Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

36 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD October 5, 1929 Architects' 's sketch of Universal's new $500,000 laboratory, now under construction at Universal City. New equipment will be installed which will permit the luindling of 300.000 feet of sound film per day and machinery to handle a new method of developing sound films. 300,000 Feet of Film a Day to Be Rate of LPs New Laboratory (Special to the Herald-World) UNIVERSAL CITY, Oct. 1. — Universal Pictures has under construction a new laboratory with special equipment, developed by Universal engineers, which will enable them to handle 300,000 feet of sound film a day. Equipment will also be installed for the new method of developing sound films which eliminates the Mackey line and makes for sharper sound projection. The center section will house the photographic section including the developing plant, printing and administration office on the ground floor; the second floor will be devoted to the photograph research laboratories where a special staff will continually work on new ideas in improving sound negatives. A building on the left will house the cutting rooms. Here the dailies will be patched and synchronized. The building on the right will house the camera department, all motion picture cameras, loading rooms and the camera department lockers and offices. The whole layout has been planned for efficiency being in close juxtaposition to the sound projection rooms. The basement contains a special ventilating unit which purifies the air by removing the slightest trace of dust from the atmosphere, a system made necessary to insure absolutely clean motion picture film. Hard-to-Record Scene Shown in New Fox Film (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 1.— A talking picture within a talking picture will be seen and heard for the first time on any screen when "A Song of Kentucky" is released. The sequence shows a Fox Movietone news reel shot as seen and heard by an audience which applauds at its conclusion. This type of scene was not difficult for the silent pictures, but for audible films it required weeks of laboratory experiments and dozens of retakes. Independent Producers On Metropolitan Lots Keep Recorders Busy (Sfccial to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 1.— The Halperin Brothers, Victor and Edwin, have moved bag and baggage into the Metropolitan sound studios, where they are about ready to launch a series of all talking feature productions, using Metropolitan's Western Electric recording equipment. The Halperin Productions will make the eighth feature producing organization to make use of Metropolitan's studios in Hollywood for production of talking pictures. Other activity at Metropolitan in Hollywood includes Harold Lloyd's "Welcome Danger;" Sono-Art's "Blaze o' Glory," with Eddie Dowling, just starting into production; and also the Broughton-Reid production, "The Dude Wrangler," with Lina Basquette and George Duryea. The James Cruze productions will start another picture immediately, having just completed "The Great Gabbo," and the Robert C. Bruce's "Outdoor Talking Scenics" are in active production on location with one of Metropolitan's portable equipment trucks. Four More Chain Theatres Are Wired by Universal (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 1.— Universal Chain Theatrical Enterprises will soon have its entire chain 100 per cent wired. The latest installations announced by Louis Cohen, general manager, are: Majestic theatre, Grand Island, Nebraska; Stiand theatre, Marshalltown, Iowa ; Rialto theatre, Missouri Valley, Iowa, and the Strand theatre, Hastings, Nebraska. Outright Sale and No Service Fee Is Phono-Kinema Plan (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 1.— Phc no-Kinema company has acquired the rights to manufacture, in the United States and Canada, and lease, license, sell and otherwise dispose of any or all sound equipment in all parts of the world, made under the Nakken patents. Working models were completed last August and extensive tests have proven the device satisfactory, and the company is now ready to make installations within four weeks from the acceptance of the order. All the reproducing equipment will be sold outright to the theatre, carries no service charges and complete patent guarantees are provided. The price is $2,950 for the combination unit of sound-on-film and sound-on-disc including installation but exclusive of wiring between the projection room and the stage. The complete unit includes pick-ups, amplifiers, monitor, control board and loud speakers and deliveries can be made within four weeks after the order has been accepted. Sound heads will be sold at $1,750 per unit of two, exclusive of monitor, control panel and speakers. Disc units are not sold separately. Phono-Kinema will sell soundon-film attachments to any reputable disc manufacturer of installation with their equipment and will furnish technical and engineering service so that the two devices may be conformed to work together. Replacement parts can easily be obtained at a cost said to be 40 to 60 per cent less than those of any other manufacturer. The device is very simple in its construction and the Nakken principles permit a one-eight inch perpendicular range as compared with one-five hundredth of an inch range in other sound-on-film reproducers. One of its outstanding features is that the emulsion side of the film cannot be scratched owing to the fact that the film tension bars are on the opposite side of the film. Phono-Kinema company is headed by Louis C. Pedlar and A. J. Moeller is secretary and treasurer. Offices are located at 729 Seventh Avenue, New York City. Aspiring Girls Warned To Think Again Before Training for Audiens Chicago girls who think they can break into the films by way of the audiens should think again before they seriously heed advertisements glorifying audien training for the amateur, says Flint Grinnell, manager of the Chicago Better Business Bureau. Sound film actors can be easily obtained and no future shortage of able audien actors is anticipated, the bureau found in a recent investigation. Also, amateurs without picture or stage experience are not in demand, it was stated. Cruze s "Great Gabbo" Starting Extended Runs (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, Oct. 1.— Two theatres, the Criterion, Los Angeles, and Loew's Warfield, San Francisco, will begin extended runs of James Cruze's "The Great Gabbo" tomorrow. Erich Von Stroheim is starred in "The Great Gabbo."