The Film Daily (1941)

EQUIPMENT NEWS GMVSuly Friday, August 1, 1941 PROSCENIUM CHATTER COLUMBIA and RKO exchanges in Cincinnati are being completely remodeled, air conditioned and sound-proofed. New offices for salesmen and branch managers are provided for in the operations. * * * A new brick building to house a movie theater is being erected by F. P. Spinnenweber in Pocahontas, Ark. The front will be of jade green glazed brick, with trim of glass brick and stainless steel. The estimated cost is $20,000. * * * Joseph Stoia of Detroit's Midway and Circle Theaters has just started construction on his new 2,000-seat Forum Theater there. Project is to include 20 bowling alleys, 10 stores, and parking space for 1,000 cars in a seven-acre development. * * * Warners' Strand in Akron, O., which shuttered July 19 for complete remodeling, will reopen Aug. 14, it is announced by Manager John La Due. Plans call for a newly arranged auditorium, foyer and lobby, and other improvements include lounge facilities, rest rooms and powder room. New carpet, wall fabrics and drapes are other items on the list of improvements, as are fluorescent lighting, fixtures, screen and curtain travelers. The North Park, Buffalo nabe stand, has installed a new marquee, and the 20th Century, downtown first-run theater, has installed new ones at each of its two entrances. * * * Chris and Leon Velas, operators of the Family Theater, Bridgeport, O., have started construction of a film house on a downtown site. All modern equipment will be installed. Opening will take place in the early Autumn. The Fobian Decorating Co. has just finished redecorating the front and marquee of the State, Richmond, Va. House is managed by Stewart Tucker. * * * H. B. McCullough is remodeling the former McCullough & Guelck building in Hoxie, Ark., to provide for a new film house which will be operated by J. Green. * * * G. Bezanilla is modernizing his Palace Theater, Key West, Fla., via installation of new RCA Photophone sound. I* * * Shiar Rahain and A. H. Freeman are building a new theater in Laurel, Miss. It will be named the Lincoln. Morris and Ben Flaks have scheduled reopening of their Roosevelt, Baltimore, for September. House was shuttered on July 12 for extensive remodeling. * * * (Virgil Jackson's new McCook Theater in Dayton, O., has opened. It is managed by Bob Partlow. * * * Charles Auerbach, prexy of the Strand Amusement Co., has purchased RCA Photophone sound for his 800-seat New Strand Theater, Chicago. Pereira Org. Lists | Work Starts Sept. 1 Jobs Now Underway On New Miami Project Chicago — The office of W. L. Pereira, Chicago theater architect, reports many jobs going through the local headquarters of the company. Work is underway on the B & K television station on the 12th floor of the State Lake Building. Work is being rushed on the new RKO Exchange Buildings in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston. The Chicago offices also furnished the plans for the Rhumba Casino at State and Wacker Drive, built at an estimated cost of $100,000. The West Coast offices of the organization in Los Angeles, under W. L. Pereira direction, has completed plans for the Pan Pacific Theater on Gilmore Island, utilizing color dimension lighting throughout the structure. Wurdeman and Seickert are associates on these plans. Plans for the Motion Picture County Home, to be built on Ventura Blvd. and Mulholland Highway, in Ventura, have been completed and are ready for the builders. Miami — Construction of a $112,000 theater is scheduled to start by September 1 by Royal Palm Investments, Inc., according to a statement by Edward N. Claughton, promoter. The building will be on the corner of S. E. Third Ave. and S. E. First St., and will be the only downtown theater with its own parking lot. Witters Construction Co. here, is the contractor and Carl H. Blohm, architect. Building specifications are expected to be completed within two weeks. This will be a 1,000-seat house. It is reported that Wometco and Paramount chains, as well as an independent company, are negotiating a lease of the theater. New Projector Flashes News in Music Hall A special United Press news service has been made available to the natrons of the Radio City Music Hall with the installation in its Grand Lounge of a new type of Trans-Lux projector which automatically flashes news reports on a screen as received over a standard teletype printer. The new projector, the first of its kind to be placed in use anywhere, ;s completely automatic in operation. As the news is received on the printer, it is typed out on a web of translucent paper of standard width which is projected on a screen three feet by two feet in size. The screen, which can hold 24 lines of singlespace or 12 lines of double-spaced news, is legible at a distance of 35 feet. The new machine makes possible for the first time the projection of the full width of a broad page teletype roll. The entire apparatus is encased in a glass cabinet with its operation completely visible to the public. Two for Fort Dix Fort Dix, N. J.