Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

48 BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF November 23, 1929 KLIEGL Music & Leader Stands ith Light Fixtures Bulletin No. 103 Write for this new bulletin, just issued — featuring the very latest designs in music and leader stands .... with light fixtures .... many novel and unusual styles . . . . modernistic conceptions for stage bands and jazz orchestras .... special stands for motion picture theatres others for traveling companies .... also piano and organ lights. Write or ask for Bulletin No. 103. U Universal Electric Stage Lighting Ccmnc 321 West 50th Street NEW YORK. N.Y. OTHER KLIEGL LIGHTING SPECIALTIES Footlights Border-lights Proscenium Lights Cove Lights Illuminated Signs Act Announcers Exit Signs Aisle Lights Step Lights Spotlights Floodlights Stage Lamps Color Wheels Color Frames Scenic Effects Coal Grates Electric Fountains Crystal Reflectors Connectors Plugging Boxes Music Stands Piano Lights Organ Lights Leader Stands Rheostats Automobile Calls Fire Logs Dimmers Panel Boards Switchboards Numeral Flashers Floor Pockets Wall Pockets Cable Supports Terminal Lugs Pipe Clamps Stage Cable Gelatine Mediums Color Caps Lamp Coloring Slide Carriers Shutters Blinders Lenses Enclosed Switches OSS* i Perfection Rheostats From Fox, Paramount, Keith and Loew's to the smallest suburban theatre, Perfection Rheostats are recognized as perfect aids to the highest motion picture standards. HOFFMANN & SOONS 387 First Avenue New York City Mfg. Division Contracting Electrical Engineers — Moving Picture Theatre Electrical Specialists is desired equipment in all theatres. Does not disturb talking movie or vaudeville performances. Write for complete information. Quiet Electric Ventilator Lakeside Company 223 Main St. Hermansville, Mich. Impossible-To-Stall-Or-Jam New-Tiffin Curtain-Control Starts, Stops, or Reverses at Any Point Scenery Catalogue Upon Request £$cemcShidios TIFFIN. QHK> HE WANTS TO KNOW 'ROM St. Louis, Mo., comes this letter: "Dear Mr. Richardson, this is an SOS for I'm sinking fast. I am in a hole ! My exciting lamp filaments are sagged. They have only been in use two weeks and the manager refuses to let me get new ones. Both are the same and he says it's nonsense to say it does any harm. He often reads what you write and has the Bluebook, which he often quotes to us. Won't you please tell him he is wrong?" Sure! I've done that little thing, and in emphatic terms. Here is the letter he has received long before this is printed. I print it for the benefit of other managers who sin in like manner. Omitting the address, it reads: "My dear Mr.*******, please read this without any thought that it is meant in any way unkindly. If I speak emphatically it is because I want to impress certain things upon you. "Mr.*****, your chief projectionist tells me you refuse to let him procure new exciting lamps to replace two which have warped filaments. Says you don't think the sag of the filaments does any harm. He says you honor me by having some faith in what I have to say concerning projection. Well, I'm going to do some saying right now. "Friend *******, you were never more entirely wrong in all your life. Without going into the reasons why — yes, I will do that too, though briefly. The reason the exciting lamp filament must be perfectly straight; the reason why nothing except a perfectly straight exciting lamp filament will project either sound of good quality or sound with full volume, is that the filament illuminates a slit only V/z thousandths of an inch high — a little higher that a sheet of tissue paper is thick — and since only the strongest, best light will be in a plane represented by the exact center of the exciting lamp filament, it follows, as you should be able to see, that since the slit is straight, if the filament be crooked in even the slightest degree, the slit will be unevenly illuminated, and since the slit illuminates the sound shading lines in the film sound track, it follows that they too will be unevenly illuminated, which is a condition I think you must realize cannot possibly result in perfect sound reproduction. "That is about as clear as I am able to make it without consuming a lot of space. You will find it fully set forth in Volume 3 of the Bluebook of Projection, now about ready for release — perhaps released when this is printed. "But that is not really what I am writing you about, Friend * * *. You are a theatre manager. Presumably you are not a motion picture projectionist. Marshall Field, perhaps the greatest merchant the world has ever seen, unless it be John Wanamaker, made a success of a great store — a store which sold many kinds of merchandise which he presumably knew next to nothing at all about. "How did he do it? "Very simple! He employed men who were expert in each line of goods, and asked or demanded onlv one thing, namely, that they MAKE GOOD. "My own conception of the successful theatre manager is a man who follows right along those lines. He, for example, employs a man to take charge of his projection department. He gives him a free hand, but demands results. He expects to be consulted in expenditures of considerable amount, but does not quibble over or even ask to be consulted about small things — and the price of two exciting lamps is a very small thing, friend * * *. "If the chief projectionist does not deliver the goods, or if it is found he is wasting, or