The Projectionist: On the best job that no longer exists
Hey, this is a thing I did at a movie theater in Le Mars, Iowa, population 10K or so.<p>I loved coming in after school to assemble the film on the large reels used for the projectors from the small reels used for shipping. It meant I was the first person to touch new releases, which was a cool feeling for a high schooler who loved movies but was a million miles from Hollywood.<p>Part of that process was to etch cue marks into the film at the end of reel 1 so that projectionists would know when to fire up and then switch to projector 2. Sometimes I kept a few frames from the head or tail as a secret memento of films I loved.<p>The movie theater projectors used giant xenon lamps. When they died and had to be changed, one had to be <i>very</i> careful because they exploded real good.<p>There was also a drive-in theater, powered by an absolute beast of a carbon arc projector. They were rare enough at the time that almost nobody knew how to run and maintain them — I was trained by a transient Hell&#x27;s Angel who enjoyed sharing his erotic poetry. The arc itself was so improbably bright that it was like like looking into the soul of a god.