Modern productions, Bill says, are keen to use the older items.
On display are items that have appeared in Oscar-winner The King’s Speech, ITV detective drama Grantchester – and one that called the Odeon Leicester Square in London home and was used for Royal premieres.
One of the devices was even used by Christopher Nolan in the creation of his latest epic, The Odyssey.
Bill says for him and the Halifax-based group the history is hugely important as it “tells is a story of British and technical expertise”.
Much of the collection, made under the brand name Kalee by the Leeds-based Kershaw Projection Company, have been rescued from picture houses as they closed down.
At the end of World War Two, about 4,700 were open to the public in British towns and cities, according to Historic England.
By 2025, that number had shrunk by more than 75%, to about 1,100, according to the Film Distributors’ Association.
Bill believes that as cinema has been “going digital” the projection trade is becoming a lost art.
“Cinema has just lost that idea of showmanship,” he rues.
But, Bill says that in recent years analogue media has made a comeback, from vinyl to Polaroid cameras with people are seeking out more “meaningful” media and rejecting the digital age.
“[People have] a certain tiredness that everything is just on a small screen and everything is mediated through a computer and a keyboard and the reality of a big physical piece of equipment is quite exciting.”
“The new generations of young people are getting a little bit tired of watching films on their phone or on their desktop computer and they really like the experience of going into the auditorium again and re-engaging,” he adds.
