The
Nickelodeon changed the entertainment business forever and vast fortunes were
made. In 1909, film pioneers such as Armat, Edison and Sigmund Lubin pooled
their patents and attempted to monopolize all aspects of the industry from
production to exhibition. They called their group the Motion Picture Patents
Company and many of the machines in the museum bear special MPPCo license
plates. Before the MPPCo was broken up in 1915, independent film makers wanting
to escape the clutches of “The Trust” headed west and a number of regional
film companies sprang up, such as the Colorado Motion Picture Company in Cañon
City, Colorado. Itinerant Showmen bought their films outright from such sources
and many “lost” films have been rescued from itinerant’s trunks, including
“Pirates of the Plains” from 1914 which is one film in the museum.
Thomas Alva Edison’s genius and influence cannot be underestimated.
He understood the importance of placing his inventions in the homes of his
fellow men, beginning with the light bulb and soon followed by his Phonograph.
In this photo the Wizard of Menlo Park can be seen examining his Home Projecting
Kinetoscope.
On the shelves to the left there are Edison Universal and Home
Models of Projecting Kinetoscopes as well as a Lubin mechanism. Below is an
Edison Exhibition Model Projecting Kinetoscope from about 1910.
Here
is an early Model 6B Power’s Cameragraph beside the Magic Lantern used in
the Indian Training School in Tucson in the teen’s. Both machines have their
respective original incandescent light sources and the Power’s has an operating
variable speed motor drive. Under the photo of Eadweard Muybridge is a display
of mechanical Magic Lantern slides. There are posters of “A Trip to the Moon”
and Winsor McCay working on one of his first cartoons done for the Vitagraph
Company in 1911. These are two of the 35mm silent movies that are shown hand
cranked so that the projection speed can change according to the action on
the screen. DW Griffith once said that the projectionist is “compelled to
redirect the photoplay”.
The
Power’s Cameragraph lineup.
Starting on the left, there is a Model 5 from about 1915 that
was used by the itinerant Showman JJ Hartigan from Woodstock, Minnesota. Underneath
it is the cutaway Model 6 mechanism showing the unique Power’s intermittent.
Next there is a Model 6 that was used in Montana and converted to have a motor
drive. The middle machine is a Model 6A with original Power’s AC arc lamp,
ballast and variable speed motor drive. This machine is from 1914 and when
the Model 6A was introduced in 1913, the production of Model 5’s was stopped.
The late Model 6B on the end was converted to use a Balentyne sound head and
came from the Catholic Orphanage in Omaha. The Nicholas Power Co. was bought
by Simplex in the late 1920’s but machines converted to sound were run well
into the 1950’s.
~ The Middle Room ~
On to Sound Films and Movie Palaces
The projector is a 1913 Model 1A Motiograph which was designed
by Alva C Roebuck of Sears and Roebuck and sold through the catalog. It was
found in Tombstone in 1986 and the restoration revealed that the projectionists
who used it autographed the top magazine cover. They also noted that the machine
was used in the Electric Theatre in Holister, California in 1913-14. On the
wall behind are photos of the Cuauhtamoc Film Company in action in Tucson
in 1916. The Vaughn Monroe film was made in the 1950’s and to the right of
it are still frame samples taken from a 1939 Beauty Contest film taken by
Ted De Grazia in Bisbee during the time he managed the Lyric Theatre.
Josephine West was the heroine of “Pirates of the Plains”,
which was rescued from the itinerant Showman’s trunk that bore the inscription
“Where will this trunk take me?” Frank Bishop of Antigo, Wisconsin was the
Showman who owned that and several other nitrate prints that survived nowhere
else.
In
the display cabinet are a number of cameras from a 1916 Barker Bros to a Super
8 Beaulieu. There are also several camera and projector manuals and a photo
and the Union card of “Skinny” Kessler, who ran the show at the Fox in Phoenix
in the 1930’s. To the right are theatre programs from Grauman’s Egyptian when
they were showing Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks films, a couple from
Rothafel’s famous Capitol Theatre in New York, and when the Fox California
in San Diego was showing “Gone With The Wind”.
