2016 Black Maria Film Festival Program

Fall, 1982 - Central projection room for show
of Napoleon; two additional projectors were
installed in the balcony. The center projector in
this shot was used for the center panel of the
triptych; the two outside projectors were used
for the remainder of the film. The three triptych
projectors had to be absolutely synchronized in
order for the effect to work.
This was done by quickly
putting gels in front of the
projector lens for that one,
final shot!! They then had
to be removed very quickly
as “The End” or “Fin”
had been replaced by Abel
Gance’s signature across
the full screen image; it
would have looked bad if
the colors were still there.
Larry notes that at the first
Radio City show, as the final
shot was approaching, he spots one of the projectionists
madly running between machines, going one way with the red
gel, the other with the blue. Larry, realizing what was happening
reversed the gels to where they should be as this particular
operator thought the colors were to be “red, white and blue”,
not “blue, white and red”.
I must admit some confusion on that myself early on, but
fixed it as the now common practice of “right on red” at stop
lights was becoming popular. Thanks to that memory jogger,
we never got it wrong.
My personal involvement began with the next set of shows
in Columbus, OH in March of 1981. For this one, we had been
advised that the Ohio Theatre was already set up for a three
projector “selsyn” interlock system from the 3D days. I was
assured that it worked!! And as skeptical as I was, that was indeed
correct!! The booth was a “standard” Loew’s Incorporated
booth with three projectors. Two of them were wonderful
original Simplex XL projectors; the third a Simplex E- 7. The
lamps were Peerless, Hall and Connolly Hi Candescent carbon
arcs powered by a generator in the basement. The original
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