Del City Theater

I worked as a relief projectionist at the Del City Theater in 1958-59. Despite other comments, the theater definitely did have ‘scope lenses for the (Simplex E-7) projectors. True, the screen and the projector aperture plates didn’t match the CinemaScope specs, but you got to see the middle 2/3 of the picture, didn’t you? However, the prints we ran were almost never in good shape - having been through dozens of other theaters before we ever saw them. I don’t miss the fun of carrying 100-pound steel film shipping cans up and down the stairs to the booth, but the rest of it (free popcorn and soda but full-price candy) and a sort of on-the-job course in film studies - all that was OK.

My first telephone number I dialed was at the ticket booth there in 1963. Saturday morning matinee and then across the street to T,G &Y for more candy.“Wild Angels” “War of the worlds” “Sinbad the Sailor”“Fantastic Voyage”“Goldfinger”

I went to this theater in 1966 to see “Spencer’s Mountain”, which was a ‘scope picture. This theater didn’t have a CinemaScope screen, so they made razor blade scratches from the cue marks into the picture so they could make changeovers. The original cue marks were completely cut off.

A shortcut to a clear vintage photo of the Del City Theatre can be seen on below link by typing in word “movie”,
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A June, 1950 photo of the Del Theatre can be seen on this site by typing in word “theatre”,
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