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Have any of you out there had any experience in smoke damage. I have a small balcony in my theater that has a nice glod trim in wood in the front and around the sides. Unfortunatly it is severely smoke damaged from back when they allowed patrons to smoke in the theatres. I would like to clean it up but a bit hesitant to start. Anyone have suggestions on what to use on it? Would be interested in hearing.

This Gold that you want to clean from smoke buildup....is it goldleaf or some other glazed metal leaf, or is it just paint?

My suggestion which comes from several expert theatre restoration professionals is to use bread. Yes BREAD. White bread. The solf packaged presliced type. Like Wonder Bread. No Italian or French please! Remove the crust and ball up the remainder into a nice ball and use like an eraser. It should pick up the dirt without harming the surface beneath. It will take quite a lot as it will fall apart quickly....but, hey...bread is cheap! Give it a try on a small area and see what happens...and let us know.

I have done this and it worked nicely. I have done it on painted plaster decorations over 65 years old, and it brought back the original colors very well.

You can clean just about anything without damaging it by using Ivory dish soap and water. Always test an inconspicuous area first.

Bread? Makes you wonder what you're putting in your body if it works as a cleaner. Would whole grain bread offer more abrasion? Ok, I'll stop. My all time favorite for almost everything involving cleaning is Simple Green. As Large so aptly pointed out, try it frist where it will do no harm. Bread? I gotta find something to try that on . . . .

Avalon-It works! But I wouldn't want to do the whole area with. A small area would be fine.Who woulda thought.
The Ivory Dish Soap seems to be doing fine. What I feared was smudging, but so far so good.

I cleaned my wife with bread last night. The hair on her head got a little doughy. He-he. .......Roxy: that sounds like a true secret trick of restorers. And they can feed the birds later! Poppa: can I ask: How long ago were they smoking? It's been years since the last smoker relaxed in a movie. Why havn't you had it cleaned or did you take over. Most cleaning is not a question of restoration but elbow grease.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

WAS THAT A BREAD JOKE? The theater had been vacant since the early 70's when they allowed
smoking in the balconies only. We purchased the theater in January of 1999, so we're just getting
around to it now. The progress is slow but moving right along.

Mike:

Did you say you bread her? hmmmm