Exhibitors Herald (1927)

24 BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF October 29, 1927 LOEW’S and UNITED ARTISTS PENN THEATRE Pittsburgh Rapp & Rapp, Architects is equipped with our REVOLVING ORGAN CONSOLE ORCHESTRA LIFT PIANO LIFT and FULL STAGE EQUIPMENT, including counterweight system and fire curtain OTHER IMPORTANT INSTALLATIONS INCLUDE Roxy Theatre, New York Harding Theatre, Chicago Paramount Theatre, New York Belmont Theatre, Chicago Colony Theatre, New York Rivoli Theatre, New York Ziegfeld Theatre, New York Strand Theatre, New York Keith’s Chester Theatre, Bronx, N. Y. Madison Theatre, Brooklyn Metropolitan Theatre, Boston Capitol Theatre, Boston Uptown Theatre, Chicago Oriental Theatre, Chicago Tivoli Theatre, Chicago Howard Theatre, Chicago Tower Theatre, Chicago Marbro Theatre, Chicago Diversey Theatre, Chicago North Center Theatre, Chicago Royal Theatre, Joliet Missouri Theatre, St. Louis St. Louis Theatre, St. Louis State Theatre, Detroit Orchestra Hall, Detroit Michigan Theatre, Detroit Shea’s Theatre, Buffalo Saengers Theatre, New Orleans Eastman Theatre, Rochester Kilborn Hall, Rochester United Artists Theatre, Los Angeles PETER CLARK, INC. 534-546 West 30th St. NEW YORK CITY WE CAN’T MAKE ALL THE REFLECTOR ARC LAMPS SO WE ONLY MAKE THE BEST PERFECTION ARC COMPANY, Inc. 711 Wells St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin sition to make to the science of the motion picture. As soon as they placed their final model in our hands and assured us that we were ready to go ahead with manufacturing and distributing, we began to lay our plans in earnest. “Up till then we were mostly taken up with the moral factor of the device, as yet unnamed. Now we came face to face with the economic factor, for we wanted to place this device everywhere; first, for the safety reasons that animated our enthusiasm in the beginning; secondly, because only with large production could we make it moderate in price to the user. “We were advised to immediately patent the invention before making any attempt to introduce the device. How virgin was the patent field, how crying was the need for our device, is indicated when I give names of countries where we have obtained basic patents or where they are pending. These countries are as follows: United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Cuba, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Belgium, India, Russia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Australia, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Greece, China, Norway, Poland, Argentine, Roumania, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, Czecho-Slovakia, Union of South Africa, New Zealand, Switzerland, Chile, Colombia, Irish Free State, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and Uruguay. “All these experiments, all the administration so far described, had been carried on in Philadelphia. This was for no other except the obvious reason that my financial interests were centered there and most of my contracts were there. “As soon as our engineering was finished and our patents procured, we set about introducing the device. We did not immediately embark on a sales campaign. We wanted first to put the device through every practical demonstration and to satisfy public officials that it was everything we claimed it to be. So we made an installation in the Alleghany theatre. We invited the fire underwriters, the fire marshals of Philadelphia and Camden, N. J.; we invited the heads of the Departments of Public Safety, the School Superintendents, the chiefs of the Electrical Bureau — all the ranking officials of such departments as are created in all large communities for the protection of the public against such hazards as we had determined to wipe off the map. In every instance we found that our highest expectations were realized in the judgment of these officials. “At about this time we became the recipients of much advice to start a campaign to have our device made compulsory in theatres. We have listened to such advice, but have not acted upon it and it is my present conviction that we will not attempt any such propaganda. I say this for two reasons; first, because I do not think it will be necessary, and secondly, because we do not want our device to be viewed as something which will be used only under compulsion. We want theatre owners to wish to use it, because in the final analysis it is for their own protection and that of their audiences. “From present indications it looks as if we will be fortunate to keep the supply up to the demand. We have two factories now in operation and we have not found it easy to keep pace with the market call. I do not mean to infer that we are making no sales effort, for we are; we are making every possible sales effort and are rapidly expanding our selling organization to make an even stronger effort. Our factories are expanding in size and number; we have at the present time two of them in opera(Contitiued on page 30)