I worked the booth in 1975. Here’s something odd I found. On the back (south facing) wall of the booth was what looked like projection ports but covered up. It looked to me like this drive-in was originally designed as a twin but the second screen tower was never built.
One more recollection. When I worked the original Cinema 3 it was equipped with two 35MM Simplex XL’s and Christie Xenon Lamphouses. We were still making changeovers on 2000 ft reels, a rare thing considering the set up. Back in ‘75 Cinema 3 projectionist Clark Grant once told me that all General Cinema needs to do is to install 6000 ft reel arms on those machines and the machines in Cinema 1 then have one projectionist go between the three theatres. It took some 10 or so odd years but Clark’s premonition came true.
I was a doorman at Cinema 1 in the Fall of ‘73. Later I worked those theatres booths when I was on Local 150’s extra board in 1975 and '76. Back then there were three single theatres, Cinema 1 was on Hawthorne Blvd. and between Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 was an ice cream shop, beauty shop and bowling alley. Cinema 3 was located across the parking lot in the back next to Levitz furniture. At that time none of the theatres was equipped for 70MM. When Cinema 2 (the largest of the 3) was twinned I remember projectionist Charlie O'Kane being a little pissed off because the booth was being automated but later accepted it since he didn’t have to change carbons and do change-overs anymore.
I saw “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear” as a child in 1964. In later years I worked the booth on and off in 1975 and 1976 when regular projectionist Joe Gillam took off. This theatre had a wide auditorium which made for great scope pictures. There was a stage under the screen. This theatre was equipped for 4-track magnetic sound.
I was sent there in either late ‘75 or early '76 to run Disney’s Blackbeard’s Ghost while the projectionist took the week off. I’ll never forget that Academy Awards wall that went from the lobby to the auditorium. I had never been in that theatre before and I only saw the auditorium through the booth ports. There was a door that led directly to a portion of the roof outside from the booth. During intermissions I would step out onto the roof and watch jetliners land at the Los Angeles airport.
As a child during the early 60’s my dad would take the family to the drive-in on Friday’s after he came home from work and got cleaned up. The Twin Vue was one of those drive-in’s that I remember fondly. Some of the films I remember seeing there were Pollyanna and Flipper. Years later after joing the projectionist Local 150 I learned that the projectionist who first opened the Twin Vue also closed it. I also learned that because of the small and somewhat narrow lot, the Twin Vue was configured in such a way that the main screen tower was placed in the northwest corner of the lot and faced southeast so the headlight glare from the northbound Harbor freeway traffic would not be distracting to the audience had it been placed in the southwest corner but later a second smaller screen tower was positioned in the southwest corner of the lot along with car stalls and speaker poles. Most of the time it sat there unused. Only on those rare occasions when the main lot filled up did management open the smaller lot and ran the same picture on both screens using an inovative prism mirror system contained in a box in front of the lens of each of the two projectors that were facing the main screen tower. With the turn of a knob on the top of each box the same image could be simutaneoulsy thrown on both screens. However, this reduced the footlambert and the image lost some brightness on both screens. After too many complaints and refunds about the poor picture quality management stopped doing this. Now when the main lot filled up the second lot opened but arriving customers were told to park their cars so that it faced the main screen.
No disrespect to Ed who was a good man and became one of my best friends after I first met him in the Fall of ‘73. Ed helped me join Local 150 and taught me all he knew about the booth with his countless years of experience. Ed was one of a kind and I miss him dearly.
The image was almost always not focused because Ed Blahay (projectionist) had bad eyesight but never admitted it but I eventually caught on to this. After starting a show Ed would ask me if the picture looked alright meaning “is it in focus”? or he would ask me to do the focusing for him. Another thing, the small house was on platters and the big house on 6000 ft reels which caused images to go in and out of focus as the next reel ran but Ed would be sitting in his easy chair taking catnaps as this was happening.
