Comments from childofnapavalley

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childofnapavalley
childofnapavalley commented about Cameo Cinema on Aug 7, 2013 at 10:50 am

The Liberty had sat dormant for many years until the late 70s, when good friends of mine, Bill Cook and Paul Gartin, re-opened it. I worked there as a projectionist for about a year.

The old carbon arc projector lamps made for sweltering summer nights in the projection booth! Every now and then, the film would jam in the projector and the heat from the lamps would melt through the film in an instant, making for a light show of sorts on the screen.

Francis Ford Coppola screened a few new films at the Liberty around 1980, with free admission as gifts to the community. It made me nervous, running brand new film that were his personal prints.

I recall showing a film there—I don’t recall the title—that we shared with another old theater a few towns away to save rental costs. We started one 20-minute reel and when it was finished, one of us would hop in a car to drive it over the hill to the other theater, so we had a relay running the whole length of the film, about six trips, which made for a long night.

Lots of good memories from the old Liberty.

Pat