History & local legend
A former film worker at Pittsburgh’s Warner Theatre remembered the projection booth as the domain of Whitey, a projectionist said to have died there. Staff associated sudden cold air and cigar smoke with the man who had spent his working life around the projectors.
In a recollection posted to Cinema Treasures in December 2009, the worker described a visit from one of Whitey’s old friends. While the worker rewound a forty-minute reel, the booth became cold and filled with the smell of a cigar. The visitor asked Whitey to switch off the rewinder if he was present.
According to the worker, the switch visibly moved to the off position. The elderly visitor, who had taken considerable time climbing upstairs, hurried down to the lobby and straight out of the theater.
Sources
- Cinema Treasures, December 29, 2009, projection-booth worker’s first-person recollection explicitly naming Pittsburgh’s Warner
- Theatre Historical Society of America, Pittsburgh Warner Centre history and location
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the historic Warner and survival of its lobby
- Esri World Geocoder, 332 Fifth Avenue
