Nice story. what a coincidence !

great Holiday for you also

This is a really old story...
Back in the late 60's I was flight engineer on the 707.  We had inflight movies using 16mm film on rather large reels, something in the area of 30 inches in diameter.  We had 3 projectors in the ceiling of each cabin - first, mid and aft.
At the F/E panel I had 3 switches with each switch having a green and amber light.  If all went well, the green light would be on, if something went wrong the amber light would illuminate.

So here we are in cruise and the meal service is complete. The F/A called us on the intercom and asked us to start the movies.  The Captain would make a short announcement about the arrival time and weather and I would start the movies.  All 3 green lights came on so I figured all was well.  After about 10 minutes the F/A called and told me the aft movie was not working.  Funny, since the green lights were all on.  So I asked the Captain if it was alright if I went aft to see what was going on.  Sure he said, make it work.  As I went aft into the cabin, I saw the first and middle movies were looking fine but when I got to the aft cabin I could only see some light but no movie.  I had my tool kit with me that had some tools and a splicing kit in case the movie broke.  When I got to the overhead projector I could hear it making some noise and saw the projector light was on.  I undid the safety catch and opened the door slowly.  All of a sudden hundreds of feet of 16 mm film came shooting out of the ceiling container.  There was a young kid sitting next to where I was standing and he starting laughing at the avalanche of film pouring onto me.  Well, I put him to work helping me gather up all the film and putting it back on the reel.  I gave him my screwdriver to use as a shaft and we re-wound all the loose film without damage.  I took out my splicing kit and was able to join the broken ends.  I then re-threaded the film to the start and was able to show the entire movie to the aft cabin!  Later, I gave the kid a tour of the cockpit as thanks for the help.

So you see, there is a lot more to being a F/E then meets the eye! 

Have fun flying you all!   

Lou