Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

SILENT BLOWERS All Metal Construction — Dual Inlet — Dual Wheel — Self-Lubricating Bearings NEW LOW PRICES 8" wheel, 1500 CFM $1 8.50 10" wheel, 1900 CFM $23.50 12" wheel, 2500 CFM $32.50 16" wheel, 5500 CFM $49.50 Less Motor and Pulley Shipped C.O.D. on 7-day trial offer. PROGRESSIVE REELTONE CORP. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. ADLER "Streamline" CAST ALUMINUM SILHOUETTE LETTERS (Fully Covered by U. S. Patent) Sell Your Pictures! Your canopy signs are your best salesmen! Equip them with the most brilliant, attention-compelling program display— modern ADLER SILHOUETTE LETTERS with the BOLD, BROAD STROKES and REFLECTING BEVELS. Most easily read, day or night from an angle or at a distance. POSITIVELY GUARANTEED AGAINST BREAKAGE. Adapted for any existing as well as new sign. Ask about ADLER PATENTED SILHOUETTE and SOLID BACK LETTERS for all methods of installation. Manufactured by ADLER SIGN LETTER CO. 720-B SO. DEARBORN ST. CHICAGO Phones, Harrison 3148-8626 Results tell the Story That is why theatres everywhere are being equipped with the Wright-DeCoster Model 17460 Full Range Reproducer and Horn. They correctly reproduce the new wide range recordings. Money back if you are not thoroughly satisfied. Send details of your theatre and sound equipment for free suggestions by our Engineering Department. WRIGHT DE COSTER, Inc. 2225 University Ave. St. Paul, Minn. Export Dept.: M. SIMONS & SON CO.. New York Cable Address: "Simontrice," New York Canadian Office: Wright-DeCoster, Inc., Guelph, Ontario time, but what with some wiring, some radio servicing and some projection work manage to get by. Then, too, I work as part time man in the Sturgis postoffice. "I would like to tell you of my equipment, of which I am a bit proud. I have a Supreme 491 -PA analyzer, which is a very handy piece of apparatus for projectionists to own. It may be used on any a.c. or d.c. circuit up to 1250 volts. Current ranges are from 0 to 250 microamperes, and 0 to 1250 milliamperes, in several steps, and from 0 to 12 amperes. The ohmeter ranges are up to 250 megohms. The outfit also checks capacities and has a decibel meter incorporated. It is arranged to provide complete facilities for circuit analysis, as well as point to point testing. "My tools include a large assortment of pliers, a soldering iron, midget socket wrenches, a set of larger socket wrenches ; also a set of open-end and a set of box wrenches, plus a set of crescent wrenches. I have a variety of screwdrivers and hammers, a drill and other parts and tools I find use for in the modern projection room. I hope to own a good film splicer and a test reel before long, at which time I will feel well equipped to take care of any projection room and do any ordinary radio servicing as well." As I have said many times, the one-man room of today is the result of both men in two-man rooms letting the projector run the show with neither of them beside it, thus getting the idea firmly fixed in the minds of exhibitors and managers that two men were unnecessary. Unions permitted this to be. Warnings were disregarded. Giving the married men preference is all right provided they be as competent as the single men available. However, I hold, as I have always held, that competence is the one right guide. It should determine who is employed and who holds the best jobs. I shall never alter my views in that regard. Some of you city chaps who kick like a bay steer at steady work and a wage that men like Brown would consider a nearfortune, take note how this good brother digs in, fights his way through in three or four part-time jobs, and equips himself with knowledge and tools. VACUUM-CLEAN YOUR LAMPHOUSES BARNEY DE VIETTI of Helper, Utah, writes, "Observing what a messy, mussy job cleaning the lamphouses was, I worked up a brain storm. As you know, the light, fluffy ash which is the residue of the carbons, collects on the interior walls of the lamphouses and scatters all over kingdom-come when one tries to wipe it off, unless a wet cloth be used, and that is not so good. My idea was that it could be sucked out by using the vacuum cleaner with the attachment that is ordinarily employed to clean the drapes, etc. "Appropriating one of the theatre's suck'em-ins and the right attachment, I soon had the interior of my lamphouses looking as immaculate as the proverbial hound's tooth. They almost sparkled, and all without a single flick of dust in the air. I have always tried to keep my lamphouses respectable, but never were they as clean as they now are. "The idea may be old as Adam to you and some of the chaps, but to me it was original, hence credit me a couple of credits. Those who have never used it will be as tickled as a small boy with two or three lollypops." The idea is not new, Brother DeVietti, but you nevertheless are entitled to credit. You used your brains to reason out a better way to do something, and that is the mark of a good man. You are wholly correct. The vacuum cleaner is the only right tool with which to clean lamphouses. Does a bang-up job, leaving everything shipshape. But that is not the end of it. The vacuum cleaner should, as I have told you all many times, be used in the projection room once every week. First clean the lamphouses, then using the proper attachment, clean the walls, ceiling and floor. Such cleaning is important. It reduces the amount of dust in the air, which not only gets on the film, producing minute scratch marks in both picture and sound track, but also gets in bearings, accelerating the rate of wear. We thank Brother DeVietti for bringing the matter again to our attention. PROJECTION IN SING SING PRISON well, iVe been in jail — and some jail, too, if you ask me! No less than the famous Sing Sing prison at Ossining, New York. Mr. Harry Brewer, who uses motion pictures to exploit the product of the Chevrolet Motor Company, had been invited to give a show in the Sing Sing prison theatre. By invitation I accompanied him, watched the assembly of the complete motion picture-sound outfit which he transports in his motor car, and witnessed a performance that would rival that given in many theatres. In Sing Sing prison there is a really nice theatre, built entirely of pressed brick, concrete and iron. It seats 1400. There is a stage of good dimensions. Everything was excellent except the screen, which needed cleaning. The projection room is lined with pressed brick, some of which is in color. It is spacious and is equipped with two Simplex projectors and RCA Photophone. One of the men acts as the regular projectionist — I withhold his name because he has lived in Sing Sing for some while, rather much against his will. He will be leaving soon, however. Here is the odd feature of the whole thing. It was shown to me by the director of recreation, Mr. Gerald F. Curtin. From the center of the rear Avail of the auditorium for a distance of perhaps 60 feet, a brick structure runs forward. It is of considerable width and advances almost, if not quite, the length of the auditorium. Between the walls of this structure is the projection room, and below the room is a passage through which the inmates pass to and from the theatre. 34 Better Theatres