I was training this new kid on doing changeovers. We had (and still have) one of the ancient brass-plate/radio-mat slide machines; the off-on switch for it was quite close to the motor switch for the right-hand projector.

So I've given the kid all the instructions on how to change over; I'm peering out the left window watching for the motor cue, and when it happens, he flips the switch...and the projector doesn't start. I'm panicking, not realizing that he hit the slide-machine switch instead.

We recovered quickly and only missed the changeover by a couple of seconds, but the kicker was, there was a "sex scene" on the screen when it happened, and the slide in the machine was "COMING SOON."

I can still remember the booth floor shaking from people stomping their feet after that one!

My apprentice was going to Toronto the next day to write his examination for Projectionist - Second Class. As this was his last night as my "trainee", I decided to let him run the show while I sat in my car, with my wife, just outside the rewind-room door. (Ground-level booth).

The show consisted of a four-reeler, a reel of trailers and intermission strips, intermission, and a five-reeler called "The Green Berets" (starring John Wayne).

I was proud of him. The first feature ran flawlessly, as did the intermission reel. Reel 1 of "Green Berets" was threaded in the #2 projector during the trailers. During intermission reel 2 was threaded in projector 1. (You can see what's coming, can't you?).

End of intermission, the tower lights extinguish as a picture of John Wayne appears on the screen, in a plane saying "Prepare to jump." Having run this picture for the last couple of days, I realized this was reel 2. I bolted out of the car and into the booth just as the apprentice had switched the sound system over to mike to make the ten minute concession-closing announcement....

As my wife later described it:
"It was kind of weird. First, there was this picture of John Wayne, then you went running into the booth, then we heard over the speakers "You stupid sonofabitch!", the screen went black, then there appeared a strip with "OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION".

BTW, the apprentice passed his exam and went on to become one of the best projectionists in our local.

I was testing the proj. and flipped it to SCOPE. (Simplex w/ turret) The movie was FLAT. Also, that theater has common-width (moving top) masking. I forgot to flip it back to FLAT when I was done.

When the movie started, the guy who was running the show noticed quickly and flipped the lens. But it takes about 15 seconds or so for the masking to move up....

On the scope full length trailer for "Far and Away" the image starts as a matted 1.85 and partway through extends to full 2.35 while saying "shot in Super Panavision 70mm". We had our masking precisely aligned for that trailer and would open the masking at exactly that point. It looked very nice.

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