HDBRbuilder Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 JRH, Do you know of any pics of the Klipsch speaker set-up at the Texarkana movie theater when the Klipsch employees went for a private screening of Star Wars sometime in 1977 or early 1978?? It would be pretty cool to see them, if any exist!! There were MCMs and other industrial Klipsch speakers all over the place that day at the theater! IIRC, we had slant monitors, Industrial Heresys, Industrial LaScalas ...maybe even some LB-76's God knows what else, but it was a way-overboard array of surround sound for sure! Heresys all along the walls, and in the aisles, LaScalas all over the place and the MCM 1900's up in front of the stage with more La Scalas!...and La Scalas in the rear! I am sure these forum members would freak-out if they ever saw any of those pics, man!!! It was the ONE time I should have had my camera with me but failed to take it!! So I don't have any pics of it! PLEASE Let us know if you ever find any! Thanks!! Andy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 2, 2019 Author Share Posted June 2, 2019 The back-story to my original post here: When the movie Star Wars came out, it was NOT distributed very much early-on, but that quickly changed once it started setting box-office records! The problem with the expansion of the movie into more theaters nation-wide was compounded by the time-line required to make it happen. And that was further compounded because its distributor had not really expected it to be a hit movie...so, in order to expand distribution, they had to FIRST make it fit into the already-established schedules the theaters had for showing different movies! So some parts of the U.S. didn't get it for awhile! EVERYBODY was wanting to see it, though! In Arkansas, IIRC there was a very short-term showing of it in a movie theater in Little Rock relatively early-on, but it took awhile for the theater to have the opportunity to show it a gain. So, people just HAD TO WAIT! And we all did! So, word came out that it was finally going to hit a relatively new theater in Texarkana in a few weeks for a decently-long-run, because the theater was advertising it in the papers heavily! At Klipsch, we had been working lots of overtime, during the week and also on weekends around that time! A huge amount of speakers went out the doors in 1977 and 1978! We actually had our first million-dollar sales month in November 1977! As strange as it may seem, in those years of a bad economy, MOST of the rest of the audio world was struggling to stay afloat, and we were, too, but we were nowhere near going out of business like many of the other companies were, while trying to keep it from happening! Some of the larger companies, like H/K, had done VERY well in the late 1960's and up thru the mid-1970's, and were buying-up the others which were having difficulties! Our biggest problems were the costs of components/materials as they went up in price, and the shipping costs to get them....with Klipsch needing to raise prices often in order to maintain previous profitability margins! Pretty-much, ANY company which depended upon sales of "luxury items" was hurting...but Klipsch was doing well!...and actually GROWING! Anyway, most of us in the plant, with very few exceptions, were wanting to see Star Wars, but were trying to figure out how to make that happen. When we got off in the afternoons we were already exhausted from putting in 10 or more hours at work....and due to the additional weekend overtime hours we were still exhausted during the weekends! That is not really very conducive to driving a long way and back to watch a movie when you might nod out during it, or while trying to return home from seeing it! And we were about a week-out from its first showing in Texarkana, trying to figure out a way to see it! So, the Klipsch "powers-that-were" probably over-heard us "whining" about things, is the best thing I can figure! I think it was on the THURSDAY before the weekend we were scheduled for up to ten hours of overtime for that Saturday...when a company employee meeting was called in the break room! So MOST of us were wondering what it was for! It was a RARE occurrence to have a company meeting when working overtime hours, just because no production was going on, when they were payng extra to get MORE production!! In the meeting it was announced that on Saturday, we would show up an hour early for work, and get released around 10 or 11 AM! Then we were supposed to go home and get cleaned-up and meet over in Texarkana at that movie theater for a "private early showing of Star Wars! for employees and their loved-ones/families!" Most of us were amazed to hear this! Not only that, but we were also told that we needed to park BEHIND the theater, and that if we wanted to bring "adult beverages" we needed to bring them "already iced-down in coolers"! The screening was at 2 PM, we had to be inside the theater and seated a half-hour before