Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

50 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD November 8, 1930 Neth Offers Series of Foreign Talkers to Vary Entertainment A step toward greater variety in entertainment has been taken by Neth's State theatre in Columbus, which has undertaken the presentation of a series of alldialog foreign pictures. Films to be shown under this policy include talkers in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Swedish and Portuguese. The State is located adjacent to the campus of Ohio State University, giving it a good field from which to draw patronage to such pictures. The first of the foreign talkers, a French version of "The Big Pond," has already been presented. Two short subjects, "Molesson" and "Clinique Musicale," also in French, augmented the feature. John McCormick, manager of the State, reports an excellent turnout. Only one performance was shown. The series of foreign programs will continue through the winter, with a performance every Saturday at 10 a. m. Newspapers have been unanimous in their acclaim of McCormick's plan, reviewing "The Big Pond" just as they would a first run. Several followup articles were carried commending the plan. Henri Faubert, French consular agent, was a guest at the first performance. The Ohio department of education is co operating in introduction of the foreign pictures at the State. Another house operated by the Neth circuit in Columbus, the Eastern, has equipped 50 seats with headphones for the hard of hearing. Robert O. Glick, manager, keeps a guest book of all who use the headphones. To date he has 495 names, including visitors from as far as New York and St. Louis, besides people from many Ohio cities. The headphones are the Audiphone system, connecting with the Western Electric sound equipment. A list of coming attractions at the Eastern house is posted in the reading rooms of the Columbus League for the Hard of Hearing. Members frequently organize theatre parties. There is no advance in prices for users of the headphones. With F. H. Richardson on His Visit to Capital of Pictures {Continued from page 48, column 3) or anything else, by the addition of the prisms. In company with Brother McCullough we visited also the Fox Wilshire theatre, a new deluxe theatre just opened not very far from Culver City. The Wilshire has a most excellent projection room, which provides a projection angle of only 13 degrees. The room is not entirely finished. Projectionists in charge are Al Fienstien and Rodney Bacon. * SAN DIEGO. SAN DIEGO, the most southern of California's large cities, lies by the sea, has excellent bathing beaches, plenty of beautiful girls and nice theatres. First, Mr. Metcalf, who was a most agreeable host for the evening, took me over to the Fox theatre. Everything was decidedly clean. In the back of the room was a Frigidaire water system. All port shutters are counterweighted, with a safety hook to keep them from falling. I noticed all the cue sheets were held in black music racks, in each of which a light was placed, to be used when needed. These racks were, in turn, suspended from a wire that ran from one end of the room to the other, so that each rack could be placed in the most convenient position for use. The Spreckles theatre is managed by Jack Edwards. I am told this theatre won the Exhibitors Herald-World Plaque for having excellent sound. The projection room is small. It has been enlarged some but still is none too spacious. It is very poorly ventilated. The San Diego meeting was attended by all the projectionists in that territory as well as by several of the managers — perhaps by them all, I am not certain as to that. The San Diego local is a progressive one. I have always liked the men of that city. * * * TUCSON, ARIZ. OUT of San Diego we had good roads across the desert to Phoenix. Something like sixty miles of them are of gravel. Tucson was reached about noon on the second day. We were received by Walter Burroughs, secretary of the local, and his wife, who is an author. We were taken to see a most interesting mission something like 300 years old. We there met a most delightful priest, who showed us around and made the trip even more interesting than it would have otherwise been. Tucson has five theatres, one of which is closed for repairs. Albert D. Stetson, district manager for the Fox interests, has charge of the Fox theatre, which is the finest in the city. Its projection staff consists of Sam Koutas, Walter Burroughs, Albert Runkle and Don Freiling, who is swing man for the Fox and Fox Lyric. The Fox Lyric, managed by Oliver Thompson, has something I have not seen for quite a while, namely a Powers projector. Both the sound and the picture were excellent. The projection staff is composed of H. O. Sarrels, G. Martinez and Lee Frayweek. The Plaza theatre is managed by Nick Diamos. Its