Books & Short Stories
The Year the Glop-Monster - Won the Golden Lion at Cannes by Ray Bradbury - focuses mainly on a drunk projectionist who managed to create an award winning film.
Red Flower for Blue Lady - by Donald Thomas, (ISBN 0333781546). This is a story set in 1936 gangster times. 'Sandboy, by day a cinema projectionist, soon finds himself caught in a nightmare world of informers and killers, a world in which Tarrant manipulates his victims with the deftness of a flick-knife'. Get a full review and a link to the book on Amazon from here.
Picture Palace - by Peter Haigh, (ISBN 1-86106-798-4) This is a story which is about an ushertte between 1927 and 1977, but because it is all set within a cinema has numerous references to projectionists.
Flicker - by Theodore Roszak. A review can be found at Amazon. It's a kind of thriller but it mainly focuses on the lead character's passion for old movies and his job as a projectionist. There is much signifcance attached to the projector and especially the maltese cross. Thanks to Magda for this.
Red Roses Every Night - Long out of print but your local library can get the copy held at Boston Spa. The story of Granada Cinemas in wartime. Stories of cinema managers, organists, projectionists. Sample story - the projectionist who looked outside during an air raid and saw balls of fire far below, whizzing around the local back gardens and believed these to be some new kind of incendiary bomb. Dawn brought the realisation that he'd been watching next door's chickens who'd been set alight and escaped !
The Scarecrow Man - by Christopher Bray (I think) Gonlag and Surzo go into what could be The Classic Notting Hill Gate and one of them starts fondling the usherette.
The Spy Who Loved Me - (a James Bond) She and the spy go into one of the two cinemas in Windsor and get involved in a bit of hanky panky.
Marion's Wall - , by Jack Finney (1973) - But this is not terror, just a great story about a man who loves silent films and meets the ghost of a silent film actress. So, not quite what your list is about, but it does contain some projecting scenes (where the hero finds a collector with the world's only hand-tinted complete copy of the silent classic Greed). It was much later made into a truly awful tv film starring Glenn Close.
Gotta Find Me an Angel - by Brenda Brooks. For a review of the book look at the review here.
Flicker - by Theodore ROSZAK. This book includes a number of references to projection boxes and techniques, although at times it can be a bit of a tough read.
