Summer of 1978

In the summer of 1978 after graduating from SUNY Buffalo I soon started my first real job, and it was even in my field.
I was working at Lycian Stage Lighting as a general shop worker and would learn several new skills by summer’s end.
I had met the owner, Richard Logothetis, the previous summer when his shop was still on Long Island but has since moved to a new and bigger shop in upstate Sugar Loaf, NY

http://www.lycian.com/

I worked mainly on two different things that summer, PAR Can lighting instruments and Indexing Color Wheels.
There was a lot of basic sheet metal work in making both units; layout, cutting, bending and welding.
I used a spot welder to make the PAR Cans and it took about 45 welds to finish one unit.
It is wise to use gloves when you are welding or working with sheet metal but I found it easier not to wear them most of the time.
I quickly learned where the hot spots where as I moved the units around in the welder.

Ouch!

The PAR Cans were a basic part of most rock shows at that time; a simple metal shell that held the PAR64 lamps that looked like old car headlights.

A PAR Can, but not a Lycian

 

I always thought that the ones we made were better and stronger than others I had seen and whenever I come across them today I look to see if they are ones that I made.

The other big project was making the new Indexing Color Wheels which allowed a designer to have five different colors in one light.
Compared with today’s equipment these seem like nothing special, but back in 1978 they were cutting edge.
They looked like regular Color Wheels that would simply spin in circles, but what made these different is that they could be set to stop at any of the colors the designer wanted.
One order was sent out with Blackstone the Magician and other was used by Tharon Musser on Broadway in the Musical Ballroom.

Some of the parts came in already punched out from another shop but the outside edge of the bigger size frames had to be cut manually with a Foot Shear.
It would take about 100 cuts to make the square frame round and I would go into some Zen moment as I turned the frame a little after each cut.

Crunch, crunch, crunch . . .

There was also some wiring to do on the control boxes and everything had to get painted.
I visited Richard’s new shop several years ago and there is a special paint area that had with a negative air suit and the powered paint sprayed on to the electrically charged units which are then put in an oven to bake the paint on.
Back in 1978 I had a little spray booth with a small turntable that was out the back door of the shop and lots of cans of spray paint.
Today Lycian makes only follow spots which are very popular and widely used, but at the time I worked for him he was just starting to design his first units.

I learned a great deal that summer and enjoyed my time working there.
There was even time for a few fun adventures both in and outside the shop.