Gary Oldman and Laura Dern crank projector inside Professor Rinaudo’s Itinerant Show tent at the 90th Academy Awards. (Click on photo for hi-rez version.)
and his Amazing Hand-Cranked
MOVING PICTURE MACHINE
present an Itinerant Tent Show at the
90TH OSCARS
March 4, 2018
Sunday was Hollywood’s biggest night at the 90th annual Academy Awards, and just after the last Oscar was handed out the crowd of Hollywood’s elite made their way to the Academy’s official party, the Governor’s Ball. Being the 90th anniversary of the Oscars, the theme of this year’s ball was the history of filmmaking and on display were many relics such as props from old movies, Oscar statuettes from years past, and even cameras and equipment used by such geniuses of the cinema as Cecil. B. DeMille and Orson Welles.
By special request of the Academy President, one more relic was added to the Governor’s Ball…a living, breathing relic of cinema in the form of the Great Professor Rinaudo and his Amazing Hand-Cranked Moving Picture Machine. A special Silent Movie Tent was constructed as a throw-back to the earliest days of movie making before there were movie theaters when the itinerant projectionist would bring his tent-show to your town and entertain you with the magic of the movies.
Professor Joe Rinaudo was assisted by his able assistant Gary Gibson working the magic lantern along with accompanist Robert Israel playing the piano. Much of Hollywood’s finest made their way through the Professor’s tent including the likes of Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Bradley Whitford (who appeared in two of this year’s films nominated for best picture, Get Out and The Post), Oscar winner for best Cinematography Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049), Supporting Actor nominee Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), and director Guillermo Del Toro clutching an Oscar in each hand for The Shape of Water (one for Best Director and the other for Best Picture).
The Silent Movie Tent became an interactive demonstration as those attending the ball were invited to crank the projector themselves. The first to take the helm from Professor Rinaudo was actress Laura Dern who seemed apprehensive at first, but after some friendly badgering from her friends was having the time of her life cranking and laughing as she made the movies come alive on the silver screen. Ms. Dern was followed by a succession of producers, directors, and cinematographers all excited to play their part in a recreation of the dawn of cinema.
The highlight of the evening came when Gary Oldman, fresh from his Best Actor win for his brilliant portrayal of Winston Churchill in the movie Darkest Hour, came into the tent, took a look at the projector and shouted JOE!!! Mr. Oldman is acquainted with the Professor’s exploits as he is in pre-production of a movie he plans to direct about the earliest days of the moving image. Clutching his Oscar in one hand, and the projector crank in the other, Mr. Oldman cranked the projector and laughed in amazement as he took his turn in that magic moment when the image hits the screen and comes to life.
The final guests into the tent were Academy President John Bailey and his lovely wife Carol, and their guests. Mr. Bailey’s visit was the grand finale to a wonderful evening of fun and education in the way movies were presented in the earliest days of filmmaking. As his wife was cranking the projector, Bailey turned to the Professor and said with a smile “I think the Academy should have more hand-cranked presentations, and as president I can make that happen.”
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JOSEPH A. RINAUDO
Back when I met Joe he was restoring his Model A to showroom condition, and it was always fun riding around in that thing… including the somewhat embarrassing episode when Joe pulled into a gas station and purchased a whole nickel’s worth of gasoline! It got us home, though.
“The madness continues! By the early 1960’s I began collecting 16mm silent films. I remember how excited I was when my mother would drive me down to Films Classics Exchange on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. There a man by the name of Charlie Tarbox would be seated at his antique desk with an old Underwood typewriter. He always wore a black suit with a thin black tie. He had a shock of white hair and a cigar in his mouth. There were stacks of film everywhere. This was an old building with a wooden floor and high ceilings. It smelled of stale cigar smoke and acetate film. This was right out of the 1920’s! Charlie was always very kind to me and his voice reminded me of something like a combination of W.C. Fields and Maxwell Smart! Then the big moment arrived when I purchased my first sound 16mm film from Blackhawk Films, Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box. Talk about magic! I now had a film of high quality (compared to 8mm) and it talked! I began showing my 16mm films to organizations and for private parties for money that I could invest into more 16mm film. By the 1970’s I had amassed a very large 16mm collection.
“The madness gets worse! Compared to 35mm I always thought that 16mm was the end all be all for film collecting. In many ways it is due to the availability of so many titles, cost and ease of moving the light weight equipment. But…I always had a fascination for 35mm hand crank projectors. A friend of mine, Dave Feldman, and I took a road trip to visit Mr. George Hall in Tucson, Arizona. George, who I now consider my mentor, had a vast collection of early 35mm projection equipment and film. In fact his house was set up as an early cinema museum. When we were there, George demonstrated his 1905 Power’s model 5 Cameragraph hand crank projector with a live arc in the lamphouse! What a thrill to see this! I asked if I could crank a film and he took me back to another projector (a Simplex) which was harder to crank—but that didn’t matter. All that I can remember is that I started cranking and was so mesmerized by the magical image created by cranking this wonderful machine, I couldn’t stop, and at about 2:00 a.m., after cranking some 20,000 feet of film, Dave and George had to pull me away from the projector!
“I started doing outdoor demonstrations with any film that I could find. I never thought that I would be able to afford a real 35mm film, let alone a silent. My good friend Mr. David Shepard asked me if I would do a show for him at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. He said that this year (2002) was the 100th anniversary of Georges Melies’s A Trip To The Moon. Mr. Bob Mitchell would be playing the music and David Shepard would be reading the spoken text. We would have to do two shows. He kindly offered to let me make a new print off of his negative in return for cranking the shows! To do my first public performance with such important and wonderful people as Bob Mitchell and David Shepard at the Silent Movie Theater with CNN in attendance…heck, I would have paid David to do the shows! So with my able assistant, Mr. Gary Gibson, both of us dressed like itinerant projectionists from the early 1900’s, both shows went over well to full houses and great reviews.
“Since that time I have worked with The Library of Congress in the restoration of silent film, as well as doing regular hand crank shows for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 100 Years of Film series. With Mr. Dean Mora and Mr. Gary Gibson we have done and regularly do re-creation turn-of-the-last-century itinerant motion picture shows for The Handford Fox Theater, The Visalia Fox Theater, The Balboa Theater, The Peterson Car Museum, The Turner Classic Film Festival, The San Rafael Theater, six shows a year at the Nethercutt Museum (boasting the third largest theater organ in the world) and numerous colleges, schools, and other venues.
The 90th Academy Awards invited us to recreate an authentic itinerant tent show for Oscar attendees to enjoy as they exit the Dolby Theater, and not only did I and my assistant Gary Gibson hand-crank silent comedies on my fully restored 1909 Power’s Model 6 Cameragraph to the narration of Robert Israel on piano, but several actors and producers had fun taking turns cranking the projector. Gary also created the elaborate period-style banner for the entrance announcing “Professor Rinaudo and his Amazing Hand-Cranked Moving Picture Machine…The 8th Wonder of the World…It Baffles Science!”
Joe is all about silent film, but he also loves sound. Loud sound! Not the dialog and music that passes through the projector that is printed on the film. Oh no, Joe’s silent films are accompanied by an ear-shattering, robust “symphony” created by one person sitting at one machine: The Fotoplayer. This resembles a player piano, but with two rolls for changing music for different scenes; an assortment of pull cords, levers, buttons and stops connected to a side cabinet containing organ pipes, percussion, brass, sound effects, and literally bells and whistles. The pianist usually lets the rolls play the music while he selects the instrument stops and creates the sound effects. He’s watching the film, of course, all at the same time.