Practical Penumbra

I think I'll go eat some worms

is what I felt like when I got home from work last night--no email, no comments, and a fresh new disaster at the theater! (I didn't wish for it, honest!). I was too stressed out to post, so I saved that lovely title for today.

Before I launch into the story of Friday Night Hell at the Movies, I want to point out a couple of new entries over at the New Blog Showcase...

First, another blogger weighs in on John Rhys-Davies with Someone in Hollywood is FOR Western Civilization? It makes a great companion read to Justin's The Politics of The Lord of the Rings.

I also got a chuckle out of Spam of the Week...

Anyway, business was pretty slow last night, either due to Christmas shopping or the fact it was spitting snow, making the roads slippery. Which, it turned out, was a good thing, since that meant we only had 81 angry customers when we lost the sound in the small theater...

This time, the malfunction was the work of a human agent, not a supernatural one--yes, my lovely and talented Assistant Manager BROKE THE FREAKING EXCITER LAMP. The exciter lamp is a little light bulb that enables the projecter to read the sound strip on 35mm film.

Why is it that men (yes, I'm generalizing, get over it!) seem to think that brute force is the universal answer to mechanical malfunction? Especially when there was no mechanical malfuntion until they got involved? To wit: most movie projectors are "programmed" by the use of "cue tape" (little strips of sticky-backed aluminium-like tape that are attached to the film and trip various functions of a projection system, such as turning on the lights in the theater at the end of a movie). Cue tape can turn on the lights halfway, and later turn them on the rest of the way. Needless to say, cue tape does not work properly on our projectors, relicts of the early seventies when reel switch-overs were done manually, and since jerry-rigged to work with the more modern platter system.

So, as the five o'clock show was ending, my Ass. Manager noticed that there was no sound over the end credits. He rushed upstairs, not realizing that there was cue tape he had failed to remove when he made up* the movie (and one of the things cue tape can do is turn the sound off on a film) and started poking and prodding and wiggling projector parts, and broke off the exciter lamp. No exciter lamp, no sound. No sound, no movie. Did he tell me? No. Not until we had been selling tickets for half an hour. So, five minutes before show time, we are tearing the projection booth apart looking for a spare exciter lamp. No dice. I call our Projector Technician. All theaters keep a spare exciter lamp, he says. Look more. We look more. None to be found. I call the owner. ALL THEATERS HAVE A SPARE EXCITER LAMP, he says. LOOK MORE. Auugghhhhhh!!!! We don't have a spare freakin exciter lamp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Show cancelled. Nine o'clock show cancelled. The owner finds a spare bulb at one of his other theaters. Ass. Manager must drive to Ohio early this morning to pick it up (serves him right, too! Sassafrassenrassen...).

In a little while I will call the theater and find out if the new lamp fits. If it doesn't, we're out one whole theater (of two!!!) until Monday at least. Oh, joy.

*movies still arrive at the theater on 5 to 10 reels (depending on the length of the film), which are spliced together to make one big reel for exhibiting, and then taken apart again for shipping back to the studios.

Posted by Susie at December 20, 2003 11:50 AM | TrackBack