Motion Picture Daily (July–Sept 1938)

Friday. September 23, 1938 MOTION PICTURt DAILY Storm Damage Total Uncertain Last Night Storm Spends j Hurricane Smashes, Floods 10 Its Fury On Boston Area Long Island, N.E. Theatres ; Boston, Sept. 22. — New England theatre damage by hurricane is inestimable. Communications have been cut off in many towns and circuits have received no reports. Rising waters are increasing theatre losses which are already in hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Scollay .Square. Old Howard, and Strand theatres were closed by police last night Alien the staging on a nearby courthouse threatened to collapse. Signs and marquees were ripped on by the dozens. Power was cut off in 40 cities and towns in suburban boston alone last night. Many will not be opened for several days. All theatres Acre reported closed in Lowell where rlood waters are rising. Drive-in tneatres in Lynn and Metheun were heavily damaged. I. Finn, brother of Dann Finn oi Warners, was seriously injured in a Metheun mishap. Newport House Unroofed The roof was blown off of the Colonial in -Newport. Roof of the Orpheum in Somerville caved in and the theatre was put on the closed list for the next few months. In the film district, plate glass windows at Coulter Premiums and the National Theatre Supply were smashed. Transportation was hampered. the only contact with New York is by airplane. Trucks are getting into Rhode Island but are unable to get beyond the outskirts of Providence. Western Massachusetts was the most seriously hurt of all New England. Worcester is as far west as trucKs are going today. Vermont is practically cut off. Cape Cod is entirely cut off. Maine is all right and so is New Hampshire as far as Laconia. Ten houses on the Western Ma^sachusetts Circuit are reported closed. The Levenson circuit houses suffered casualties including a torn off roof in Leominister and roof damage in Quincy. Flood Crests Not Reached There was clear bright weather in Boston today. Over 200 are alreadyreported dead in New England. Flood heights will not be reached in many instances until tomorrow morning. WAAB and WNAC returned to the air with emergency outfits last night and are still continuing with emergency bulletins. The WMEN tower was blown down. WZA and WBZA were still off this afternoon. Theatre owners are still trying to check into extent of damage. Many are marooned in Boston and elsewhere and have not heard from their houses since yesterdav. (Continued from page 1) to eight minutes. Twenty-three Loew houses were affected. There was still no power at noon yesterday. Lights were out on the north shore of Long Island after 4 P. M. Shortly after this Huntington, Laurel Park, Bellrose, Franklin Square and Baldwin went dark. Managers and their staffs proved resourceful in many instances. Some acted as masters of ceremony while patrons went on the stage and put on their own show. Candles were used for illumination. Audiences staged community sings. W here audiences became panicky passes were issued or refunds were given. New Jersey escaped the full force of the storm, but houses at Asbury Park and other shore towns closed after the receipt of the storm warning on the theory that there would be no business anyway. Transportation in Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken was at a standstill for hours, but power stayed on. Power was cut off at New Platz, N. Y., however. The amazing effects of the storm hit southern Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In New London transportation ceased when the harbor waters began piling shipping across the New Haven Railroad tracks. All downtown theatres closed. In Providence the entire downtown area was under six feet of water and all houses were damaged. The same conditions Apple Trees In the midst of the difficulty of establishing communication with New England points where Loew theatres were damaged, Johnny Murphy, assistant to Joe Vogel at Loew's, received an urgent telephone call from his mother in Jamaica to inform him that her two precious apple trees were uprooted. prevailed in all the communities on both sides of Narragansett Bay. Late yesterday it was impossible to get telephone connections with any theatre east of Stamford. New England theatre damage ranged from smashed signs, marquees and skylights to virtual destruction, as in Providence, where the roof of an Ed Fay theatre was reported to have collapsed. Loew's reported that with the exception of Providence, all of its New England theatres were operating last night, so far as could be determined. In Providence, the RKO Albee was forced to close at 4 P. M. when floods and the storm disrupted power service. A number of theatre patrons were trapped in parked automobiles when a six-foot tidal wave swept the center of the citv. Little Worcester Damage Worcester, Sept. 22. — Local