that real home cinema experience, none of this surround sound nonsense

[h0ughy]

Last night i was treated to a trip to the drive in - but no ordinary drive in. It was a private drive in ;) . one of the members of the church knew a friend who knew someone else that... well you know how it goes. Anyway they had a fundraising evening.

i had to suffer Mamma Mia, but nonetheless, it was on a big screen in the open and sitting outside the car. Was a great night that brought back all the childhood and teenage years of the drive in, including the poor sound, the mosquitoes and the open air experience bar none ;)

It is situated on a property near Minmi, and also boasts a 39 seat home cinema - and i mean real cinema! Someones hobby and work brought home from an era long though of as gone. The projectors are 1970's vintage and from what the guy was saying they are still used. these were from a drive in long gone in Sydney somewhere.

Anyhow just thought i would share......a few pics attached and i do apologise as they were taken on the mobile phone - i wasn't prepared for what i encountered. Also got to view the night sky between the clouds.

[koputai]

Great stuff!

I used to work at a place that was famous for its small cinema (400 seats) but in the 9 years I worked there it went from showing about 3 shows a year in '91 to zero by '95, left idle for a few years, then all the lovely projection gear, 2 projectors similar to the ones in your photo's and a smaller projector for commercials, were ripped out in '98. It was a real shame to see it all go, I used to spend a lot of time in the booth admiring the old gear.

It's great to see not all these great old machines have been destroyed.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Ric]

What a fantastic experience.

The last time I was at the Drive-in was in the late 70's.

I always remember the experience of the open air Cinemas in the mining towns of W.A, a projector and a screen on the local oval, byo chair, beer and food.

[h0ughy]

i think that the projectors came form the carrignbah drivein



in the late 80's used to go to the drive in with a long wheel base landrover with a full rooftop deck - we used to park at the back and have deck chairs up there with external speakers (you could clip on the aerial to get radio (stereo))

[MrB]

Very, very cool!

[Kevnool]

Great to see David i was looking close at those pics and realised there is zenon lamp inside that.

When i was projectionist at the local silver city cinema and the Village drive inn as well, Well it all came flooding back with the massive rectifiers to power up the carbon arc i used to srike.

The first movie i ever screened was called North Sea Hijack doubled with who,ll stop the rain.

All history now and good to see some of it ahh yes widescreen and cinemascope well i better shut up or else i,ll ramble on forever about that subject.

Great stuff Dave

Cheers Kev.

[Barrykgerdes]

Those old machines look great. I remember the last time I went to the drive in. I was looking in the door of the projection booth during interval and got invited in. Spent the rest of the evening in the booth learning all about arc lamps and projectors.

When I was doing nasho I got the job of squadron projectionist because I had operated the projector at school. It had some good lurks for getting out of obnoxious tasks. I used to run the cinema at Amberley every second weekend with two 16 mm projectors. The normal operation of the cinima was week days only. Quickly learnt how to get the loop back with a pencil before the cat calls started and how to start the second projector on cue!

Barry

PS when I was working for the navy we "acquired" a 16mm projector in or section and we needed films. We found we had access to the defence film library with a top level clearance. We borrowed all the secret films of the atomic. experiments at Maralinga. Interesting viewing but we could not tell anyone what we were seeing.

BG

[bartman]

I used to run the projector on Daydream Island! It was a Victoria 5 and housed in a raised concrete rainwater tank. However it did have all the surround sound gizmo's. It was projected on to a screen at the edge of the beach.
Have a look on google earth or google images "cinema on daydream island"
Cheers for that David!
Bartman
If I can find the photos ill post them.....first I need a scanner.....