Tag Archives: fotoplayer

CH. 8: DAVE HARTMAN, MENTOR

By Joe Rinaudo

Dave Hartman

CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 2CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 4CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 6CHAPTER 7

Chapter 8

It has taken me a long time to come to grips with what happened next. For that reason, I have delayed my writing of this chapter as this was the hardest one to write.


As you might have remembered from chapter 7,  I have had a great dinner with Dave and Jennifer. Her spaghetti dinner and conversation were fun and fantastic as usual.  The next day when I called Dave’s house, Fred Von Helf’s wife, Diana, answered the phone. When I asked to talk to Dave she just said in a very somber voice “There was a tragedy here last night.” After my initial shock I asked “Are the kids and Dave all right?”  Then Diana’s voice on the phone said “Jennifer died last night.” 

I couldn’t speak for a few seconds. How could someone as alive and funny as Jennifer be gone? When I asked what happened, Diana just said that Jennifer had died in her sleep last night. I asked how Dave and the kids were doing (a very dumb question due to the fact that I was in a stunned state).  I didn’t know what to say other than “God bless her.”  I said something like “Oh my God I’m so sorry!” I started to cry and hung up the phone.

After gaining my composure, I wondered what can I possibly do at a time like this? The only thing I could think of was that two young children had lost their mother and Dave his wife! I didn’t know what to do next. The only thing I did know was that I needed to be with Dave and his kids. I went to a toy store and bought something for Cordie (the youngest). Being in a zombie like state, my only thought was to go to the market for groceries for Dave and the kids. When I arrived at Dave’s house it was a very chaotic  place filled with family and friends. Dave’s mom and brother, Dave’s friends Fred and Diana Von Helf, Jennifer’s brother and sisters along with Jennifer’s parents were all there giving support.  This was a house filled with sadness. Cordie was only 17 months old so she really didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation. Nadine, on the other hand, was not doing well as she was greatly consumed by the sudden loss of her mother.

When I finally got to see Dave to express my grief, He just said “Let’s go out to the shop for a while.”  I was at first surprised by this but then I realized that this was one way Dave could cope with what had just happened.


When we were out in his shop Dave said that he appreciated that all his family was doing for him and his children but he just needed to get away from all of the commotion for a while. Dave told me that his first and foremost concern was for his kids. I told him that if there is anything that I could do for him and the kids all he needs to do is ask. Dave said that he might need a friend to call upon from time to time for support and help.  I told him that I would be there for whatever he needed. He then sadly told me how he had awakened and found Jennifer’s cold body next to him. We both wondered how someone so young and vital could be gone! It was later found out in an autopsy that Jennifer had a congenital heart problem.  She had the heart of a 90-year-old!

The next several months were a bit of a blur. Dave’s mom stayed for several days and nights helping around the house along with babysitting Cordie and Nadine while Dave and I worked out in his shop. Dave had to keep working on restoration projects for his customers (to keep food on the table). Family members always seemed to be coming and going; helping wherever they could. I made it a point to try to get over to Dave’s house almost every day. Since I worked part time this made it possible to spend more time with Dave.

One time the phone rang and it was the bank asking why Dave was late on his mortgage payment. Dave said that he will pay it when he could. The lady from the bank said “You sure seem to be taking this lightly!” Dave said, “How else do you expect me to take it? My wife just died and I have two kids to raise!” The woman from the bank hung up. Dave made the payment a few days later. Several family members offered to take Dave’s children and raise them. Dave would have none of this and said “These are my kids and I will raise them!”


