Cinerama Servo amplifier

[Bill Ryan]

Hi all,
John Mitchell did donate Brothers Grim to Bradford. He also duplicated many of the
sound tracks for various institutions, generally
for the cost of the mag stock. I have John’s
two reproducers one home made and one
original (Westrex) and his Westrex recorder.
both of the Westrex machines have original
Brush clusters of which I have a bit of a stash.
Cheers,
Bill

[Bill Ryan]

To correct something here. A learned Cinerama
Associate of mine has informed me that Regarding Bradford John Mitchell gave the censorship cut pieces from One of his prints of HTWWW. This was to fix cuts made by the German Censors. Later in 2012
John Also gave them a complete print of HTWWW
as there print was becoming un runable. This was when he sent over the Brothers Grim print which
Had some German subtitles.
Cheers,
Bill.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

the collector in Sun City was Emil Varga, I knew him and his wife for decades, quite a film buff and historian, I bought many a rare 35mm print from him too! He had a pair of nichon-crown 35/70s in his screening room. He loved six track mag sound too! I was able to get his intro reel for cinerama with Lowell Thomas, it is now in the hands of a film archive friend in Cal.

Yes, that was Emil... The three Cinemiracle projectors I posted earlier in this thread belonged to him. Speaking of Prologs, I found the entire set of prologs upstairs in the old booth of the Palace Theater in Chicago, and they let me take them. The Palace had three seperate booths on the mezzanine level of the balcony. Later, two booths were removed when they converted the center booth to 70mm Cinerama and then just straight 70mm with a pair of DP-70's. Today, its a live theater.

[Bill Ryan]

To get things back on topic. I find it really hard to
believe that you fellow film historians and Cinerama enthusiasts out there don’t have any
information on the servo amplifiers. To clarify I have three of them and the original console.
I would just like to get it all working!
Cheers, Bill.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

You might try contacting the Cinerama guys that worked for Pacific Theaters. I can guarantee that one or two of those guys will know. Start by contacting the guy that restored the Cinerama films for video. I can't remember his name, but someone here might. Or watch the Vids on YouTube because it's probably there...

[Bill Ryan]

Just to update you guys here the 3 strip projector
heads and the sound reproducer had a cam
operated micro switch which operated a lamp on each machine. There was also 4 lamps which were used by the console operator to verify that
the 3 projectors were in sync with the sound.
The object was to get the 4 lamps blinking in
unison.
Cheers,
Bill.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Bill, Just sent you a bunch of contact info...

[Bill Ryan]

5A0F44C6-6111-4AFC-9340-4FBB8FE34C16.jpg This is a picture of the rear of one of the projector 3 strip heads. You can see between the
chain the micro switch that operates the lamps
mentioned previously. This runs on a wheel that
operates the micro switch ever 32 frames.
You can also see the selsyn transformer in the top
right of the picture (part of the servo system).
Cheers,
Bill.

[James Biggins]

Start by contacting the guy that restored the Cinerama films for video. I can't remember his name, but someone here might.

Dave Strohmaier.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

One thing I am curious about Bill.... Is why you want to restore something they did away with after just the second film? After they took the remote stuff off the operators did the framing and the 3 phase motor system was actually simpler and more reliable. It normally took seven high paid I.A. projectionists to run a show.

[Bill Ryan]

Hi Mark,
The reason I want to restore the servo system
is because I actually have it all. There in all likelihood no other system with all the original
bits still attached. I will be making some con sessions for example not using carbon arcs.
As the original system did. The original system
with it’s servo system is more flexible it allows
you to bring the panel back in sync whilst the
show is running. Something you can’t do with the
selsyn system. Cinerama were actually re installing complete sets of equipment like
Sydney, Melbourne and Christchurch New Zealand all with servos and differential gearboxes
in the late 50’s. The servo system was used until the end of 3 strip. I have an interview with
Kell Ball who was chief operator and console
operator at the Plaza Sydney. He spoke very highly about the servo system and can only recall having one breakdown.
Cheers,
Bill.

[Bill Ryan]

Hi Mark,
To clarify the servo system in the systems that I have seen had nothing to do with the framing.
The servo system used 3phase 220volt sync
motor to drive the differential gearbox’s.
Cheers,
Bill.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

John Sittig is probably the only living person that would know if that was kept in the final version of the system or not. I do know they eliminated the remote console because it eliminated an expensive IA operator that ran it., So I suspect they took all that off and had the operators do the framing. .On the heads I have had, the only part left of it was the tiny gear on the feed sprocket shaft. On two of the heads, the counters were still mounted to the front of the heads but the gearing was gone.

[Bill Ryan]

Hi Mark, This is how the counter was driven.
In the top left of the picture you can see the
green lamp I mentioned earlier.
Cheers,
Bill. 999985BF-2F63-457C-8324-864D3203B0A9.jpg

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The counters on mine were driven off the top sprocket shaft and you can see the gear reduction used to drive it through a slot in the front of the projector. I'm still puzzled why you would want to put these back to the Rube Goldberg style system that was obviously abandoned in later-simplified versions of the system??? Have you contacted John Sittig yet?