Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

Grand Central, which has been renamed the Guild Cinema, is to be devoted to unusual foreign and educational productions. About $170,000 is to be expended in refurnishing and redecorating the first runs. The Orpheum is to drop back to a "continued first-run" policy. That is it will follow immediately after one of the other houses, while the Shubert-Rialto and HiPointe are to be second run houses. In addition to seeking absolute control of the St. Louis Amusement Company the Fanchon & Marco interests also contemplate the building or leasing of seven new motion picture theatres. Harry C. Arthur, Jr., vice president and general manager of Fanchon & Marco, in discussing his company's plans, said that Fanchon & Marco's entire expenditures in St. Louis will aggregate $1,000,000. The St. Louis Theatre, which has been dark for many months, was bought outright from the bondholders of that property. This transfer took place on June 30. Contemplated improvements for the various theatres have been estimated as follows : Guild Cinema, upwards of $75,000 ; Missouri, $40,000; St. Louis, $30,000; Ambassador, $15,000, and Fox, $10,000. It may be necessary to close the Ambassador and Fox briefly during the course of these improvements. Mr. Arthur stated that the seven new second-run theatres will be erected in the vicinity of the following intersections : Delmar and Kingshighway Boulevard ; Easton and Hamilton Avenues; Grand Boulevard and Arsenal Street, Chippewa and Jefferson Avenues, Grand and Hollywood Boulevards, Kingshighway Boulevard and West Florissant Avenue, and Delmar Boulevard and Hanley Road, in University City, a suburb. Fanchon & Marco propose to build two of these houses outright and will lease the other five from other interests. Each house will seat approximately 2,500 persons and have air-conditioning. The average cost will be $150,000 for structure plus $50,000 for equipment. Arthur said he hoped these houses would be ready by the Spring of 1937. Some time ago the St. Louis Amusement Company announced the awarding of contracts for the construction of two new theatres. One of these houses was to be located on Forsythe Boulevard near Hanley Road in Clayton, Mo., and the other at West Florissant Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard in the Northwestern section of St. Louis. Both of the houses were to be erected by the Audrey Realty Company, headed by Eugene A. Freund, and leased to the St. Louis Amusement Company. The Clayton house is to have 1,100 seats and the other about 1,000 seats. Both contracts were awarded to the W. H. and Nelson Cunliff Company, 3320 Lindell Boulevard. Fanchon & Marco are paying rentals in excess of $6,000 a week for the Ambassador, Fox, Missouri, Guild Cinema, Orpheum and Shubert-Rialto. The price scales to be charged have not been finally decided. There may be some revisions in admission rates, but Arthur stated they Peeling 'Em Off the Roll • Every so often one observes that tickets are still being torn off a roll. It is incongruous. More than twenty years ago the motion picture theatre ceased to be a tentative exploitation of a novelty, a curious type of amusement, characterized by the nickelodeon and properly associated with crudities. Yet we still have, in more instances than one likes to believe, the dispensing of tickets by tearing them off a roll! Even did ticket issuing machines have no other function than to dispense tickets in the proper number, quickly and with business-like precision, the practice of tearing 'em off the roll would be one that should have entirely disappeared long ago. It looks bad. It has no place in the business of retailing motion picture entertainment today. It's an anachronism. It's as absurd as a counter cash drawer in this day of recording cash registers. It belongs to the day of the "Just-a-minute-please" slide. It is obvious, of course, that ticket issuing machines are part of the entire cash control system of a theatre. We realize that primarily the mechanism has been developed to combine facility of dispensing with sales registration and classification, so that management can have its finger accurately on the box office pulse at all times, to prevent losses and personnel troubles through cashier-doorman collusion, and also to maintain dependable operating records. But employe peculations, when they occur, are each operator's own loss, and his office methods are peculiarly his own affair. These lines are aimed at a phase of ticket dispensing of a general significance. It bears upon what the public thinks of us. Attitudes are formed, of course, by a repetition of small things. And peeling 'em off the roll in this day and age of motion pictures is assuredly not conducive to the kind of customer opinion that this business wants. — An Editorial. will be "popular." The Shubert-Rialto is to have the same show and price policy as the Empress theatre on Olive Street west of Grand Boulevard, which is operated by the Ansell interests. Outstanding pictures are to be singlebilled. Either the Fox, St. Louis or Missouri will have a stage show in conjunction with pictures, if satisfactory arrangements can be made with the musicians and stage hands. The contract for the construction of Harry E. Miller's new theatre and office building in Festus, Mo., has finally been awarded to N. F. Donald & Son of De Soto, Mo. The building, under plans prepared by Bruce F. Barnes, will cost about $40,000. Bids have been taken from contractors on the construction of a new theatre and office building for the Lyric Theatre Company in Salem, Mo. Plans and specifications have been prepared also by Bruce F. Barnes. They call for a two-story building with part basement and measuring 70 by 112 feet. The theatre will seat about 500 persons. There will be a shop on the first floor and offices on the second floor. New Disseminators And Spray Perfume perfume disseminators or wall pockets of a new type, and a spray perfume have been added to the line of odor eradicators manufactured by the Rosco Laboratories of Brooklyn, N. Y. The disseminators, which are available in five different designs, are of a porous composition requiring but two fillings for impregnation. The perfume for use with a spray gun is of concentrated type and is available in lilac, narcisse, rose, trefle, oriental, gardenia, bouquet and wild clover. Make Office Changes The Los Angeles office of Cutler-Hammer, Inc., of Milwaukee, manufacturers of switchboards and other electrical equipment, has been removed to 1331 Santa Fe Avenue. W. G. Tapping remains in charge. Several new representatives have been appointed by the Transformer Corporation of America, New York, manufacturers of public address equipment. Northwestern Agencies of Seattle has been named for the Northwest ; Conrad B. Strassner, Los Angeles, for the Southwest; H. Gerber, Boston, for New England ; and G. O. Tanner, Pittsburgh, for West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. Gets Air Patent License ARRANGEMENTS have been made by the General Electric Company with the Auditorium Conditioning Corporation whereby the former, now manufacturing air-conditioning equipment for theatres, may use the patents controlled by the latter and relating to certain types of air-conditioning for public auditoriums. July 25, 1936 7