Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

June ^4, 1939 s 11 o w M i<: N ' s TKA i)]': Ri<:vi i<:w Page 35 Outside Lighting Sells Tickets Are You Losing Patrons Because the Lights are Brighter Elsewhere? WILL the}' pass j'ou by because your theatre lacks the warmth, the brightness and color that can be achieved only by means of smartly brilliant lighting? Yon can answer that question yourself without much cogitation by taking a look — a good, impartial, appraising look — at the front of your theatre any night after the nocturnal shadows have fallen and the lights are turned on in stores, homes and restaurants as well as at 3'our theatre. As showmen it is quite worthwhile for exhibitors to remember that the art of lighting as commonly practiced today by most merchants, from humble stationery stores to gilded cafes, received its greatest impetus and encouragement from theatremen. Yet. any traveller by motor or by rail through American towns today can't help but be struck by the more aggressive use of lighting used by ordinary merchants as compared with a great number of picture theatres that are to be observed in a highway or railway trip through towns and cities in this land. Attracting Buyers Light attracts people. For years lightingengineers have known and accepted that fact, much as their scientific minds searched and were unable to discover precisely why people were attracted by bright light. The hardened criminal creeping in shadows in pursuit of his foul deeds is a dramatic figure— and a very accurate one. Bright lights are shunned by the man who has no gaiety in his soul and heart. Scientists recognize that fact, take it as a matter of course, and have worked hard and long to make lighting gay, bright, colorful for the express purpose of providing theatres and all places of wholesome social assemblage a means of decorating with light. There are many ways of lighting the front of a theatre. The development of neon has aiTorded showmen a most effective tool for making his house blaze forth its message of cheeriness and glamour. Another method, very old and most efficiently developed, is that of floodlighting. Economical ^'^Flash^' Floodlighting the theatre front, its interesting architectural features, the banners and cut-outs which tell in words and in pictures the features of attraction on the screen, can be emphasized and made dynamic by a bath of light, of gleaming illumination that in itself is an invitation to one and all to come in and be transported to a land of romance and thrills. B}' floodlighting, of course, we mean the illumination cast by projected light. A floodlighting projector is a modified searchlight. Time was when showmen had to work hard and ingeniously to get good floodlighting effects. But today — well today, standard equipment that can be set in place with no more trouble than the housewife experiences in placing a lamp on the table is available at prices old-time showmen would have THE LURE OF LIGHT Right, the Roxy Theatre, New York, A picture snapped at night. Mazdas glow from banks of lamps in the marquee soffit. thought ridiculously low. And yet, these boys of the days gone by used this very agent of attraction — floodlighting — to embellish the many other ingenious ideas upon which the motion picture was built to its great mass popularity. Utterly simple basic principles form the foundation of any lighting scheme employing floodlighting. Projectors, or spot-lights, with a parabolic reflector and a concentrated light source throw a long, narrov^' light beam. This type is used when the unit is placed 150 feet or more from the building or the object to be illuminated. Thus if it is desired to light a small area from a considerable distance, say 150 to 300 feet, a projector or spotlight with a narrow beam should be used. To cover a larger area and obtain the even distribution of light necessary, a wide angle projector, or floodlight is used. When lighting on the theatre front above the marquee is required, this wide angle spotlight, provided it is to be set on the marquee, is of course the type of projector to be used. Installation Simple Recent developments of compact spotlights, set on brackets that can be attached most any place make the matter of theatre illumination most simple. Multi-colored effects gamed with this type of lightmg are a veritable gift to the showman whose theatre is not of the rich architectural embellishment of more costly theatres. In any consideration of the question "Do I have sufficient lighting on my theatre?" the showman must take into account the surrounding conditions, his local situation. It is obvious that a theatre on a brighth' lighted street with well lighted show windows and numerous electric signs, requires more light than a building set in comparative darkness. The showman should let this factor be his index as to whether he has or has not sufficient lighting outside his theatre. Certainly a theatre, a place of amusement, cannot afford to be less brilliant in its exterior dress than a food market or a shoe store. The theatre must t.utshine and therefore outbid for the attention of th^ public the markets and shops situated in his town. The efificacy of floodlights as dress and decoration cannot be overemphasized. If any showman is skeptical about this, we can only su.ggest that he take a trip to the World's Fair in New York. There he will see the lighting effects that have been developed for theatres, mind you, put to a use that beggars the employment of light as a decorative and attraction feature in too many of the picture theatres in America today. Air-Gonditioning Has Another Angle Very Often Overlooked To most theatre owners the installation of air-conditioning has meant more than anything else the opportunity to attract patrons to their houses by letting them know the cool comfort of the inside temperature. With the coming of Winter, the manager forgets all about plugging the qualities of the system. Yet, it must be admitted, there is another phase in air-conditioning besides merely its ability to keep patrons cool. For one thing, it purifies the air, inviting cleanliness, and this angle has been used by the railroads ever since the system became a part of their coaches and Pullmans. Thus, air-conditioning not only sustains but promotes theatre cleanliness. One's clothes, for example, are maintained in a far fresher state in a theatre with the equipment than in a house which has never installed it. Therefore, the uniforms of ushers and other attendants will remain fresh and crisp, a symbolization to entering patrons tnat comfort is a reality. In an air-conditioned theatre, courtesy is never strained, for the employe arid patron alike are comfortable, efificient and alert. It isn't likely that this would be true if the air were not robbed of its oppressive humidity, impurities and dust by air-conditioning. Westinghouse Installation Loew's Theatre, Harrisburg, Pa., has installed the latest Westinghouse air-conditioning equipment at a cost of approximately $50,000.