Just wondeirng, in the 60s there would've been no way for most 'ordinary' people to actually own films (or copies) unless they had the actual reels. Did they manufacture film reels like videos or DVDs for consumers in the 60s? Could one buy films in the store? Were the projectors expensive?

I can remember watching cartoons on a home film projector.  Not sure where the films came from.

mta: just to set the record straight.  I don't think we were particularly rich

Yeah, alot of fairly well-to-do, even middle-class types, could purchase projectors and film reels. Alot of people had 35 mm projectors to watch cartoons and home movies on.

My parents weren't particularly well-off, yet my dad had an 8mm projector and movie camera that he used to make home movies (no sound) with up until the late 70's.
  As far as buying copies of actual Hollywood movies went, I don't know for sure, but I do remember that you could go to public libraries and check out projectors and films. I also remember when I was little back in the 70's, that there were quite a few occasions where I'd see old Disney movies, and films by the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin, to name a few, playing on small (16mm) projectors at school events. (During the summers back then, they used to open up the junior high auditorium and show free Disney movies, just to give the kids something to do.) I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking that home projectors were comprable in price (adjusting for inflation of course) to higher-end DVD players. As far as buying films for home use, well, that's actually a good question, and I don't know the answer for sure.

For those who wanted a film projector, yes. Kodak offered an Instamatic M60 Movie Projector in 1965 for $74.50 (about $600 in 2010 dollars), so even some middle-class households could afford them. It could rewind films automatically. If you look at some old National Geographic magazines, particularly from about 1950 to 1980, you'll see some home movie projector ads. For home movies, while silent, many people would use a tape recorder while the film was running to create backing audio. Reel trading was fairly common and if you look at old newspapers of this era, you may find some classified ads offering certain home movies for sale (though the amount of privacy back then was less important, so some strangers would had been encountered.)

Buying actual reels of commercially released movies/TV shows was considered high-end however and quite a challenge, and were only found in maybe a couple high-end stores in Hollywood and New York, and if they were auctioned.

This is part of the film preservation business now.  People find old reels in their attics, but they haven't made a projector that can run the films in 30 years.  Film preservationists find old projectors and digitize the media for a tidy fee.

Some people might have films they don't want anyone else to see.  In that case, they can either scour Ebay for the right projector and pay the seller's price or they put the reels back in the attic and forget about them!
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