Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1932)

I I t The Rockefeller City project has been closely identified with the motion picture industry from the start. Whatever its purposes, and multifarious they have grown to be, the world of motion pictures rather thought of the development as a spectacular venture of that very comprehensive organization known in the trade as Radio. Not a matter of crooners and static, this, but RKO Pictures, Radio Keith Orpheum theatres, RCA Photophone — more remotely to those in this business, the Radio Corporation of America. And indeed, for the several years that the project has been under way, and until a few months ago, was this provocative undertaking in midtown New York not called Radio City? Thus it is that though the discussion {The Motion Picture in Rockefeller City) and other material presented in this issue concerns principally the theatre to be devoted to screen entertainment, the whole project variously involves this amusement industry. And it grows yet more stupendous when we contrast what its site once signified with the gargantuan monument to industry, science and art that it presently will hold . . . According to Wallace Benjamin (writing in the Sixth Avenue Association's Boulevard) , as well as other sources, four plots aggregating 20 acres and containing the 13-acre area of Rockefeller City, was bought for $4,807.36 in 1801. That was, if mathematics can be trusted, about 131 years ago — not so long a period when one considers the centuries by which the ages of nations are usually calculated. The purchaser was a professor of botany in the very young Columbia, then but a single college. At that time, this area was 3^/2 miles from the City of New York, and the professor, Dr. David Hosack, had dreams of cultivating there a garden for the study of medicinal plants. He put his dream in execution, too, spending around $28,000 ^on his garden. But either it was too expensive, or did not seem to offer the results anticipated, for in 1810 he sold the four plots to the State of New York, receiving but $74,268.75 ... It seems that these four plots lapsed into obscurity for a time. In the hands of the state they returned to their untended condition, and when in 1814 the state seems to have recognized its own lack of interest in them, they again were put to the service of Columbia. The trustees of Columbia, however, did not know what to do with them either at first, but in the early '20s they began the series of leases that has continued ever since, with the considerations mounting rapidly to the present fabulous figures. The first leases were for the whole 20-acre area at $125 a year. Later, the leases were for lots only. The first sale of any lots from the area was to a church, 16 lots being sold for $80,000. Then early in this century the block between 48th and 49th Streets was sold — this piece bringing Columbia $3,000,000. Since then, the trustees have steadfastly refused to dispose of any portion of the area, and today John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Metropolitan Square Corporation holds the remaining land only on a lease, and this contract contains clauses calling for the right to cancel or reappraise at the end of each 20-year period. . . . The interest of Mr. Rockefeller — and one should emphatically include, Mrs. Rockefeller, for she has become very active in the direction of the project — is represented as that of one desiring to give the electrical sciences adaptable : to education and entertainment their full scope j as cultural media for all the people. The | project is planned, however, as a sound commercial venture. From the managers, architects and engineers, one gathers that any idea of ! direct philanthropy associated with the project originally has been thoroughly eradicated. Experiment has little if any place in the plans. Ideas have apparently been adopted only when they were absolutely "safe" — that is, not so radical that they might scare away profits. . . j One wonders, of course, about the profits of ' other amusement places. Broadway is a street j of transients, and Rockefeller City is likely to prove a wonder that must be visited. But per j haps the bridge need not be crossed until it is come to. It so often happens, too, that such bridges by that time have disappeared. ; H If the Southtown theatre {A Neighborhood Theatre Built on the Grand Scale) were notable for nothing else, it would be instructive for the ideas it offers for means to attract patrons to a community amusement center from points a j considerable distance away. The most opulent theatre in the Chicago section of Englewood, I this Publix-Balaban & Katz theatre has been j conceived to serve not only this large division, | but a substantial portion of the southwestern part of the city. Parking provisions form a section of the very plot of the theatre, and circulation of patronage has been arranged specifically ' to direct egress conveniently near the parked motors. For so large and congested a city, the automobile as a means of local transportation , is very important, due to the existence of a j great planned boulevard system. In most other I cities, the automobile is just as important a means of transit, and to provide for this condition is doubtless to enlarge an important j theatre's field of regular patronage. Arthur \ Frederick Adams, who discusses the Southtown, ! is a designer on the staff of the architects, C. W. ! & George L. Rapp. j H His article on the construction and materials [ of theatre chairs is H. S. Leader's second and [ final contribution to the series. Modern Seating , and Chair Maintenance. This symposium of modern technical thought on a very important j factor in successful theatre operation will next j present Alfred C. Hoven. Both Mr. Leader and Mr. Hoven are research engineers on the staff of the American Seating Company. Mr. i Hoven is directly in charge of the phases of seating he will discuss in the next issue of i Better Theatres. ! If Leo T. Parker, who in Liability Under Film Service Contracts contributes another of his i regular legal articles, is a Cincinnati attorney. IF Aaron Nadell {Repairs Made by the Projectionist) is a New York sound and projection engineer. He will be remembered as the author of the recent series, "What the Manager Should Know About Sound." He has also I written a book on sound picture projection. 11 Dan Parker {Preparing Organ Solos for the | Circuit) is a member of the staff of the organists' special service department of the Radio Keith Orpheum circuit. NOTES on WRITERS and SUBJECTS in this ISSUE