I was one of the two projectionists at this theatre when it closed. What a great experience. The full time projectionist at the time told me we were going to get to show the movie “Soylent Green” to close out this grand run of this old and wonderful place. At the last moment they cancelled that and yes i do believe “Jaws” took its place. We showed “Jaws” so much i knew every scene and line of that movie by heart. The cameras were fun. Had to monitor the carbon sticks in them to make sure they did not burn down to far or….no picture. The change over from camera one to camera two was also interesting. We would get two signal marks on the main screen. The first mark was to get the camera that had the ready reel going and the second mark we watched for on the screen from the the booth was for the exchange from the camera with the used reel to the camera with the next sequenced reel. When the screen went white (no picture) a loud bell in the booth would go off to alert us. I did not need that bell, ha. You could here the boo’s from the patrons when that happened. Usually happened when a splice in the film broke more than a change over. Man, do i have some stories…………… When i was there at the end the theatre did not pack in 825 people very often but when it did or got close the place rocked. the reaction of the big crowd in there was magical. I got into acting because of that experience and am so very thankful for it.
I was one of the two projectionists at this theatre when it closed. What a great experience. The full time projectionist at the time told me we were going to get to show the movie “Soylent Green” to close out this grand run of this old and wonderful place. At the last moment they cancelled that and yes i do believe “Jaws” took its place. We showed “Jaws” so much i knew every scene and line of that movie by heart. The cameras were fun. Had to monitor the carbon sticks in them to make sure they did not burn down to far or….no picture. The change over from camera one to camera two was also interesting. We would get two signal marks on the main screen. The first mark was to get the camera that had the ready reel going and the second mark we watched for on the screen from the the booth was for the exchange from the camera with the used reel to the camera with the next sequenced reel. When the screen went white (no picture) a loud bell in the booth would go off to alert us. I did not need that bell, ha. You could here the boo’s from the patrons when that happened. Usually happened when a splice in the film broke more than a change over. Man, do i have some stories…………… When i was there at the end the theatre did not pack in 825 people very often but when it did or got close the place rocked. the reaction of the big crowd in there was magical. I got into acting because of that experience and am so very thankful for it.