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2. Lost In Translation

Opening a film trunk to set-up for a
show at the Moorabbin Drive-In,
projectionist Ron McVay was surprised
to find a list of instructions and a set of
glass slides.
The film was a ‘Spaghetti western’
and the distributor had made the
minimal adjustments for English-
speaking audiences.
The note explained that the slides
were the credit titles in English and that
their timing was critical. The slides
were to be synchronised with the film
soundtrack, so that the fade out of the
last slide matched the first moving
image. Ron practiced the counting
formula and got it down pat for most
nights.
One problem was that the slides
were less than standard size, and in one
session one of them dropped out of the
carriage as it flipped-up into the light.
Ron instinctively tried to reposition it
and the heat from the xenon bulb
burned a square in his hand.
Curiously there was not one honk of
a car horn from the field, as if no one
thought that jerky movement and glare
on the screen was anything unusual. H

3. Whoops!

A reel shown in the wrong order
was a projectionist’s nightmare, and a
mistake not hard to make if the
operator was distracted at a critical
time, or if the numbers on the can or
spool were worn and illegible.
Brian Miller watched Greer
Garson’s sad death in Goodbye Mr.
Chips at the Embassy Malvern (later
the Metro), only to see her re-appear
hale and hearty in the next reel. The words may be German, but this reversal of the notion of stardom needs no
Mixed reels in a Constance Bennett translation.
picture at the same theatre sent the This cartoon was first published in 1955 in Bauer Filmpost, the house magazine of
audience out into the street scratching Eugen Bauer GMBH, manufacturer of quality projection equipment.
their heads, but those who boarded the In this impossible dream the projectionist and his Bauer B12 machine receive the
tram for the ride home struck up a adulation of the crowd. Marlon Brando is an afterthought.
conversation, which gave them the This image was supplied by Don Kennedy.
satisfaction of mutually working out the
finer plot points.
The rule from every film exchange
to projectionists was ‘No joining of
1000 ft reels’ when making up a show.
In practice it was ‘Don't ask, don't tell.’
Everything was cosy until one night
in a Hoyts suburban theatre, a battleship
appeared on the screen in the middle of a
western! The projectionist was
threatened with the sack, the union was
called in, the scale of the practice was
revealed, and commonsense prevailed. H
CINEMARECORD 2005 33