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Welcome to ScopiBlog!
This blog is intended to document the restoration of a collection of Scopitone 16mm film jukeboxes and their
media. These machines, though virtually unheard of even by avid coin-op collectors, are historically relevant for
a number of reasons. Perhaps most importantly, they provided a platform and business model that drove the creation
of a new art form - the short form "music video." While the machines themselves had an extremely
short lifespan in the marketplace, the artform it gave rise to later re-emerged as a major force in television
and popular culture. Long before MTV there was Scopitone.
On this site, you'll have the opportunity to follow along with the research and restoration process, only
recently begun.
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Monday, September 26, 2005
Getting the word out
It's of little use to post manuals, photos, comments, etc if nobody can benefit....SO....I spent a few minutes trying
to get this blog pointed to be something that searches. There is a pointer page at scopiblog.blogger.com that is indexed
by Google (Google owns Blogger) and hopefully this should help. Also have left notes for the more "popular" Scopitone
related blogs that focus on the movies. Hoefully they'll link to us and we'll get indexed...
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Did some work this weekend...
I received the rewinds, blank reels, and cleaner several weeks ago, but have been too busy to do anything on it.
This weekend I had a chance to catalog the films in Scopitone #1 and empty them onto the 5" reels. It is a long, trying
process that will be described in next post. The films retrieved from #1 are in carying states -- some look great physically,
others are clearly faded or ruined by mold and environmental factors. The list of films retrieved this weekend is as
follows:
| Title |
Artist |
Position |
Machine |
Code |
| Zizi la Twisteuse |
Glen Jack & Flenners |
28 |
1 |
A-119 |
| El Gato Montes (Spanish
Bull Fight) |
El Trumpet Girana: Leo Vidal |
27 |
1 |
A-146 |
| School is Over |
Shiela |
6 |
1 |
A-15 |
| The Hully Gully |
Line Remaud |
29 |
|
A-16 |
| La Marie Jocunde |
Alaine Barriere |
20 |
1 |
A-191 |
| Snappez a Mes Cotes
(Snappy) |
|
23 |
1 |
A-199 |
| I Love Paris |
Michel Legrand |
12 |
1 |
A-203 |
| Belly Dancer |
|
36 |
1 |
A-22 |
| Ole' |
|
19 |
1 |
A-260 |
| Garde-Moi la Derniere
Danse (The Last Dance for Me) |
Maya Casablanca |
13 |
1 |
A-43 |
| He's Got the Power |
Les Exciters |
4 |
1 |
AGB-3 |
| Empty |
Empty |
30 |
1 |
Empty |
| Empty |
Empty |
31 |
1 |
Empty |
| The Best is Yet
to Come |
Barbara McNair |
24 |
1 |
S-1001 |
| The Other Side of
the Tracks |
Barbara McNair |
33 |
1 |
S-1003 |
| Won't You Come Home,
Bill Baily? |
Della Reese |
5 |
1 |
S-1005 |
| C'Est Si Bon |
Jane Morgan |
9 |
1 |
S-1007 |
| Under Paris Skies |
Jane Morgan |
2 |
1 |
S-1008 |
| If I Had a Hammer |
Debbie Reynolds |
18 |
1 |
S-1013 |
| That Old Gang of
Mine |
January Jones |
22 |
1 |
S-1015 |
| High Heeled Sneakers |
Billy Lee Riley |
11 |
1 |
S-1016 |
| The One I Love Belongs
to Somebody Else |
Joi Lansing |
17 |
1 |
S-1025 |
| The Lady is a Tramp |
Buddy Greco |
15 |
1 |
S-1030 |
| I Cried for You |
Sonny King |
1 |
1 |
S-1033 |
| Sea Cruise |
The Hondells |
16 |
1 |
S-1034 |
| Everything I've
Got |
Vikki Carr |
21 |
1 |
S-1038 |
| I've Got That Feeling |
Ethel Eunis |
35 |
1 |
S-1039 |
| Keep You Eyes on
the Hands |
Princess Leilani & Alex |
3 |
1 |
S-1041 |
| Bellazza |
Bobby Rydell |
10 |
1 |
S-1043 |
| Where Did All the
Good Times Go? |
Dick and Dee Dee |
14 |
1 |
S-1044 |
| Where Do You Go
to Go Away? |
Gale Garnette |
34 |
1 |
S-1045 |
| My Teen-Age Fallout
Queen |
George McKelvey |
25 |
1 |
S-1046 |
| Five Card Stud |
Merle Kilgore |
32 |
1 |
S-1052 |
| Love for Sale |
Frank Sinatra Jr |
7 |
1 |
S-1055 |
| Calendar Girl |
Neil Sedaka |
8 |
1 |
S-1062 |
| Cabaret |
Marilyn Maye |
26 |
1 |
S-1073 |
Thursday, September 8, 2005
Oh and...
....a schematic will be added this weekend as well.
