot booth floor was stripped and polished weekly. You could eat off the floor.
It had its own water filter for the coffee maker and a desk for the computer. There were no fingerprints on the walls because we enforced keeping it spotless. Bob and I even won an award from the union for having the best running projection room in the local.
This place hired only off-duty L.A.P.D. detectives for its plain-clothed security. Mark Fuhrman of the O.J. Simpson trial was one of them. It was pretty common to see a couple officers escorting celebrities to and from auditoriums.
In addition to regular public showings of movie releases, the studios would rent auditoriums to do Audience Response Screenings (ARS) and get public feedback while in a film’s production. Then, they would alter a film’s production and make changes based on the questionaires that were handed out to be filled-out by the audience at the end of the screenings. The stars of the films being screened would typically hang-out in the projection booth and peek out the port windows to see the audience’s responses.
Between regular public showings and weekly studio premieres and screenings, the Marina Marketplace was making tons of money. We were all very proud of our baby.
Unfortunately, Drabinsky ended up in prison. Next, Loews bought out Cineplex Odeon in 1991 and threw out the union projectionists and off-duty officers. Today, it is ran like any other ordinary theater, and the stars don’t come out to play here anymore.
Hi Saps and Ed. Yes, I still pop in and check out the posts, only now I do it from South Carolina. Take Care y'ALL!!!
Did the Bel-Air circuit myself, as William knows.
Since we are mentioning people like Rick Pollard, Mike Schleiger and Lou Honeycutt, does anyone remember Peterson at Pacific or his son at Disney?
Was a dj at the first FM rock station in 1967. It was KTBT. Graduated from I.B.A. (Institute of Broadcast Arts) in Garden Grove, a joint venture between Gary Owens and Hugh Downs.