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New Theaters for Old
Reconstruction and Re Equipment Solve Problem of Overbuilding Orgy
by
JOHN EBERSON
MORE theaters — bigger theaters — better theaters — new competing chains — gigantic expansion programs — poor imitations, falling short of the mark — cheap replicas — gigantic auditoriums — lavish settings and furnishings produced and backed by the Croesuses of the modern American show business, crowd our thoughts and keep our ambitions at fever heat.
We strive for new ideas and intelligent competitive building. Yet frenzied activities, ruled by unharnessed ambitions, are hurrying us all toward a saturation point which will soon have its telling effects on the showman on the one side and the amusement-loving public on the other.
Having served the amusement business for more than thirty-one years in the capacity of designer, architect and builder, our experiences and an intimate, uninterrupted contact with the business encourage the writer to -present a few ideas which are born of conservative thought and of a well-meant, sincere interest in the industry which is giving him his occupation and livelihood.
I think "way back" of the legitimate theater to the opera house with its loges and boxes; the hole-in-the-wall box office and the big fifty foot stage "biltrite" to accommodate "Ben Hur," "Shore Acres," "East Lynne," "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and all the other well-known one night travelling shows which visited the many little and big towns and the hamlets, well advertised and billed by the advance man who made the many necessary arrangements with the transfer company, the theatrical hotel, the billboard company and the laundry.
I think of the ten-cent variety show in the storeroom and the vaudeville theater built in the intimate fashion with more gingerbread than ever before. Then we come to the motion picture, and here we find ourselves today creating and building super-cinemas of enormous capacities, excelling in splendor, in luxury and in furnishings the most palatial homes of princes and crowned kings for
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E B E R. S O N
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RE-CONSTRUCTION and RE-EQUIPMENT