One evening Dave said, “Let’s go for pizza. I know a great place!” So, Dave, me, Nadine and Cordie all piled into Dave’s big old Chevy truck and headed off to a place called Mike’s Pizza. Cordie would stand up on the bench seat In between us and yell “I want to EAT!” Every time Dave would take off from a stop the truck would lurch forward (it was a stick).  Cordie’s head would then bounce off the back window with a boom! Like the sound of a bass drum! Cordie seemed totally unaffected by this situation as all she could think of was to eat! I thought that this might be an interesting experience.  So, after several “I want to EAT!” and Booms, we arrived at Mike’s Pizza. It was a Friday night so when we arrived, there was a line out the back door with about 25 people in front of us. I thought that this place must be good! As we slowly creeped up a little at a time. I thought that this better be good because it’s going to take all night to get in! Just then a rather skinny frail old man with white hair holding a clipboard comes out to count the people in line. The old man sees Dave and shouts rather loudly at us “Where the hell have you been? Your friends have been waiting for you inside!” So, he ushers us into the restaurant ahead of everybody else! Of course, there was no one waiting for us inside. So, the old man brings us to a table and shouts to Dave “Don’t let that happen again!” throws the menus on the table turns and leaves. I asked what that was all about. Dave said “That’s Paul the owner.” I said that “You must come here a lot for Paul to treat you so.” Dave just said with the Dave Hartman smile “I’ve been here a few times.”

The pizza was great! Along with the indescribable garlic rolls. These things were soft and gooey with a buttery garlic and melted cheese center that was to die for. They were always served hot and fresh! Mike’s Pizza also served something called a schooner of beer! It consisted of a huge heavy 24 oz. glass goblet of ice-cold draft beer! The schooner goblets were always kept frozen in a large freezer with a glass door. The house salad was a bowl of dark green lettuce served chilled with small discs of Italian meat. It came with a wonderful oil and vinegar dressing. The entire salad was topped with grated cheese! O.M.G.! What a feast! When we paid our bill and were walking out the door Paul came running after us yelling for someone to stop us because we hadn’t paid the bill! Then he yelled “O.K. have it your way just don’t ever come back!” Of course, everyone in the restaurant was laughing! It was always a very entertaining time with Paul and Dave at Mike’s Pizza!

Mike’s Pizza was located in Panorama city and was decorated with all sorts of race car memorabilia. On one of the various trips to this magical place I had asked Paul why all the racing décor and why is it called Mike’s if your name is Paul? Paul said that Mike was his son’s name who was killed in a racing accident and this was Paul and his wife’s way of remembering their son.  Dave, myself and his children spent many happy hours at Mike’s Pizza.


Dave was always working on the strangest things. He was restoring several Mutoscopes which was a card flipping motion picture machine. All kinds of antique phonographs, player pianos and several coin operated pianos. When I asked who was all of this stuff for Dave said “All this belongs to a good customer, Lennie Marvin.” I helped Dave deliver some of the restored items to Lennie. When we arrived, we were greeted by a very hyper, happy, fast-talking man. I found out that this was Lennie. Lennie opened up his garage which was filled with all kinds of antique phonographs, coin operated pianos, gambling machines and old arcade equipment.  When I asked Lennie what this was all for, he told me that he had been renting this kind of equipment to the movie industry to be used as props. I found out later that the jukebox featured in the T.V. show Happy Days was Lennie’s. I wondered how far could a guy go by renting things out of his garage. Dave said “Don’t under estimate Lennie. He has been giving me more and more work and I have watched his business grow steadily.” I realized that Dave was helping to grow Lennie’s business.


Fotoplayer lamp

Brass lamp, center. Red boxes contain Picturolls, left. A couple of funny characters, center. Organ pipes, above right. Logo rendered in gold leaf by friend Charlie DeSimone, presented to me on my 16th birthday. (I was wondering why that wooden panel—the cover to the roll mechanism—went missing a few days prior.)

I always wanted to start my own business. I had been trying to manufacture the lamp which was missing on my Fotoplayer.  Original lamps are very rare and only a couple are known to exist. This unique lamp was needed to give the operator light to work the Fotoplayer in the darkened theater.  A friendly collector who has a style 45 Fotoplayer, with one of the two lamps known to exist, was kind enough to send me photos and dimensions of his lamp. Since the lamp looks like a picture frame lamp it would be hard to fabricate. It was rolled sheet metal with special bracket arms at each end.   This was beyond my skill level. I asked Dave if he had any thoughts on how to make the lamp. Dave said that this was also out of his wheelhouse. He said that I should find a manufacturer that has the equipment to create this special type of lamp.

