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Projector manufacturers like Richmond Research Corp.
produced relatively inexpensive standard 8mm units
like this model 600 during the 1950s and 1960s.

he original props. The one-sheet posters. The lobby cards. The wound up on the scrap heap, although examples still can be seen in
sculptures and statues and autographed photos of the stars of the museums and private collections.
Tcinema. All of these are hugely fun categories for collectors – It’s much more common these days to run across the second type of
categories that tend to be the most visible and the most popular when movie projector, which is the kind that was manufactured by companies
it comes to vintage Hollywood. such as Keystone, Argus, Revere, and Bell & Howell. These were the
But there’s a vintage movie collecting category that’s a little off the units aimed at the consumer, for showing movies at home. The earliest
beaten track. It’s made up of the “tools of the trade” that brought these home projectors showed 16mm film; in 1932, Kodak introduced 8mm
cinematic treasures to us through the years. These are the projectors film, which was less expensive than the 16mm product. The standard
that showed these films, and the films themselves – artifacts that tended 8mm format also is called regular 8, to differentiate it from Super 8 –
to end up in closets and attics in greater numbers than posters and a format introduced by (you guessed it) Kodak in 1965. Despite being
photos. Generally speaking, projectors do just fine in closets and attics, the same size film, regular 8 and Super 8 are not inter-changeable:
but films are another story. although some projectors are “dual 8,” meaning they’re equipped to
run both, the sprocket holes are smaller on a Super 8 film than on
regular 8. It is pretty easy to ruin a Super 8 film by trying to run it
through a regular 8 projector, and visa versa.

The Passage of Time
All of this, of course, assumes that it’s fine to put vintage films into
vintage projectors, fire them up, and enjoy movies the way they did in
1948 or 1973. Except sometimes it isn’t. We’re talking here about films
that have had 50 or 60 or 80 years to lay around and become brittle,
along with projectors that often haven’t been run since Lyndon
Johnson was president. “As a serious preservationist I get asked about
projectors all the time,” says Nick Spark, owner of Los Angeles-based
Periscope Film, a film preservation
service. “If you actually have truly rare
Original film reels, like these 8mm examples made by Kenco and or unique films, like home movies, the
Compco, make great vintage movie display items. last thing on earth I would recommend
is to buy a projector and project them.
Pro Versus Amateur That is a recipe to destroy films. People
don’t realize that all projectors are
Movie projectors can generally be divided into two main
types. The first type is the unit used by the professionals antiques at this point—even ones from
the 1970s are 50 years old—and unless
down at the Orpheum or the Rialto or the Bijou; these were serviced, they will scratch and break
large, complex machines that showed either 16mm or films. It is best to simply pay a knowl-
35mm films, the millimeter number referring to the width edgeable company or individual to
of the film. Films shot and projected in the 35mm format make scans to digital.” It’s one thing to
were highly flammable as they contained nitrate – an damage your Marx Brothers or
ingredient that often was referred to as “flash paper” due to Charlton Heston film, but irreplaceable
its unstable nature, which often made its presence felt as a images of loved ones or historic events
film passed through a projector just in front of a blazing hot
lamp. As old nitrate films get older, they turn to powder, should be digitized; you then can have
your original films and canisters
which is even more flammable. returned, and they can make great
In 1923, Kodak introduced 16mm film, which was
made from cellulose acetate. Although acetate film will melt display items.
The same is true of vintage projectors,
and burn, it won't spontaneously combust the way 35mm which, in terms of design, often hold a
film can. The 16mm format, therefore, is often referred mirror up to the era in which they were
to as safety film. As it ages, the images on an acetate film made. Many 1920s and 1930s projectors
will fade and the film will start to smell like vinegar as it The Keystone Regal model K109 projector are wonderful examples of art deco-
decomposes. was a standard 8mm unit made in Boston inspired design, with lamp housings
The vast majority of the large theater projectors that during the 1950s.
showed these films from the 1920s through the 1970s Photo by Joe Haupt/Wikimedia Commons. sporting parallel heat-sink lines and

28 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles