11/22/2025
When you're at the bottom, the only way to go is up ⬆️, and at The OKLA, the projection booth is just the tops! Early celluloid film is extremely flammable, and projectors from that era created massive amounts of heat. Putting the two together sometimes had disastrous and even deadly consequences. Many theater owners, attempting to protect their investment and human life, would build what would essentially be bunkers in the sky. With walls of concrete, limited access to oxygen, the ability to seal the booth completely in seconds, and 2-3” thick hardwood doors with hand-forged steel hardware, like something out of a medieval castle, kept the audience and even entire city blocks safe. Here we have the booth at The OKLA and how it looked as of March 2022.
