RIGHT: John and Peter outside The Odeon, Renfield Street in 1997.

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

By the late 1970s, the public face of cinemas was changing and working methods behind the scenes were altering too. The carbon-rod light source used in earlier projectors was replaced by a longer-lasting xenon bulb, and 'cakestands', where the film is made up onto one giant reel were introduced. Although the 'cakestand' required the projectionist to make up the entire programme and break it down again when the programme changed, it had the advantage of doing away with reel changes and lessened the chance of a rare but embarrassing mistake.

Peter recalls taking over projection duty one afternoon at The Capital Ibrox, where All That Heaven Allows was making its tear-jerking progress through the projector, assured by his departing colleague that reel five was ready to show. Peter made the changeover only to discover that an emotional scene with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson had been replaced by reel five of a Laurel and Hardy comedy.

Projectionists like John and Peter would occasionally be required to provide cover at one of the many Rank cinemas in Glasgow,

including, in Peter's case "the imfamous Paragon theatre in Gorbals", a cinema still partly lit by gas, even in the late 50s. A converted church, the Paragon had no seats, but long benches, Peter remembers that "seating capacity was reached when someone fell off the end, which meant that if you had a lot of fat people in, the seating capacity went down!"

John and Peter, the only joint chief projectionists in the Odeon circuit retired in 1997, by then the nature of the business had changed, Odeon was no longer owned by Rank, presentation skills were considered less important and single manning of cinemas, with one projectionist looking after six projection rooms not unusual.

As for the future of cinema presentation, John and Peter believe that before long the cumbersome and expensive process of transporting reels of film around the country will be replaced by digital prints, transmitted by satellite to cinemas from a central location.The days of the projectionist appear to be numbered.

As the twins say on their own website "we are pleased that we have retired!"