I was a relief projectionist for Barton Theaters in 1958-1959. The Air Depot drive in was one of the places I worked from time to time. The projectors were Simplex XLs (IIRC) with a Peerless lamphouse burning 9mm/11mm carbons. Had a 45 rpm record player for pre-movie music through the lot speakers, but I only ever found one record there to play: “Five Feet High and Rising” by Johnny Cash (then pretty new). The projector lens portholes had no glass, only steel flaps that had to be open (of course), so the projectors' lenses tended to fill with water when it rained during the show (they had to be tilted upward to the screen about 30 degrees). The girls sold Smithfield Hams along with popcorn, sodas, and hotdogs in the concession that made up half the projection booth building.
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.
I was a relief projectionist for Barton Theaters in 1958-1959. The Air Depot drive in was one of the places I worked from time to time. The projectors were Simplex XLs (IIRC) with a Peerless lamphouse burning 9mm/11mm carbons. Had a 45 rpm record player for pre-movie music through the lot speakers, but I only ever found one record there to play: “Five Feet High and Rising” by Johnny Cash (then pretty new). The projector lens portholes had no glass, only steel flaps that had to be open (of course), so the projectors' lenses tended to fill with water when it rained during the show (they had to be tilted upward to the screen about 30 degrees). The girls sold Smithfield Hams along with popcorn, sodas, and hotdogs in the concession that made up half the projection booth building.
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.