Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

Published in every -fourth issue of Motion Picture Herald GEORGE SCHUTZ, Editor RAY GALLO, Advertising Manager own -Out Means Little iht— and No Fooling! he Government's "brown-out" order has n theatres of the interior a taste of what submarine menace imposed on those of the oards. Only it's more so. The latter's dimout left the marquee soffits lighted, v, with a total of only 60 watts allowed marquee lamping, theatres fade away, all of character, when night falls. It is a c shade of brown — leaning toward burnt ler — that the WPB has specified, fforts to stretch those 60 watts into an reciable measure of illumination have taken umber of forms. Observations in and ind New York are that one is about as j as another. Spare projection arc re:ors have been diverted to this purpose ; e who had acquired automobile headlights interior lighting during blackouts, have J these in the marquee soffit. The 60 watts e been broken down into ten 6-watt lamps ome cases, and into three 20-watt fluores:s in others. 'or actual light output, the General ElecLamp Department points out that the of fluorescent lamps is the most advan?ous. With three tubes rated at 20 watts l, lumen production amounts to 2,580. : 60 watts (rated value) are increased, tn the ballast losses are added, to about 74 ts at normal temperature, and amount to .ething less than that, though still more n 60, at lower temperature, dividing the 60 watts into six 10-watt ps results in less light (468 lumens) than single 60-watt filament lamp produces >5 lumens) but of course the light is disputed over a greater area. EXTRA LIGHT IN VESTIBULE The amount of light permitted beyond the l iing line being barely enough for safety, ules out advertising altogether. We thought t maybe — just maybe — a couple of small tlights in an open vestibule might be used illuminate a sign hung from the marquee it across the sidewalk. We asked our ashington Bureau to get a ruling from the fice of War Utilities. The reply: 'The order does not affect the normal lightof open vestibules, but the lighting may be increased to provide more illumination side. Nor may advertising signs in the tibule be lighted, such entrances being held nparable to arcades from which lighted 'ertising is banned. The Office of War ilities specifically prohibits the use of spotits in the vestibule trained upon an ad"tising card that is suspended from a maree soffit." The question occurs to one, rather inevity, we think, of why the maximum total ttage was not specified according to square A new theatre in Mexico City, designed by an American architect. Called the Chapultepec, it is one of the more pretentious of a number of theatres erected in Mexico during the past two years. Several others are now under construction or being planned. The Chapultepec was designed by S. Charles Lee of Los Angeles, who is the architect of four other Mexican houses, and of a motion picture studio in Mexico City soon to be built. feet. Marquee and theatre vestibule dimensions vary greatly. No matter how you slice 'em, 60 watts produce no dazzling effect under any marquee. Under a canopy like that of Radio City Music Hall 60 watts look like a maintenance man's absent-mindedness. Trying to guess how long the "brown-out" may last turns up various conjectures, such as ( 1 ) when the winter heating season is over, and (2) when, and if, the coal companies renew their contracts with John L. Lewis' miners. We wouldn't know. Meanwhile, your competitor's theatre is dark, too! Efforts to Check Decentralization of Cities Leading city planners expect resumption of the residential trend toward suburbs after the war, and they don't like it. They deplore the physical decay that it causes within cities, while the diminution of tax receipts threatened by this probably doesn't give them any comfort, either. Not liking it, they think something can be done to check it. Both the attitude and the action it is prompting inevitably enter into the post-war calculations of the motion picture theatre business, since film entertainment, shipped in a can, goes where the people are — or soon will be. Definite programs of urban rehabilitation are found in those large cities, such as New York and Chicago, which, in consequence of their size and resources, possess well established planning groups. Such groups provide experience upon which other cities are wont to draw, not only in response to comparable physical and economic conditions already existing, but in anticipation of them, and sometimes merely at the suggestion of style. COMPETITION FOR THE SUBURBS The idea directing these programs is simply to make the interiors of cities better to live in for people economically, socially and culturally attached to the city — better physically to live in than those areas have been in the immediate past, better to live in than outlying communities because of the addition of pleasant physical conditions to greater inherent convenience. The schemes embrace a number of devices, some in the form of zoning laws applying new and broadening previous restrictions, others calling for the expenditure of billions of dollars. The likely measure of their effect upon the direction or urban development is a factor in much of our post-war theatre planning. The recent extension by New York of building restrictions limiting the amount of a plot that a building can occupy, is an indication of the way city planners are thinking about such matters as light and air. The