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I was surfing Dallas area real estate listings, and came across a house which among its other amenities, included a 'media room'. I wonder how common two projector setups like this were, and how many are still out there, likely unused. The place can be yours for a cool $64M!
Can't answer for your area, but they are fairly common in the L.A. area, certain suburbs of Chicago, and extremely common in the Nashville area, because of all the Country Artists live here. Many of them also have pretty amazing recording studios at home
A little googling and nobody I'm aware of in the cinema industry has ever owned the house, but with that much money I'm sure the studios or possibly someone tied to a local theater chain coordinated this place to borrow 35mm prints.
This is typically referred to as the Crespi Estate.
Here is a pretty decent video tour from 2018 which notes a theater remodel at 1:28 but its clearly a different room. The room Josh pictured is seen again in the video at 3:08. https://www.facebook.com/LiveLovePre...54028241573207
This type of room is pretty typical for Bel-Air Circuit residence theaters. What makes this Dallas example unusual (unless the DCI projector is out of the booth shot in Brad's post) is that it appears to be equipped for 35mm and a classroom projector for alternative content, but no DCI.
The new build residence theaters being put up now tend to be boothless, with the projector in a pod. Needless to say, that makes servicing it fun. Those that are pre-existing from the film days usually retain their booths as a projection booth, and in one or two cases the film projectors are still there, though they haven't been used for many years. Often the DCI projector is shoehorned in between them on a pedestal on castors, which again makes maintenance a pain, though not as much of a pain as having to lift a 200-300lb projector out of a pod and then back in to it again.
Those were extremely common in the "Bel-Aire" circuit. When I started with Universal Projector in North Hollywood (then run by the late Charlie Ajar, Sr. "Mr. Gizmachie") I got my start in installing and maintaining many of those rooms for a lot of well known actors and studio execs. However, consoles were rarely used due to floor space constraints. Some had regular bases with Kelmar style takeups, some older rooms had the enclosed magazines, and some had the Atlas/Strong plate metal bases.
I later worked with another colleague doing the same for his clients. Later when I started my own service business I had a few clients of my own in that area, but mainly worked with Universities and other cinemas.
I have heard a lot of the Bel Aire rooms have removed or mothballed their 35mm machines in favor of using DCPs for the screenings. Some have retained the 35mm for either thier private collections of prints or current productions.
Here in Idaho I have heard of a few such rooms in Sun Valley.
I did a residence installation with Charlie very shortly before he passed. It was in a booth from which the film projectors has been removed, and had been repurposed as a laundry. I remember standing on top of a (side loading, obviously) washing machine to work on the SP4K on the newly constructed shelf above it! The room was not a dedicated theater, but rather the house's living room, with a motorized roller screen at one end. Without wanting to come across as overly sexist, I suspect that the lady of the house had decreed that none of the hardware needed to play movies should be immediately visible. Not only were all the stage speakers recessed into walls, but large pot plants and other decorations had been set in front of them, and a large ornamental rug over the subwoofer, on which snoozed a large, long haired cat (either Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest); we had strict instructions that none must be disturbed. Needless to say, this room did not tune up very well. The cat maintained his position on top of the subwoofer even while we were playing 92dB of pink through it!
About a week later, a co-worker told me that Charlie had suddenly passed away. That was quite a shock: there was nothing about him during that install day which suggested to me that he could be seriously ill. If he was in any discomfort, he managed to conceal it totally.
Yeah most of the Bel Aire rooms had strict "I don't want to see any equipment" requirements. Our rigger was good at designing elements to hide equipment when not in use...one had ceiling speakers that would pivot into the ceiling when not in use, and roll down to the correct angle when in operation. The client (who was a nice lady who hated my colleague but liked me) had me modify the automation so the speakers wouldn't drop down until after the lights were out, and would retract before the lights came up. Another room I worked on had full sized JBL's inside of black boxes that were on lifts in the floor to the basement below. They had plants on each side and a bust in the center that rose up with the speakers.
Then there was my last install with said colleague...the current client bought the house were I had done my very first Ajar install, which included the very first Ajar projectors I hand built. I was surprised to see them there. I wanted to ask the client if they wanted to get rid of them, (I was going to offer to buy them) but my colleague didn't want me to bother the client. The client turned out to be someone very nice, and when I asked her what she intended to do with the projectors, she told me they were to be displayed on either side of the screen for all to see. My colleague, standing behind her, was turning red...but nearly exploded when the client asked for my cell number so she could call me if she ever decided to get rid of those machines. I was more flattered that she was going to display them (and promised to tell who built them). To this day that client has my current number...and I hope to get a call from her.
Finally, as for Charlie not showing he was seriously ill....one, he never did let on in all the years I knew him..even when he got the flu he just didn't show up at the shop and didn't bother telling anyone. Second, he was always so "grumpy" and crude you never could tell what mood he was in. I do miss him, he taught me a lot and was deep down a nice and often generous person.
In many cities, I think that for $64mil you could buy a whole theater. Yes, I know it's sort
of an 'apple & oranges' comparison, but I guess it depends on what you want. Every year
there are a couple of charities here in the SF Bay area who sell raffle tickets where the
first prize is a multi-million dollar home, or the equivalent amount in cash. Last year I
heard a financial advisor on a the radio who basically said that "if you could afford to
live in a multi-million dollar home, you'd already be doing so." He went on to explain
that the winner usually has to pay taxes on the house up front, and then, there are
the utility expenses of lighting, heating, and cooling huge home that add up to quite
a bit. And fancy mansions usually have a lot landscaping, and a huge pool, so unless
you want to do all that work yourself, you'll probably need to hire a gardener and a pool
person, to say nothing of bringing in a maid or cleaning crew, to keep a dozen or more
bathrooms and bedrooms from winding up looking like a college frat house. And then
there's the ongoing expense of yearly property taxes, and property insurance, etc.