The
architectural plaster came from the Oriental Theatre in Portland which was
torn down in the 1960’s. Gene Stoller, an area projectionist, saved some of
the plaster and had a number of projectors on display in his theatre. Below
the plaster is a 35mm Akeley camera which was used by Fox Movietone News in
Africa. The curious contraption in the corner is actually a 1916 Duplex film
printer. These machines were run in the dark with a roll of negative film
printed in contact with a roll of unexposed print film. The machine is really
two machines in one, being designed for mass production. The two wooden boxes
on either side contain resistance blocks which are tripped with each change
of the density of the negative. The result is an even print of one light level.
The
mighty Western Electric Universal Base projector of 1929. These machines were
not sold, but leased to theatres with the advent of sound movies. Actually
recording sound along with the film goes back to the first experiments and
Lee DeForest had a successful sound on film system in the early 1920’s. The
Western Electric system first used a 16 inch phonograph record running at
33 1/3 rpm in order to match the length of 1,000 ft of film. Because the industry
was at a point of transition from silent to sound films, these projectors
had elaborate variable speed motors and were able to run sound on film as
well. This example actually works and was displayed in the Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel during Cinecon in 1996.
Another
view of the “U base” showing the film speed indicator which tells the manager,
projectionist and conductor the running time and feet per minute the film
is being shown at. Since these machines will run faster than sound speed,
unscrupulous theatre managers would sometimes overspeed in order to get in
an extra show during the day. The display behind the projector is taken from
an original sales full color catalog which gives attendance figures for “sound”
vs. “silent” houses. There is a sample contract in the catalog that gives
the price of $15,000 per year for leasing sound equipment for the largest
movie palace. The gold braided tassels came from the Fox theatre in Santa
Clara, California and at the far right center there is a 16 inch transcription
record like would have been used on the “U base”.
Buster
Keaton plays the projectionist in “Sherlock Jr” from 1924. The projectors
in Buster’s booth are Model 6A Power’s Cameragraphs like are in the Front
Room. In front of the mural are semiprofessional or portable 35mm projectors
and one of the first 16mm Kodascopes from the 1920’s. On the far left is a
Zenith made in Duluth, Minnesota, then an Acme SVE which was used in San Francisco.
Next is the Kodascope and then a toy Keystone 35mm. To the right center is
an operable Universal newsreel camera from the 1920’s.
~ The Back Room ~
Up to the Present
A
cast iron forest of Simplex projectors.
Edwin S Porter, director of “The Great Train Robbery” left
Edison and bought the Precision Machine Company, which produced the Simplex
projector around 1909. He had improved the design of the Edison Exhibition
Kinetoscope and was responsible for the Simplex Super which was introduced
in the early 1930’s. What is shown here left to right is a 1950’s E7 mechanism
with Peerless arc lamp, and an RCA Photophone soundhead. Next a Super, then
three Standards with various lamps and soundheads. All are on 5 point pedestals
with casters.
The
safe handling of nitrate film was a major concern and even the electric rewinds
had to be enclosed. The green film bin with rewind on top was made by the
Walter G Preddy Company and used at the Japanese School in San Francisco.
That is the Power’s Cameragraph Model 6 used to present many hand cranked
silent movie shows. It has been converted to incandescent light and an IR/UV
shield and heat absorbing glass was added in order to protect the Magic Lantern
slides that can be shown when the lamp is slid to the side.
This is how film is shown today - with a platter rather than
reels, two machines and changeovers. This is a 1970’s Christie platter that
was used at the Kiva Theatre in Scottsdale. The projector is a Simplex Standard
rear shutter hand crank with a Xenon lamp.
Inventory - Front Room
Magic Lanterns
Two small McAllisters with kerosene burners. 1880-90’s McIntosh
Lodge Set with AC arc, ballast and 4X7 wood Lodge slides. 1880-90’s McIntosh
Hungarian Millennium Exposition Set with AC arc, ballast and 3 ¼ X 4 ¼ slides.