I’m late on this one. As I scrolled through these messages I found some familiar names from more than 30 years ago, Mr. (Harry) K, Ed Haselwood, Jewel but I never saw the name of Ed Blahay. To those unfamiliar, Ed was one of the last projectionists at the Fox Redondo before it closed down. Ed was also a relief projectionist at the Strand then later at the Fox PV Twin until that theatre closed in 1978. In the Fall of 1973 as the Fox was playing “A Touch of Class” and “Breezy”, I was sent to the Fox PV by business agent George Farley to see if I was projectionist material. I was 21 years old then and working at a Pup N Taco for $1.45 an hour. Ed had me thread up a Century model ‘G’ which I had never seen before in my life. Up until then I had threaded up 16mm projectors in high school but never anything like this. Ed left me alone and went back to his easy chair he had in the booth. As I was threading the film I remembered then that the film path was basically the same in most projectors. When Ed checked what I did he told me that he must have had about ten guys thread that machine but I was the only one who got it right except that my loops were a little small but it will run. Since then we became good friends and he often talked about the Fox Redondo which I had seen from the outside on my bike and skateboard trips from Wilmington in the early 70’s but never been inside. Today I saw the inside for the first time in pictures. Ed helped me get a Los Angeles city projectionist license in 1974 (yes we had to be licensed to run a booth in Los Angeles) as he was on the executive board of Local 150 and had friends such as Hal Goldstein who administered the license written and practical tests. Hmmmmm! Just days after the Fox Redondo closed, workers were removing the projection booth equipment and were throwing out boxes filled with old dater and intermission strips, and cross plugs for many Fox theatres such as the Loyola, La Mar, Westlake and Westcoast. There was even a few old movie trailers for “Straw Dogs”, “Tropic of Cancer” and “The Man”. Ed rescued a few those boxes out of the trash and kept them in the Fox PV booth until that theatre closed. The next day I was helping Ed move his things out of the booth and he came across those boxes which he gave to me. To see and hear those strips with the cinemotion effects and marine marching band style music brings back tears and a lot of memories. Ed also gave me 35mm merchants ads and a ladies show trailer from the early 60’s that ran at the Fox PV.
I worked the booth in 1975. Here’s something odd I found. On the back (south facing) wall of the booth was what looked like projection ports but covered up. It looked to me like this drive-in was originally designed as a twin but the second screen tower was never built.
I saw some Elvis Presley films there in the mid 60’s. Bishop Montgomery High was located across the street.
One more recollection. When I worked the original Cinema 3 it was equipped with two 35MM Simplex XL’s and Christie Xenon Lamphouses. We were still making changeovers on 2000 ft reels, a rare thing considering the set up. Back in ‘75 Cinema 3 projectionist Clark Grant once told me that all General Cinema needs to do is to install 6000 ft reel arms on those machines and the machines in Cinema 1 then have one projectionist go between the three theatres. It took some 10 or so odd years but Clark’s premonition came true.
I was a doorman at Cinema 1 in the Fall of ‘73. Later I worked those theatres booths when I was on Local 150’s extra board in 1975 and '76. Back then there were three single theatres, Cinema 1 was on Hawthorne Blvd. and between Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 was an ice cream shop, beauty shop and bowling alley. Cinema 3 was located across the parking lot in the back next to Levitz furniture. At that time none of the theatres was equipped for 70MM. When Cinema 2 (the largest of the 3) was twinned I remember projectionist Charlie O'Kane being a little pissed off because the booth was being automated but later accepted it since he didn’t have to change carbons and do change-overs anymore.
I saw “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear” as a child in 1964. In later years I worked the booth on and off in 1975 and 1976 when regular projectionist Joe Gillam took off. This theatre had a wide auditorium which made for great scope pictures. There was a stage under the screen. This theatre was equipped for 4-track magnetic sound.
I was sent there in either late ‘75 or early '76 to run Disney’s Blackbeard’s Ghost while the projectionist took the week off. I’ll never forget that Academy Awards wall that went from the lobby to the auditorium. I had never been in that theatre before and I only saw the auditorium through the booth ports. There was a door that led directly to a portion of the roof outside from the booth. During intermissions I would step out onto the roof and watch jetliners land at the Los Angeles airport.
