Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

November 15, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD -WORLD 47 W SOUND REPRODUCTION F. H. RICHARDSON on PROJECTION BLUEBOOK SCHOOL QUESTION NO. 62. — (A) What does a battery give off in charging? (C) Is it dangerous, and if so, why? (D) Is it safe to examine a charging storage battery, using a lighted match or other open light source for illumination? Explain. DOWN IN THE LONE STAR STATE [Until further notice ,all communications to this department should be addressed to F. H. Richardson, 43 — 38 Thirty-ninth place, Long [sland City, N. Y.] ALPINE, TEX. WE left El Paso at 10:45, drove 235 miles over roads, some of which were excellent, and the rest were not very bad, arriving in the village of Alpine about five o'clock. Noticing a very pretty theatre front, I made it my business to drop in and say hello. The name of the theatre is the Granada. The manager was out, so I left a card and went up and had a talk with Projectionist B. E. Perdue. He is putting on a very good screen image and good sound, too, though I will say I didn't pay very close attention, because there was work to do and I was in a hurry. That evening, Manager E. E. Mol knocked at our door and we had a very pleasant chat. The Granada is one of a chain of theatres owned and operated by Oscar Korn. The chain is called the O. K. Theatres. Manager Mol and Projectionist Perdue knew of me, and although we had never met, still we were, in a way, friends. That is one of the best things about this sort of work. I do not meet one projectionist in a hundred whom the Bluebook and the department in the Herald-World has not helped. It is very pleasant to walk into a theatre in a perfectly strange city and find the hand of friendship extended. Manager Mol tells me that his experience of almost 20 years in managing small town theatres has taught him that 50 cents admission is the maximum that small town patrons will stand for. We held some discussion with regard to wide film, but the problem wide film will present to the small town theatres is a large one, because very few theatres are large enough to accommodate such a screen image. It really seems to me (and with that opinion Manager Mol agrees) that wide film can only be available to small towns as new theatres replace the old. SAN ANTONIO, TEX. WELL, here we are in what San Antonians call the Queen City of Texas — though possibly Dallas, Houston, Galveston, etc., might enter into argument with them on that point. Friend Daughter and I have "done" the historic old Alamo, where that old pioneer, Davy Crockett, and his band of faithful followers made their last stand and died in the defense of the freedom of Texas. It is a sacred place to every citizen of the Lone Star state, and Members of projectionists' local No. 597, of Waco, Tex., and F. H. Richardson, at the dinner tendered the HERALD-WORLD projection expert when he was in Waco to address the projectionists there during his nation-wide tour this summer. (F. H. is the "big boy" seated at center.) is beloved, as well, of every true citizen of the United States of America. One feels rather awed as he enters those grim rooms of stone and sees in his mind's eye that little band of men in air filled with powder smoke, fighting until the last one sinks down dead. There is somehow a solemn grandeur about that sort of thing. San Antonio is now a city of about 300,000. It has about 15 motion picture theatres. Publix has three houses, R K O one, and Victor four suburban houses. All the rest are independently owned. In addition to the above, there are about five Mexican theatres — that is to say, theatres owned and operated by Mexicans and patronized almost entirely by the large number of Mexican people resident in San Antonio. Local No. 407 has 23 members. There are, in addition to them, six men from other locals working on permit. The wage scale is in three classes: namely, $50, $62.50 and $82.50, the latter for deluxe houses. Business Agent W. B. Keeler informs me that the managers are very good about keeping the equipment in good condition. The officers of the local are Charles Breuning, president; A. P. Hatfield, vice president; Benno J. Kuesenberger, recording secretary; G. Muller, financial secretary; and W. B. Keeler, business representative. The only theatre I inspected in San Antonio was the Aztec, a Publix house, in which was found as excellent sound distribution as I have encountered in any wide auditorium. It has one horn pointed directly back to the center of the auditorium, two horns set to take care of either side of the main auditorium floor, and two additional horns to supply the balcony. The result is indeed excellent. I could detect very little, if any, difference between the sound at the center and at the extreme sides. The theatre is finished in what they denominate Aztec style, which consists in — well, I hardly know how to describe it. It is of course of plaster, but the effect is of walls built of huge blocks of rough, very old brown stone, with Aztec heads and similar decorations. The effect is very pleasing. In the large foyer is a chandelier containing 365 "candles," which latter, of course, have tiny electric globes enclosed in a "flame" covering. The theatre seats 2,455. Its admission prices are 15, 25, 35 and 50 cents. The projection room is very good. It is equipped with Simplex projectors, using Peerless lamps. I am told that the Western Electric sound equipment is the third one ever made. They have recently installed two sets (six to the set) of Philco batteries, which Projectionist J. L. McElyea says have improved things very greatly. They use one of the sets for six hours, then recharge them while the other set is in use. This takes from seven to eight hours. The projection staff is composed of J. L. McElyea, Roy Cogdill, William Keller (business agent of the local), and Walter Tiney. The meeting was held in the Aztec at midnight. It was attended by all members