Living in a former movie theatre, it was the architecture of the place that connected my home to its former function–until this week. This week I went up into my attic, the former projection booth, to see how its roof has been holding up under the recent barrage of rain. My landlord was too good at clearing away the materials associated with movie exhibition. Most of the items in my attic were from recent tenants who used it as a dumping ground. I happened to notice a plastic shopping bag that hadn’t caught my eye before, and I picked it up to see what was inside. I found film!
As you can see above, the film isn’t in great shape. I stuck my nose in the bag to sniff. I was looking for a vinegar odor. That’s what decaying nitrate film stinks like. No such luck or peril! Touching the film, it felt like plastic. It must be safety stock. You can see the pieces vary in length, but all are short, and some have masking tape notations, which state the names of the movies they were once attached to. I had found mostly film leaders, the heads and ends of film used to thread movies into projectors.
I sorted through all the pieces to see if any contained images of interest. Most did not. I found some pieces with their titles imprinted on their frames, and I found three fragments of one theatre-specific film. I’ve included pictures of the ones that caught my attention the most in this post.
Two things I love about the above film leader–my home started as a silent movie theatre, so it’s fun to find a piece labelled sound, and the stencil font used is striking and vintage.
A lot of the film leaders are from sixties films, like this one for DEVIL’S ANGELS (1967), a Roger Corman production that starred actor and film director John Cassavetes.
NIGHTMARE IN WAX (1969) was a low budget horror movie that revisited the mad man populating his wax museum with stolen bodies plot.
Long-term readers of this blog know I am a Judy Holliday fan. I was smiling almost as big as Gladys Glover when she sees her first billboard when I found part of THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC (1956) in my hands!
The above is my favorite! I’m guessing it is the oldest I found since it touts a Wednesday prize night, and it sports an Art Deco motif under the text. I’m going to take a closer look at it for dating. A visit to my town’s museum might help me find out what years the theatre ran their promotion. I’ve been meaning to go anyway!
Patricia Nolan-Hall (@CaftanWoman)
I had no idea you were an archeologist! Congratulations on your unexpected find.
msbethg
Only an accidental one in this case! Thanks, Patricia!
Ariel
So actually vinegar syndrome is primarily attached to safety film. When nitrate stock decomposes/deteriorates, that’s when the chemical balance shifts & you have a greater chance of flammability.
But the chance of you having odds & ends of nitrate are fairly slim (although still possible).
The only kind of film that runs no danger (as far as we know) of VS is polyester film, due to the fact that unlike the organic nitrate & acetate film base structures, the polyester film base is entirely inorganic.
Also, it looks like of the films that you found here would never have been shot on nitrate since the safety film “shift” from nitrate happened in the early 50s & these works are after.
GREAT find on SGC, though!
I have a 16mm print of that in my collection that I adore!
Mike Durrett
Ditto.
I have worked in projection rooms since 1963. I ran many vinegar syndrome safety stock prints over the 50+ years, in 35mm and 70mm. I have never seen or held a single frame of nitrate film in all that time — and I have snooped through theatre attics, basements, booths, closets, and trash bins. Obviously, everyone wanted that deadly fire hazzard outta there.
msbethg
Mike, sounds like you could write a book about your experiences! You’ve seen films and film exhibition change in fifty years. You must have had a lot of fun times!
Mike Durrett
Yup. Distributed theatre flyers, age 10. My booth life began at age 11 and soon I had full-access to a movie theatre. I was trained to operate the all-manual 35mm reel-to-reel projectors by 12, and became a paid solo professional at 13. I was showing weekend movies in two theatres at 14. Best childhood ever!
And, pssssst, CINEMA PARADISO (1988). It’s like a home movie.
msbethg
I love CINEMA PARADISO! Great movie. Must be wonderful to relate to it as fully as you do.
msbethg
Ariel, I appreciate your gentle correction! I’m learning about the physical aspects of film, so you’ve given me good information. Not much of any scent in the bag, and most of the fragments seem to be either marked safety stock or have film titles released by the years of nitrate.
The only fragments I started to wonder about are the ones for “Wednesday Night.” One I saw the enlarged photos, a faded Art Deco design behind the font became more apparent. I’m investigating those pieces further. That one had split into three fragments. I’ve only share a picture of one.
So great you love Judy Holliday, too! I’m happy to see her getting featured at this year’s TCMFF.
KC
What a fun find! It’s amusing that this would be trash to most, but is a treasure to those of us in the know. Thanks for sharing.
msbethg
KC, so glad you enjoyed my post! Yes, other people might have found the bag, looked inside, and simply tossed it into the trash. It was fun to sort through all the pieces wondering if I’d find any treasures or nitrate.
kelleepratt
You live in a former movie theater?! How did I miss this? That is SO cool!
msbethg
We moved in at the very end of November, so living here is pretty new to us. We’re on the second floor–what used to be the balcony, mezzanine, office, and upstairs bathrooms and concessions. It’s pretty nifty working within that large space to fashion our loft. Hardly any storage, though! We’ve been building what we need!
Mark
As a kid, I realized the drive-in theater was having problems with its projector because suddenly, there were big spools of film that had broken and been spliced out of films. A long fire sequence from Devil’s Rain, something from a Chuck Norris film, Charles Bronson, Escape to witch mountain, a very young diane keaton reacting and getting ready to say something, others I didn’t know. They were second and third run prints. It was all very mysterious and of course, by the time I edited it all together, might run two or two and a half minutes a la Cinema Paradiso(not including all of the pristine lead in they threw away). Word spread thru town that it was happening regularly so eventually they replaced the monster of a projector. I cleaned it up and put it in a box, meaning to watch it someday – I’m sure it’s in storage and now with the demise of 35mm, who knows… But the hunt and chase of these fragments over a summer was magic.
msbethg
It does sound like a fun and magical time, to be able to make something new out of those odds and ends you treasured. I hope you find that box some day!
Ana Roland
I absolutely LOVED this post & want to know more about your abode…This is like a dream situation…How long has it been a condo? How many apartments? How are the apts laid out? What city are you in? Had you been scoping it out & waiting for a vacancy or are you the first to move in? Do you like your neighbors? I want a blog about your life in this new place! Look forward to seeing you soon for the festival.
msbethg
Ana, you’re so sweet! Thank you for visiting and letting me know how much you like my post! I should have taken more pictures before we moved into our place. We’ve too many boxes around because we’re organizing how we live in the space still. We moved to Rio Vista and into our new home at the end of November. I do have some detail shots I can share! We’re in the second floor loft. Our place used to be upstairs concessions, the mezzanine, the office, public restrooms, and the balcony. After it closed down in the seventies, the property changed hands and purposes until being renovated into its current form. Downstairs are a church in the theatre’s former auditorium, and then in each front corner there are a hairdresser and a barber, so we’re the only residents. It makes the building very quiet at night except for the rumbling of its old bones! It will be nice to see you, too!
Lesley
What a thrilling find! Good work tracking down the source films from the fragments…. Living in an old movie theater sounds so romantic—I would be spinning stories constantly about things that happened in that space. I would say “If these old walls could speak,” but for all I know they aren’t the original walls. Anyway, a wonderful post, thank you for sharing it with us.
msbethg
Lesley, it is romantic to live in a former theatre. I can see a lot of evidence of its different eras from Art Deco archways to sixties tile in our bathrooms to seventies tile in our kitchen, the former upstairs concessions. Many of its walls are original, and there are a couple of retouched murals in my space and much more in the church’s space below. At some point I’ll make another post sharing more of what the space looks like. Thanks for dropping by and commenting!