The Exhibitor (Aug-Nov 1948)

Curious Mishap With Pigeons Overtakes General Also He Feels A Growing Mistrust Of All Managers You think you’ve got problems. Just wait. At one of our houses there was to be a big fire-fighting demonstration attended by the city fire chief and his lieutenants. Following all-out preparations, the cli¬ mactic day arrived. I was there in line of duty and so were the chief and his boys. The manager extended a graceful wel¬ come to each and everyone of us. BANG! Off went the gong. Everyone in the joint raced to his or her station. Hoses were broken out and whipped into the exit alleys. A shout went up for water, water, WATER! There wasn’t a drop. The seconds drag¬ ged by, the minutes. . . . The fire chief wasn’t amused. The manager stood there, a shaken man. I wretchedly chewed my cigar. To relieve the tension, I broke away and launched a probe which took me and a good many of the firefighters up onto the roof. The trouble, I had decided, was in the water tower. Disappearing into the tower while the crowd peered in after me, I managed to disconnect all the lines around the main discharge valve that were under the grid¬ iron of the water tank itself. In one of the lines I encountered the bodies of two dead pigeons. Uncorking them and removing some pigeons’ nests from under the conical roof of the tower, I received the hosannas of the crowd and a cluck of approval from the chief himself. All this is by way of pointing out that it is wise while making roof inspections to see to it that all water tower hatches and notches are closed — if you don’t want a similar complication at your place. ♦ ♦ ♦ Managers have some absurd notion in their pates that I’m superhuman. Whenever a crisis looms. I’m the patsy. If it wasn’t for the weekly stipend, such as it is, I would have quit pulling their chestnuts out of the fire for them long ago. As it is. I’m continually being duped by another man’s negligence. Take, for instance, the little matter of cleaning the ashes from the furnace after the last fire in the spring. Right now in a lot of houses the ashes are still in the pits. How can you inspect grates covered with ashes? The thing is the heating plants in these places haven’t been checked since the last fire— when heating problems were fresh in mind, when prices were right, and the materials and men to repair the plants available. It’s like pulling teeth to get theatremen to fix up their heating systems in the spring and to overhaul air-conditioning plants in the winter. These days, man¬ agers ought to be preoccupied with the problem of removing soot from all flues and chimneys. An eighth-oj-an-inch lin¬ ing of soot in boiler passages will waste about fifteen per cent of a winter’s fuel. Any manager interested in doing things right will be busy flushing mud from the boiler. Gauge glasses, low-water cutoffs, water feed regulators, and the small pipes leading to them, he will have to have cleaned by experts. These frequently be¬ come clogged with rust and scale, which condition results in phony water readings and the improper functioning of cutoffs and water regulators. ^ ^ ^ ^ Inasmuch as I want to become insistent about the necessity of cleaning lines lead¬ ing to gauges, cutoffs, etc.. I’m going to relate an experience. Last year, one of our managers hit the phone and let go a scream of such sheer power that the hear¬ ing in my right ear is impaired to this day. If you don’t believe me, ask my sec¬ retary. She was in the office at the time. He spluttered some phrase that I couldn’t catch about the last straw and finally man¬ aged to get across the fact that both boil¬ ers in his house had cracked — and that the water glass still showed them to be threequarters full of water! This bird was still hollerin’ when I got to his joint, and, brother, am I glad that headache is over! The boilers were sure enough busted. Water was ankle-deep everywhere. The blamed gauge did say three-quarters full. The small lines to the gauge were stop¬ ped up, of course. The boilers had been operating practically without water. If you don’t get anything else out of this column, get this — never trust a gauge glass. All steam boilers should be set up with two or three small trycocks (valves). When you want to know how much water is in the boiler, turn ’em on. If there’s no response from the bottom trycock, you had better bank the fire — or you’re in for serious trouble. When things have cooled off, allow water to flow back into the boiler very slowly. A sudden flow of cold water will crack a cast iron boiler and explode a steel one. To report on two final practical aids to heating plant upkeep, I say check all sheet metal connections between boiler and chimney for leaks, and clean and oil all pumps. Good-looking poster case, called Aluminex, has been put on the market by Theatre Specialties, Inc., makers of Bevelite letters. It is designed with hidden hinges, glass in neoprene rubber, and extruded aluminum holders. It is available exclusively through National Theatre Supply. MAKE OURS MAHARAM The good fairy' behind such Broadway successes as “Strange Bedfellows” and “Make Mine Manhattan” is none other than Joe Maharam, president of Maharain Fabric Corporation. Success begets success. We’ll make ours Maharam. With the fabric manu¬ facturer, a one-time Columbia law student, it’s theatres all the time, except when he’s relaxing on his 87-acre copse in Connecticut or fishing on his private lake. Two other major relaxations are sculpting and painting. His office is notable principally for originals of his own creation. All his life Joe Maharam has had a leaning toward art. He was a pioneer in introducing fabrics as stage back¬ grounds. Many theatre programs on Broadway carry Maharam fabric credit lines. Three brothers help him to run the fabric concern. The Maharams design and create their own fabrics and patterns, dye their owm goods, and have their materials woven to their own specifications. PT-12 PHYSICAL THEATRE DEPARTMENT of THE EXHIBITOR September 22, 1948