Comments on: 930. Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie / The Saragossa Manuscript (1965, Wojciech Has)

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:31:39 +0000

I managed a few small cinemas during those years (Surf, Surf Interplayers, North Beach Movie, Times, etc.) and you are right about the projectionist union Local 162. Henry Meyer of South San Francisco required payments under the table and cases of hard liquor as “gifts” to keep the union from harrassing the theatres. Apparently your theatre refused to pay him off. He even let me and a friend operate projectors when we met his monetary requests.

By: hans h. hammann

hans h. hammann — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:40:14 +0000

the saragossa manuscript was first booked for the cento cedar cinema by lila hammann who also booked all the other great films from 1967 until 1972 in that former movie house. after that time john buckley booked the films for that house.
please excuse the many mistakes made in the above remarks.

By: hans h. hammann

hans h. hammann — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:24:37 +0000

my brother, detlef k. hammann, leased the building from mr. an mrs john and mary colturi of san rafael in order to gut the entire building and to build an art cinema. he had a number of partners in this project. he himself was the sole general partner and the others, including myself, remained as limited partners. like many other small enterprises this one too failed because it was set up as a business to be own and operated by a group of people who considered themselves friends. my bother also made the mistake to distribute the shares of this venture on a complete false premise. thus my cousin and i contributed nearly 50% of all the money needed, we however owned only 9% of the outstanding shares. as soon as it became obvious that the business was grossly underfinanced it became impossible to raise additional funds from the partners. some partners own 10% shares and had only invested very small sums of money. These people now did not want to put up more money to keep the business afload. the only shareholders who had invested supstantial sums of money, my cousin and i, did also not want to further invest in this amateur enterprise. why should we do so? put up our money so that others could benefit from our investments? my ex wife, lila e. hammann, was the only person who wanted to put up more money. but her conditions nobody wanted to meet. she was willing to buy up all the shares at the price each person had paid for them. but not all of these people wanted to sell even under these conditions. the evidently counted on future values after she would have saved this venture with her money. thus the old cedar alley cinema company went out of business during 1967 and the name had to be changed. i obtained a new lease and ultimately purchased the building from the coltruris. my dear old friend mike deak managed the business and my ex-wife booked the films. i did the advertising. we started with absolutely zero knowledge of the movie business. however we soon had the help of paul schmidt, a black refugee from south africa. he was to be the first black projectionist an he in fact became ultimately the first black manager of a movie house catering to an almost exclusive white audience. this caused the ire of the white racist projectionist union under henry meyer. these fine folks demanded that i fire paul schmidt and engage a white projectionist for him. when i hired him it was with the provision that he would join the union and i was to give him the needed entrance fee. they rejected him because of his colour. and i stood by my friend and principles. after some nine months the san francisco chronicle and the sf examiner published this story and the projetionist union, instead of taking paul schmidt as a member, disappeared. thus we had a picket line of white racists for a period of some 9 months. we operated the theatre until 1972 when we sold the business and leased the building to james and marge buckley. the cento ceder cinema had a standart projection set up. mr. ackermann, also known at that time as the dean of show business on the west coast designed the projection system at the richeleu becaus of the very low ceiling in that theatre hall. it was the only syste of its kind.

By: golfman_story

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By: rajgarat

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By: The Saragossa Manuscript

The Saragossa Manuscript — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:13:46 +0000

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know about a new site set up to accompany the release of Saragossa on DVD.

http://thesaragossamanuscript.info

Hope you like it

Timjim (site creator)

By: asdf

asdf — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:39:49 +0000

One of my favorite films of all time.

By: Shooting Down Pictures » Blog Archive » Saragossa is Back!

Shooting Down Pictures » Blog Archive » Saragossa is Back! — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:23:03 +0000

[...] Greatest Cult Film,” The Saragossa Manuscript by Wojciech Has. I posted an entry and video essay back in July as part of the Shooting Down Pictures project (back then it was ranked [...]

By: Les Blachut

Les Blachut — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:09:04 +0000

I’m helping with the soundtrack for sequel to the Saragossa Manuscript (projected release 2011-12.) Looking for people familiar with the original movie or involved in its production (especially the two Caribbean? actresses never mentioned in credits.) Also people familiar with or involved in the film scoring for MP&E of Komeda, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Kilar, – Thanks.

By: alsolikelife

alsolikelife — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:14:23 +0000

Stand corrected on the Cento Cedar http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1947– I’m especially embarrassed as I am from the Bay Area – though in fairness to myself, the theater closed before my time.