projection staff is B. E. Grooms, Richard Yrigoyen (you may do the pronouncing), Mike Neugent and George Diamos. The Opera House is managed by Frank Drachman. Its chief projectionist is Aurelio Osuna, who seems to be a man with ideas. He has a Strong lamp from which he has removed the negative carbon holder and has substituted a Peerless holder, and he has a Peerless lamp from which he has removed the reflector and substituted a Strong reflector. His claim is that the results are very much better. Osuna has made another change. As it now is with the Western Electric driver attachment to the Simplex, it is impossible to remove the belt wheel and gears without first taking the mechanism off the stand. Osuna drilled screw holes in which screws could be placed to hold that part of the mechanism casing below the left-hand door. He then sawed_ out the bottom side of the hole through which the driver shaft goes. The idea is to enable the projec tionist to remove the lower left part of the mechanism casing, swing the driver up and over, whereupon the belt wheel may be removed without taking the mechanism off the stand. The assistant projectionist of the Opera House is David Schumaker. There were men at the meeting from both Douglas and Nogales, and let me tell you, that is quite some distance to come after show hours. Of course, all members of the Tucson local were there, and be it said to their credit, all the managers were also present. * EL PASO, TEX. WELL, here we are, 'way down here in the great state of Texas. For two days past most of the buildings have been adobe and the vegetation principally sage brush, cactus and more cactus, except where irrigation is available. El Paso lies on the Rio Grande, near the northwestern corner of Texas. Across the border is Mexico, and to the northwest, New Mexico. It is a thoroughly modern, up-todate city, with theatres of all classes, the Plaza being the best example. It was opened two weeks ago and is managed bv C. S. Frias. It is a beautiful house, seating 2,500. The sound in this theatre is more than ordinarily excellent. The enunciation is clear and perfect, which is something that cannot be said of all theatres. The picture is well put on the screen by A. O. Yonge, chief projectionist, who is president of the local in El Paso. He is assisted by T. J. Swiski and Fred Erhard. I compliment these gentlemen on the excellence of their work. The condition at the Publix L. & A. is, in some respects, very poor. The auditorium has a great deal of reverberation. I was advised that an attempt was made to eliminate this, but it was not a success. Another fault is due to the fact that the current to' the projector light sources is supplied by a very old Hertner upright transverter. This machine is too small for the work it is called upon to do. While in El Paso I called at the office of the International Amusement Company, which owns theatres in Mexico and El Paso. I was made welcome by General Manager Rafael Calderon, whom I found to be not only a most pleasant gentleman but also a nrogressive executive. Right in the beginning he said, "I have your Bluebook. It has helped me a great deal. I read your department every week. It is very helpful." And that is a very real compliment, coming from the general manager of a large corporation. I also had the pleasure of meeting A. Salas Porras, assistant to Calderon. I enjoyed my visit with these gentlemen immensely. General Manager Calderon accompanied me on a visit to one of his theatres. In it I found another case of a motor generator that is too small, with a resultant dim picture. The name of the theatre is the Colon Domingo. Mr. Sanchez is chief projectionist, and Jose Porres his assistant. In the Colon theatre I saw something which General Manager Calderon said had "saved the day" for many theatres patronized by Spanish-speaking people. In the Colon they project the English titles of silent pictures in the usual way. In slide carrier position they have a metal arrangement fixed to a stereopticon, by means of which a roll of gelatin may be moved down through the light beam. On this gelatin the English titles are written in Spanish. The typewriting is single-spaced, about the width of a slide and of whatever depth may be necessary. A projectionist stands by this stereopticon all the time, and when an English title is flashed on the screen, he projects the Spanish title, which appears immediately below the English version. The thing is very cleverly done. It adequately solves the matter of translating English motion picture titles. The titles are, of course, typewritten on the gelatin in the proper position. The roll of gelatin is then placed in the metal carrier, at the top of which is a carrying spindle, with a similar one below having a knob by means of which the projectionist may rotate it, thus pulling the gelatin down as desired.