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FIRE AT THE MENTONE THEATRE by Ron McVay

t was a Friday night, my usual night at the pictures in the early 1950s. Front stalls were my budget. On the night in question, I sat through the first
Ifilm, the name of which I do not recall.
After interval with the slides presentation, the second-half of the show started with the trailer for the Wizard of Oz. This was spliced onto the first
reel of the feature, Congolaise. All of this film was nitrate based.
The trailer commenced, then suddenly stopped because of torn sprockets. In a second it parted on fire, the shrivelling, bubbling mass all seen on the
screen. The burning film spread upwards to the 2,000 feet reel of film, having jumped the fire-trap because the top spool box door was not closed.
This allowed air to accelerate the fire onto the reel.

I could watch all of this taking place from my position leaning against the stage. The ports in the projection box lit up the entire theatre because the
fire shutters had not closed. The audience rushed to the exits. The fire was contained within the projection box but, needless to say, that was the end
of the show for the night.

The Mentone Theatre continued screening with one projector for the next week or so. One of the films was Walt Disney’s Treasure Island.
Years later, when I watched Cinema Paradiso, the projection box fire in the film reminded me so much of the Mentone fire. ★

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