The Room Where the Industry Unspools Its Films : Movies: Charles Aidikoff’s private screening room embodies three generations of projectionists.

Charles Aidikoff is an unusual screen legend. He’s no star. Certainly not an agent. He’s not even an assistant producer. But Aidikoff has been projecting a clear image in the entertainment industry for nearly 60 years.

So maybe it’s more appropriate to call him a screening legend.

The 79-year-old former New Yorker is a projectionist who founded the Charles Aidikoff screening room, a private screening room-for-hire, in 1966, back when most major studios had their own facilities but independent producers had to hunt around to find a place to showcase their cinematic wares. But even more compelling is the fact that the Aidikoff family has become something of a projectionist dynasty--Charles’ father, Max, was an old-time projectionist for RKO in New York City in the early part of this century, and his son, Gregg, 37, is poised to be the third generation carrying on the singular Hollywood craft.

“When I first started out,” Charles Aidikoff says, “the thrill was being able to see all the films that were coming out. After that I looked forward to meeting the celebrities when they came into my room. And the thrill hasn’t gone, because every day is different. I’ll never lose that feeling.”

For 26 years, the Charles Aidikoff Screening Room was at Sunset and Doheny. Both majors and minors, studios and independent filmmakers, unspooled their finest features under Aidikoff’s roof: “Five Easy Pieces,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Star Wars,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Apocalypse Now” and even the Italian food-orgy film “La Grande Bouffe.”

During that time virtual unknowns as well as such pillars of the industry as Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas sat in Aidikoff’s 26 cushy chairs, ate cookies and watched their movies on this big screen.

The Beatles dropped by in 1972 to catch a movie by the late Harry Nilsson. Mick Jagger strolled in one night, as did Elton John and members of Yes, the Who and the Grateful Dead. “Madonna was in a few times when she was married to Sean Penn,” Aidikoff says. “Candice Bergen, a very nice lady.”

Two years ago Aidikoff moved to his bigger location at 150 S. Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, a swank high-tech facility that seats 53. So far, the stardust bookings have followed him.

But that’s not to say there aren’t some complaints. Russell Schwartz, president of Gramercy Pictures, likes the cutting-edge venue but objects to the lurking presence of white sugar.

“I’ve sort of been a patron of Aidikoff’s for about 10 years,” Schwartz says. “It’s always nice to hear a tale or two from Charles while you’re waiting for a screening. The only bone I have to pick with him is about those Oreos--he should have some honey-sweetened cookies.”

New Line Cinema’s president of marketing and distribution, Mitch Goldman, says that of the dozen or so other private facilities in the area, Aidikoff’s is the richest in Hollywood lore, “but,” he adds, “whether that enters into our doing more business with him than not, I don’t think so.”

Aidikoff now shares the business with son Gregg, whom he “trained from the ground up,” beginning when the boy was about 10.

“(Movies) were a window that went from reality to unreality,” the younger Aidikoff explains. “I think I saw maybe 2,000 films before I was 20 years old. One of the first looks of (naked) women I ever had was on the screen.”

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While his adolescence was influenced by Stanley Kubrick and Francis Ford Coppola, on the technical side, Gregg actually learned everything about throwing an image from his dad. Charles Aidikoff, in turn, says that he learned everything he knew from his father, Max--working in New York from the mid-’30s until 1955, when he left New York for L.A.

“It’s almost more fun to run the film than to watch the movies, “ says Gregg, who now handles all the projectionist duties since his father developed eye problems last year.

Beyond operating the focus device and making sure the film is threaded perfectly so the image is centered on the screen, Charles Aidikoff says he has tried to instill in his son the importance of maintaining the dynasty. Gregg describes his own son, Joshua, 10, as a “possible” fourth-generation projectionist who loves movies, especially last year’s “Rudy.”

Gregg Aidikoff is poised to expand the job of projectionist beyond the projection booth. With the new screening room--with its 5,000-watt digital sound system, satellite dish on the roof and “two walls floating on rubber with a 4-inch air gap” for noise reduction--he hopes to cater to TV, music and corporate interests in addition to the film industry.

Rental fees for weekdays begin at $350 for two hours and up; weekends are higher. There’s also a reception room for private parties. In addition, Gregg plans to franchise the Charles Aidikoff Screening Room name, opening other Charles Aidikoff facilities around the world.

Such heady plans, however, don’t take the place of Hollywood’s lost history. Aidikoff pere , for one, longs for the time when “movie people were Movie People.”

“In my old days, I used to have stars. I worked for RKO, also at the Warner Bros. studio out in Brooklyn,” he says. “Marlene Dietrich would come in and sit there with me. I said, ‘Miss Dietrich, I am sorry, you have the most beautiful gams in the world. I can’t take my eyes off them.’ Orson Welles did his last film in my screening room.”

Nowadays, he complains, the proportion of “lousy” to “good” films is about 10-to-1.

“Those lousy films pay our bills, Dad,” his son admonishes.

“You’re right,” Aidikoff says. “We don’t want to alienate the lousy filmmakers.”