By Joe Rinaudo
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6
Chapter 7
The next several months were filled with Dave teaching me how to recover pneumatics (bellows) and various other tasks related to the rebuilding of an American Fotoplayer.
Since I got in the habit of spending sometimes the whole day at Dave’s shop, I found various places to get a quick lunch. One of these places was Taco Bell or as Dave called it “taco hell!” On one of my excursions to Taco Bell, I had a very unfortunate experience. I had given the clerk a twenty- dollar bill to pay for my lunch but I only got back change for a ten! I reminded the clerk that I had given him a twenty but he just said that I was mistaken. I insisted that he was in the wrong and asked to see the manager. After disappearing for a while, the clerk returned to tell me that the manager was busy and that I should go away! I said that I will not go away without seeing the manager! Finally after waiting several minutes a very grumpy looking woman, who apparently was the manager, came to the counter and stated that she sides with the clerk and that was that and I should now leave! So, I took my fifteen-dollar burrito back to Dave’s house to have lunch with his family. After recounting my Taco Bell tale of woe to Dave and Jennifer, Jennifer stood up and shouted “They said what?!” With that she asked for my receipt and change for the “ten.” She left the house and Dave just smiled. I asked Dave what she might do to correct the situation. Dave, now laughing, said “Have you ever heard of the saying ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned?’” When I said no, Dave just said “Well now you have!” After about twenty minutes Jennifer returned with change for a twenty! When I asked just how did she prevail when I could not? Jennifer just smiled and said “A word to the wise, if I were you, I wouldn’t go back there until things cool down!” I never did. Dave told me later “Nobody crosses Jennifer and gets away with it! Just remember that!”
Once back out in the shop, Dave was showing me how to rebuild the large pneumatics that the pull cords operate. These things look like a fire place bellows. Dave said that they have to survive a lot of brutal force with the fast- jerking motion sometimes required from the action of pulling the cords. So, he showed me how to rehinge them with heavy canvas and a finger joint method he had learned from Carty piano.
One day I asked Dave if I should keep track of what the Fotoplayer cost to restore. Dave said that this was a very important thing to do as it can tell you (over the course of time) just what I had spent on my valuable investment. He said that this is very important to follow his instructions carefully. Dave said to get a shoe box and cut a slot in the lid large enough to push receipts into. He said to tape the lid closed so no receipts can fall out and be lost. Keep the box in a safe place so it can’t get damaged or lost. Then when you have finished your restoration and you know that all of the receipts are accounted for…burn the box because you don’t want to know what you spent on your stupid project!
On another day, while I was working in Dave’s shop, in comes Jim Sloan. He starts talking to Dave and me about the old days when he was an assistant cameraman. I asked him if he had ever become a full- fledged cameraman. Jim said that he never wanted to become a cameraman and preferred to stay as an assistant cameraman due to the fact that an assistant makes just a little less than a cameraman. The other reasons were that with the title of cameraman comes a lot of responsibility and cameramen are not always working where as an assistant he was always working. I asked Jim if he had ever worked for a director that he found to be difficult. Jim said that that would be Alfred Hitchcock. Jim said that he found Hitchcock to be very strict and not very nice. Jim was working as assistant cameraman on Psycho and that there was an incident that he could never forget. Jim said: “We and the cameras were up on a platform and Mr. Hitchcock was just below to my right. During a scene, when the cameras were rolling, my right foot slipped off of the platform and slightly brushed Hitchcock’s left shoulder! Hitchcock then shouted “CUT” and everything stopped! Hitchcock slowly looked up at me and gave me the longest and most evil stare while all of the cast and crew looked on! Finally (after what seemed like an eternity) Hitchcock allowed shooting to continue. I thought, at that moment, my career was over but I never heard any more about it. I guess he felt that he had shamed and punished me enough in front of everyone.’’
Later Jim told me that Psycho had made motion picture history. Being the assistant cameraman meant that he was in charge of the lenses. This film was the first time a zoom lens was used in a motion picture. It was used in the shower scene.
On a lighter note, one evening Dave and I were working late in the shop. Now the shop had a large garage door that opened into the back alley. We had the garage door open as it was summer and was hot. It was about 9:30 p.m. when we heard a horn honk. When we went out to see who it was we found two cops in a squad car. One of the policemen asked if we had seen two men running down the alley. We said no but what was going on? They said that the Taco Bell had just been robbed! Without missing a beat both Dave and I yelled in synchronicity “YEA!” The policemen then started laughing as they drove off into the night!
These were very happy and educational times for me. Working with Dave, on an almost daily basis, I became a friend to Dave’s family. Nadine the older daughter and young Cordie were fun to be with. Jennifer was always cooking up something good and I was always welcome to join them. Jennifer always had something funny to say and was quite entertaining to be around. She and Dave were like a comedy team.
Out working in the shop, I got to meet an old friend of Dave’s, Fred Von Helf. He and his wife were over quite a lot. Dave was helping Fred build a huge nickelodeon. It was fascinating to watch Dave coach Fred on just what to do to create a big automatic musical instrument from scratch! Using an old player piano case as the foundation instrument, they were adding a snare drum, bass drum a xylophone and several other percussion instruments. Sometimes, while Dave was in the house spending time with his family, Fred and I would spend many hours working out in the shop on our respective projects.
Now the year was 1976 and Dave was showing me how to rebuild the wooden organ pipes for the Fotoplayer. He showed me how to check the pipes for any cracks in the wood and how to re-leather the stoppers. The stoppers are the plungers that have leather glued on to the four sides of the stopper to make the pipe air tight. The stopper has a handle on it so you can move it up or down to tune the pipe. Any leaks in the pipe through a faulty stopper or a crack can make the pipe hard to tune and not ”speak” properly. Dave showed me how to refinish the pipes. The original finish was orange shellack. We washed down the shellack with denatured alcohol then lightly sanded them. Dave showed me how to spray clear lacquer on the pipes. After several coats with sanding in between the wood looked as good as new! I remember that we had the bass pipes all spread out on a piano tilting dolly. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow as Dave was going to show me how to restore the mouth and voice the pipes to make the restoration complete. As it was getting late and Jennifer had a wonderful spaghetti dinner waiting so we called off the restoration for the night. I remember that dinner and how funny Jennifer was as she was reading odd news reports from the newspaper. Of course, she added her humorous comments to make it funnier than it probably was. I remember as I was driving home that night how lucky I was to have met Dave and Jennifer. I felt as though I had an expanded family.
The next morning came and I couldn’t wait to call up Dave and find out what time I should arrive! When I called, Fred Von Helf’s wife answered the phone. When I asked to speak to Dave she just said in a very somber voice, ”There was a tragedy here last night.”
To be continued…
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— EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS? —
Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.
Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.
Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!
Hello my name is Juan and I’m from riverside California I am 19 years old and me and my friends love your work is there anyway we can see you play live it’s one of my biggest dreams.
As I was reading about you keeping receipts in a box I was thinking, “No don’t do that” It reminded me of canal boats that I have restored and how the cost can be quite frightening if you look back at it. Interesting about Psycho being the first time a zoom lens was used in a film
I so appreciate the way you keep this amazing part of our history alive, thank you for sharing this truly wonderful story. ❤️ How thoughtful to address me in this, my heart soars. Thank you.