1898 McIntosh Biunial with acetylene burners and original limelight dissolve
key and valves. Converted to tungsten /halogen. 1880’s AT Thompson combination
Magic Lantern and opaque projector with original incandescent lamp - from
Indian Training School in Tucson. 1910’s MC Lilley single lantern converted
to tungsten/halogen. 1900’s
Mechanical Lantern Slides
1856 French lever, three Chromotropus, Hans the Dutchman,
Sr Snappo and Toby, Pompeii Fire Effect, Punch and Judy, Who Threw that Snowball?
Lion and Horse, Blooming Flower, Our Queen.
Pre-Cinema Teaching Aids
Three Zoetropes, two Praxinoscopes, Phenakistoscope, Thaumatropes,
flick books, Muybridge sequential photographic Zoetrope strips, limelight
burner, AC arc burner, acetylene burner.
Edison
Replicas - 1878 tinfoil phonograph, 1876 lightbulb, 1897 Projectoscope.
Projecting Kinetoscopes - 1904-12 Universal complete, ca. 1910 Exhibition
complete with rewind and arc ballast, ca 1912 Underwriters complete, 1912
Home complete, ca 1912 Exhibition mechanism modified for front shutter. ca
1912 Standard Phonograph with records.
Power’s Cameragraphs
Cutaway Power’s Cameragraph showing unique intermittent movement.
Model 5 itinerant show owned by JJ Hartigan of Woodstock, Minnesota - includes
shipping boxes, limelight and arc burners with ballast. Mechanism bears Motion
Picture Patents Company Special License. ca 1915 Model 6 with cast iron head
converted to motor drive - used in Montana. Mechanism bears Motion Picture
Patents Company Special License. ca 1910 Model 6A with original variable speed
motor drive and AC arc with ballast. Mechanism bears Motion Picture Patents
Company Special License. Model 6B early with original variable speed motor
drive and Excelite incandescent lamp. 1914 Model 6B late converted to Balentyne
rotary sound head and used in Catholic Orphanage in Omaha. 1920’s - 1940’s
Original Paper Artifacts
1871 program from first limelight show in California, 1880’s
Bamber Magic Lantern show broadside, 1897 Vitagraph show program from Meridian,
Mississippi, 1897 Ringling Bros Circus Route Book, 1898 “War-o-scope” movie
show ticket, ca 1900 Optigraph movie show poster, 1911 Power’s Pointers on
Projection calendar, ca 1912 “Moving Pictures Tonight” hand painted banner
from Frank Bishop itinerant show from Antigo. Wisconsin, 1913 postcard of
Lyric Theatre in Tucson, 1914 and 1921 Operators Licenses from Chicago.
Nickelodeon Ticket Booth
Built in 1999 for “Wheels and Reels” exhibit at the Arizona
Historical Society museum in Tempe as a representation of a typical ticket
booth from the Nickelodeon era. Top chase light assembly came from the marquee
of the Gem Theatre in Philip, South Dakota and is operated by the 1912 Reco
flasher unit from the Hippodrome Theatre in Julesburg, Colorado. The stained
glass window came from the Lyric Amusement Company and was most likely installed
in the Doris Opera House in Phoenix. As part of the display, there are a number
of original tickets and dispensers.
Inventory Middle - Room
Cameras
1916 Barker Bros made to circumvent the Motion Picture Patents
Company. It uses an 1899 Prestwich movement and could act as a printer and
projector as well as a camera. Akeley “pancake” mounted on Miller fluid head
tripod. With original shipping box and spare magazines. 1910’s Universal newsreel
camera from late teens complete with original shipping box and spare magazines.