Received the film supplies
Three boxes from Urbaniski - one with 5" reels/storage cases, one with cleaning solution, and a third with the metal
rewind mechanism pair. Will be bringing these home tomorrow and looking at them on Sunday. Will post pictures
here and comments ASAP.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Operating Manual
Have made a (somewhat) lousy scan of the Scopitone Operation Manual. It's in PDF, though the pages are out of order
(bad authoring tools here at home - will fix). The manual is very useful, though, and will give you a better feeling
for the challenge operators faced in deploying the beast!
Monday, September 5, 2005
Some pictures on Labor Day
We are waiting on the load of film reels, etc so the Scopitones may be unloaded. In the interim, the author thought
a few photos might be on interest to the reader:
The first picture shows the outside of the first three of seven Scopitone machines to be restored. This is
not a great shot, but should give you some idea of the size/look of the machines.
The second picture shows a closeup of one of the control panels. If you look closely, and ignore the dirt,
you can see the large Scopitone logo. Here you also see the layout of selection keys (4 rows x 9 columns) and how small
slips of paper were inserted into each. You might also notice a colorful sticker on the right -- this was for the Kalamazoo,
Michigan based cending company that ran these machines and is long gone. These machines were picked up in Kalamazoo,
though the ownership chain is still somewhat unknown.
 The next photo shows the top of the rotary jukebox mechanism inside the Scopitone. Each reel contains a film, and all
of the reels are arranged in a mechanized ring. Given a coin-up, selection, the mechanism rotates the film to align
with the stationary projector mechanism and proceeds to load and play it. Yes, the films remain "stretched" open like
this all the time, but if all is funtioning properly only the leader is exposed to the additional dust, etc.
 This picture shows the bottom of the reels (notice the tensioners) and the bottom region of the stationary projector mechanism.
At the bottom of the projected you see a strange white cylinder (center of photo) - this is the load/unload tool that allows
operators to manually load and remove films from the machine.
More pictures tomorrow, and those schematic scans promised last week.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Workin' on it...
Didn't make much headway today. Unfortunately the "large manual" that was acquired about a year ago has been misplaced,
and I will likely have to order another copy. The manual is actually a collection of material, including the original
service and operation information, that was put together in the 70s. The source of these manuals will be posted soon.
The author did find, however, some paperwork that was sent to him by "Mr. Scopitone." Mr. Scopitone is an older gentleman
in California who once owned and operated a large number of these machines. Apparently, he had some serious
business plans to use these as an advertising medium in the 60s and 70s. Mr. Scopitone is very knowledgable about
the machines, their history, and more. He can be reached at:
Scoptione Appreciation Society
PO Box F
Daly City, CA 94017
The author will scan the documents and put them up here in the next day or two, including schematics.
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One of the biggest challenges in this project is the "data" aspect. The soul of the Scopitone machine is the collection
of films that run inside it. Each of these films is a 3-4 minute short recorded on 16mm film with a magnetic soundtrack
(the magnetic track is on the edge of the film -- picture later). The Scopitone machines to be restored came almost
completely loaded with films. The films are in one state or another -- some totally complete (including special
leaders) and some only in pieces.
The real "first step" is to recover the films from the machines. There hasn't been a tremendous rush on it - these
films were left to degrade in a dark, highly moldy basement for over 30 years (in the rotting machines) before they were found,
thus these aren't wonderful from Day 0. Nevertheless, we want to extract the films from the machines,
stop any further decay, and restore them as best possible.
Where are the machines currently? In a non-temperature controlled (but dry) barn in Michigan. This means that
they are in a fairly warm environment with high humidity - not good at all.
Initially, the author planned to pull the reels from the machines with the films on them. Upon closer examination,
however, you learn that you can't do that - the design of the Scopitone is such that the reels are integrated into
the mechanisms and one is supposed to load/unload films from other storage reels. There is even a little hand winder
that extends inside the back of the machine to assist in the loading/unloading.
Approximately two weeks ago, the author ordered and received plastic film reels and cans from Larry Urbanski - who seems to be an excellent source of low-volume film handling/restoration materials. Several films were extracted
from Scopitone #1 using the built in loader/unloader winder - the technique will be shown in an upcoming entry here on ScopiBlog.
Today I ordered a more supplies to assist with the extraction, storage, and restoration of the scopitone films,
including:
- Film reels and cans - 5" plastic
- Cleaner for the film (Filmrenew)
- A pair of rewind, hand-crank reels (one geared, one dummy) to build a rewind/handling table.
It is unclear whether the cleaner will be the "best" for our restoration work, but that is secondary right now. The
first thing is to get those reels, pull the films, and take some inventory!
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In this area I might put links, or not. Most importantly, I'll put a note: don't email me trying to buy my Scopitone
machines or films. I'm not selling. Sorry!
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If you are interested in Scopitone machines, the films, or anything related, please feel free to contact
me at:
mrohde AT verizon DOTDOT net.
Before MTV - There Was Scopitone
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