As a child during the early 60’s my dad would take the family to the drive-in on Friday’s after he came home from work and got cleaned up. The Twin Vue was one of those drive-in’s that I remember fondly. Some of the films I remember seeing there were Pollyanna and Flipper. Years later after joing the projectionist Local 150 I learned that the projectionist who first opened the Twin Vue also closed it. I also learned that because of the small and somewhat narrow lot, the Twin Vue was configured in such a way that the main screen tower was placed in the northwest corner of the lot and faced southeast so the headlight glare from the northbound Harbor freeway traffic would not be distracting to the audience had it been placed in the southwest corner but later a second smaller screen tower was positioned in the southwest corner of the lot along with car stalls and speaker poles. Most of the time it sat there unused. Only on those rare occasions when the main lot filled up did management open the smaller lot and ran the same picture on both screens using an inovative prism mirror system contained in a box in front of the lens of each of the two projectors that were facing the main screen tower. With the turn of a knob on the top of each box the same image could be simutaneoulsy thrown on both screens. However, this reduced the footlambert and the image lost some brightness on both screens. After too many complaints and refunds about the poor picture quality management stopped doing this. Now when the main lot filled up the second lot opened but arriving customers were told to park their cars so that it faced the main screen.
No disrespect to Ed who was a good man and became one of my best friends after I first met him in the Fall of ‘73. Ed helped me join Local 150 and taught me all he knew about the booth with his countless years of experience. Ed was one of a kind and I miss him dearly.
Ole, such nice memories of a good man and one of a kind person.
The image was almost always not focused because Ed Blahay (projectionist) had bad eyesight but never admitted it but I eventually caught on to this. After starting a show Ed would ask me if the picture looked alright meaning “is it in focus”? or he would ask me to do the focusing for him. Another thing, the small house was on platters and the big house on 6000 ft reels which caused images to go in and out of focus as the next reel ran but Ed would be sitting in his easy chair taking catnaps as this was happening.
I’m late on this one. As I scrolled through these messages I found some familiar names from more than 30 years ago, Mr. (Harry) K, Ed Haselwood, Jewel but I never saw the name of Ed Blahay. To those unfamiliar, Ed was one of the last projectionists at the Fox Redondo before it closed down. Ed was also a relief projectionist at the Strand then later at the Fox PV Twin until that theatre closed in 1978. In the Fall of 1973 as the Fox was playing “A Touch of Class” and “Breezy”, I was sent to the Fox PV by business agent George Farley to see if I was projectionist material. I was 21 years old then and working at a Pup N Taco for $1.45 an hour. Ed had me thread up a Century model ‘G’ which I had never seen before in my life. Up until then I had threaded up 16mm projectors in high school but never anything like this. Ed left me alone and went back to his easy chair he had in the booth. As I was threading the film I remembered then that the film path was basically the same in most projectors. When Ed checked what I did he told me that he must have had about ten guys thread that machine but I was the only one who got it right except that my loops were a little small but it will run. Since then we became good friends and he often talked about the Fox Redondo which I had seen from the outside on my bike and skateboard trips from Wilmington in the early 70’s but never been inside. Today I saw the inside for the first time in pictures. Ed helped me get a Los Angeles city projectionist license in 1974 (yes we had to be licensed to run a booth in Los Angeles) as he was on the executive board of Local 150 and had friends such as Hal Goldstein who administered the license written and practical tests. Hmmmmm! Just days after the Fox Redondo closed, workers were removing the projection booth equipment and were throwing out boxes filled with old dater and intermission strips, and cross plugs for many Fox theatres such as the Loyola, La Mar, Westlake and Westcoast. There was even a few old movie trailers for “Straw Dogs”, “Tropic of Cancer” and “The Man”. Ed rescued a few those boxes out of the trash and kept them in the Fox PV booth until that theatre closed. The next day I was helping Ed move his things out of the booth and he came across those boxes which he gave to me. To see and hear those strips with the cinemotion effects and marine marching band style music brings back tears and a lot of memories. Ed also gave me 35mm merchants ads and a ladies show trailer from the early 60’s that ran at the Fox PV.
Anyone planning a trip to Los Angeles must put this theatre on their must see list of places to visit in Los Angeles.
“Earthquake” was moved from the Chinese to the Paramount theatre across the street during it’s run in 1974?
WOW! Is this theatre in the Downtown S.A. area? If I ever get down to Texas I just may drop in and take a look at this historic theatre.