Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1936)

cerned, by altering the shape of the lamphouse top a bit, a shield in curved form could be installed, I believe, to cover the whole reflector. This would cost a little more, yes, but light wasted through reflector pitting costs money, too. plan the projection room first. I would plan its equipment layout and use whatever money was left to produce as excellent and comfortable a theatre as possible. Thus I would feel I was placing my financial horse before and not behind the theatre cart. Yes, Local 306 books are closed. The membership has been over-loaded, many of the surplus being none too competent. Local 306 has many high-grade members who must themselves lay off two or three days a week to make employment for idle members, some of whom have exactly as much business in a projection room as the proverbial bull in a china shop. I have been told, on good authority, that an effort is going to be made to remedy this state of affairs in a manner that will eliminate the incompetent surplus. Speed the day! I know just how a competent projectionist feels under such conditions. Local 306 has a real president and a corps of officials that is working with him. As to television : Who can say ? I would not undertake even to offer an opinion. But just the same, were I an active projectionist I most certainly would try to keep posted on television and its progress so far as possible. If or when it finally arrives, how or how much it will affect the projectionist no one now can say. That lies wholly in the future. But why assume that it would greatly affect the theatre at all — at any rate, after the novelty had worn off? DIFFERENCE IN SOUND BETWEEN PROJECTORS j. E. loworn of the Palace theatre in Rowdon, Ga., writes, "I have followed your articles in Motion Picture Herald and Better Theatres for quite some time, finding them both interesting and helpful. I now have a problem I am unable to solve. "This theatre has two Simplex projectors equipped with Peerless low-intensity lamps and Mellaphone sound. The trouble is that the sound from projector No. 1 (righthand one) is not as strong as that from projector No. 2. I use more volume and more voltage, yet it does not seem to give as good sound as does the No. 2 projector; also, when I use the automatic arc control the speakers pick up interference. Have tried to locate the source of the trouble, but up to date without success. No. 2 projector works perfectly in every way." This leaves considerable to be guessed at. "I use more volume and more voltage." Now just what does he mean by "more voltage"? In what way is it applied? As I understand the matter, it is simply that projector No. 2, other things being equal, provides more volume than does No. 1, and noise from the automatic arc control of No. 1 is picked up by the sound circuit. This latter matter I have referred to the makers of the equipment, though it probably is due to the fact that there is arcing at the motor of No. 1 arc control, though it may be that the shielding of that motor circuit is imperfect. The manufacturer of the equipment doubtless can, and I am sure will, straighten that item out, as I have requested. And now for the sound trouble. Its source may be in any one of several places. First, if the system uses pre-amps, it may be in one of them — one of its tubes at fault NEW BOTTLES AND STALE WINE IN THE NEW YORK Herald-Tribune of Sunday, December 22, appeared an article descriptive of the new theatre now in process of erection to replace the old Rialto, Times Square, New York City, that in its turn some years ago replaced the famous old Hammerstein theatre that played a notable part in both stage and motion picture history. The said article should have been captioned, "Everything New but the Projectors." -A portion of it read as follows: "All equipment in this theatre will be new except the projection machines. There was quite a fuss about those. Mayer, who had watched those machines run 24 hours daily in the old 'hit' days, insisted that they" remain. After all he knew they could take the strain of the grind." I know it's incredible, but there it is. A new theatre from the ground up, erected on as costly a piece of ground, per unit area, as could probably be found anywhere on earth, the entire income from both building, its equipment and the land wholly dependent upon what comes from two second-hand projectors that have withstood the grind of an all-day show for years! If Mr. Mayer felt such an attachment for those projectors, it would have seemed better to give them a long deserved rest. If he felt the need for economy, it would seem that, some more appropriate way might have been found to exercise it. This theatre is located in the very center of our theatre capital. It will be visited by people from everywhere, who will expect it to be representative of the best in motion picture theatre technique. Moreover, retaining those old out-of-date and already badly worn projectors is unfair to whomever will be placed in charge of projection in that theatre. Playing to critical audiences he will be expected to perform the impossible. In ancient times, we are told, good bricks could not be made without straw. Well, the modern projectionist, no matter how competent, cannot produce the best results with worn projectors that also lack all those many improvements and refinements that have been added during the past few years. It is queer how often economy gets no consideration whatsoever when a new theatre is being built, or an old one remodeled, until the projection room is reached. Then, it being removed from the gaze of the public, economy suddenly jumps into the saddle and rides rough-shod over many things, to the later sorrow of the box office and the present sadness and worry of the men who are asked to produce high-class projection without proper means for doing it. Were I building a new theatre I would VACATIONS WITH PAY, NEW LOEW PRACTICE RECENTLY IN NEW YORK, Lester Isaac, director of projection of Loew's Theatres, called a meeting of projectionists to announce what amounts to a revolutionary change in the wage scale signed recently by Loew's and Motion Picture Projectionist's Local Union 306, IATSE & MPMO. The new scale gives Loew projectionists one week vacation each year, with full pay, and that certainly is a novelty. In addition to this there was extended discussion of a plan to have all men take from one to three weeks additional vacation, without pay, each year, in order to provide work for the large number of members of Local 306 that now have no work. Stress was laid upon the desirability of taking at least one week vacation at once, in ^rder that the idle men might have a few dollars for Christmas. Mr. Isaac, as usual at such meetings, spoke to the men, telling them plainly it was his intention to discharge those of the men who permitted faults in the projection work to creep in through neglect, carelessness, lack of knowledge, personal difficulties and petty fault-finding. Reasonable allowance will be made, said he, but told the meeting plainly that a small percentage of the men do not live up to the standards demanded by Loew's. HE FINDS THE "BOOKS ARE CLOSED" a new York projectionist writes, "After reading your Comments in Better Theatres for some while I am impressed with the idea that you are one, and possibly the only, person before whom I may parade my trouble and ask questions with the expectation of receiving truthful, unbiased answers. "I am an experienced, licensed projectionist in New York City. I presume you know, without my telling you, that the salary and working conditions of a union and a non-union man are not at all the same, and that the latter gets the worst of it. Now, Mr. Richardson, I have applied for membership in Local Union 306,. only to be told the 'books are closed and we don't know when they will be opened.' This, in fact, has been the answer for three long years. I am very certain I am just as capable in my work as many of the union men; also I am for the union. I believe in it. Could you then offer any advice as to what I might do? "My other question is: Will television replace or affect the projectionist in any appreciable manner? Do you think it advisable to study television ?" 32 Better Theatres