— Contracts for the construction of two theaters at a cost of $105,008 will be awarded as soon as bids are approved by the Quartermaster General in Washington, and work will start immediately thereafter. The J. A. J. Construction Co. was the low bidder in this phase of a $2,000,000 building proeram soon to be instituted. A major portion of the amount will be devoted to providing various recreational facilities. Ozark Is Operating Spencer, Ark.— The Ozark Theater, which seats 150, is now operating. Gene Higginbotham is the house manager. Okla. Theater Supply Busy Filling Orders Oklahoma City, Okla. — Recent sales by the Oklahoma Theater Supply Co., as reported by Eldon Peek, president, include: pair of Brenkert projectors and hi-intensity arc lamps to J. D. Hughes, operator of the Liberty Theater, Heavener; RCA sound system to L. L. Jones, Ritz Theater, Lawton; 650 HeywoodWakefield seats to William Slepka, Jewel and Crystal theaters, Okemah. Slepka is remodeling the Jewel, his "B" house, in Okemah. Also Heywood-Wakefield seats to Glenn Smith, Ritz, Sallisaw; carpet and new RCA sound to Charles Mahone, Oklahoma Theater, Hobart, and Brenkert projectors and arc lamps, RCA sound, new carpet, new Heywood-Wakefield chairs in the balcony to the Crawford Theater, Wichita, Kan., which house is being remodeled preparatory to inauguration of a combination vaudeville and film policy. The stage of latter house, of the old opera house style of architecture, is being rebuilt to accommodate vaudeville acts. EQUIPMENT FIELD NOTES Crescent Plans New Nabe Nashville, Tenn. — The site has been purchased and Architect Joe Holman is drawing plans for a new suburban theater for Crescent Amusement Co. to be located on Franklin Road. Preliminary plans call for a theater similar to the Belle Meade, which was built last year on Harding Road. The development will probably consist of a building large enough for eight or ten store spaces in addition to the theater. Camp Theat. Nearly Ready Fort Monmouth, N. J. — A movie theater and other recreation buildings are among the $7,000,000 worth of new buildings nearing completion at this Signal Corps training center. An additional $1,000,000 worth of contracts have just been awarded, for completion by November 1. Idaho Theater Under Way Smelterville, Ida. — Ed Metzgar announces that work has been started on his new theater here. LJAMMOND INSTRUMENT CO., Chi ' ' cago, has shown heavy recent gains it all departments, including that devoted to theater organs. More than 650 emplr> are currently on the payroll, and others' be added from time to time, officials a si Company has 555 electric organs under construction for the Government, which, C. V. Merrill, treasurer, states will take three months to complete. Also on order are more than 50 organs for the Army and Navy. Peter Perakos has installed a new air cooling system in his State, Jewett City, Conn. * * * Four Star Sound modernization equipments have been purchased from the Denver branch of NTS by Fox Inter-Mountain for their Fox Valencia, Walsenburg, Colo., and their Lincoln, Cheyenne, Wyo. For their Lotus, Sheridan, Wyo., the circuit purchased Four Star Sound modernization equipment, Super Simplex projectors, Mag narc lamps and National rectifiers. New theater chairs have been installed in their Denver, Denver, and in their America Theater, Butte, Mont. * * * Roy V. Starling, operator of several theaters in Texas, has renamed his Mesquite in Mesquite, Tex., the Texan Theater. RCA Photophone sound and booth equipment has just been installed as part of a modernization drive. * * * The newly decorated and equipped Bagdad Theater, Portland, Ore., is now under the management of Ted R. Gamble. This is one of the few houses in the Pacific Northwest that is now equipped with fluorescent lobby carpeting, illuminated with so-called "black light." New sound and projection equipment has been installed, I theater front remodeled and new seats placed. * * * The Goldsteins, Samuel and Nathan, of Western Massachusetts theater circuit, are not planning to erect any outdoor theater on Holyoke's Easthampton Road as rumored, following the real estate transfer recorded at the Registry of Deeds office in Springfield. Samuel Goldstein said that it was an intercompany transfer from William E. Kennedy. The land covers about 30 acres and is situated near the lookout tower of Anniversary Park. * * * The Rio, Bunkie, La., community's second house and claimant to some kind of title for being the smallest modern theater in this section of the country, has opened. Its seating capacity is less than 300. Manager V. C. Clark, also manager of the neighboring Bailey Theater, installed streamlined red plush seats in the Rio. * * * Brown Farinholt, manager of the Edgehill Theater, Gloucester, Va., has virtually completed interior and exterior improvements which he had planned for this Summer. * * * A motion picture theater is under construction in Alexandria, Ont., a town of 2,000, midway between Montreal and Ottawa.