Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

28 Better Theatres Section November 19, 1932 A LETTER ABOUT PROJECTION TODAY from F. W. Hamilton, chief projectionist of the Fox-Kennedy theatre in Kirksville, Mo., comes the following very interesting letter : "I have followed your writings very closely in the Herald and Better Theatres for a long time. You are one I like to write to. We projectionists are, as you know, usually stuck up near the roof and have very few visitors. People have the idea that the projection room is the least important place in the theatre. "I have been throwing light rays at the screen for more than 16 years, but am still looking for new ideas, believing that one never gets too old or too experienced to improve his work by assimilating new ideas. "We have a modern outfit of Simplex projectors, Western Electric sound equipment, and we have a record we are rather proud of. We have gone three years without the necessity of making a trouble call. That means 13,000 hours of operation. Our service man, Mr. H. M. Danner, located at Columbia, Mo. (Kansas City Division), makes a regular call every two weeks. I would like to impress upon projectionists the fact that co-operation between service men, projectionists and managers makes for good results on the screen and through the horns at all times. "I keep a 'question and want sheet.' If anything comes up that I want to bring to the attention of the service man, I make a memo of it, and when he arrives we thrash it out together. If parts are needed, I inform the manager, and if possible we get the part. I have a manager who will get me replacement parts, even if he has to slight some other important element in the house to do so. He says the projection room must function properly since its proper functioning means a lot to the theatre of today. "Erpi service, plus co-operation of the projectionist and manager means splendid results at all times, if all three are on the job and do their duty. "I do all the repair work it is possible for me to do, and have all necessary parts ready for use when needed. The projectors have been in use for seven yeais. They have never been sent out for repairs. "The Standard Release Print is a long step forward. It amounts to just exactly what the projectionist and exhibitors make it amount to. Doubling up is the thing that makes it non-standard. We run single reels and like them. I know my tensions are set so that there is no excessive pull on any part of the print. [Some of you chaps read that last sentence over about twelve times. Correct tension makes a great big difference in economy, both in print life and projection mechanism. — F. H. R. ] "I get good, bad and new prints. If they are bad, I repair them as much as possible. If new, I take care of oil, tensions, bad rollers, etc., in order to preserve the newness as long as possible, as you have so many, many times suggested in your articles. "I hand you herewith a photograph. F. W. Hamilton (left) and his former associate, Kenneth Shipman, in the projection room of the Fox-Kennedy theatre in Kirksville, Mo. The projectors are Simplex, and the sound system Western Electric. Thought it might be worth printing, though maybe not. That is up to you. Thought it worth a try, anyway. I have taken some of your time, but as I have said, I am away up here in the dark and do not get a chance to talk much. We are members of Local 573, Moberly, Mo. We like our work and try to beat our own record each day. "The one idea I really wanted to put over with you is the advantage of the service engineer, projectionist and manager working together, which in this case has resulted in 13,000 hours of service without the necessity of yelling for help. The men at the Missouri theatre in St. Joseph, got quite a send-off because they made 11,000 hours, but they had a larger house and more men to take care of the equipment." I like the way Brother Hamilton talks, particularly when he says that they try each day to beat their own record. That sounds mighty good. It is the frame of mind that produces real results. No man can possibly try continuously to improve his work without doing it and the man who has this viewpoint may almost invariably be depended upon to produce good results. The 13,000 hours without trouble is, so far as I know, a record — and a mighty good one, too. I am not quite sure about Friend Shipman. Brother Hamilton mixed this matter up a little. I think, however, Shipman was the second projectionist, and the house now has been reduced to a one man job — a thing I most thoroughly do not believe in. What Brother Hamilton says about cooperation betwen projectionist, service man and manager is absolutely true. It is the only way to get really good results. The memo sheet Brother Hamilton speaks of is a mighty good stunt. It prevents forgetting of minor, and possibly some major, things when the service man arrives. Kirksville, by the way is where my mother's sister came mighty near an accidental death. Illuminating gas then was an almost unknown quantity to country people. She was a school teacher, and went down to Kirksville to attend teachers' normal school. The first night she tried to blow out the gas, but fortunately without success, and being unable to sleep with all that waste going on, she dressed and went down to the office and discovered that blowing out the gas was regarded as bad form. WASP-BUZZ AND THE S. R. P. IN A Fairmont, W. Va., daily paper we learn that our old friend Frank Dudiak, long known to us all as an intermittent correspondent, has adopted a family — or has the family adopted him? In his mature years, however, Frank seems to have become hard-boiled, and maybe a bit cruel, for not one of his numerous adopted "children" will he permit to climb up and sit on his lap, as children are wont to do. As a matter of fact, we are advised that he slaps, or slaps vigorously, at any "child" that attempts the least bit of familiarity. Moreover, he keeps the whole kit and caboodle of them in the projection room both day and night, even compelling them to forage for their own food. What is this all about, do you ask? Well, one day when Dudiak, or his sidekick, chanced to glance up, a small round object was observed near the projection room ventilator, on and around which several vigorous looking wasps were busily busy. Since that time the new wasp's domicile has grown in proportions and inhabitants until now there is danger that the buzz is heard out in the auditorium, possibly causing the audience to seek the exits with vigor. Dudiak, who sent the clipping, says "Referring to the discussion of the Standard Release Print, while every self-respecting projectionist who has proper respect for his profession tries to commit no outrage, either upon the S.R.P. or his audiences, it is a fact that machine operators still insist upon 'engraving' their own individual trade mark in the film emulsion in the form of scratch marks, not infrequently obliterating one or more whole frames of the picture. "Of course when the print reaches the next self-respecting projectionist, if the exchange has not cut out the shameful outrage, he (the projectionist) does, which process several times repeated finally entirely destroys the whole end of the reel, and of course entirely eliminates the S.R.P. markings. Such abuses are nothing less than impertinence on the part of the machine operator — I say "machine operator," because of the fact that no man worthy of the title of projectionist would commit such an abuse. "Now that we have the S.R.P., the mutilation of film by affixing changeover signals, by scratching the emulsion or otherwise, should be only a memory, but it is not so. We have very often received prints in otherwise excellent condition, but with scratch marks over or near the S.R.P. marks. Conceiving that we are under certain obligations to our profession and to our audiences, we cut out the outrages and