Since everything is digital now, you might not know that several years ago working as a movie theater projectionist was a dangerous job. If you ever saw “Cinema Paradiso” you probably remember this scene….
The main reason it was a dangerous job is because of “nitrocellulose” or nitrate film. Nitrate is one of the most flammable things EVER. The video at this link shows about a minute of when 5000 pounds of nitrate film burned in about 4 minutes. It burns really strong (see this link and scroll to about 4 minutes to see the fire really burning). It can even spontaneously combust which was part of the reason for a fire in a Fox film vault in 1937 (see this link). It burns so fast it creates its OWN OXYGEN so it can keep burning UNDERWATER.
At first, the projector was just sitting in the back of the movie theater. This led to several movie theater fires that killed several people. A fire in Paris at the “Bazar de la Charité” in 1897 killed 126 people (see this link) so they invented the movie theater projection booth.
The projection booth had a lot of safety features in case the film caught fire but sometimes – as dramatized by the scene from “Cinema Paradiso” (at the top) – a fire still escaped.
This also led to an additional problem. The fumes from nitrate film burning are toxic, including nitric acid, which can be lethal if inhaled.
This is why the film projectionist job was so dangerous. If a fire happens and all the safety features (fireproof doors) close. Therefore, the PROJECTIONIST IS TRAPPED IN THE ROOM WITH THE FIRE.
Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) only lost his sight in the fire in “Cinema Paradiso” (see the clip at the very top). A November 1936 issue of “International Projectionist” said that “Five projectionists in as many widely scattered states of this otherwise glorious Union have died in projection booth fires during the past ninety days. Ninety divided by five is eighteen. Not a bad average, this—especially for an industry that prides itself on the comfort and peace and relaxation and opportunity for escape from dreary reality that it provides daily for the “masses” of this world.” That’s why it was once considered at one time one of the most dangerous jobs.
There are still occasionally film festivals that shows nitrate film but there are now VERY STRICT RULES about handling and projecting it.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 