The Film Daily (1935)

THE Saturday, June 8, 1935 ■2£k DAILY NT GUILDERS J0H3LSON k is paper by John Eberson, one of America's leading architects, ng BUSINESS BUILDERS for exhibitors. Articles by other requesting information will be answered by this department. TAILING THEATER" IE AILIk'ie with practical draftsmen, trained in the field. He should eliminate and dispense K the services of book-and-office-trained designers who are more interested and lingJr in the maze of intricate and expensive architectural ornament and worthless reil )ellishmenls. i, iiqi The trained and observing architect, if he is to be a theater specialist, must rial n as much about the show business as possible, as much at least as he knows in ton architectural field about correct design, strength and durability of materials, or values, lighting and building costs. Jtfil; We were told by the industry only a few years ago that 21 years was the proper ic period for theater leases and amortization. Rents were calculated on ten per cent building costs and five per cent on the value of the land. Cost of equipment was Isuca^be written off in ten years. Well, this recipe and figure concoction was to be "Good to the Last Drop." We were wrong — all wrong — except the word "drop." Rents dropped. Corpora,' ns dropped. Business dropped. And many, many theaters have become obsolete much less time than originally anticipated, and they are still badly, badly ailing lay. In most cases where the showman feels the necessity of remodeling his crumbling 4 badly-arranged house (may this be prompted by his justified conviction that a ll,e (|,(iidernized theater will do more business, or by his justified fear of competition im a contemplated new theater in his territory), a 100 per cent remodernization can t be financed under present conditions. A careful individual study and analysis should, therefore, be made with the aid an experienced and practical theater architect to determine the scope and rotation sly to rebuilding and refurnishing operations, which under a partial remodeling plan, will ost quickly stop the ravages of time and will most effectively resuscitate the ticket Hing machine behind the marble plate in the box-office. No general rule can be set up for this procedure, and every individual theater constm^d theater location must be analyzed. In general, but in general only, we might, in considering partial remodeling, list mud Mil sp i mess ::« J« I m ■;h:-dlfle eit ids imerically the following operations: elite ii lo 1 telliiplace metal flashing on same. nest J in d 1. Re-shape canopy using present steel frame. 2. Add to canopy lighting. 3. Re-cover outside display frames with metal mouldings. Save box and sash, 4. Remove glass and sash on all inside frames and set same back as far into (.Continued on Page 6) All Set to Serve You ?i / National Service never relaxes. It is ready to help your renovation, re-equipment and repair problems. Only equipment of KNOWN QUALITY. Carpets, seating, screens, projectors. Send for catalog. National is PREPARED to SERVE your theatre. NATIONAL TH EATRE 92 Gold St. or Office Nearest You SUPPLY CO. New York, N. Y. EQUIPMENT FIELD NOTES Chicago — National Theater Supply has had an unusually large number of equipment jobs recently in towns within a 100-mile radius of Chicago. Among them: Installation of a pair of Simplex portable sound projectors, also booths and carpets, in the Myers, Franeisville, Ind.; remodeling job at the Roxy, Naperville, 111., that included new chairs, booth and stage draperies, carpets, lighting system, cooling system, and box-office; Polo, Polo, 111., new wood treated acoustically; remodeling job for the Princess, Peoria, including decorating carpets, lighting fixtures, Neon sign, and acoustical treatment; the Rivoli, Monmouth, 111., remodeling front, Neon canopy sign, new carpets, lighting fixtures, boxoffice and decorating; air conditioning the Pekin and Rialto theaters, Pekin, 111., the Lawford, Havana, and the Princess, Peoria. The company also has installed air conditioning plants in the Englewood, Grand and La Salle theaters, Chicago, and has furnished the new WGN studios complete booth equipment, including Simplex projectors, Peerless magnarc lamp, and generators. both made of substantial materials, with an exterior shell of brass. It shoots a cloud of dry compound at the flames. Exhaustive tests prove its efficiency in fighting fires in grease, oil, alcohol, gasoline, ether, acetones, lacquers, energized electrical apparatus and other combustibles, its manufacturers point out. Gloucester, Mass. — The Strand, now again operated by J. D. Bloomberg, has installed new projection room equipment, including Peerless Magnarc high intensity lamps and G. E. copper oxide rectifiers. Work was done by the Boston office of National Theater Supply. Waterbury, Conn. — Garrison Engineering Corp. is stressing its Garfire gun, a three-pound piece of equipment for fire extinguishing. It consists of a pump gun and a fire extinguishment compound projector, New York — Problem of elimination of acoustical room distortions has been solved by Christina A. Volf through development of the Volf Sound Resonator, ,says the current issue of "Commercial America." The device produces three di CContinued on Page 6) HEADQUARTERS For Unliable PROJECTION EQUIPMENT OF THE BETTER KINO THEATRE ACCESSORIES CARPETS— CHAIRS Neur anil Kvhuilt Eiinipmenl .7/icovs tin tiantl AMUSEMENT SUPPLY CO., INC. 341 W. 44th St., N. Y. C. LAckawanna 4-7510 "The Devil is a Woman" The devil may be a woman, or vice versa, to many men, but to theatre owners with an eye on profits, the devil is "overhead. One way to cut down overhead is to cut down the frequency of carpet replacements . . . which is why so many theatre owners specify ALEXANDER SMITH CARPET