Remembering Good Times at the Cinema

[JoeG]

I started saving my stubs in 83 when I saw Jedi. There were a few gaps here and there, but I had most of them until about 2018 or so when it became more common to have digital tickets on your phone.

 

[The 48th Ronin]

Back then most were just Carni style card stubs but being a nerd I would write what the movie was and who I saw it with.

This! I also would write the name of the film on the stubs that I kept, and with some films which viewing it was, if I saw it more than once.

I can't remember if I still have my collection somewhere, or if I reached a point where I just threw them out. If I do still have them, I wouldn't even know where to start looking. I recall that I had a special oversize ticket stub from opening day of Return of the Jedi - it was probably 4 x 6 inches and was printed on gold cardstock, kinda' like a Willy Wonka golden ticket.

 

[Mottrex]

I don't think you could do this anymore today without incident, but when I was a kid, whenever my father would visit, often times he'd take me and my sisters to the movies, and sometimes when we were wanting to see something he didn't particularly want to waste his time on; he'd just leave us at the theater and my sister and I would just hop screens. One showing would end and we'd just go the the next showing of something else. We could spend much of the day doing just that. Great times.

We did this plus my nan when she retired worked in the local Gaumont.. we knew the manager who gave us the pic of The Posters..my Fav being a Huge! Destroy All Monsters poster, we got in for Free too, Happy days...

 

[Mottrex]

I recall that I had a special oversize ticket stub from opening day of Return of the Jedi - it was probably 4 x 6 inches and was printed on gold cardstock, kinda' like a Willy Wonka golden ticket.

Thats Amazing!
We only got a leaflet with a $200 reward leading to info on any Pirate VHS of ROTJ

 

[Darth Lars]

I started doing it in '02. But tickets around here were printed on thermal paper, and some have faded.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

We did this plus my nan when she retired worked in the local Gaumont.. we knew the manager who gave us the pic of The Posters..my Fav being a Huge! Destroy All Monsters poster, we got in for Free too, Happy days...

This thread should just be re-titled "Remembering Good Times at the Cinema," now with all this reminiscing that's happening.

I remember I had one full-size wall cut out for the first or second Jurassic Park that my father grabbed before the film was just about to leave theaters. It had a little button on it that would play the T-Rex roaring sound effect and I remember that was in the room my brother and I shared for many years until the sound board burned out.

 

[Halliwax]

Holy crap is the projector loud!!

 

[JediMichael]

Holy crap is the projector loud!!

Imagine one hallway with 9 of them all running at the same time. Its very loud.
I have video I filmed years ago of that, but where and what tape.....thats the real question.

 

[Halliwax]

Imagine one hallway with 9 of them all running at the same time. Its very loud.
I have video I filmed years ago of that, but where and what tape.....thats the real question.

never would have guessed it was that loud

that room has to be hot too, in that video PPP posted they were talking about transformers inside them, with the bulbs and all the transformers i bet they produce a lot of heat as well

 

[JediMichael]

never would have guessed it was that loud

that room has to be hot too, in that video PPP posted they were talking about transformers inside them, with the bulbs and all the transformers i bet they produce a lot of heat as well

I don't remember if it was hot around it or not, but they might have just kept the ac really low.
That bulb though, I know they had to be a level 5 projectionist to be able to change it and they had to wear this big heavy leather coat and full headgear when changing the bulb. They said because it was SO vacuumed tight, (or something like that) that if it were to break, the glass shrapnel would be like a small grenade going off. However, they HAD to break it before throwing it out.
After it was packed back into the long rectangle box they came in and taped shut, they would throw it at the wall or ground or whatever hard and the box would contain it.
Those projectors always needed maintenance since there were so many different moving parts.
The audio came on these disc, looked like CD/DVDs, but might have been something different, not sure. Depending on the theater and the sound system it had, there were different options to chose from. But, incase something like that were to fail, there was the backup of the film itself having stereo tracks on it.
Like this. Although I see this picture has several types of tracks to pick from. I don't remembered the ones we had had that or not.

Funny the things I learned without actually being a projectionist....and what I still remember after over 15 years.

 

[Halliwax]

I don't remember if it was hot around it or not, but they might have just kept the ac really low.
That bulb though, I know they had to be a level 5 projectionist to be able to change it and they had to wear this big heavy leather coat and full headgear when changing the bulb. They said because it was SO vacuumed tight, (or something like that) that if it were to break, the glass shrapnel would be like a small grenade going off. However, they HAD to break it before throwing it out.
After it was packed back into the long rectangle box they came in and taped shut, they would throw it at the wall or ground or whatever hard and the box would contain it.
Those projectors always needed maintenance since there were so many different moving parts.
The audio came on these disc, looked like CD/DVDs, but might have been something different, not sure. Depending on the theater and the sound system it had, there were different options to chose from. But, incase something like that were to fail, there was the backup of the film itself having stereo tracks on it.
Like this. Although I see this picture has several types of tracks to pick from. I don't remembered the ones we had had that or not.
View attachment 1522924

Funny the things I learned without actually being a projectionist....and what I still remember after over 15 years.