I inquired around and was told of a man by the name of David Sennett who was an old-style lamp manufacturer. When I went to see Mr. Sennett, I found him to be a very friendly man in a large old shop devoid of any other employees. This old shop was a wonderful place with all kinds of wire, lamp supplies and old-time manufacturing equipment. When I showed him a picture of the lamp he said “Do you want me to show you how to build one?” I couldn’t say “YES” fast enough! He takes a sheet of brass, shears it to size then rolls it to the proper diameter with a hand crank roller. He places it in a bending break and bends the front and rear 45 degree returns on the rolled shade! He did this on old hand and foot operated equipment just as it might have been done originally. He found two vase caps, one for each end of the rolled shade and (viola!) the shade was done! All in about 20 minutes! I was amazed at his skill level and how easy he made it look. Mr. Sennett told me that this was a great business to get into as custom fabrication of old-style lighting is a dying art. He told me that he did not have the arm and brackets but they are still being made. He gave me the name of a lamp supply where I could buy the brackets, wire and sockets to complete my project. When I asked how much I owed him for the lamp he said “Showing a young person how it was done was payment enough!” When I, again, insisted that he take some money he refused and told me that he had done well in this business and it was time for him to retire. He went on to say that if he could get more young people interested in this trade it would be a wonderful thing. I thanked him profusely and bid him well and gave practicing his trade some thought.

On my way home I thought what a kind and skilled man he was. I couldn’t wait to thank Dave for inspiring me to seek out someone like Mr. Sennett and tell him about my new adventure!  

It’s sobering to realize how chance meetings can change the direction of your life because what would happen next did just that.

To be continued…

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Do You Have
EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS?

Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.

Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.

Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!

CH. 7: DAVE HARTMAN, MENTOR

By Joe Rinaudo

Dave Hartman

CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 2CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 4CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 6

Chapter 7

The next several months were filled with Dave teaching me how to recover pneumatics (bellows) and various other tasks related to the rebuilding of an American Fotoplayer.

Since I got in the habit of spending sometimes the whole day at Dave’s shop, I found various places to get a quick lunch. One of these places was Taco Bell or as Dave called it “taco hell!” On one of my excursions to Taco Bell, I had a very unfortunate experience. I had given the clerk a twenty- dollar bill to pay for my lunch but I only got back change for a ten! I reminded the clerk that I had given him a twenty but he just said that I was mistaken. I insisted that he was in the wrong and asked to see the manager. After disappearing for a while, the clerk returned to tell me that the manager was busy and that I should go away! I said that I will not go away without seeing the manager! Finally after waiting several minutes a very grumpy looking woman, who apparently was the manager, came to the counter and stated that she sides with the clerk and that was that and I should now leave! So, I took my fifteen-dollar burrito back to Dave’s house to have lunch with his family. After recounting my Taco Bell tale of woe to Dave and Jennifer, Jennifer stood up and shouted “They said what?!” With that she asked for my receipt and change for the “ten.” She left the house and Dave just smiled. I asked Dave what she might do to correct the situation. Dave, now laughing, said “Have you ever heard of the saying ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned?’” When I said no, Dave just said “Well now you have!” After about twenty minutes Jennifer returned with change for a twenty! When I asked just how did she prevail when I could not? Jennifer just smiled and said “A word to the wise, if I were you, I wouldn’t go back there until things cool down!” I never did. Dave told me later “Nobody crosses Jennifer and gets away with it! Just remember that!”


Once back out in the shop, Dave was showing me how to rebuild the large pneumatics that the pull cords operate. These things look like a fire place bellows. Dave said that they have to survive a lot of brutal force with the fast- jerking motion sometimes required from the action of pulling the cords. So, he showed me how to rehinge them with heavy canvas and a finger joint method he had learned from Carty piano.


One day I asked Dave if I should keep track of what the Fotoplayer cost to restore. Dave said that this was a very important thing to do as it can tell you (over the course of time) just what I had spent on my valuable investment. He said that this is very important to follow his instructions carefully. Dave said to get a shoe box and cut a slot in the lid large enough to push receipts into. He said to tape the lid closed so no receipts can fall out and be lost. Keep the box in a safe place so it can’t get damaged or lost. Then when you have finished your restoration and you know that all of the receipts are accounted for…burn the box because you don’t want to know what you spent on your stupid project!


