Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

LUMINOUS MURALS for a contin uous setting One of the two overall luminous auditorium murals of the Vine theatre in Willoughby, Ohio, as photographed in monotone under black light. Red, yellow and blue flowers run riot through vivid green tropical vines. Vine auditorium with house lights on; and, below, the front, faced in porcelain enamel. The new Vine theatre in Willoughby, Ohio, where black light floral designs cover the auditorium side walls ror a persisting theatrical environment. NO MATTER how logical it is for the theatre designer to stress the show on the screen, the showman — and he may very well be the designer as well as the fellow who employs him — knows the value of theatrical atmosphere as part of the merchandise sold at the box-office. By theatrical atmosphere the showman means those elements of the building and its interior which do something like that which the screen performance itself does — lift people up and away from the prosaic, the ordinary, familiar environment of their real world. There are people who do not crave this, but not enough of them to be a boxoffice factor. It is this which directs attention to devices like luminous decoration which today's luminescent paints and "black light" sources make readily available. Black light murals as a spot effect of theatrical purpose have their place in many areas of the theatre interior, and can be adapted to those of relatively high general light level. In the auditorium, however, luminous decoration maintains such an effect where any other means of creating it recedes almost to the vanishing point. LETTING LUMINOUS MURAL DOMINATE Recognizing this, some designers, in adopting the luminous mural for the auditorium, largely depend upon it, and they have a good argument for doing so when performances are continuous over 18 BETTER THEATRES, APRIL 5, 1947