then! No exceptions! Many of us had no idea what the rest of the plan was, but lots of Industrial Klipsch speakers/gear was being loaded-up into a truck or two over in the shipping department on Friday...so SOME of us had a clue! In the meeting we also were told that we would be paid for the entire scheduled ten hours of overtime for Saturday, IF WE SHOWED UP FOR THE MOVIE in Texarkana! But if we didn't, then we would just get paid for the hours we actually worked on Saturday! Yet another amazing thing to hear! So the general attitude after the meeting was: WE GET TO SEE STAR WARS FOR FREE BEFORE ANYBODY ELSE IN THE AREA GETS TO SEE IT! WE ACTUALLY GET PAID OVERTIME TO WATCH IT! AND WE CAN DRINK BEER WHILE WATCHING IT! It doesn't get much better than that! 😁 So, on Saturday afternoon. we pretty much ALL showed up at the theater...parked in its rear area, the manager already had the rear side exit doors unlocked for us...we hauled our ice chests of beer inside...They had all of the employee time-cards and were putting checkmarks on them as we went in! ...and telling us to find a seat and sit with our stuff as quickly as possible...and when we got inside we saw that there were Klipsch Industrial loud-speakers of all kinds EVERYWHERE inside! After we all got in and were seated, they started distributing Heresys in the center aisle...front to rear, hooking them up and towing them in slightly towards the seating on both sides! And then began the sound-checks! There were already Heresys set up along the side-wall aisles...and IIRC, some LaScalas mixed-in with them. In the theater rear were more LaScalas! In front of the stage were two complete MCM 1900 system stacks with more LaScalas! There were also stacks of power amps and other electronics! Relatively neatly secured wires were in the aisle floors duct-taped to the carpet for safety reasons! We all knew, from JUST listening to the sound-checks that this would be one helluva movie experience! Shortly after the sound-checks and adjustments had been completed, the movie began. My personal opinion of the Star Wars movie experience that day?? Well...looking back ALL THOSE YEARS, I would have to say: TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME! SOMETHING I WILL NEVER FORGET!!! 'Nuff Said! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codewritinfool Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Thank you for this. Incredible story and man, I wish I could’ve seen and heard that setup! Was PWK there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 2, 2019 Author Share Posted June 2, 2019 1 hour ago, codewritinfool said: Was PWK there? As far as I can remember, PWK wasn't there! ...not that I remember, anyway...but things were pretty hectic, getting inside, figuring out the best seats, helping to get ice-chests out of the aisles and up onto the arm-rests of close-by seats, helping get speakerst set-up in the aisles and all of that...then before you realized it, the lights were going down, and the movie was on! But, for sure, pretty-much the entire rest of the company's employees were there, significant others, kids and all!! All things considered, it was actually pretty amazing how quiet and transfixed everybody was while enjoying the movie! I'm not a movie theater kind of guy...too much chattering and all, always going on, during the movie...people getting up moving around interrupting your enjoyment...but THAT day was very different! Every now and then I would look at some of the kids...they were staring at the screen with their mouths wide-open!...just like I was!...and most everybody else!! LOL! About the only noise heard was the occasional pop-top can being opened! LOL! Nobody got up and moved around at all...until the intermission.... then there was a mad scramble to hit the rest-rooms FIRST, then get more popcorn and head back in and get seated before the movie started again! With everything in the aisles and all the ice-chests to negotiate to GET TO the aisles, it was really a pretty hilarious time during the intermission!! Some folks tried to avoid all of the obstacles hassles, and used the tops of the seat backs as steps to get out of the seating areas...a bunch of semi-drunks trying to do a balancing act between seat-backs is pretty damned entertaining in itself!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Feels like saying that is an awesome story is an understatement !! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 4, 2019 Author Share Posted June 4, 2019 4 hours ago, Coytee said: Feels like saying that is an awesome story is an understatement !! Well, as YOU WELL KNOW, I am a MAN OF FEW WORDS! 