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20
BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF
March 19, 1927
A theatre design by J. H. Phillips, New York architect and an ardent advocate of better theatres for small towns. Babylon theatre, Babylon, N. Y. Courtesy, Architectural Forum.
Plan showing the layout of the Rye theatre. Rye, New York, as designed by Architect Harry Leslie Walker. Reproduced by courtesy of The Architectural Forum.
Keeping Pace in the Small
Analysis of Situation Determining if Present
By R. L. Simmons
CONTINUING the discussion of the small town theatre allow us to quote a trite saying:
You’ve got to be Bigger ; Bigger than your job if you ever expect to be promoted ; Bigger than your opportunities if you would get the most out of them,” and this applies to the exhibitor.
To “leave well enough alone’’ may be good advice also, but should be taken in moderate doses. Any dead town or the Chinese nation are good examples of leaving well enough alone. Often the present theatre, although old and short in most everything, seems to draw the attendance and pay the owner a nice income and therefore the owner continues for another year with the old building just as Harry Lauder makes his last tour. If the town is at all progressive or a nearby town is, this theatre owner wakes up some morning to the fact that a new theatre is being built in his or adjoining town and then he proceeds to get a very bad case of blues and a financial toothache when he could have prevented the situation. Nerve is required in modern business and the theatre today is a business, in capital letters, no longer regarded merely as a precarious amusement proposition.
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The small towns are getting more and more modern theatres replacing the little “store theatre” with little arched stucco fronts and those who take the step for the new building and use judgment as described in former article in the way of location, size, design and finance find themselves in an enviable position. The comparison of the new and old is inevitable and the progress of time necessitates advancement. Often the owner of a little “store theatre” feels his town will not justify a better building, but ' possibly he is pessimistic or too easily satisfied and a thorough analyzation of the situation may reveal a golden opportunity. The owners of these mediocre buildings can do worse than have a survey made that will reveal the true situation and if the verdict is not favorable to a more expensive building the small expense entailed by