Exhibitor's Trade Review (Sep-Nov 1921)

1406 EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW Volume 10. Number 20. Something to Show for $675,000 (Upper left) Auditorium with wide balcony. (Upper right) The imposing mezzanine promenade. (Lower left) Wide entrance to galleries and promenade. (Lower right) Spacious main entrance and lobby Unusual features that make the Colonial Theatre, owned by Wilmer & Vincent, one of the most interesting and attractive of the many new playhouses recently erected have won attention to the Colonial on the part of exhibitors from all over the eastern part of Pennsylvania. Manager John J. Malloy is in charge of the playhouse, which cost $675,000 and seats 2000 people. The building is fireproof and is trimmed with marble, both the interior and the exterior. The furnishings are of the most sumptuous and luxurious type and the marble trim gives the playhouse a classic charm that is most unusual. Floor lighting is provided in the aisles so that no light reflects into the eyes of the audience and overhead illumination is unnecessary. An independent emergency lighting plant whereby in case of a breakdown with the regular illuminating system all exits, stairways, rest rooms, audi torium and lobbies are automatically lighted is provided to prevent any possibility of the theatre remaining in darkness. A remote control switchboard whereby the lighting of all parts of the theatre, stage and picture booth is controlled from the manager's office is another feature. The policy of the house is to run the leading producing companies' pictures and the First National big hits. The house opened with The Kid. Screen Must Be Built to Conform By GRANT HETH Minusa Line Screen Company. In reproducing the motion picture, research has determined that no part of the appliances required occupies a more prominent position than the screen. It is the essential that determines the final result, be it good or bad. It is for this reason that vast sums of money have been expended in an effort to create the perfect projection surface. Theory after theory has been traced to a hopeless end, with but few exceptions, and if the record of more than a dozen years of successful screen building counts for anything, together with the fact that many of the world's finest and most costly motion picture theatres have been equipped by our company, it is to be presumed that their theory and construction of a projection surface is well advanced toward perfection. Their theory is as follows: Each and every screen is built to the specifications of the theatre in which they are to serve, as light conditions must be taken into consideration if color harmony in light rays is to be hoped for, therefore, does it stand to reason that a screen surface 12 x 16 feet, producing a perfect picture at 150 feet on D. C, would produce the same results on A. C. at 100 feet on, say, a 9 x 12 foot surface? The color characteristics and nature of A. C. and D. C. light are essentially different. The size of the picture and length of throw are different. Shouldn't the screen be different as well? We know it should. Experiments have shown that the color of the screen surface must match perfectly the color characteristics of the projected light at the "point of contact." Thus we eliminate, absolutely, the glare so apparent on many silver and imitation gold fibre screens. This glaring light is especially, rich in short ultra-violet rays, which are most active and intense, and consequently most irritating to the eye, through their action on the focusing muscle (cilliary), the marvelous photographic plate (retina) , which under these conditions must telegraph messages to the brain far more frequently than usual, causing "eye-strain." Everyone who has taken a walk on a sunshiny day, when the ground was covered with fresh fallen snow, can recall the glaring reflection caused when the brilliant yellow or golden sunshine struck the equally brilliant white snow; you also recall how it almost blinded you. That is exactly what happens when the light from a projection machine strikes a screen surface which fails to match it perfectly in color. The terrible glare produced by such a screen not only is very injurious to the human eye, but at the same time causes a "veil" to appear over the picture. This veil, or in reality, "excess reflection," caused by a negative or yellow-colored light coming into contact with a positive or white-colored surface, just like the sun shining on the snow, absolutely kills the greater part of the perspective and depth of your picture (Continued on page 1408)