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a transport film reel used to deliver the film to a local theater. A knowledgeable collector tells us that the reels would be shipped in containers called "cans". Normally, if a movie was about two hours, two "cans" were needed. Each can could hold four reels and each reel held about 20-25 minutes of film. As one reel came to the end there was a secret marking that would flash on the screen that the projectionist would watch for. When the first marking showed up, they would start a second projector and had eight seconds to get it going. When a second marking showed up (indicating the end of the reel) the projectionist would hit a foot switch on the fully loaded projector, lift the covering of the arc light, and adjust the new film in case the horizontal line was off. Then the just finished reel would be rewound and placed on a special machine so it would be ready for the next theater. Every once in awhile, some joker would not rewind the film so you always had to check them, otherwise the film would show up backwards on the screen. In a small town everyone knew who the projectionist was and they would yell out their name and accuse them of sleeping!. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Important Added Info: Note that we have previously auctioned empty film reels that measure the same, but those have six circular holes around the metal sides. This has spokes like a wheel. We were told the ones with the circular holes are from the 1950s, and we would guess that this is earlier, from the 1940s or even earlier. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

UPDATED 11/06/2017: Note that a theater-owner (whose family has been in the movie business since 1907) tells us that this reel could be considerably older than the 1940s as we originally mentioned. We are not experts on film reels, but searches shows that many of the "wire-spoke" style reels such as this are from the 1920s at least.

Note that this item needs to be shipped in an oversized flat package (sometimes a very large oversized package; see the dimensions of the item). So please bear in mind that this item must be sent in a LARGE flat package (the size of the package will depend on the size of the item), and bear this added expense in mind before placing a bid on it. In addition, some of the items that are in this section are ones that are "three dimensional" and need to be shipped in a box, and often need to be sent by themselves, so bear that in mind as well before bidding.

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