Posted 11 years ago
AZVintageL…
(15 items)
I came back from California recently with 4 of these babies. From what very little I was able to find out, they are likely from the 30's and are carbon arc pan lights and they did not have glass lenses. Oddly, this one is not listed in the Mole Richardson vintage catalog online.
I'm sorry the pictures are not that great- I had just unloaded the truck. The light has its cool yoke and has a switch at the bottom back of the pan. Up at the top are vent holes for the heat to escape. In the front is just a simple carbon arc set up - I will be converting it to incandescent.
I'll be restoring them. Its possible some of the hardware is brass on the yoke. One interesting item- the tag says serial# 42!
On the rolling stand, also imprinted with the Mole Richardson logo, the connecting hardware is all brass (with green patina). But what is really cool.. it has letters R K O spray painted near the crank mechanism! I'll let you folks figure that out... ; )
Howard Hughes must have tagged that;-)
No kidding. I'm waiting to hear from Mole Richardson, who are still in business, for more info on these bad boys. As to the tag- seeing the serial # so low is just amazing - and the others may be sequential... Another one I have is # 43.
I wonder how many movies these lights help make at RKO, how many famous people have theses lights shined down on. Cool find!!!!
Right?!?
Well, I finally heard back from Mole-Richardson. It turns out these are much more rare than I thought. There were only about 100 of this model made, from 1928 - 1930!
I'm going back to california to get more vintage tri-pods, one them has Desilu written on it...
AZVintageLighting will fill you in on that light, Ron Olmstead, olmsteadrf@aol.com
From Desilu culver, 40 Acres Ron O.