Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1913)

9S6 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD At 4:50 we again took train, and it was with genuine regret that "vw said good-by?. The Salt Lake boys are a live, wideawake bunch wPio have in the past and will in the future, we feel very sure, render a good account of themselves, both as an organization and individually. And by the way, Manager Marcus, of the Salt Lake branch o£ the General Film Company, is a live wire, and one mighty good fellow as well. A description of the American Theater, Salt Lake City, will be published later. Automatic Arc. While in Seattle, Mr. Crane, ^f that city, requested me to call at his oftice and e:':amine an automatic arc mechanism of which he is tlie inventor. While I, of course, complied with the request, it was with a preconceived idea that it v/ould prove to be a waste of time. My idea was anything else but right. It was altogether wrong, for Mr. Crane has accomplished what, he set out to do, and has done it in a thoroughly unique, but entirely practical way. He resets the carbons by passing a thin copper plate directly between them, breaking the arc of course, and at the same time releasing both the upper and lower carbons, the upper carbon dropping down, and the lower one being forced up against the plate. This, of course, exlinguisJies the arc. but as the copper plate is withdrawn, it is struck again, so that the effect on the screen is merely a winking of the light, due to the rapidity with which the action is performed. The aforesaid copper plate revolves and is, of course, exactly central up and down, with thi center of the condenser so that the carbons are necessarily exactly central, up and down, with the condenser after being reset, and there seems to be nothing that could affect this centering except a crooked carbon, which might throw the arc a trifle to one side, but inasmuch as carbons are to all intents and purposes perfectly straight, this is, I believe, a negligible quantity. Mr. Craiie has tried the device on amperage up to 60, and it works perfectly. He has given it very rough usage in order to develop weak spots, and now has it in such shape that I watched it project a perfect stereo picture for a considerable time without a single flaw in the light, and I see no reason why this perfection could not be continued indefinitely, with only an occasional stop for insertion of new carbons. Mr. Crane has also, in conjunction with this lamp, invented a very practical method of automatically handling stereopticon slides for continuous advertising projection. This device consists of two large metal wheels, each of which holds a considerable number of slides. These wheels set very n.iarly horizontal and directly in front of the lens, one a little above and the other a little below, the light projecting between the wheels, which arc something like 3 feet in diameter. The wheels set on a slight angle to allow for the passage of light rays. Around the edges are arranged slides, which stand cri edge in the holders, and the machine takes the slides alternately from either wheel, depositing the used slide in the wheel opposite to that from which it was taken. The whole thing appears to be a thoroughly ■practical device. It is operated by an electric motor, and, by the way, it require"? a small motor to operate Mr. Crane's arc lamp. In my opinion this device will be very successful for show window advertising and the like, and I am inclined to believe it might be adapted to the projection of moving pictures, but on this point I do not like to pronounce judgment until the thing has. been placed in a moving picture theater and given a thorough try out, under actual working conditions, for a considerable period of time. However, this much I can say, viz.: Mr. Crane must, and he says he can, shorten tlie period of resetting very considerably in order to adapt the device to moving pictures. Personally, I am rather inclined to believe the lamp will not fill the bill for city m. p. work, but, be that as it may, if Mr. Crane can materially shorten the period -of resetting; I believe there is a field for his lamp in the small towns, and certainly its introduction into that field would work no hardship on the operators, since in th.-se very small towns there is no possibility of employing an operator, at least at a decent salary, anyway. Denver. Dear old Denver! Our train was something over three hours late, and I marched up to the gateway of the Union depot, expecting to pass through unknown and unmolested; but that was merely another dream. for there protruded from the atmosphere a big bunch of hands, behind which I discerned the smiling countenances of Ed. Shields, chairman of Entertainment Committee Local Union :;3o, I. A. T. S. E. ; L. M. McQuonn, K. J. Addington, Charles Decker, Gay White, and R. T. Waddington, the same constituting the committee appointed by the local to receive and entCTtain your humble servant. After the usual introductions, and the smoking of the pipe of peace, I was escorted into 17th Street and introduced to a big gasoline wagon, on the back of which was plastered a banner announcing to all and sundry that "This is Richardson's car." The rest of the evening would be best represented by a series of exclamation points, or a picture of a miniature cyclone. Although it was 11:30 p. m., the hig Curtis Street houses remained open and the managers awaited our coming. In rapid succession I viewed the Isis, Paris, Colonial, Bison, Empress, and Princess theaters, all on Curtis Street, after which the union htld its regular bi-monthly session, followed by a Dutch lunch at 3:30 a. m. After several maneuvers, and the use of a crowbar, finally I succeeded in prying loose and retired to enjoy the room engaged by tlie committee at the Albany Hotel. The Denver boys are a quiet hunch, in the sense that one hears very little of them until one gets there; but you may take it from me, when you airive there are doings, with a capital "D." And now let me say a few words .