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Supplement to THE CINEMA
NEWS AND PROPERTY GAZETTE
May 28, 1925.
THE LATE MR. WALTER HARRIS.
AN APPRECIATION.
The news of the death of Mr. Walter Harris last month came as a great shock to every department of cinema enterprise, but to none greater than to the technical side of the business. To say that his warmhearted generosity, his enthusiasm, and his love of fair play endeared him to all those who came into social or business contact with him is but to state a veritable truth. If ever a man deserved the appellation, "A white man," that man was Walter Harris.
Some 35 years ago he started life as an apprentice
Harris served on the London and Home Counties Executive, where his keen business insight and his unbounded enthusiasm made him one of the most valued and popular members. The writer of these notes appreciates the fact that it was due in no small measure to the enthusiastic co-operation of Mr. Walter Harris that the first annual dinner and ball of the branch last January proved so unqualified a success. Keen, energetic, alert, and always ready to serve his fellow-exhibitors, his death, from pneumonia following upon a heart attack, at the early age of 58, removed a friend who will live in the memory of those who knew and worked with him.
to the well-known theatre furnishing house of H. Lazarus and Sons, Ltd., and the fruits of his faithful endeavour are seen in the fact that iS years later he became managing director of that virile and reputable business.
It was in August of 1914 that Mr. Harris, in spite of opposition, decided to enter the field of cinema enterprise, and it was but a day or two before the Great War changed the face of things so dramatically and tragically that he became a director of the King's Picture Flayhouse, Chelsea. Later, he became managing director of suburban super-cinemas, controlling the Brixton Palladium, the Queen's, Forest Gate, and the Coronation, Manor Park. He was also managing director of Hackney Super Cinema and Winter (iardens, Ltd.
For years an active member of the C.E.A., Mr.
WARD END'S NEW CAPITOL.
SOME FURTHER DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION.
The growing Ward End district of Birmingham has acquired a real asset in the new Capitol Cinema built from plans by and under the direction of Messrs. Satchwell and Roberts, cinema architects, Birmingham. The exterior was designed with a view to the creation of a landmark in local architecture, and well, indeed, has that purpose been accomplished. The clean-cut, dignified, yet withal artistically pleasing aspect will long remain a standing advertisement of the venture it represents.
The planning and equipment of the theatre embrace every modern development of cinema construction. The spacious balcony is designed with an insweep that while in itself offers opportunity of decorative distinction, further provides for the placing of the operating enclosure in a position ensuring central projection at right angles with the building — that is, in harmony with the plane of a perpendicularly placed screen.
The facade is carried out in red-brick and terra-cotta, the scheme being suggestive of renaissance dignity. An ornamental iron canopy extends the whole length of the frontage. The fabric is of reinforced concrete and steel. The seating accommodation is just under 1,000, of which 700 seats are on the ground floor.
The decorative scheme is in bright colours upon deep plaster mouldings, and at night time the effect is heightened by a flood of soft red lighting from stained glass windows behind which electric lights are placed ; a very interesting and pleasing effect. The auditorium lining is enriched by panels upon which black silhouette stencillings are imposed upon a rich purple surface, the whole surrounded by plaster decorative borders. A notable feature of the decoration is a pair of handsome electric light fittings specially designed to harmonise with their surroundings.
The bioscope installation and equipment, by Mihvard, Lane and Astley, people well versed in cinema elctrical work, is of the most up-to-date description, as also is the sanitary fitments. Tiled spacious lavatories are provided for public use, with separate rooms for the staff and orchestra.
The screen installed is the Refiecta, made by the Reflecta Screen Company. The terra-cotta work was by the Hathern Station Terra Cotta and Brick Co., Limited, and the sprinkler installation by Mather-Platt, Limited.