I and a colleague once had a guided tour of the projection box at the State cinema in Grays. The original projectors installed when the cinema first opened in 1938 were still in use and our guide pointed to the spigot at the back which drove the sound on disc system. Presumably the projectors were second hand even then because the sound on disc system only lasted until 1931!
We were also shown a piece of mild steel sheet of which the projectionist was very proud. CinemaScope didn't exist until 1953 and required removing the normal lens and replacing it with a special anamorphic one. The problem was that the focusing positions for the two types of lens were completely different.
The steel plate had been cut away at one end so that it was a different width. When a lens was changed, the appropriate end of the plate was held against the projector body and the lens moved back until the two met. It then required only a slight tweak at the beginning of the first reel on each projector to get the focusing spot on.
I couldn't resist a smile when I spotted the source of the interval music between films - a BSR UA8 autochanger in a crude plywood plinth on top of a shelving unit!
We were also shown a piece of mild steel sheet of which the projectionist was very proud. CinemaScope didn't exist until 1953 and required removing the normal lens and replacing it with a special anamorphic one. The problem was that the focusing positions for the two types of lens were completely different.
The steel plate had been cut away at one end so that it was a different width. When a lens was changed, the appropriate end of the plate was held against the projector body and the lens moved back until the two met. It then required only a slight tweak at the beginning of the first reel on each projector to get the focusing spot on.
I couldn't resist a smile when I spotted the source of the interval music between films - a BSR UA8 autochanger in a crude plywood plinth on top of a shelving unit!
