Just an FYI about the Burl Theatre in Boulder Creek.
I became the projectionist in late 1975 when it was the Showcase Theatre. After 6 months I ended up renting the building under my commercial business The Boulder Creek Theatre in the summer of 1976 – Gone With The Wind was our July 4th opening.
Eventually I split the week with 35mm films on the 1926 Simplex carbon arc projectors (factoid to remember – sound came out in 1927 – these beasts had turntable drives for silent records, and optical sound track heads for sound on films – they were classic antiques)
After creating the Santa Cruz Mountain Community Theatre non-profit effort to save the theatre we presented music shows on the weekends and showed feature movies during the week. This was about the time that Scotts Valley Cinema opened. I had to meet with SF cigar chomping film distributor’s to explain the split week thing. It had never been done before but those old guys respected Harold Hilton, the old guy I learned from. His parents bought the Dolan for him in the late ‘40s when he also had Forest Pool. He had a small pipe organ in his house overlooking Boulder Creek and highway 9 when he shared his life with me in 1976. The country club off 236 has a Hilton Dr(?) in his honor.
More info soon if there’s interest.
Greg Arrufat
Just an FYI about the Burl Theatre in Boulder Creek. I became the projectionist in late 1975 when it was the Showcase Theatre. After 6 months I ended up renting the building under my commercial business The Boulder Creek Theatre in the summer of 1976 – Gone With The Wind was our July 4th opening. Eventually I split the week with 35mm films on the 1926 Simplex carbon arc projectors (factoid to remember – sound came out in 1927 – these beasts had turntable drives for silent records, and optical sound track heads for sound on films – they were classic antiques) After creating the Santa Cruz Mountain Community Theatre non-profit effort to save the theatre we presented music shows on the weekends and showed feature movies during the week. This was about the time that Scotts Valley Cinema opened. I had to meet with SF cigar chomping film distributor’s to explain the split week thing. It had never been done before but those old guys respected Harold Hilton, the old guy I learned from. His parents bought the Dolan for him in the late ‘40s when he also had Forest Pool. He had a small pipe organ in his house overlooking Boulder Creek and highway 9 when he shared his life with me in 1976. The country club off 236 has a Hilton Dr(?) in his honor. More info soon if there’s interest. Greg Arrufat