😂 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Well, this was slightly ahead of my time (late 1978), and I'm really surprised I'm only hearing about it now. I am unaware of any photographic documentation, but will check with Gary Gillum over the weekend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 11, 2019 Author Share Posted June 11, 2019 On 6/7/2019 at 1:45 PM, JRH said: Well, this was slightly ahead of my time (late 1978), and I'm really surprised I'm only hearing about it now. I am unaware of any photographic documentation, but will check with Gary Gillum over the weekend. Wow, JRH, I knew you got there after I did, but just can’t remember HOW LONG after I got there….because I remembered seeing a Mega-month stein in your display of stuff in Indy many years ago, and I guess I just assumed you were there by November 1977 (first million dollar month!). Anyway…the MCM system stacks were the earliest of the versions: MTM with K77 tweeters; MSM without 4-way manifold for Glass horn lens; and MWM (the early double!)…the short stack system! Gillum SHOUILD remember (but he may not even have been at it!...at the time he was going away from Hope for various reasons fairly regularly)…so would Bois’D’Arc….Judy Harris….Gwin….Danny Mcleod (maybe, but not sure if he was full-time yet!)….It sure would be terrible if their are NO PICS at all to be found! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Spoke to Gary. He recalls the event clearly, but is unaware of any pics, dammit. He believes it consisted of two MCM stacks using the MTM tweeter (not K-77's) designed by Don Keele. Mr. Keele was at the event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 12, 2019 Author Share Posted June 12, 2019 13 hours ago, JRH said: Spoke to Gary. He recalls the event clearly, but is unaware of any pics, dammit. He believes it consisted of two MCM stacks using the MTM tweeter (not K-77's) designed by Don Keele. Mr. Keele was at the event. Yeah, JRH...that was the main system up front on the floor in front of the stage...but there were many more speakers involved elsewhere in the theater...and a few La Scalas up front between the MWM stacks! I know for sure that people had cameras there...just not sure who they were...Sadly, mine was not with me! Dammit! Who knows, though! You may have a few in the archives and not even realize it...or as time goes by maybe we will get lucky and some will just show up from somebody who was there! I figured that if Gary was there, there would be absolutely NO WAY he would ever have forgotten it! And he tended to have his camera with him when things like that happened, too! So, to me, at least....it's an even greater surprise he had no pics!! As for the MTM units...it seemed they changed three times very early-on....first they had the alnico magneted K77's, then the box had to be redesigned when they went to the K77M tweeters due to the size of the mud-magnets being larger...sothey simply wouild not fit into the original unitsthen another change to not even using the K77's but something else which required nowhere as many tweeter units per box...so I guess those were the one's Mr. Keele designed...I guess all this happened before you arrived, because you were also the main guy working the 4-way manifold for the MSM fiberglass horn not very long after you arrived...then the next change was the MSSM sub-squawker addition to the stacks, which IIRC...had a Cetec?? 8" or 10"?? cone driver pushing thru a compression slot for that wooden horn lens...then the MSSM had a change to its horn lens side panels where there were bevels cut into those panels flaring them outwards at the horn mouth. It seemed the only unit which remained pretty-much CONSTANT with no changes was the MWM! bass horn, itself! I often had to be the one making the parts...and sometimes I was building the units….so I remember all of those changes!..."Whoa! Andy...hold-up on building those, we're about to make some changes...." LOL! "OK. I'll go to the router until you're ready for it be built....There's plenty of stuff there that needs routing!" LOL! Bottom line is...MCM 1900 system was clandestinely "THX-certified" way before it really ever "officially" happened...kinda sorta!!😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 PWK was not there, you say. PWK was 6'4" tall and Darth Vader was 6'4" tall. Vader kept his face covered with his evil mask. No one has ever seen PWK and Vader in the same location at the same time. Makes you think. WMcD 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 12, 2019 Author Share Posted June 12, 2019 11 minutes ago, WMcD said: PWK was not there, you say. PWK was 6'4" tall and Darth Vader was 6'4" tall. Vader kept his face covered with his evil mask. No one has ever seen PWK and Vader in the same location at the same time. Makes you think. WMcD Well...if PWK was there in a Darth Vader costume...there would have been a huge amount of padding required on PWK under that costume! PWK was a pretty lean and wiry gentleman, even through his septuagenarian days!😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 Good point. This requires some rethinking. Chewbacca was 6'4" tall . . . . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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