He went on to say that in the past decade, neither of the charities involved actually
gave away one of the prize houses. Once the winners are advised of the reality of
what it would cost them to actually take possession and to live there, they opt to
take the winning prize in cash, and of course here in the US, taxes immediately
take a huge chunk out of that. I don't really know what the tax rate on that kind of
winning is, but a few years ago, I had an acquaintnce who won about $25,000 in
a lottery, and I think he said that after taxes he had about $18k, and, he had to wait
about 6 months to get paid because the lottery officials and 'the government' first did
a complete background check to to make sure that the win was legitimate and that
he didn't use a fake or altered lottery ticket, and they also checked court records to
see if there were any unpaid legal judgments or other liens against him, or if he owed
any back taxes, alimony or child support, etc. He wound up 'pissing away' most of his
winnings (although I'm sure he had a good time) - he bought a motorcycle which he
crashed and broke alotta bones, and the last time I saw him he was walking with a
cane and a pronounced limp- - and I'm pretty sure he was almost broke.
I've equipped 8 screen theaters back in the film days that didn't cost any where near 64 million, including the land... probably a bit under 10 million equipped. And they were nice places. Many had two THX auditoriums...
That Time Oprah Gave 276 People Free Cars That Actually Cost Them $6,000 In Taxes
It's the 15th anniversary of one of the greatest publicity stunts in all of television—the day Oprah Winfrey surprised an audience of hundreds of people in need of reliable transportation with brand-new Pontiac G6 sedans, but then left them on the hook for the thousands in taxes that came with them.
The episode started with Oprah pulling 11 people seemingly at random from the audience and announcing what they all had in common—they all needed a brand new car, so Oprah gave each of them one. The audience, suffice it to say, began to go crazy.
Then a little box was handed out to every audience member, and Oprah informed them that inside just one of the boxes was the key to a brand new Pontiac G6. One more person in the audience would join the 11 others in Oprah's grand giveaway. It was expertly crafted to throw everybody off the scent.
When Oprah finally let everyone open their boxes, everybody found a key, and everybody lost their mind. It was incredible television.
All-in-all, the stunt didn't cost Oprah, nor the television network, effectively anything. As has been recounted many times, the entire stunt was part of a marketing strategy by Pontiac to get the Oprah faithful of America to go out and buy the new G6. Because of this, the sticker price of every car handed out on television was paid for by Pontiac itself.
The problem for everybody who got a car, though, was that neither Oprah, the TV network, nor Pontiac accounted for all of the taxes the new vehicle owners would have to pay the government—a tax on the full $28,500 (in 2004 dollars) price of the car.
General Motors, the parent company behind the now-defunct Pontiac, covered the $1,800 state sales tax as part of the promotion, but since the vehicles weren't considered as gifts to the audience members by the government, but instead promotional prizes (like winning the lottery, winning a car is calculated as part of a person's gross income, so it's taxed as income), the new G6 owners were on the hook for an estimated $6,000 to $7,000 in state and federal income tax.
While it's not necessarily a bad shake to get a brand new $28,500 car for just $6,000, or roughly a fifth of the sticker price, the Oprah team had reportedly specifically stacked the audience with people "in need of a car," Forbes recounts. That would mean some of these folks are likely not the sort of people to just have thousands of dollars laying around to pay off the sudden tax increase. For others, who sold the cars, it helped them with stuff like financing a new business.
But this was sort of uncharted territory for a television promotion, and likely done completely in good faith despite being ultimately rooted in the marketing department of General Motors. Still, winners of the cars had to either take the car and pay the tax, sell the car and still cover the tax fees, or refuse it altogether.
In later promotions, Forbes points out, the Oprah team had learned their lesson, writing checks and giving them to audience members along with the pricey prizes in an effort to offset the sudden burden of a spiked income tax.
But as for the big G6 giveaway episode, Oprah got her iconic "you get a car" moment, the network got unprecedented ratings, Pontiac's marketing team got a ton of buzz, and at least some of the audience members were able to get away with a brand new car, nearly free of charge.
It's just too bad they then had to live with a Pontiac G6.
The Indian casino near me, Morongo, has billboards up on the Inland Empire's freeways advertising their monthly promotion, whereby visitors can win a high end auto; usually a BMW, or a Land Rover, or some other vehicle with a sticker price between $50-100K. I sometimes wonder how many people driving past those billboards realize that if they actually win the car, they will be on the hook for $10-30K in sales taxes, and then the very high California registration fee; which, for a luxury gas-powered vehicle with relatively high emissions, is well in to four figures a year. And I don't want to imagine what the insurance would cost.
How many people who spend the time and money to build their own screening room actually use them?
Of course, people in show biz would. A director or producer would, definitely use his home screening room. It's part of their job. Actors and others would, too. However, unless you are in the biz, what would you really do with all that equipment and furniture? Are they the kind of people who have parties and invite people over to watch movies, all the time? Great! I'd love to do something like that!
To be honest, I think the great majority of home theaters, like this, end up sitting dark most of the time. If anything, they might get used as a glorified (and expensive) family room.
I love movies. I love projectors and computers. I love using machines to make and show movies but the point is in the doing, not in the having. I want to show movies for other people to enjoy. I want to be that guy who works, upstairs, in that dark room, behind the window, so that other people can have two hours out of their busy days to just sit back, relax, watch a movie, eat some popcorn and forget about their troubles for just a little while.
It makes me feel very sad to think that so many people build theaters in their houses, spend all that time, and waste all that money just for everything to sit there and collect dust.
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