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Obvioulsy not, but one guy at the multiplex I'm currently wokring at has said that our Simplex Millennium PR2000 projectors were made in 1941.

Well, I'm not so stupid, but, now that I'm a "Player Projectionist" at this theatre, I noticed that the insides of these projectors (the operator side) are white. They're also kind of rusty and dirty looking. Could these be old Simplex XLs or something that had turrets put on?

The Strong info plates on these projectors say Simplex Millennium PR2000 Projector, but they actually look much older.

While Famous Players used Cinex and the Strong package to equip their huge new multiplexes, I was surprized to find this multiplex has all different kinds of Strong platters (self calibrating, switch).

>>>On a side note, anyone know what the Cineplex Galaxy (now Cineplex Entertainment) common booth is? When they start this expansion they mentioned in my local paper, will they be using Strong? Christie? What?

BUMP

Let's see a picture of these so-called 1941 machines.

The Millenium is a fairly new projector model. I think they started showing up in 1998.

The E-7 was the machine Simplex was making in '41. There were some Super Simplex and Standard Simplex still around. In '49 simplex introduced the XL. These machine were made by the International Projector Corporation. If your machines say "Strong" on them then they couldn't have been made in '41 because Strong didn't own Simplex then. The Millennium is a late '90s machine. I had 10 of them at the Regal house I worked recently.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

The first E7 was around 1939 and then pulled for a redesign

I'll try to get a picture right away.

The only thing that made me suspicious, was that they claim to be PR2000s, but the inside of the projectors is white, like an older Simplex or Century.

As you can see by the picture, the inside is that beige colour:


Do they ever just put a turret on an older frame?

That is definitely not something that was made in 1941. No fire department would have ever allowed an open frame machine back then, and I doubt a turret, were it even thought of at that time, could manage the weight of then-current anamorphic attachments. Ever see a Panatar on a turret!

I suspect the person you were talking to was referring to the base mechanics of the Millenium machine, and how far back the design might go. I don't know how close it might match, but from peering into the back of a Millenium, the guts look a lot like an XL.

Also, they should be tagged with the model and serial numbers... That oughta tell the whole story...

You might also have a older XL with a Kelmar turret retrofit

That's a real good point, Gordon. But... why would there be a Milleneum label on it? That sounds a bit strange.

I think that Andrew is saying that his are not like the picture they have a white color inside and not the gray. However, if they have a tag saying millennium then you would think they are or someone is not playing square somewhere.

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Quentin: Of course a woman is going to kill me. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Well, I looked at the date of manufacture on a few of them, and while I didn't look at the model number, I did see that a couple were made in September 1987, and a few were made in July 1999.

Now, I'll look around to see other dates, etc. the next time I'm up there.

Also, Ron is correct. These are all white inside, not beige.

Some shed prints pretty poorly too.

And, like that picture shows, the switch for the turret is on the inside of that box on top of the turret. There's also a switch to open the turret on the front of the projector.

You click that toggle switch and the turret is suppose to open automatically. If it doesn't, then you click the switch at the top, and then it opens manually.

Simplex had a version that the turret had to open before it could turn to clear the upper padroller assembly
The big change with the millenium was moving the sprockets position to clear the turret but that opened up a whole new set of issues

What's a Century CC?