Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1940)

Page 46 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW October 12, 1940 The Academy, Liberty, N.Y. {Continued from preceding page) is made of 3 inch channel letters outlined in white neon. The marquee is equipped with Wagner changeable letters. Lobby walls are covered with metallic paper and the floor is entirely covered with rubber mats. All door openings are so located as to avoid any spill of daylight into the auditorium. Rest rooms are conveniently located off a lounging space between the lobby and the foyer.. The projection room is reached by a stair adjoining the lounge. The ticket booth is also accessible from the entry to the stairway. Effective Wall Treatment With the exception of a wood horizontal ribbed wainscot 7 feet high in the auditorium, the entire ceiling and wall surfaces are formed of a Celotex hard board. The walls adjoining the screen and above the wainscot are broken up into sections of large flat curves designed for proper acoustical effect. The rear wall only is treated with an absorptive rock wool and fabric covering. The auditorium color scheme is developed in shades of brown starting with the darkest shade near the screen, with each curved section becoming lighter towards the rear of the auditorium. The ceiling is painted in a similar manner. The seating is in three banks with the middle bank on a stagger plan. The chairs are finished with a green mohair back and a maroon leatherette seat. The seat cushions are spring edged type and chair backs are padded. Lighting during the picture projection period is obtained chiefly through light reflected from the walls and ceiling originating from the projected picture itself. The use of a decidedly flat finish paint avoids what might otherwise be annoying reflections from the picture surface. Supplementing this dependence on screen light are the usual chair aisle lights and highly subdued built in louvre lights designed to throw slight illumination on the side wall wainscot. Warner Technicians at I. P. C. Headquarters BEN SCHLANGER, WIDELY KNOWN THEATRE ARCHITECT, SPECIFIED CeioteX HARD BOARD • for the new Academy Theatre at Liberty, New York, because it meets all the specifications for a rigid, strong, grainless, building material. Celotex Hardboard is ideally suited to the smart, modern type of interior construction so popular today. Write for illustrated folder describing Celotex Hard Board Products. THE CELOTEX CORPORATION 919 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, III. Technicians of the Warner theatre organization recently completed their group meeting in New York, where the men in charge of sound and projection of various zones in the Warner circuit annually foregather to review administrative activities and visit plants manufacturing equipment used in the Warner theatres. Above, the group photographed during a visit to the International Projector Corporation includes: Seated: C. P. O'Toole; E. H. Hartley, of National Theatre Supply Co.; F. E. Cahill, Jr., Director of sound and projection for Warner Theatres; J. A. Wotton; J. A. Pratt; A. E. Meyer, sales manager of International Projector; J. Wuhrman; H. Heidegger, International Projector Corp.; R. O. Walker, Walker American Corp.; J. Frank Jr., National Theatre Supply Co.; H. Ryan; W. J. Charles; H. Eberle; G. Cagliardi; A. O. Rickvam; C. J. Bachman; R. Kneuer, International Projector Corp.; R. H. Giles; P. J. Delvernois; M. F. Bennett; H. Griffin, Vice President, and P. A. McGuire, advertising manager of I. P. C. Good Prints Plus Good Projection Ideal Answer to Current Argument Recently there has been, with ample reason, widespread complaint about the condition of prints delivered to theatres in most sections of the country, and whatever can be done to make the exchanges more particular about inspection of returned prints and repairs before sending them out to some other house, most certainly should be done. But like all matters of this kind, there is an answering charge from the quarters against which complaints are made. One exchangeman when asked about the complaints of theatremen, replied that his exchanges used all possible care, and then in line with a good old Yankee custom, asked a question himself, to the effect that many theatres might answer the query: "are the prints in bad shape before they are readied for your own projectors, or after this handling?" What he meant to put into the record,' of course, was that more care in the projection room with respect to handling and the equipment used would go a long way toward eliminating the trouble caused by oilsmudged, scratched and damaged prints. There can be no doubt that a minority can cause trouble for a majority in this case as in most others. That the vast majority of projectionists and the majority of projection equipments in use around the country are entirely up to snuff there can be no doubt. But that minority is what lends force to the retort of the exchanges to complaints about the condition of prints. The worn projector mechanisms can chew up prints faster than a laboratory can turn 'em out. But not all the difficulty comes from undercut sprockets and other faults in the mechanism. That perennial enemy of good projection, dirt, can render a perfectly adjusted mechanism capable of serious damage to screen results and to prints as well. It is more than for appearance alone that newer projectors have mechanism and sound head interiors painted white. This puts quotation marks, so to say, on cleanliness by its mere appearance and also permits at-aglance discovery as to whether the projectors are being kept as clean as they should be. Dirt in the scund-head not only can cause clogging of the slit and result in distorted sound or diminished volume but if it lodges in the gate will scratch film, as well as work its way into bearings and gears and cause excess wear of those parts. Oil smearing of the prints can happen both when the film is in an unclean projector and in handling. Undoubtedly, it would be a big help all around if every projection room were as efficiently run as the majority, and the elimination of the damage caused to prints in the minority of theatres would go a long way toward relieving the bad print situation — though the exchanges cannot escape the responsibility of inspecting returned prints and putting them in proper condition before sending them to another theatre. This practice is as much in the interests of the distributors and producers as it is of the theatres, and there's no valid excuse for dirty, scratched or sprocket-damaged or badly patched prints being delivered to the theatre which pays rental for the film and depends upon the film to please its public and help build up popularity for the producers' reputation and the company's stars.