Vintage Lighting New (to me) Old ERS

derekleffew

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I know I've encountered these at least once before (possibly in the early 1980s at Cedar Point's Red Garter Saloon), and even written about them somewhere on here, but I can't find my own reference. [EDIT: maybe, maybe not: https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/brand-mfg-of-these-lights.26331/#post-236682 ]
[EDIT2: Here it is. Sorry for the impertinence, @ship. https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/older-light-identification.23644/ ]
The way the lamp cap is attached is quite unique. Loosen the two knobs, then twist the cap 45° so the ears clear, then pull out. Med. prefocus socket. Has incandescent 500W DNS lamp installed. Pretty amazing that this light has both shutters AND an iris; no gobo slot though. I suspect the step lens is a 6x6, so would be roughly equiv. to a 360-6x12. Its most distinguishing characteristics are the large red knobs for focus and lamp cap.

Anyone certain as to the manufacturer? @ship, do you have one?

red_knob_ers1.jpg


red_knob_ers2.jpg
 
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I have a few of these, or at least I did at one time. Not sure if they're still in storage.

Anyway, I think these were made by Little Stage Lighting. I feel like I have more proof, but the reason off the top of my head is those red knobs. My theatre has a pair of old Little Stage Lighting "F10 Opto" spots sitting in a storage room that have similar red knobs for the tilt adjustments. Looking through their catalog I see similar fixtures to yours, though this one might be slightly newer than what our WIKI catalog shows.

Note that the fixture in this thread has a very similar locking system, though with black knobs. The shape of the shutters and ventilation slots plus the oversized focus knobs share an uncanny resemblance.
 
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It's definitely made by Little Stage Lighting. Used many of them in undergraduate school and I've got several of their 6" fresnels.
The red knobs are a dead giveaway. These are a slighting different series:

Little Ellips.jpeg
 
I was going to suggest @Les pop over to 10507 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75220 and take a picture, but found this on wikipedia:
Harry Hines Boulevard forms the main part of the route taken by the Kennedy motorcade to Parkland Memorial Hospital immediately after the assassination shooting in November, 1963. ...
Harry Hines Boulevard is also known for being a street populated with prostitution, seedy adult establishments, a street drug culture, and drug motels.
Sounds about right for a stage lighting manufacturer! Gee, I wonder why they went out of business? Appears William D. Little had several patents: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4519020.html .

I like to think of him as the Ariel Davis of Texas--made dependable, affordable equipment aimed directly at the educational market. I could be totally wrong, though. This was told to me by my HS theatre teacher around 1977.
 
My college teacher ( who graduated from Baylor) knew Bill Little quite well and recently told me that Mr. Little was very interested in preparing technicians for the theatre and did much to support High School Drama Departments , which was how he met him. Mr. Little apparently published a small lighting primer for High Schools which he provided free of charge to the schools. My teacher took me to the Little Stage Lighting shop at one point (yes, on Harry Hines Blvd). All I remember is watching a worker fold gel frames.
They made affordable equipment that was widely used in Texas and the midwest. Our college theatre had fresnels, ellipsoidals, and a great followspot called the F-10 Opto made by Little.

At one point they moved and were known as Night and Day Industries, making fiber optic illumination products, possibly run by Mr. Little's son.

I am doing some research on another Texas company Davis Electronics Corporation (DECOR) that manufactured a very early low-cost SCR dimming system. I don't think they were the people making Decor wall dimmers or the ceiling speaker manufacturer. They were in the Austin, TX area and were active in the 1960's. Ken Davis and Ken Miller were the principals and worked with Bill Little to develop this early SCR system which we also had at my college theatre. Because of my teacher's friendship with Bill Little, we got a very early version (1962) which had a few problems like the SCR's being destroyed whenever a lamp shorted out, but later got a vastly improved version. Picture of the early version below.
Davis SixPack.jpg Davis SixPack3.jpg
 
My college teacher ( who graduated from Baylor) knew Bill Little quite well and recently told me that Mr. Little was very interested in preparing technicians for the theatre and did much to support High School Drama Departments , which was how he met him. Mr. Little apparently published a small lighting primer for High Schools which he provided free of charge to the schools. My teacher took me to the Little Stage Lighting shop at one point (yes, on Harry Hines Blvd). All I remember is watching a worker fold gel frames.
They made affordable equipment that was widely used in Texas and the midwest. Our college theatre had fresnels, ellipsoidals, and a great followspot called the F-10 Opto made by Little.

At one point they moved and were known as Night and Day Industries, making fiber optic illumination products, possibly run by Mr. Little's son.

I am doing some research on another Texas company Davis Electronics Corporation (DECOR) that manufactured a very early low-cost SCR dimming system. I don't think they were the people making Decor wall dimmers or the ceiling speaker manufacturer. They were in the Austin, TX area and were active in the 1960's. Ken Davis and Ken Miller were the principals and worked with Bill Little to develop this early SCR system which we also had at my college theatre. Because of my teacher's friendship with Bill Little, we got a very early version (1962) which had a few problems like the SCR's being destroyed whenever a lamp shorted out, but later got a vastly improved version. Picture of the early version below.
View attachment 14515 View attachment 14516
I used that "six-pack" in the eight grade at Sequoyah Middle school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Shocked the living crap outta me once.
 
