Page 39 - CinemaRecord #81

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For many years I was using one of these
speakers in my Datsun 1600 after the original
speaker packed it in. It sat neatly in the foot well
of the passenger side. The speaker went with the
car when I sold it. I now wish I had kept that
speaker.

Another job was the painting and assembly of
the many mushroom light covers and poles. We
then wired these all around the drive-in. They
ran on 110volt power.
Serving travellers by day and
drive-in patrons at night.
All the regular maintenance of the drive-in had
to be attended to: grass slashing, painting and Maria Denison
cleaning. The drive-in screened Saturday nights ;ĐĞŶƚƌĞͿ Ăƚ
only up until Boxing Day, and then every day , KDYH IRQG PHPRULHV RI P\ ¿UVW QLJKWV LQ Port Elliot.
(except New Year’s Eve) through to the end of the projection box, watching the warm glow
the school holidays in February. of the carbon arcs, the frequent 20 minute
I can remember one Christmas Eve still painting change overs and rewinding of the spools in the
WKH *HQWV WRLOHW ÀRRU DW SP LQ SUHSDUDWLRQ IRU separate winding room after they had come off
the coming holiday season. the projectors. All this bathed in the magic glow
of the carbon arcs and the smell of Warren’s
0\ ¿UVW VXPPHU VFKRRO KROLGD\V ZHUH TXLWH pipe wafting through the air.
an experience. I would clean the drive-in from
DP HYHU\ PRUQLQJ ¿QLVKLQJ DURXQG WR :H VWLOO GLG ¿OP FHPHQW VSOLFHV WRR DW WKDW WLPH
11. Then I would walk home, have a bite to eat, I don’t have fond memories of them. Although
shower and change and catch the midday train I never had one break on me, they were time
to Victor Harbor. FRQVXPLQJ DQG ¿GGO\ , VRRQ ZRNH XS WKDW , Early days with
I would then clean the 800 seat Victa Theatre FRXOG ³ERUURZ ³ WKH PP ¿OP VSOLFHU IURP WKH Roy Denison in
which needed to be ready by six o’clock. GULYH LQ RQ GD\V ZKHQ QHZ ¿OPV ZHUH VWDUWLQJ RU ƚŚĞ sŝĐƚĂ ďŝŽͲďŽdž͘
trailers needed changing! This worked well for
During holiday times the population of the South me but not for the projectionist at the drive-in
Coast would triple with holidaymakers. Apart ZKR ZDV OHIW ZLWK RQO\ D ERWWOH RI ¿OP FHPHQW
from the Hotels, the main form of entertainment The Victa received its own 35mm splicer soon
at night was the movies at the drive-in or the DIWHU ZKHQ RQH QLJKW WKH ¿OP DW WKH GULYH LQ
cinema. It was not uncommon for the drive-in broke and the splicer was nowhere to be found.
to turn people away and the Victa theatre would $OO KH KDG ZDV ¿OP FHPHQW
also be very busy.
One night at the Victa we were screening The
It wasn’t too long before I realised that I really Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Blue
wanted to be in the bio box so after cleaning Lagoon. Rocky Horror VFUHHQHG ¿UVW The Blue
the cinema I would head up to the box where a Lagoon after interval. Around twenty minutes
fellow named Warren Bickley would tutor me in into The Blue Lagoon the heavens opened and
WKH ¿QHU SRLQWV RI SURMHFWLRQ the roof above the balcony burst open and
The machines were C&W with Kalee carbon water began pouring into the balcony creating a
arc lamphouses. These were later replaced waterfall into the stalls below!
by two Benbow machines with Xebex Xenon
lamphouses.

CINEMAREC ORD 2014 39