On another day, while I was working in Dave’s shop, in comes Jim Sloan. He starts talking to Dave and me about the old days when he was an assistant cameraman. I asked him if he had ever become a full- fledged cameraman. Jim said that he never wanted to become a cameraman and preferred to stay as an assistant cameraman due to the fact that an assistant makes just a little less than a cameraman. The other reasons were that with the title of cameraman comes a lot of responsibility and cameramen are not always working where as an assistant he was always working. I asked Jim if he had ever worked for a director that he found to be difficult. Jim said that that would be Alfred Hitchcock. Jim said that he found Hitchcock to be very strict and not very nice. Jim was working as assistant cameraman on Psycho and that there was an incident that he could never forget. Jim said: “We and the cameras were up on a platform and Mr. Hitchcock was just below to my right. During a scene, when the cameras were rolling, my right foot slipped off of the platform and slightly brushed Hitchcock’s left shoulder! Hitchcock then shouted “CUT” and everything stopped! Hitchcock slowly looked up at me and gave me the longest and most evil stare while all of the cast and crew looked on! Finally (after what seemed like an eternity) Hitchcock allowed shooting to continue. I thought, at that moment, my career was over but I never heard any more about it. I guess he felt that he had shamed and punished me enough in front of everyone.’’

Later Jim told me that Psycho had made motion picture history. Being the assistant cameraman meant that he was in charge of the lenses. This film was the first time a zoom lens was used in a motion picture. It was used in the shower scene.


On a lighter note, one evening Dave and I were working late in the shop. Now the shop had a large garage door that opened into the back alley. We had the garage door open as it was summer and was hot. It was about 9:30 p.m. when we heard a horn honk. When we went out to see who it was we found two cops in a squad car. One of the policemen asked if we had seen two men running down the alley. We said no but what was going on? They said that the Taco Bell had just been robbed! Without missing a beat both Dave and I yelled in synchronicity “YEA!” The policemen then started laughing as they drove off into the night!


These were very happy and educational times for me. Working with Dave, on an almost daily basis, I became a friend to Dave’s family. Nadine the older daughter and young Cordie were fun to be with. Jennifer was always cooking up something good and I was always welcome to join them. Jennifer always had something funny to say and was quite entertaining to be around. She and Dave were like a comedy team.

Out working in the shop, I got to meet an old friend of Dave’s, Fred Von Helf. He and his wife were over quite a lot. Dave was helping Fred build a huge nickelodeon. It was fascinating to watch Dave coach Fred on just what to do to create a big automatic musical instrument from scratch! Using an old player piano case as the foundation instrument, they were adding a snare drum, bass drum a xylophone and several other percussion instruments. Sometimes, while Dave was in the house spending time with his family, Fred and I would spend many hours working out in the shop on our respective projects.


Now the year was 1976 and Dave was showing me how to rebuild the wooden organ pipes for the Fotoplayer. He showed me how to check the pipes for any cracks in the wood and how to re-leather the stoppers. The stoppers are the plungers that have leather glued on to the four sides of the stopper to make the pipe air tight. The stopper has a handle on it so you can move it up or down to tune the pipe. Any leaks in the pipe through a faulty stopper or a crack can make the pipe hard to tune and not ”speak” properly. Dave showed me how to refinish the pipes. The original finish was orange shellack. We washed down the shellack with denatured alcohol then lightly sanded them. Dave showed me how to spray clear lacquer on the pipes. After several coats with sanding in between the wood looked as good as new! I remember that we had the bass pipes all spread out on a piano tilting dolly. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow as Dave was going to show me how to restore the mouth and voice the pipes to make the restoration complete. As it was getting late and Jennifer had a wonderful spaghetti dinner waiting so we called off the restoration for the night. I remember that dinner and how funny Jennifer was as she was reading odd news reports from the newspaper. Of course, she added her humorous comments to make it funnier than it probably was. I remember as I was driving home that night how lucky I was to have met Dave and Jennifer. I felt as though I had an expanded family.

