Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

THEATRE EQUIPMENT Equipment Progress A fire during a performance at a Chicago downtown theatre on Washington's Birthday furnished a clear cut example of the importance of adequate and modern fire fighting apparatus in the theatre. With the aid of modern equipment the blaze was successfully extinguished and a near riot averted even before the fire department could arrive on the scene. The blaze is thought to have started from cross wires and spread to draperies over the stage. Heat from the flames started automatic fprinklers working. Safety devices back of the stage were in perfect working order and brought into immediate play. Ushers trained in weekly fire drills had every exit open almost before the steel curtain was -down. A member of the company assured the audience there was no danger, and the show proceeded within a short time. Forethought on the part of the management, adequate fire fighting equipment that had been kept in working order, and the training of the ushers for just such an emergency saved the day, and probably avoided what might have turned out to be a catastrophe had things been different. The happening at this theatre pointedly brings out two facts: that every theatre should be thoroughly equipped to combat a blaze within its walls at all times, and that the equipment for extinguishing I fires must at all times be kept accessible and in working order. Modern fire fighting apparatus is useless unless it is ready for immediate use when needed. Radiophone Entertainment Is Inaugurated at Ascher House Patrons Hear Music by Wireless at Peoria, Illinois Theatre— May Install Service at All Ascher Playhouses Is the radiophone destined to become a feature of motion picture theatre entertainment? This interesting question is well to the point in view of recent installations of wireless telephonic receiving apparatus in various playhouses throughout the country. While the matter cannot be said to be an entirely new innovation in the theatrical field, radiophones having been used in some of the larger theatres in connection with special evems such as presidential election returns and the like, indications, at present point to a more widespread and actual interest in the subject. Is Addition to Program The most recent radiophone receiving instrument to be installed in a motion picture theatre is the one at Ascher Brothers' Palace theatre, Peoria, Illinois. Upon its success and the possibilities of entertainment which it affords, as well as the reception of the feature by the audience as a part of the Palace program, will depend the inauguration of similar arrangements in all Ascher houses, it is stated by an executive of the firm. According to the official, the device at the Palace theatre was not installed as a temporary novelty or experiment, but as_ a bona fide addition to its program of pictures and vaudeville. Immediately following the installation of the instrument at the Palace theatre two other Peoria playhouses announced plans for similar arrangements. Music Is Heard The first radio entertainment at the Palace theatre was given February 15 to 1,500 patrons at the regular show. When the curtain was raised at 9 o'clock the audience saw a mammoth radiophone on the stage and heard music played by John Becker sitting at the transmitting instrument at the Bradley institute. The sound waves were caught by the aerial on the roof of the building and issued from the large horn on the receiving set. News bulletins received by a local' paper were also transmitted to the audience. In the future patrons will hear radio matter transmitted from all parts of the country, including speeches, music, fight returns, baseball news and in fact anything else that may be picked up from the air and made audible to those in the theatre. Further use of the radiophone will be made by the Palace theatre by throwing the house open to the public on Sunday mornings to hear sermons and lectures broadcasted. Used in Eastern Houses The instrument at the Palace was installed by Prof. E. G. Schalkhauser of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, considered an authority on the subject. Besides the receiving instrument on the stage there is an 80-foot aerial on the building roof. A month of painstaking work was required to procure and assemble the mechanism required to gather in the magnetic waves and translate them into sounds, it is stated. According to the Palace theatre the demonstration met with the hearty approval of the audience and furnished a new thrill. Installation of a similar apparatus is being planned by Capt. W. W. Scott for his two theatres, the Lyric and Scott's, at Hampton, Ya. Capt Scott plans to give his patrons a like service and entertainment by use of the wireless telephone. Exhibitors Supply Firm Leases Entire Building In a move to care for increased business as well as to bring the general office and Chicago sales unit under one roof Exhibitors' Supply Company has taken over the six-story brick building at 825 South Wabash avenue. The general offices have already been moved to the new building. The Chicago sales office and Argus Enterprises will be established in the new headquarters in May. The main floor of the building will be devoted to a sales room, which it is planned to make the most pretentious and complete of its kind in the line of exhibitor requirements. Kansas City Men Invent Film Rewinding Device An automatic rewind switch has been invented by two Kansas City men, E. R. Francis and S. R. Victor. The invention, known as the Ideal Automatic Rewind, will rewind films in either direction without reversing the motor, allowing inspection on the rewind and enabling the operator to give his entire attention to other work. The rewind can be attached to Powers, Simplex or Motiograph machines.