-ibjut the Curtis Street district, which is the moving picture center of Denver. For two blocks, b'^tween i6th and 18th Streets, it is a miniature great White Way, and nowhere have I seen theater fronts which could ex;el, or even compare, with the Curtis Street houses in beauty and brilliancy of illumination by night. Several of the large houses have their entire fronts painted a pure gloss white, and at night the entire facade is a blaze of light, the brilliancy of which is accentuated by the whiteness of the walls. Some of the houses have other effects which have been worked out with much taste and are things of great beauty. At Broadway and 42d Street, New York, one stands in the middle of a perfect geyser of light, but even that marvelous district cannot show the real Ireauty of illumination I viewed on Curtis Street, though, of course, there is no comparison as to quantity. It wjuld be manifestly impossible to de scribe all the really good houses in this district, therefore I' shall take for example the Isis Theater, which is the newest and, therefore, probably, in some ways, the most up-to-date. This house seats 2,000. It has a huge amphitheater, tastefully decorated in cream and light green, with stenciled borders. There is a charmingly decorated ladies' retiring-room, gentlemen's lavatories, and all conveniences usually found in high class theaters. The long foyer is covered with heavy carpeting, and there are many pots of plants, which add greatly to the scheme of decoration. The picture is 20 feet wide, the screen being a terra cotta wall coated with plaster, over which is spread some sort of a compound, the secret of which the management did not care to divulge. Around thescreen is a row of lighcs behind ornamented heavily frosted glass. These lights are, of course, only on during the time the picture is off, and, inasmuch as they produce no glare whatever, the effect is pleasing. In the flare of the proscenium are squares of ornamental tinted glass, behind which are lights. The house has an eight-piece orchestra, ' and a large pipe organ, the keyboard of the latter being located clear up against the back wall of the balcony. The ventilation system consists of a huge 8-foot intake fan, and a 4j^-foot exhaust fan, both located in the basement. These fans are. of such a size that they can produce a regular gale of air through the house, if it is so desired, The intakes, or openings through which the air enters the auditorium, are located about 8 feet from the floor and the exhaust outlets are at the floor level, there being also ventilators in the ceiling. The operating room of this house is 8x10 feet in size, with a very high ceiling and a large opening through the roof. The walls are of hollow tile. Over the back wall of the operating room is the house switchboard, and a supplementary switchboard controlling the front lights. At the left is a motor generator set of 50 ampere capacity, bolted to the floor, and above it a 45 ampere G. E. Mercury Arc Rectifier, the two being connected with a double-throw switch, so that the change from one to the other can be instantly made. Immediately in front of the operator are two ammeters, and a field rheostat controlling the motor generator setThe port in the front wall is about 3 feet by s feet. The room is in charge of E. A. Shields, chief operator, and H. H. Thomas, his assistant. The Isis is just installing a sound effect contrivance to be operated by compiessed air, but it is not yet working, so I cannot give details concerning it. This magnificent house is managi.d by S. L. Baxter, whom I had the pleasure of meeting, and who .is a live, thoroughly up-to-date manager, as is evidenced by the house he controls. And now imagine, if you can, viewing four reels of first run pictures in this splendid theater for the sum of 5 cents, anywhere in the house, including the boxes. It is scandalous. This theater represents -a large investment, and, in my humble judgment and opinion, the prices should be 10, 15 and 25 cents, but, while its manager agrees with this view, it seems that, although they have tried several times, they have been unable to raise the admission to even 10 cents, and thus we see the result of educating the public to expect a half dollar's worth of value for -five cents. It is very easy to do it, but it is a hard proposition to re-educate them into d willingness to pay what the commodity is worth, even though the Same number of reels be worth a great deal more tJian it was in the days when the five cent proposition was put into effect, due to improvement in production, projection and the theaters themselves. However, prices will have to be raised in Denver sooner or later, and the sooner it is done the better it will be for all concerned. This thing of operating really splendid houses like the Isis, Paris, Iris, Colonial, Princess and otliers on a five cent basis is absurd, and a thing which does not speak overly v/ell for the combined intelligence of Denver managers. I am informed that the majority of the managers would like to cut out the nickel business, hut there are certain ones, or rather a certain one, who will not consent, and thus all r.re forced to yield to the preference of a small minority, when that preference is to the detriment of the business as a whole, as well as locally. If Denver managers, and managers elsewhere, for that matter, would expend more energy and money in striving to still further improve the results upon their screens, instead of trying to give six reels of pictures and an ice cream cone for five cents, they would he the gainers in the long run. And, by the way, let me inform you that one house on Curtis Street is operating on a two for five cents basis. Think <jf iti It is a large beautiful house at that. I would humbly suggest to the manager of that theater that he include a glass of lemonade and possibly a cigar with each admission, or he might admit them by the dozen — say twelve admissions for 17 cents. Well, I am not the guardian of the Denver managers, thinks be, but it does seem that such a policy is far from being the best one, and I think the majority of Denver managers thoroughly agree with that view. Cut it out, tjentlcmenl Forget about the nickel admissions and make the Denver public pay what their 'entertainment is worth. My sincere thanks to Denver local union No. 230 for their cordial and hearty welcome. That entertainment committee is one live and lively bunch, with an electric headlight in front and red fire on the back porch. If the editor got any sleep it was no fault of theirs. Their entertainment lasted clear to Exline, Iowa, when I threw the empty hot , And let me say right here, in closing, that there will always be a warm spot.ia the heart of the editor for the operators of Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Denver. Lens Trouble. Portland, Oregon, writes: I have for my own use an Optigraph machine head and a Baloptican stereopticon. With the M. P. head came a Pathe lens which I could get no image from. I removed the back combination and now get a six-foot picture at 25 feet. Can you explain why this should be? Possibly the lenses in the back combination were one, or both of them, reversed. See figure 143 of the handbook. The heaviest bulge of all lenses should be toward the screen. It is possible that the lens is of such short focal length that you cannot get it hack close enough to the •film. You give the millimeter length, but I cannot make the figures oui. An objective lens will work all right using only the front combination, but it gives a picture of greatly reduced size.