The next morning came and I couldn’t wait to call up Dave and find out what time I should arrive! When I called, Fred Von Helf’s wife answered the phone. When I asked to speak to Dave she just said in a very somber voice, ”There was a tragedy here last night.”

To be continued…

Press to leave a comment.


Do You Have
EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS?

Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.

Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.

Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!

CH. 6: DAVE HARTMAN, MENTOR

By Joe Rinaudo

Dave Hartman

CHAPTER 1  CHAPTER 2  CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4    CHAPTER 5

Chapter 6

The next several months working at Dave’s shop was my trial-by-fire learning experience on how to restore an American Fotoplayer. Dave’s knowledge of pneumatic (bellows) design and restoration was vast and it was hard to wrap my brain around this unique technology. I had so many questions on the basic mechanics of the Fotoplayer that the task of restoration was (in my mind) to say the least, daunting!


Every day (when I was not working at my job) was spent traveling the 11 miles to Dave’s house with a new restoration project for my Fotoplayer. Sometimes I would stay as late as 11:00 p.m. (as my passion to finish the project was very high). On several occasions Dave would invite me into his house for dinner or bring me a hamburger while I was working in his shop. Dave’s wife, Jennifer, was a great cook and made the best spaghetti and meatballs! After dinner Dave would show me how to restore the tracking devices (the things that made the piano roll line up evenly with the holes on the piano’s tracker bar). The tracker bar is the brass bar on the piano that has holes in it that must line up correctly with the holes in the paper piano roll.  We also restored the wind motors (which drive the piano roll over the tracker bar). In a Fotoplayer there are two trackers and two wind motors as a Fotoplayer has to have one for the top and bottom tracker bars. Several more weeks were spent restoring all of the related pneumatics that regulated the speed and volume of the piano as well as the expression pneumatics and control linkage which gave the operator full control of the piano’s performance.Fotoplayer stack

This shows the double roll playing mechanism, used on all American Fotoplayers. The tracker bars are the horizontal brass items in the center. All the pneumatics were rebuilt at Dave’s shop. Wine-colored motorcloth was used to restore the bellows.
But electric blue pullcords? Read on…

During a recent show I had pulled on the original leather cord and it snapped, somersaulting me back over the seat and onto the floor. Then it happened again with another cord (this time there were no acrobatics). Replacement leather pullcords were not to be found, so I asked around what material to use so the cords wouldn’t break, and the solution was mountain-climbing rope, and the only color available was vibrant blue. (I could pull with a force of 2500 pounds and it would not snap.) That remained on the Fotoplayer until I finally found the same rope in black, which has been crashing symbols and activating other sound effects to this day. Leather cord (strong enough for the purpose, anyway) simply doesn’t exist anymore.


Working at Dave’s shop was usually an interesting experience. His work bench, which sat in the middle of his shop, was always piled high with so many projects and tools that it was almost impossible to find any place (on it) to work. When I would arrive with my next project and ask Dave “Where might I work?”  he would always say (with a sly smile), “On the bench of course.” This meant my time would be spent excavating a small clearing in the mountain so I would have a small cavity to work in. This also meant that I would have to ask Dave where this tool, wood, cloth or glue bottle should go. Pretty soon I knew where items should live and would automatically perform this daily duty. Of course, when I would return the next day, my clearing would be gone! Like the shifting sands of the Sahara my work space would be only a memory.  Sometimes I think that Dave liked having me at his shop for two reasons. Reason one: to make a “clearing” for him to work in when I was not there. Reason two: To put his tools away!Dave's Workbench

This is Dave’s workbench today. Nothing’s changed in over 45 years, except it was piled even higher back then.