theatres report flooded basements and much minor damage, such as broken skylights and smashed signs. Springfield suffered similar havoc. Loew's Poli was flooded. Newsreel Staffs Put On 24-Hour Coverage Newsreel staffs worked a 24-hour shift ending at noon yesterday. Some material was obtained in time to be included in the regular newsreel releases which went out to theatres yesterday, but the bulk of the footage on the storm was received too late for regular releases. Unusual material is being sent out as a special while the remainder will be held for the reels to be made up on Monday. Newsreel coverage was extensive from Philadelphia to Boston. In the New York area special boats were chartered to take camera crews to Fire Island, where damage was extensive. Private planes carrying cameramen were unable to take off until midnight Wednesday for storm areas in and around Providence. Highway and rail conditions stopped travel by automobile and train in many areas, seriously handicapping the coverage of local cameramen. All five reels, however, reported that considerable footage had been obtained from mid-afternoon of Wednesday to noon yesterday. Midtown Not Affected New York midtown theatres were not affected by power difficulties. The Paramount's business was "slightly off" and the Capitol reported a good night's business. Uptown N. Y. Houses Dark as Power Fails All theatres served by alternating current in Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx were darkened shortly before 9 P. M. when power lines failed. Service was resumed at varying times which ranged from 15 minutes to an hour and a half. Theatres which use direct current were not affected. With houses lighted by flashlights, small battery lamps and candles, most metropolitan audiences waited patiently until programs could be resumed. At the Fordham, Manager Sol Schwartz, who was conducting an Amateur Show when the lights went out, opened two exit doors and had taxicabs focus their headlights on the stage. Community singing and impromptu acts from the audience helped fill the gaps at other houses. Where patrons refused to wait, passes were issued. RKO was compelled to close several houses in Manhattan and the Bronx when patrons became restive, but reopened them shortly after 10 o'clock. All Skouras Circuit houses in West Bronx and Upper Broadway were compelled to close when power failed. Four houses in Long Island and one in Rockland, N. Y., also closed. Only minor damage by the wind was incurred. All New Jersey theatres remained open. Flood Waters Soak Theatres In Providence Providence, Sept. 22. — A tidal wave that swept the center of the city flooded all theatres, with untold damage. Everything has been at a virtual standstill since the hurricane struck Wednesday afternoon. Ed Fay's Majestic was demolished when the roof collapsed under the gale's impact. Loew's State was flooded to the 15th row of the orchestra, but the house was not hurt structurally. Joseph R. Vogel, Loew executive, and construction department officials are due from New York as soon as transportation is restored to supervise immediate repairs to the State. The RKO home office last night received information that its Albee Theatre, closed since 4 P. M. Wednesday, reopened yesterday at 1 P. M. Loew's at a late hour last night was unable to establish communication with its Providence theatre. Greenport Theatre Collapses in Gale Greenport at the eastern end of Long Island was caught in the center of the blow. Early in the afternoon Herman Finker, manager of the Greenport, a Prudential house, began to worry about the safety of his patrons and decided to stop the show and request them to go home. Trees were already beginning to fall around town. Shortly after 5 o'clock the entire rear wall of the theatre blew out and the theatre practically collapsed. There was no loss of life and no injuries. The loss is estimated at $200,000, and the house will be rebuilt. Eighteen other Prudential houses were affected by loss of power and flooded streets in various parts of Long Island. Joseph M. Seider, Prudential president, left for an automobile tour of the circuit yesterday morning, but found complicated detours necessary in a number of spots because of fallen trees. Power was restored in most communities early yesterday. Fire Follows Gale; New London Is Hit New London, Sept. 22. — Fire and gale caused at least $4,000,000 damage here, with theatres in the path of destruction. The fire, starting late Wednesday along the waterfront, demolished about 40 buildings, some on Bank St., the city's principal thoroughfare. The fire loss is estimated at $1,000,000. The howling gale left scarcely a structure in the city undamaged to some extent. Ocean Beach virtually was swept away as the gale roared in from Long Island Sound. All downtown theatres were closed tonight. [More storm news on page 6] I