The Theater

It was late in 1989, and I needed to find a location for a business.

 I peered into the window of an ancient movie theater and saw an empty lobby. The theater lobby had 8 huge plate glass windows, and a marquis on the front of the buidling. What a great place for a Halloween store and magic shop, I found the owner and asked the rent. Amazingly it was $550 and that was for the entire buidling. I accepted the deal and rented without a deposit.

I went exploring in this huge structure with its art deco exterior. There were huge neon lit palm trees, and a newer sign board with chaser lites that made a clattering sound when lit. The circuitry was an open box mounted on concrete and as the timer switch hit each circuit, it would spark as each group of bulbs lit up, then switched off with more sparks splashing against the concrete wall. It wasn't a fire hazzard, just how it was made.

The theater had been inactive for several years, and two mammouth projectors were in a loft area above the lobby.  These machines were identical to the carbon arc machines I had used when I was a sprockey jockey in the 60's, except they replaced the carbons with projector bulbs.

I couldn't resist hiting the power and firing it up, and soon I had a massive light beam shooting out over a 300 seat auditorium, and the clatter of sprockets and gears clicking away.  I explored the room a bit more and found an old metal case with 5 reels of ancient film inside. I threaded one of the reels into the machine which was pretty good for not having done so for 40 years. I fired up the machine again, and there was an old aviation film with Howard Hughs on the 50 foot silver screen. I was really excited.