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Hot Oil and Carbon Ash

By Ross King

That show biz line …the smell of In the lower picture the
the grease paint and the roar of the projector in the foreground,
crowd… is an inadequate summary of not connected to a ventilator,
the sensory experience possible in a is a Simplex with Rear Shutter
theatre. and Zeiss Ikon high intensity
Importantly, it ignores the sealed-off arc. There is no sound-head
world of the cinema projectionist. on it and the complete
Peter Ricketts has described his machine is a silent outfit, so it
childhood introduction to it this as certainly isn’t a stand-by
contrast and contradiction. ‘Almost machine.
black inside, yet the source of the I suspect that this projector
brightest, whitest light. Noise from has been modified to show
motors, grinding gears, chattering film advertisements with a device
scraping spools humming transformers, that fitted the Simplex gate.
spluttering carbons were one part of it, This was a holder into which a
another was the heat from glowing glass disc about four inches in
valves, hot motors and the smell of the diameter (10cm) was inserted.
oil which bathed them, mingled with The disc was imprinted with a
the smell of film cement’ (CR 46 p.30). number of ads, each one the
Old projectionists used to tell me size of a 35mm silent film
they drank a lot of milk to help their frame, each telling a fact, in
throat and limit the effects of inhaling sequence, about the product.
carbon ash. The device had a
In projectionist Ken Newell’s clockwork mechanism that
domain at one of the Village theatres, slowly rotated the disc to
the projector oil was a German brand, project them on the screen. I
Oeil für Bildwerfer which translates think they were called rotary
literally as oil for picture-thrower, an slides.
apt description of its purpose. Another effect used by
In the quieter moments of the night Hoyts was to show specially
some projectionists were soothed by the made Coming Attraction slides
constant tink, tink, tink of the chaser that had the artwork on a black Top: An example of a rotary advertising slide with
lights on the neon sign just beyond background. seven images and words to tell a story about the
their little room. These were projected from product.
Most people visiting a projection the slide bi-unal while a Image: Alan Windley Collection.
room for the first time were taken 35mm film with a fancy Above: There never was a woman like Gilda, and
aback by the size of the machines and border frame was projected. there never was a more unusual Coming Attractions
the proximity of the operator to them. This gave a sense of some segment than this simplified type of slide with an
animation to the composite
The worst rooms were cramped, ‘animated’ border created by 35mm film projection.
image (slide and film) on the
stifling places, and although never Image: Ross King Collection.
screen.
commodious, the best of them were
well laid out and, if you had your heart Clyde Simpson described
in it, it was a pleasure to tend the seeing this type of slide was raised well off the floor to ‘avoid the
machines. presentation in Ivanhoe stirrings of dust and asbestos by foot traffic on
Paradiso (CR45). It had been the projection room floor’.
The projection room views opposite
phased out by the time I
are from the Regent Adelaide, after an Projectors and projection room management
started in the business.
overhaul of equipment in about 1940. had come a long way by 1940. The risk of fire to
Back to the Regent’s public safety required stringent building
The top photo is typical of a well
projection room: Western regulations and changes to projector design and
laid out room: moveable spot-light far
Electric amplifiers stand side- use regulations. ★
left; Simplex projectors with Hamilton
by-side behind the projectors.
and Baker arc lamps, and at the far end,
One was probably a stand-by
a di-unal slide projector.
amplifier.
The ventilator flue hoods - like
Peter Wolfenden has
those in a fish and chips shop -
pointed out that Simplex, in its
channel extraneous heat not captured Regent Adelaide projection room images are
1921 catalogue, made a selling
by the direct ventilation pipes to the from the John Thiele Collection.
point of the fact that the motor
outside.
30 2006 CINEMARECORD