I remember that one day while I was working in the shop with Dave, the phone rang. I watched as Dave answered the call and listened for a short time then put the phone receiver down on a table and went back to work. After a few minutes he would go back to the phone pick it up off the table listen for a while and say “uh- ha” and put the receiver back on the table. I could hear someone talking very loudly on the phone while Dave was elsewhere in the shop working on something. After a few more minutes Dave would pick up the receiver and listen for a while then say “uh- ha, uh- ha, oh!” then put the receiver back down and make a pot of coffee (Dave always had a pot of coffee brewing in his shop).   This process with the receiver would be repeated a few more times. Then Dave would pick up the receiver and say, ”I gotta go! The shops on fire!” With that he would say a few more uh-ha’s and hang up the phone!  I said, “What in the hell was that all about?”  Dave told me that it was a customer who could talk nonstop forever and a day without taking a breath! Dave told me that the caller was a good customer and Dave didn’t want to insult him by trying to get off the phone too quickly. I asked Dave how did he know how long to make the intervals before he came back to listen? Dave said that this guy always asks the same question three times in three slightly different ways. “So, I listen in every 4 minutes or so to get the idea of how much longer the ordeal will last.” I then asked, “Have you ever been caught by not getting back quickly enough?” Dave said no, that he always positioned the work that he would do (while he was away) near enough to hear if the talking ever stopped. If it ever did, he said that he would rush back and wing it!


Dave and Jennifer had a little Pekinese dog named Tinker. Of course, Dave called her Stinker, my peek-and-sneeze! Sometimes in the wintertime, when I would be working late in the shop, Tinker would come in silently and lay on my feet. She kept my feet warm. I guess Tinker thought my feet seemed better than her dog house. This was mutually beneficial for both of us.


One time while I was working in Dave’s shop alone while he ran an errand. An older man walks into the shop, and without saying a word begins wiping saw dust off the table saw and then starts quietly sweeping the entire shop! Since the man never introduced himself, I thought it would be only fitting to inquire as to the purpose of his efforts. The man said that his name was Jim Sloan. Jim was Dave’s neighbor who was retired from the movie industry. So, when he was bored he would come over to the shop to clean and organize. Jim said that he knew that he always had a job at Dave’s shop. Jim said that the general confusion of this place guarantees him a lifetime of work! Jim had a funny accent. I asked him where he was from. Jim said that he was born in Minnesota. He said that his father had a general store and Jim always had chores to do like stocking shelves or chopping several cords of wood during winter for the store’s potbellied stove which was located in the middle of the store. He said that he had this work ethic which kept him always wanting to do something with his time.

I asked Jim what part of the movie industry he was in. He said that he was an assistant cameraman at M.G.M. Studios. I asked how did he get his start. Jim said that in the 1930’s he was the register boy at the sign in shack at the M.G.M. studio main gate. I said “You must have some interesting stories about your work.” Jim said that he got to meet some very famous actors at the sign in shack. I said that I love Laurel & Hardy and that I knew that the Hal Roach studios (which was next door to M.G.M.) used some of the sound stages at M.G.M. to film some of the Laurel & Hardy films. Jim said that one day he was at his sign-in station and here comes Laurel & Hardy in full costume! He said that they were in line with everybody else and when it came to their time to sign-in they caused quite a funny commotion. First Ollie comes up to the register, takes off his hat, twiddles his tie and smiles at the young Jim. With the other hand he takes the pen and with a great swirling of it in the air begins to sign with great flourish while Stan is dumbly looking on! Now everybody in the shack is laughing! When it is Stan’s time to sign, Stan looks puzzled at the prospect and begins to grab the log-in register and stares intently at it. Ollie slaps him on the shoulder and motions Stan to remove his hat. More laughing from the crowd. Stan removes his hat and begins a struggle with his body to get into just the right position to sign. The gyrations and contortions keep up so Stan can obtain just the right position to make what seems will be the signature of the century! With that he turns to a new page and drops a huge ink blot on it from the fountain pen. Rips out the damaged page placing it in his pocket and looks around sheepishly (hoping that no one is looking). Then proceeds to make a giant “X” on the new page. By this time Jim and everyone was laughing so hard that Laurel and & Hardy knew it was now time to make their exit. So, they tip their hats and slowly back out the exit door and then run away! Jim said “They were funny bastards! The funniest bastards that I had ever known!”  

By this time Dave had returned and the mood was what did get done in his absence? I was beginning to learn that being at Dave’s shop is teaching me more than just how to restore a Fotoplayer.

To be continued…

Press to leave a comment.


Do You Have
EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS?

Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.

Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.

Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!