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Thursday, September 8, 2005
SHOPTALK: John Rolfe
The man in the booth? He's running the show
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||||
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Also on this page: RICHARD JULIO | |||||||||
Q: How did you get into the projection booth? A: Well, I started working at Cinema City, which is no longer there, out in Westbrook, tearing tickets. That was in the late '80s. And, um, there was an opening at the Maine Mall (cinema) which pulled one of the projectionists out of Cinema City to work there. I was a quick learner, so I started running shows at Cinema City . . . Long story short, I also ended up at the Maine Mall, and became the de facto supervisor after my supervisor had moved on. That takes care of about a decade of running movies . . . and around that time, the owner of the Saco Drive-In decided to run the business instead of leasing it to other people who wanted to run a drive-in during the summer. Q: So you - A: And so I went to work for them. They'd owned it since the real estate boom of the '80s but prior to that had leased it out. In 1998, that's when they went to FM stereo, from having the car speakers. The heaters were already gone. We acquired some equipment from the Calais drive-in, which had just closed. People ask, "is this the same film a theater would get?" Yes, the projector hasn't changed in years. Our projector head looks like art deco from the '30s but it's really early '50s vintage. The screen is 140 feet wide. A frame of film is what, 35 mm, an inch by 3/4 of an inch. So if you took a frame and walked up and held it to the screen, how much is that film blown up? It's a testament to the resilience of film. And that screen is 312 feet away, a goalpost away from the lens. Q: So you learned on the job? A: I was lucky to come into the business when guys from the World War II era were approaching retirement age. I learned from several people, a little from one guy, a little from another, incorporating the best techniques. Ted Robbins is one fellow who taught me, from the second generation of projectionists. He learned from his dad, Irwin, and both his sons, Ted and Brian, got into the business as teenagers. Q: How did you know about the opening at Saco? A: The local union . . . I have to look at my briefcase . . . it's IATSE, International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees. It has a charter going back to the teens, I believe. During the '50s, running film was a very complicated process, and the film was on acetate. It would break, and you'd have to have someone who was cool and calm and collected to handle things. Not someone who would cave in like a cheap suitcase. I got that phrase from one of the guys who trained me. Q: Have you ever had stuff go wrong? A: I've been lucky, knock on wood. I haven't lost any shows. It's all due to preventive maintenance. Q: What are your hours like? A: I job-share with Marc Galbraith, who's a teacher in South Portland. On the nights I work I get here more than an hour before the show starts. On Friday I'm here even earlier to do the film makeup - films get broken down and shipped out Thursday night. The hours change over the summer, because the show starts at dusk . . . the show can start as late as 9, and then it goes the other way when the days start getting shorter. When we ran "Batman" and another long movie this summer, we were here until 2 a.m. Personally, I don't mind. I've told the owners several times that if they ever wanted to have a schlock around the clock, whatever, a late-late night or marathon, I'd be more than happy to stay. Q: Are you always in the booth? A: I also help with parking, making sure people know about drive-in etiquette, like dimming the headlights and driving 5 mph and parking two cars in between the posts. Some people like to tailgate and lift up the hatch, but for other people that can be like being behind somebody with a tall hat on at the movies. A lot of it is common sense, but it also goes back to the old days, and there were signs to inform people about etiquette. Saco had the signs, but they wore away over time. I also have a photo of the marquee, from 1970 . . . The first movie that showed here, July 15, 1939, was "Forbidden Music," starring Jimmy Durante. It was 35 cents and children under 12 got in free. It was Maine's first "open-air auto theater," the 17th ever built, and now the second-oldest still operating in the nation. The first one was built in 1933 in Camden, N.J. Q: Why are some cinder blocks on the front of the booth different? A: Yeah, they were replaced. In 1967 a fellow crashed into it - I actually have a photo of it. There's a little write-up, so these aren't actually my words: "During the summer of 1967 a Canadian judge came to the drive-in in his new Oldsmobile Toronado. The projectionist, Hugh L. Howard, was watching the credits go by at the end of the movie when he saw headlights coming . . . he dived out of the way just as the car crashed into the fence and then into the booth, ruining the No. 1 projector and the sound amplifier. No one was hurt . . . The projectionist commented that he knew the movie was bad but did not think it (justified) wrecking the projection booth." So that's how that went. Q: So why did he crash - A: I think he had a heart attack, and his foot was on the gas. I'm not exactly sure. Q: Anything you don't like about the job? A: Well, um, I mean, sometimes I may get film from a previous exhibitor who was not properly trained, so the film he shipped will come in mixed up or damaged. And, people, you know, they come in and most, 99.9 percent, appreciate the guidance that you provide for parking and etiquette, but there can be one or two who don't. We had some people from Alaska a few years back, and not only had they never been to a drive-in, they'd never heard of one. They came every night. And it was the same movie. Q: Do you watch the movies? A: I do when I put the show together on Friday afternoon, to make sure everything's in perfect order. If it's a movie I'm fond of, I'll be sure to watch it a couple times, certain scenes. I also play my electric chess game, or read a book - I do a lot of reading during the summer. Q: Do you have a dream job? A: Wow, huh, let's see. No. Wow. I'm quite happy.
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