1910’s Cine Kodak 8 with original box. 1930’s Cine Kodak 16 with original
box. 1930’s Bell and Howell 16mm Filmo with original box and catalog. 1920’s
Bolex 16mm. 1940’s Beaulieu Super 8 with manual and splicer. 1960’s
Projectors
1913 Motiograph Model 1-A, complete with arc ballast, converted
to incandescent light. 1929 Western Electric Universal Base, complete with
Preddy “boxcar” arc lamp converted to tungsten/halogen, Kaplan copy of Simplex
Standard projection head. American Projectoscope portable. 1918 (not pictured)
DeVry portable. 1920’s(not pictured) Zenith 35mm portable, Acme SVE portable,
Keystone toy projector, 16mm Kodascope, Pathe 9.5 mm. all 1920’s
Misc Film Equipment
1916 Duplex film printer Kodak densitometer. 1930’s 70mm,
35mm and 16mm Neumade film splicers. DuPont film cans and odd 35mm reels.
Light meters. 1920’-30’s Misc Theatre Artifacts Architectural plaster from
Oriental Theatre, Portland. 1920’s Flashing lights and controller from Gem
Theatre, Philip, South Dakota. 1940’s
Original Paper Artifacts
Union cards, photo and cartoon belonging to “Skinny” Kessler,
projectionist Fox Theatre, Phoenix. 1920’s-30’s Acme projector manual, Filmo
camera catalog, Kodascope Library catalog. 1930’s 13 original movie theatre
programs. 1910’s-30’s “Toughest Man in Arizona” movie poster. 1950’s
Inventory Back Room
Projectors
Simplex Standard front shutter with original variable speed
motor drive and AC arc lamp with ballast. 1920’s Simplex Standard rear shutter
with Western Electric 211 sound head and Mazda incandescent lamp. 1920’s-30’s
Simplex Standard with Western Electric 206 sound head and Peerless low intensity
arc lamp. 1920’s-30’s Simplex Super with RCA Photophone 1060 soundhead and
Cyclex 96 cycle arc lamp. 1930’s Simplex E7 with RCA Photophone 9030 soundhead
and Peerless Magnarc arc lamp. 1950’s
Platter System
Simplex Standard rear shutter hand cranked with Cinemecchanica
Xenon lamp. Christie Model 1 film handling system updated with AW2 platters.
Misc Film Equipment
1,000 ft film bin from Oregon, small 2,000 ft floor film bin
from City Theatre in Bergholz, Ohio, Walter G Preddy film bin and electric
rewind from Japanese School in San Francisco, 6,000 ft Neumade hand rewinds,
Neumade film foot counter, QTS 35mm tape splicer.
Original Paper Artifacts
Cinerama postcard and program, “Custer’s Last Fight” handbills,
1928 film equipment catalog, 1964 Gem Theatre calendar, assorted postcards
showing theatres.
Additional comments and material not on display
This collection began in about 1963. It includes several linear
feet of mostly original technical books and manuals and three bookshelves
of Magic Lantern and movie related books. There are three storage sheds of
duplicate equipment that is unrestored. Silent movie and Magic Lantern shows
and talks have been presented literally from Hollywood to London using the
original restored equipment on display. The Zoetrope and photographic strips
have been developed using the latest digital images and the computer. Now
the time has come to ask for help in preserving the overlooked story of the
Showmen and projectionists along with the equipment they used. A permanent
home is needed so that the Cinema Museum can be available to the public to
educate about the history of this technology. Any ideas or suggestions will
be appreciated.
E-mail
~ profh@silentmovies.com
HOME
Copyright 2001 George C. Hall
Welcome
to the Front Room of Professor Hall’s Cinema Museum and the world of Pre-Cinema,
Magic Lanterns, Eadweard Muybridge, Thomas Edison, the Nickelodeon and Power’s
Cameragraphs ! The Magic Lantern in front of the “Tonight Moving Pictures” banner
is a McIntosh Biunial from the 1880’s. There are a couple of Zoetropes and a
Praxinoscope as well as limelight and carbon arc light sources. Still frames
from historic films include Kinetoscope subjects shown in Arizona in 1897-8
and Arizona’s First Movie Star - “Rattlesnake” Jack, who made a film with the
Navajo in 1898.