I win - finally after like six months of negotiation for it with the Catholic Church that owns it, and convincing work to pay for it at a fair price to both. Only left behind one carbon arc spot and a few misc. fixtures which are available to me later.
Also, as part of the package deal, given they were missing my Altman #101 box spot from my old theater, a stand, a PAR 64 and it turned out a 60A switch was attached to a light thus part of it - I was able to make up for it in getting parts and more accessories I found. Spent an hour in a catacomb storage room with a flash light in finding all kinds of hundred year old knobs, parts and rosette stand mounts that would otherwise make much of the gear bought hard to rig. Also missing parts to lights below. Funny, like 15 or 20 years ago, I had organized many of the boxes I was sorted thru today and had no idea of what many of the parts were. Today I recongnized what I sorted back than in organizing, and with some work was able to find what I needed.
Also various lens trains, 1960's color wheel etc. and a fixture I have no idea on. Even found the missing cap to a Kliegl #1365E, lamp bases to gear I’m working on and something I can possibly use as a replacement cap to a Kliegl 1368 8" Leko with modification. Lots of good parts I can build with & even replace parts on for gear I invented the parts for. (This in sorting thru a mess of parts from S-4 thru 100 year old stuff that's without proper care just stored away often in buckets of parts beyond what I did back than.)
Enough found stand parts given I have two of the bases already to make two more stands and have parts for two more beyond that. Lots of antique fixture knobs along with a few bronze iris’s for 8" size. Great time in the “brick room” in finding almost all the missing gear and parts I could ever wish for. Found two sets of “Focal Spot” lens tube assemblies to be added to gear in making them something else even. At this point beyond amount of lights, think I also have most of the accessories for the gear in stock which is a cool thing.
Photos TBA of the gear bought and the what’s that to type stuff. One question, what a Century Lighting #1646 lamp cap to? Found one and the theater has nothing similar to what it might fit.
Bought today or TBA:
+1) Chicago Stage Lighting fixture stand - spoke mount 16" base meant to be stage screwed down
+1) U/K brand brass wheeled fixture stand - talking brass stand and an amazing thing with spring dropping of the center pipe return, oil fittings and a lock mechanism that's very unusual. Something that for my crew pulling the gear after described, created more intest than the lights themselves by way of how it works. Dates to at least 1911 and probably much earlier.
+1) Brenkert “Junior” 6" Carbon arc spot - very similar to page 17 of the Chicago Stage Lighting 1916 catalogue posted in our Wikee. I also now between this source and another, have two of the effects wheels and three of the scene machine slide mechanisms. For the Brenkert, I also have it’s shutter mechanism which is a brilliant thing for engineering. Antiquated but how it works is brilliant and fascinating. Possible it came from the Goodman Theater in Chicago which would date it back to the 1880's in age, but it’s at least 1911 as with a lot of below.
-1) Left at the theater under the second floor balcony audience it’s Major carbon arc spot. Didn’t want to push my budget too much in getting it over other stuff. While it has its ballast, doesn’t have a brand name we found and it’s missing a means of rigging it. Photos TBA in posting. Ibid’ on the age question.
-1) Left in not finding the Kliegl Dyna Beam follow spot. Literally cannot find it, perhaps it’s above the balcony audience in not checking. Know I saw it in knowing it’s the lesser version without the boomerang - have the boomerang version thus really remember it existing.
-1) Left in finding one spare parts version and there were at least six in working condition 8" Leko unidentified at this point. I don’t have one and will be back. Have the a cap for it that should fit. TBA photos.
-1) PAR 64 can that I think is Colortran before the series with the lamp adjustment handle (Yet to get = ISU I want one). Gots a square back on it. Theater is looking for it in already traded a black steel Altman PAR 64 for it and given my half pallet of them left for it and other Lekos currently lost.
+1) Mole Richardson 6" PC fixture. About the size of a 5K Fresnel with a smaller lens than body and certainly after the 40's but not listed in my 70's catalogue.
+1) Chicago Stage Lighting 6" PC Spotlight - interesting paint on it if origional - makes one reconsider if it was just cast aluminum color or black in use back than.
+1) Chicago Cinema Equipment 5.1/4" PC Spotlight - too bad the front lens is cracked as it’s much thicker than any 6x9 and will be difficult to grind down a 6" lens to that size.
+3) Major “Madelite” 6" PC spotlight - one in ok condition but an armature re-painted it and lost some parts, one is missing it’s top roof parts, the third is just the front and rear castings plus a inner trough which might not be to it. They are going to take some work but will be needed for the effects wheels. Fab. shop is on the ball in helping invent the parts needed given I do have parts to copy. Gonna take some time but so is the repair to the c.1911 star effects wheel given it’s thread attaching it to the wheel has warn out. That plus someone in the 50's thru 70's added an aluminum disc to help support the hand punched for stars duck fabric wheel which corroded what ever treated the fabric to make it firm and black. A lot of restoration on those parts. At least I have one clockwork mechanism and one replaced version motorized version from the 50's/70's which was repaired. Both work and show history.
