Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

January 3, 1925 EXHIBITORS HERALD VII Theatre Building Takes Spurt in Latter Months of Year Chicago Leads Country With Number of Theatres to Be Completed During 1925 nPHE past year, everything considered, has been a favorable one to those engaged in providing theatres with modern equipment and luxurious embellishments. While it is true that business in the equipment field was rather shaky during the midsummer months, this condition was generally true of a great many lines. When things started to pick up after the presidential election they began moving fast in the motion picture field. And now the answer to the time-worn question “How’s Business?” is a decidedly optimistic one. Predictions were made, based on surveys national in scope that 1924 would see a building program amounting to nearly $180,000,000 in the theatre field. It is apparent that construction activity fell short of this figure, due to the fact that many theatre projects scheduled to be started during the year were postponed. However, a study of building reports shows that these projects are far from dead. In a great many cases the work on them has been set for early 1925, while many others just had time to get in the 1924 class through being started as the old year faded. The renewed confidence that generally prevailed following the election proved a sufficient stimulus to see the announced 1924 building program assume new proportions of the size predicted for it early in the season. * * ♦ At that a great many important theatres swung open their doors during the year, as indicated in a list of theatres opened published elsewhere in this department. On the 1925 building program is a pretentious array of new theatres, particularly in Chicago, which, from a casual survey, seems to be leading the country in the number of new cinema palaces it will launch this year. In Chicago no less than thirteen new theatres will be opened in 1925. On some of these work is fairly well under way while on others the first spade of earth is yet to be turned. Here is Chicago’s outlook in the way of 1925 playhouses. Balaban & Katz, now operating five of Chicago’s leading theatres, recently announced an addition of $21,000,000 to their building program. The company now has under construction a large theatre at Broadway and Lawrence avenues which will cost $3,000,000. Excavation is under way on Randolph street for the thirty story building costing $9,000,000, which will house a 3,500 seat playhouse. Another Balaban & Katz project is a theatre for Howard avenue and Clark street with a seating capacity of 3,500. In Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, another huge B. & K. theatre is to be erected, while plans have also been announced for a theatre in Detroit. Two theatres are to be erected in the neighborhood of Lawrence and Western avenues, one by Lubliner & Trinz, and another for which S. N. Crowen is preparing plans. A new cinema palace for Lubliner Theatres Opened During Year Many important picture theatres threw open their doors in the past year, as indicated in the following list. AMERICAN , Comerford Amuse. Co., Pittston, Pa. BALBOA, R. E. Hicks, San Diego, Cal. BANDBOX Sun Ent., Springfield, 0. BOB WHITE, Portland, Ore. CAPITOL, Zabel & Wilson, Olympia, Wash. D. & R., Aberdeen, Wash. EARLE, Stanley Company, Philadelphia, Pa. EGYPTIAN, W. A. Graeper, Portland, Ore. FORUM, William A. Hussey, Los Angeles, Cal. FOX, William Fox, Philadelphia, Pa. GRANADA, California Theatre Co., Santa Barbara, Cal. GRAND, Zicofe Corp., Westfield, N. y. GREY GOOSE, Seattle, Wash. HARVEY, Fitzpatrick-McElroy, Harvey, III. HOOSIER, Margaret V. Bennett, Whiting, Ind. LERNER, Harry Lerner, Elkhart Ind. LEXINGTON, H. B. Varner, Lexington, N. C. LYCEUM, Clinton & Meyers, Minneapolis, Minn. LYRIC, Fitzpatrick-McElroy, Traverse City, Mich. MARQUETTE, Fitzpatrick-McElroy, Chicago, III. MODJESKA, Saxe Amusement Ent., Milwaukee, Wis. PALACE, Frank A. Burns, Bradentown, Fla. PARK, Washington, D. C. PARTHENON, Bernasek & Gregory, Berwyn, III. PICCADILLY, Lee Ochs, New York, N. Y. RITZ, Johnson & Moses, Staten Island. SAENGER, Saenger Amusement Co., Texarkana, Ark. SCHENLEY , Pittsburgh, Pa. STATE, Marcus Loew, St. Louis, Mo. ST. HELENS, St. Elelens Theatre Co., Chehalia, Wash. TIVOLI, Harry Crandall, Washington, D. C. VARSITY, Buffalo, N. Y. VICTORIA, Custer Carland, Frankfort, Mich. WISCONSIN , Saxe Amusement Ent., Milwaukee, Wis. 8z Trinz is now nearing completion on Clark street, just north of Diversey. The Grove theatre, to be erected at 79th street and Cottage Grove avenue, will give Chicago another south side cinema. Beacon Theatres Corporation will erect the building from plans by Walter W. Alschlager. It will cost $1,250,000. A theatre to be known as the Tower, living up to its name in that a huge tower will be one of its features, will occupy a site on 63rd street near Blackstone and Harper avenues. This is another Lubliner & Trinz project, designed by Fridstein & Company. Gallup & Joy have prepared plans for the Crawford Building Corporation for a playhouse to be erected at Harding and Lawrence avenues. National Theatres Corporation, whose Capitol theatre at 79th and Halsted street is just about ready for a grand opening is having plans prepared by the same architect, John Eberson, for another new picture palace to be known as the Avalon for Stony Island and 79th street. ♦ * ♦ Plans for a $1,000,000 theatre for the corner of Montrose and Drake are being drawn by E. P. Rupert and R. Levine company. Undoubtedly the biggest theatre project in the country was among those shifted from the 1924 to the 1925 docket. This is the new theatre and office building for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation to be erected in Times Square, New York Q^. Ground for this giant structure will be broken June 1. A view of the building, as designed by Rapp & Rapp, Chicago architects, is shown on another page. According to present plans the building will be sixteen stories high, containing a theatre seating 4,000. Already indications point to an active building year generally in 1925 and theatre construction, it is only reasonable to assume, will keep pace with increased building activity generally. In the equipment field the latter months of the year saw a healthy revival of business growing from a period during t e summer months when things were The particularly gratifying feature of the year is the improvement made in the of dealers and manufacturers through the efforts of their association. Especially is this true since the July convention of the organization at Cleveland, at which distributors and manufacturers responded wholeheartedly in staging one of the finest exhibits of modern motion picture equipment held in recent years. On this occasion the equipment demonstrated forcefully the accomplishments possible through a properly functioning organization. The exhibit to be held in Milwaukee in May next year promises to be an even better one and we foresee through these exhibitions, important results in promoting theatre operating efficiency and finer entertainment.