Well, ALMOST, nothing.
I live in Portland after all.
 
I was going to suggest @Les pop over to 10507 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75220 and take a picture, but found this on wikipedia:
...
Harry Hines Boulevard is also known for being a street populated with prostitution, seedy adult establishments, a street drug culture, and drug motels.

Sorry, what's the problem? ;)

Nah, I try to avoid Fuzzy Butt Street whenever possible. Lots of shady businesses, Chinese signage, etc.

I think I have seen the old Little building, years ago when they were still in business. I remember the dated brickwork and dueling fresnel logo.

The F10 Opto's have saved our butt a few times. We normally run Comets, but one broke down and no one fixed it. I looked over it after two years (once I was hired as their P/T technical coordinator) and discovered a bad socket and hot wire that had come loose from the fixture's panel-mount twistlock power input. Got it back up and running and was able to re-retire the F10. Decent light though - very bright and good optics, all things considered. It was at least as bright on stage as the Comet, but she also ran very hot due to not having a cooling fan. No built-in dimmer either, so operators would 'pop' it on or off. Really bugged me - especially if it was still fading out as they swept across the stage for their next pickup. I imagine it has a dowser, but no operators bothered to use it.

This is what I'll miss about conventional stage lighting. Cheap, rugged workhorses that will stand the test of time. That said, I haven't lost sleep over my Par 64's in storage, either.
 
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Fascinating fixture - vent holes not similar and almost as if a 8" body (pineapple) is married up to a 6" lens train in an ugley way. And why are vent holes above the start of the lens train - perphaps some thought of cooling the gate assembly? If the case, nominal as the fixture points down and heat travels up. Never seen one before like this especially in the fascinating lamp cap casting.
 
Don't inhale the wires.

A lot of people complain about asbestos but I think it smells* okay.


*This post is for entertainment purposes only. Asbestos sniffers have increased chances of getting two principal types of cancer: cancer of the lung tissue itself and mesothelioma, a cancer of the thin membrane that surrounds the lung and other internal organs. These diseases do not develop immediately following exposure to asbestos, but appear only after a number of years. Do not, under any circumstances, smell asbestos.
 
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not a joke if concept I undersand. And It doesn't smell, it rains down on you in the air you breathe - them little silver particles that literally are all over as you move about in the grid, or while going crap on the potty, then someone moving about on the stage above in it now raining down. I have years of exposure to it personally and "professionally". I would hope nobody else has experience with asbestos in counting their years if or If not they get cancer from just a fiber of it breathethed in by chance, and that one fiber on each instance a chance for the cander. It's not like ratdation or exposure for black lung disease. Each exposure to asbestos starts the clock again - what is it 10 or 20 years until clear from considering yourself at risk from that specific exposure?

Not something If at best a joke about the smell = dangerous. What you expose yourself to is not like the Flew virius in some form of immunity once exposed to it. Each time you are exposed to it, the ten year time clock starts again for getting cancer.

Sorry for such a not nice and scary post, but to the best I understand asbestos... the above is accurate.

Past posts do present percentages of asbestos about a fixture whip verses pipe lined stuff above you, but overall it's the same - one particle is enough to by chance cause cancer.
 
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Please refer to my signature ;)

Maybe it was in bad taste (no, that's not another asbestos joke), and I have edited the post in question in hopes of addressing your concerns.

Sorry for such a not nice and scary post...

No worries!

As the tradition goes, EMT's and First Responders (and others who routinely deal with such situations) usually have the darkest sense of humor.
 
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I got it for $22 at a Pawn Shop in Springfield. It belonged to Homer's father's grandfather, who took it off a dead soldier in Gettysburg, in 1987.

simpsons_light.jpg


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*Not really. I got it from a guy who got it from a lighting company in Kansas in 1978 and kept it all this time. Now it's where it truly belongs, in its forever home, with @ship. He writes:
The photo’s from a few weeks ago don’t do it justice. It’s cute in a fat ugly pig type of way. Barbaric…
I disagree. I think it's very PAR for the course of 1965. And other than being top-heavy, would make a great table lamp.;)
 
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Thanks for the light TBA to the museum amongst Altman, Kliegl and Century from that era.
 
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...I like to think of him as the Ariel Davis of Texas--made dependable, affordable equipment aimed directly at the educational market.
I forgot another important similarity between Bill Little and Ariel Davis: they both tried to make a profile / ERS-type fixture using a PAR64 lamp! Little's was called "Z-Lite" and Davis' the ParLiter. It would be great if an example of either of those made their way to @ship.

Speaking of whom, see the thread https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/little-stage-lighting-c-1965-radial-leko-restoration.41943/ for more on this thread's focus.
 

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