International projectionist (Jan 1963-June 1965)

thick, steel girders form walls separating the auditorium and the grand foyer. The lobby contains four cashiers booths, faced with blue Beige marble, along the left-hand wall. The vestibule contains two short flights of stairs across its full width. Up the stairs the patrons get a view of the grand foyer. The grand foyer is 130 feet long and features a curbing refreshment counter where ice cream, confectionery, soft drinks and cigarettes are sold. It's decorated in modern style and preserves the large promenade of the old Empire. The auditorium is the stadium type with 642 seats in the ground floor and 688 chairs in the stadium. The auditorium is fan-shaped and like the Radio City Music Hall — which pioneered the lighting design — the concealed lighting spreads to the six facets in a rainbow of colors by the 18 three-color circuits. Seating is staggered. The American Seating Co.'s lounge chairs are PROJECTOR CARBONS Better Light! Lower Costs! RINGSDORFF CARBON CORP. East McKeesport. Pa. installed. The seats are installed at a distance of three feet back-to-back. The auditorium color scheme is mink and gold. The contour curtain — it will operate electrically to any pre-determined shape — is gold. The curtain has 15 vertical lines, so it can raise, tableau or drape. The vertical lines are controlled by 15 separate motors operated from the projection room. Stanley Perry, who is M-G-M projection supervisor, and well known to IP readers because of his contributions to this journal, has designed a projection room which is roomy. Perry, who had charge of the booth when the old Empire opened in 1928, is the only person from the original staff still with the theatre. The new Empire's projection room accommodates two Philips 35-70 mm projectors, a Philips FP7 projector, a spotlight, Westrex sound and the usual accessories. The Philips 35-70 mm projectors are mounted with arc lamps by Ashcraft Manufacturing Co., Super Cinex running at 135A. The water supply is taken from the mains, but Ashcraft water-coolers are provided for standby supply. The Westrex sound system picks up its signals from the magnetic heads, but for optical sound a Westrex photo-transistor is installed. A pre-amplifier and line amplifier are fully transistorized. A knob on the operating side of the pre-amplifier gives change-over between the sixtrack, four-track and optical sound. Four picture sizes: the wide-screen picture, with a ratio of 1.75 to 1, measures 40 ft. by 23 ft. ; the CinemaScope ratio is 2.32 to 1, the picture measuring 50 ft. by 21 ft. 6 in.; Panavision ratio is 2.7 to 1. and the screen size is 64 ft. by 23 ft. 6 in.; Todd-AO INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST Post Office Box 6174 Minneapolis 24, Minnesota □ 1 year (12) issues — $3.00 □ 2 years (24) issues — $5.00 FOREIGN: Add $1.00 per year Enter my subscription for Na me Address City Zone State 18 the actual ratio is 2.21 to 1, the picture measuring 60 ft. by 27 ft. The screen, a Perlux. measures 63 ft. by 30 ft. Alongside the projection room is the rectifier room. It contains four Hewittic silicon rectifiers, all operating from 415V three-phase supply. At the end of the projection room is a compact control system for the house and stage lighting. Other Westrex equipment installed in the new Empire includes two stage amplification systems, record playing system feeding to 18 loudspeakers in the foyer, and a manager's announcement system. iP Demand Reported for Ashcraft Core-Lite Lamp Since the first installation of Ashcraft Core-Lite arc lamps and rectifiers was made in the Palace theatre in Orange, N. J., eight other theatre owners located in the New York sales area have installed them, or have signed orders for them, the National Theatre Supply Co. reports: Cinema I, New York City; Central theatre, Cedarhurst, N. Y. ; Stanley-Warner Theatres, New York; Strand Theatre. Astoria, New York City; Plainfield theatre, Edison Township, N. J.; Turnpike theatre, East Brunswick, N. J.; Walter Reade-Sterling's Barclay Farms theatre, Cherry Hill, N. J., and a new Skouras Theatre at Closter, N. J. Interested theatre owners were invited to visit theatres where tests were conducted. The report states that in a comparative test recently conducted at Charles Moss' Central theatre in Cedarhurst, between a Core-Lite lamp burning an 11mm x 17%" black rotating positive carbon, and a lamp burning a 9mm x 14" copper-coated positive carbon, the Core-Lite gave notably uniform light distribution despite the necessity to use projection lenses of S^-inch E. F. for CinemaScope, and 214-inch lenses for standard because of a 47-ft. picture at 90 ft. throw. Foot-lambert readings were taken by Larry Orthner of the C. S. Ashcraft Manufacturing Co.; Milton Berk, supervisor of projection of B. S. Moss Theatres; and Allen Smith of National Theatre Supply. According to the readings reported, the CoreLite developed an increase of 61% in side lighting over the lamp burning the 9mm copper-coated carbon. Core-Lite distribution was 81%, compared with 53%. iP International Projectionist June 1963