+1) 8" or 10" u/k brand floodlight. Before the Fresnel and Leko were invented, you had Olivalittes (scoops later), carbon arcs, strip, and foot lights and the floodlight. The lensless floodlight was the Fresnel of the day in proving a good but focused wash. Already have one in 5" but wall mounted small scale theater size, this is a 1K-2Kw size floodlight and I don’t think anyone has found an in-tact one to this point.
+1) 4.1/2" Major Floodlight. Seen very similar to this fixture before at Elmhurst College as a PC fixture, this as with the above floodlight was never designed to have a lens in it and is with the above at least 100 or in this case older in age. Nitrogen gas added to the incandescent lamp in about 1910, before that vacuum tube lamps were maxed out at 100w. This one given it’s size could be really really old but is at least 1911 - the theater’s age. Again - a real floodlight is so rare given WWI and WWII in scrapping stuff, you probably will never find them as with the above carbon arc. These fixtures are rare to the extreme I think.
+1) 4.1/2" Box Spot. Don’t think I have this brand in having a lot of them already. Didn’t find the other Altman #101 from my old theater that found it’s way to this theater, but it’s in the works. A few more box spots I don’t have in use in the bar. I’ll put a feeler out for them soon in that one can never have enough box spots on display & perhaps find the Altman version I had once like 15 or 20 years ago.
+1) Kliegl #44N6 Fresnel with a different hole pattern than I have. Could be an earlier version. Also in stock at least one more of the older version and a #1365E that for duplicates I can use to trade with.
+5) Bantam Superspot 4.5" fixtures in various stages of needing lots of work, to removing what was done to it but a good condition fixture. They only date to the 50's but are very decorative lights and once brought back, will be amazing in perhaps four out of the five given to clients or sitting in a corporate office. Very desirable light fixture once cleaned up and especially if changed to color changing LED for source to it. The fairly complete one is Fresnel lens and has it’s original cord - why paint it gold is beyond me in now having to remove it. I have another in stock that was missing it’s lens and I added a PC lens to it. Later a third with a color wheel attached to it. Now four more as with the above gold one that are different than the ones I have. They seemingly have a fan attached to their rear though none are seen and venting isn’t there. It’s a totally third version than I have seen before and no idea of what was in the rear assembly for it. Need a lot of work but will be cool management / client fixtures once I figure out what the rear assembly was for.
This all amongst a lot of parts and accessories. Six months work... well worth it in not enough time in the day to work on such gear most 100+ years old.
Also, as part of the package deal, given they were missing my Altman #101 box spot from my old theater, a stand, a PAR 64 and it turned out a 60A switch was attached to a light thus part of it - I was able to make up for it in getting parts and more accessories I found. Spent an hour in a catacomb storage room with a flash light in finding all kinds of hundred year old knobs, parts and rosette stand mounts that would otherwise make much of the gear bought hard to rig. Also missing parts to lights below. Funny, like 15 or 20 years ago, I had organized many of the boxes I was sorted thru today and had no idea of what many of the parts were. Today I recongnized what I sorted back than in organizing, and with some work was able to find what I needed.
Also various lens trains, 1960's color wheel etc. and a fixture I have no idea on. Even found the missing cap to a Kliegl #1365E, lamp bases to gear I’m working on and something I can possibly use as a replacement cap to a Kliegl 1368 8" Leko with modification. Lots of good parts I can build with & even replace parts on for gear I invented the parts for. (This in sorting thru a mess of parts from S-4 thru 100 year old stuff that's without proper care just stored away often in buckets of parts beyond what I did back than.)
Enough found stand parts given I have two of the bases already to make two more stands and have parts for two more beyond that. Lots of antique fixture knobs along with a few bronze iris’s for 8" size. Great time in the “brick room” in finding almost all the missing gear and parts I could ever wish for. Found two sets of “Focal Spot” lens tube assemblies to be added to gear in making them something else even. At this point beyond amount of lights, think I also have most of the accessories for the gear in stock which is a cool thing.
Photos TBA of the gear bought and the what’s that to type stuff. One question, what a Century Lighting #1646 lamp cap to? Found one and the theater has nothing similar to what it might fit.
Bought today or TBA:
+1) Chicago Stage Lighting fixture stand - spoke mount 16" base meant to be stage screwed down
+1) U/K brand brass wheeled fixture stand - talking brass stand and an amazing thing with spring dropping of the center pipe return, oil fittings and a lock mechanism that's very unusual. Something that for my crew pulling the gear after described, created more intest than the lights themselves by way of how it works. Dates to at least 1911 and probably much earlier.
+1) Brenkert “Junior” 6" Carbon arc spot - very similar to page 17 of the Chicago Stage Lighting 1916 catalogue posted in our Wikee. I also now between this source and another, have two of the effects wheels and three of the scene machine slide mechanisms. For the Brenkert, I also have it’s shutter mechanism which is a brilliant thing for engineering. Antiquated but how it works is brilliant and fascinating. Possible it came from the Goodman Theater in Chicago which would date it back to the 1880's in age, but it’s at least 1911 as with a lot of below.
