Heights Renovation/Restoration (1998-2005):
Exterior | Lobby | Auditorium | Projection Booth
Historic Photos | The Heights - DQ Family | Dairy Queen Remodel
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1998. The booth was serviceable (mono sound, a picture on the screen), but horribly out of date technically and woefully inadequate to do many of the special film presentations that we had in mind. |
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Here TJ is in the process of removing the old projector. The Simplex base you see as well as the now removed RCA sound head all dated back to the 1936 re model. Originally set up as a two-projector changeover house, the other projector was removed in 1975, and a platter automation system put in. We needed to return to a two projector set up in order to do archive print screenings, BUT still need to keep the platter automation system for our regular runs. The door behind TJ was the entry to the now abandoned projectionist bathroom, it was decided that the platter automation system would go in that space. |
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Before the platter could go to its new home though, extensive changes needed to be made to accommodate it. Here Heights volunteer Tim Johnson and John McLaughlin are in the process of busting out the old restroom wall. |
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2005. Today films are still shipped to theatres on 2000’ reels, but almost all theatres use what is called a “platter” or automation system to show them. The individual reels are spliced together on one large deck and once the projector is threaded the film will run continuous and unattended to the end. The advantage to this system over the old “change over “ method is of course the savings in labor. This is especially crucial in a multiplex theatre. Here is the Heights four-deck platter in it’s new home where the old projectionist restroom used to be. |
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The booth as it is today with the platter in the far background, followed by the two Norelco AA II projectors. While the platter is used exclusively to project our regular first run films here, The Heights is one of just a hand full of theatres left in the twin cities still set up to do manual change overs between two projectors for the showing of a film. This is necessary because many of the classic films we show here are studio archive or one-of-a-kind prints, which cannot be cut or spliced together and put on a platter. Two examples of this being the 70mm TODD AO print of OKLAHOMA, which we showed in September of 2005, and the restored Vitaphone shorts program from the UCLA Film and Television archive for our 75th anniversary of sound program. To the very right of the picture is the Norelco 16mm projector. Other upgrades have included the installation of Dolby Digital SR and DTS Digital sound. There are three new Electro Voice horns as well as a custom build wall baffle with three Electro Voice woofers behind the screen. Two SENSUROUND speaker cabinets sitting on the stage behind the screen provide our rumbling low end. 18 surround speakers throughout the auditorium provide the surround sound. |
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The operating side of one of the Phillips Norelco AAII 35/70 projectors. This machine, which came out of the venerable Glenwood theatre in Kansas City, is capable of showing both standard 35mm film as well as large format 70mm film. The black box at the top of the projector is the Dolby Digital sound reader. The other projector in the booth is identical to this one and came out of the now closed Shelard Park theatre in Minneapolis. Perhaps the finest projectors ever built, both of these machines (with maintenance and up keep) have been in continuous service since 1965! |
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70mm vs. 35mm…what’s the big deal? The big deal is the sizes of the two films. On the right you have 35mm and on the left is 70mm. Since 70mm film is twice as wide as 35mm film, you have a lot more information to project on the screen, also since it is a larger image, you do not have to blow it up as much as 35mm to get the same screen size. You are also able to get more light through the aperture opening and there is no anamorphic compression used in the film to achieve a wide screen image like there is in 35mm. All of this adds up to a brighter, MUCH sharper and steady picture on the screen, made even more so here at the Heights since it only has to fill a 22’ X 11’ Screen. The best way to describe the results would be to quote a patron who attended our 2002 40th anniversary showing of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in 70mm. They put it this way “it is so sharp and bright, it is like looking through a window!” Sadly, the Heights is one of only two theatres left in the Twin Cities fully equipped to still show 70mm. |
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