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Projector Collector Allan Osborne

In October 1978 I decided to begin collecting pre-cinema and early cinema apparatus. The idea was hardly
original.

The first such collector may have been the late Will Day {1873-1936), a London-based dealer in cinema
supplies who amassed an outstanding collection of cinema relics during his lifetime. The late Don Mal kames in
the United States started his well-known collection of movie cameras, projectors and films in 1938 after acquiring
an Edison Projecting Kinetoscope from a retired showman; and twin brothers John and William Sames started
their famous collection in 1939 after finding a rare projector prototype in a London cellar, which ultimately led
to the opening of their Barnes Museum of Cinematography in Cornwell, England in 1963.

No such amazing discoveries happened in my case. Rather it was the result of several influences over many
years. It seems I have always been interested in movies. As a child I can remember being enthralled at the
dinner table by my father's vivid descriptions of the silent films he had seen in his youth. He died when I was
fourteen, and it wasn't until many years later that I learned that his mother and step-father had operated a
picture theatre in the outer Melbourne suburb of Reservoir in the late 1920s.

At fourteen I was delivering newspapers after school to pay for a 16mm Pyrox-Victor projector, and in June
1965, a month before my fifteenth birthday, I got a job as an assistant projectionist at the Albany Theatre in
Collins Street, even though the minimum legal age for such a position was sixteen. Earlier that same year I met
Harry Davidson, a man who had spent almost his entire life collecting 35mm films, movie cameras, projectors
and r.elated ephemera.

We became firm friends and remained so until his early death at the age of forty-nine in 1980. If anyone was
responsible for inspiring my present interest, it was Harry Davidson. His influence and inspiration wasn't so
much spoken as it was from having the opportunity to see and handle the items in his collection, and to absorb
his knowledge and enthusiasm.

In 1968, after seeing optical toys and magic lanterns illustrated in several of Harry's books, I decided to start a
collection of them; but after a year of searching through antique shops I hadn't found much and, becoming
disenchanted, I passed what little I had onto Harry. This first attempt had been a failure, and for the next nine
years I pursued other interests, though still connected with movies and collecting.

Then one day in May 1978 I happened to park my car outside an antique shop and noticed a magic lantern in
the window. I walked over for a closer look, then went on my way without thinking any more about it, until one
night in October. I was tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, when my mind wandered back to that magic
lantern. The more I thought about it the more I had to know if it was still available, so first thing next morning
I drove to the shop and yes, it was still there! That was the catalyst, and when it came it hit me like the flash
from a welder's torch! I bought the lantern, and my life has never been the same since.

Within a few months I had mentally formulated a life-long goal: to build a collection that would tell the story of
the technological evolution of the moving image, from the pre-cinema optical amusements of the mid to late
19 century, through the introduction of cinematography in the early 1890s, through the presentation of the first
semi-successful color film system of 1910, to the introduction of the various film sound systems of the late
1920s.

The core of the collection is the history of the 35mm motion picture projector, and the collection now has over
1 00 projectors manufactured between 1898 and 1938.

From 1896 onwards, most of the projection equipment used in Australia has come from overseas, and the
collection contains many representative examples, from the United States, England, France and Germany.
However, the prime importance to me has always been the preservation of Australian-made equipment. From
at least 1903 to 1932 there were no less than seven companies and individuals manufacturing 35mm projectors
in Australia, and I am proud of the fact that the only known surviving examples of the projectors made by four
of these manufacturers are now preserved within the collection. In several cases my intervention prevented
their otherwise certain destruction.

But preserving equipment is only half the task, as equipment can only tell a story when its surrounding history
has been fully documented. In 1979 I began conducting research from original sources on Australian projector
manufacturers, cinema equipment retailers, and pioneer film exhibitors.

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