Dude that’s so interesting! Honestly never knew any of this

The grenade bulb totally makes sense

The whole CD I get too.. we had a 2 dollar theater here in town and do you know how many times the audio would be off.. the sound was always out of sync

 

[Mottrex]

I don't remember if it was hot around it or not, but they might have just kept the ac really low.
That bulb though, I know they had to be a level 5 projectionist to be able to change it and they had to wear this big heavy leather coat and full headgear when changing the bulb. They said because it was SO vacuumed tight, (or something like that) that if it were to break, the glass shrapnel would be like a small grenade going off. However, they HAD to break it before throwing it out.
After it was packed back into the long rectangle box they came in and taped shut, they would throw it at the wall or ground or whatever hard and the box would contain it.
Those projectors always needed maintenance since there were so many different moving parts.
The audio came on these disc, looked like CD/DVDs, but might have been something different, not sure. Depending on the theater and the sound system it had, there were different options to chose from. But, incase something like that were to fail, there was the backup of the film itself having stereo tracks on it.
Like this. Although I see this picture has several types of tracks to pick from. I don't remembered the ones we had had that or not.
View attachment 1522924

Funny the things I learned without actually being a projectionist....and what I still remember after over 15 years.

A couple of guys I know used to be projectionist in Boston, the horror stories they have recalled about chemical fires in the booths.
Apparently there was quite a high mortality rate due to the heat from the larger projectors in such a confined space plus the chemicals in the film which wasn't the best back.

There are some cool podcasts out there talking about the older machines..

 

[OzReturner]

I have all of my stubs saved in a scrapbook-like-thing. They are all taped from the back, and I logged who I saw the movie with, 1989 to present.. Fun to look through them and see how the stubs evolved. I remember we got comped some tickets because the theater opened late (liked to go to first showing of the day), and used those to see Pluto Nash. Was so bummed to have wasted the free tickets, but also happy that they WERE free.

 

[JediMichael]

This thread should just be re-titled "Remembering Good Times at the Cinema," now with all this reminiscing that's happening.

I remember I had one full-size wall cut out for the first or second Jurassic Park that my father grabbed before the film was just about to leave theaters. It had a little button on it that would play the T-Rex roaring sound effect and I remember that was in the room my brother and I shared for many years until the sound board burned out.

Not a bad idea at this point.

 

[JediMichael]

Looking at this picture, I do remember the Dolby Digital logo between the sprocket holes.

Im sure most would remeber the still slides with ads or movie trivia that would play before the movie ( and trailers) started. Then, around 20 years ago most theaters started switching to digital video ads before a movie started, it didn't have even close to as high resolution as the film projector.
That was a whole separate projector that connected to an internet stream and Regal would send the signal to each one.
When it started, for us in 2002, it was called, The Twenty.
I found that when we would have a getogether for us employees and I made some cool edited video and recoreded the final edit back to a mini dv tape, that I could then connect my camera up to that digital projector and the audio to the sound board. Even though most the theaters were running 5.1 sound, I was only running stereo, which still sounded so awesome on those systems.
Our 4 biggiest theaters had two 15" subs behind the screens.
Good times.

 

[Halliwax]

I like the new title change

 

[Treadwell]

The REAL IMAX, not the "regular digital screen in an AMC with IMAX branding on the door" kind!

(the link wouldn't post correctly, cut and paste this text, removing the space after the HTTPS)
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uFyp1WS1Fw&list=FLE3tpBy7P8vuNhhmq4Ol2XQ&index=31

 

[Treadwell]

View attachment 1522924

Funny the things I learned without actually being a projectionist....and what I still remember after over 15 years.

I remember how you used to be able to see and hear reel changes because of the splices. Even after switching to digital sound, the splice would no longer make an audible POP, but it would usually make it lose track of the digital signal for a second, and it would default to the analog until digital caught up again.

 

[blewis17]

I've kept my tickets since the late 70's. Most are faded now and I have no idea what they're for, but I have them.

Scan them or at least take a high quality digital photo of them. With some adjustments in photo editing software, you may be surprised how you can bring out some of the faded ink and at least save a new digital version of the stub!

What I wouldn't give to have my original Star Wars, Empire Strikes back, and Return of the Jedi ticket stubs from their theatrical first run. most people never kept that stuff back then.

 

[JediMichael]

This is making me remember so many things now.
Like when they start the projector, the lights will dim a little while the trailers are playing, but when the actual movie starts, they dim much more, and when the credits start rolling, they dim back up a little.
That was done by the projectionist adding a little silver strip a few mm wide on the actual film, which trigged the the dimmer to dim once, again, and then back up.

I quit before my theater went all digital.....(guessing it has by now anyways), so I have no idea how some of these things are done now a days.