-1) Left at the theater under the second floor balcony audience it’s Major carbon arc spot. Didn’t want to push my budget too much in getting it over other stuff. While it has its ballast, doesn’t have a brand name we found and it’s missing a means of rigging it. Photos TBA in posting. Ibid’ on the age question.
-1) Left in not finding the Kliegl Dyna Beam follow spot. Literally cannot find it, perhaps it’s above the balcony audience in not checking. Know I saw it in knowing it’s the lesser version without the boomerang - have the boomerang version thus really remember it existing.
-1) Left in finding one spare parts version and there were at least six in working condition 8" Leko unidentified at this point. I don’t have one and will be back. Have the a cap for it that should fit. TBA photos.
-1) PAR 64 can that I think is Colortran before the series with the lamp adjustment handle (Yet to get = ISU I want one). Gots a square back on it. Theater is looking for it in already traded a black steel Altman PAR 64 for it and given my half pallet of them left for it and other Lekos currently lost.
+1) Mole Richardson 6" PC fixture. About the size of a 5K Fresnel with a smaller lens than body and certainly after the 40's but not listed in my 70's catalogue.
+1) Chicago Stage Lighting 6" PC Spotlight - interesting paint on it if origional - makes one reconsider if it was just cast aluminum color or black in use back than.
+1) Chicago Cinema Equipment 5.1/4" PC Spotlight - too bad the front lens is cracked as it’s much thicker than any 6x9 and will be difficult to grind down a 6" lens to that size.
+3) Major “Madelite” 6" PC spotlight - one in ok condition but an armature re-painted it and lost some parts, one is missing it’s top roof parts, the third is just the front and rear castings plus a inner trough which might not be to it. They are going to take some work but will be needed for the effects wheels. Fab. shop is on the ball in helping invent the parts needed given I do have parts to copy. Gonna take some time but so is the repair to the c.1911 star effects wheel given it’s thread attaching it to the wheel has warn out. That plus someone in the 50's thru 70's added an aluminum disc to help support the hand punched for stars duck fabric wheel which corroded what ever treated the fabric to make it firm and black. A lot of restoration on those parts. At least I have one clockwork mechanism and one replaced version motorized version from the 50's/70's which was repaired. Both work and show history.
+1) 8" or 10" u/k brand floodlight. Before the Fresnel and Leko were invented, you had Olivalittes (scoops later), carbon arcs, strip, and foot lights and the floodlight. The lensless floodlight was the Fresnel of the day in proving a good but focused wash. Already have one in 5" but wall mounted small scale theater size, this is a 1K-2Kw size floodlight and I don’t think anyone has found an in-tact one to this point.
+1) 4.1/2" Major Floodlight. Seen very similar to this fixture before at Elmhurst College as a PC fixture, this as with the above floodlight was never designed to have a lens in it and is with the above at least 100 or in this case older in age. Nitrogen gas added to the incandescent lamp in about 1910, before that vacuum tube lamps were maxed out at 100w. This one given it’s size could be really really old but is at least 1911 - the theater’s age. Again - a real floodlight is so rare given WWI and WWII in scrapping stuff, you probably will never find them as with the above carbon arc. These fixtures are rare to the extreme I think.
+1) 4.1/2" Box Spot. Don’t think I have this brand in having a lot of them already. Didn’t find the other Altman #101 from my old theater that found it’s way to this theater, but it’s in the works. A few more box spots I don’t have in use in the bar. I’ll put a feeler out for them soon in that one can never have enough box spots on display & perhaps find the Altman version I had once like 15 or 20 years ago.
+1) Kliegl #44N6 Fresnel with a different hole pattern than I have. Could be an earlier version. Also in stock at least one more of the older version and a #1365E that for duplicates I can use to trade with.
+5) Bantam Superspot 4.5" fixtures in various stages of needing lots of work, to removing what was done to it but a good condition fixture. They only date to the 50's but are very decorative lights and once brought back, will be amazing in perhaps four out of the five given to clients or sitting in a corporate office. Very desirable light fixture once cleaned up and especially if changed to color changing LED for source to it. The fairly complete one is Fresnel lens and has it’s original cord - why paint it gold is beyond me in now having to remove it. I have another in stock that was missing it’s lens and I added a PC lens to it. Later a third with a color wheel attached to it. Now four more as with the above gold one that are different than the ones I have. They seemingly have a fan attached to their rear though none are seen and venting isn’t there. It’s a totally third version than I have seen before and no idea of what was in the rear assembly for it. Need a lot of work but will be cool management / client fixtures once I figure out what the rear assembly was for.
This all amongst a lot of parts and accessories. Six months work... well worth it in not enough time in the day to work on such gear most 100+ years old.
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