Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1947)

r L 1 1 1 1 1 (I through the board the municipality was prevailed on to agree to acquire the property, provide water, sewage system, drainage, paving and sidewalks, as well as a parkway through the proposed shopping center. INTERESTING COMMENTARIES ON CONTEMPORARY PLAN PROCEDURE A Town Planning Board Creates a Theatre Location w Whereupon, Theatre Architect Michael J. DeAngelis of Rochester, and a member of the Advisory Staff of The Modern Theatre Planning Institute, was called in to assist in framing the shopping center project and to visualize the various ' ' • osT THEATREMEN look Only for theatre locations that have already been created, or perhaps are likely to be created by some trick of good fortune for them, while they wait. Those very long in the business of theatre operation know that success depends on surroundings, residential, commercial and otherwise. Yet, rarely does a theatreman do what he should, or all he can, and early enough toward the creation (promotion, that is) of the sort of situation that every smart showman, with an eye to good business, yearns for. Modern theatres make good locations for many types of other businesses — some of them directly competitive to theatre business. Many a thrifty shopping center got its start by reason of the fact that some “dumb cluck” (whom the wise guys all said should know better) built a goodlooking picture theatre out on “the lone prairie” and made it pay. For that we may credit the magnetism of the movies and the pioneering spirit that took advantage of it. Then why should not experienced theatre owners be more alert to the possibilities of creating and controlling their own locations? Why should they wait for outsiders to create suitable sites for them ; OR, on the other hand, why should they establish good locations for others and fail in planning to benefit fully from the “cream” they have created? These pertinent questions find most plausible answers in the Multiple-Enterprise Plan, which properly relates the theatre to its surroundings and permits good showmen to share more amply in the fruits of their cultivation; provided they get in on the ground floor. An example suggests itself at this point: Irondequoit is the name of a sprawling suburban area of Rochester, New York. Its civic-minded progressiveness is denoted by the fact that it has a Town Planning Board which recently decided that a shopping center for a certain section of the village was needed to take care of rapid residential expansion. A farm on the outskirts was selected by the Irondequoit Town Planning Board, with whom the idea originated, and component units thereof. The striking result is reproduced at the bottom of this page. A group of enterprising business men from Rochester proprtly agreed to finance and build the shopping center which will have as its principal public attraction a modern motion picture theatre in combination with a bowling arena and other integrated recreational and entertainment features, to be noted in the aerial perspective here shown. Principal movers in the shopping center development were Mr. John Wegman and Mr. Pi’ank Joyce. Mr. Joyce has extensive holdings of valuable business property in Rochester and is successfully engaged in the liquor, restaurant and other businesses in which the rendition of public service is of paramount importance. Both men have pooled their resources to provide the necessary “keystone” for a modern shopping center to serve the residentialcommercial development. The Town Planning Board of Irondequoit, made up of far-sighted business men, have foreseen in this project a beautiful shopping center and recreational development designed properly to serve some 50,000 residents of the community. They have AMIII TIDI r rUTrDDDIQr DDHILPT ^ perspective, designed by Theatre ITlULlIrLL LniLlirillOL T IiUJlU I Architect Michael J. DeAngelis for Irondequoit, a suburb oi Rochester, New York. This shopping center, originated by the Town Planning Board oi Irondequoit, and iinonced by a small group oi enterprising Rochester business men, will have a modem motion picture theatre combined with a bowling arena and other recreational enterprises as the chief contributor to the patronage of all other commercial enterprises planned for the new shopping center. M. J. DeANGELIS Architect