Vintage Slide Show Night – Vintage Techology Weekend at the Hacienda

We invited a bunch of pals over to the Hacienda last night for an impromptu vintage slide show and we all had such a good time that I wanted to write about it to encourage you to dig out your own (or someone else’s) slides, and do it yourself!

Our slideshow was prompted by some boxes of movie film and slides that I saved from someone’s trash heap years ago, but only recently had the technology with which to view it.

Retro Roadhusband and I found a used slide projector when we were thrifting, and while it isn’t a fancy model, and the focus doesn’t work on the remote that is wired into the machine, it works enough to watch slides. (As an aside, we also have a cool neighbor who allowed us to watch some of the movies on his vintage film projectors, but that’s another story for another post!)

Anyhow, we thought it would be fun to invite some pals over and view the slides, which were from 1976 to 1981. There were tons to choose from, but I put them on the lightbox, and selected the ones that I thought would have the most interesting images.

It was interesting to realize, as a person who mainly takes pictures of places, that the ones that I thought were interesting had people in them. And landscapes? Bo-ring!

Anyhow, we set up the screen, mixed up some cocktails, put on some background music and started clicking away.

While slide film and slide projectors are very old technology, I have to say we were all blown away by the colors and the amount of details you could see on an image projected so large. It was fun to comment on people’s clothing and hairstyles (much like people will do in the future, looking at us.) and to notice certain 1970s details that appeared in many of the photos.

This photo brought on an entire conversation about “The Walrus was Paul”, Lewis Carroll, Harry Nilsson’s song Mr. Richland’s Favorite, and the fact that this character probably has been retired completely from the Disneyland Character Lineup.

I don’t think ANY of that conversation would have happened without the inspiration of these slides.

I must give a tip of the hat to Retro Roadmap fave personality and “Histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix, for inspiring me to look for value in the slides that other people throw away. He’s famous for his over the top slide shows, and we were even lucky enough to catch one of his live shows on our last visit to Los Angeles.

So take a look in your own basement or attic, and check out those vintage slides – you may see some familiar faces, or people who you just might want to add to your family. Just because they’re on an old format doesn’t mean they should be forgotten.