VistaVision presentations at TCM

The machines used were two of the original six prototypes made by Century for the release of White Christmas in 1954. We’re not sure where exactly these ones were first deployed; they could have been at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Warner Beverly Hills, or the Paramount Lot. We think they were from Radio City, but again, no proof there. These machines are labelled as model “CV’, and have serial numbers 10081 & 10082, making them the first two of the six.

For the screenings at TCM, each projector was stripped to the casting, cleaned, and re-assembled. Some modifications had been made to unit #1 in the past to facilitate the use of a Brenkert intermittent, but since we had only one complete movement of that type and no spares, we chose to unify the machines with Century movements. The Century movements are model A movements with slots machined into the casting to allow the larger sprocket to fit, as well as different pad shoes on longer pad shoe arms. Apparently the early model C movements with the pinned sprockets did not last long running VistaVision, but the modified model A movements performed brilliantly through many, many, hours of testing and multiple feature presentations. From the first test chart after rebuilding them to the end of their deployment at the Chinese, stability was fantastic and the movements were quiet.

Once re-assembled, the projectors were mounted to Century pedestals holding Strong Ultra 80 lamphouses. We ended up running 7kW lamps at full power in the Chinese, which was perfect for that screen, if a little warm in some parts of the booth! The projectors were fitted with 3-phase motors and VFD’s to allow us to precisely tune the running speed, as well as control acceleration and deceleration. The VFDs were used to set speed at exactly 24fps and produced a smooth acceleration / deceleration to be gentler on the film and projectors.