Moving Picture World (Aug 1920)

894 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 14, 1920 ^\j 'l 1 i > \ . 1 Views of the Fox Studios and Plant. Left to right: Publicity and advertising departmen t, casting department and the foreign department. iiiHiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiimiiiiHiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiimiijiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiH The Two and One Half Million Dollar Plant Is Modern and Complete in Detail T HE Fox studio building, which occupies a block of frontage on Tenth avenue, running from Fifty-fifth to Fifty-sixth street, was erected at a cost of $2,500,000 from the plans of William Fried. It is a fireproof brick structure, three stories in height, with a total floor area of 150,000 square feet, and is entirely without elevators, the building being so arranged that all employes reach their respective offices by one flight of stairs. All deliveries of production properties are made by ramps leading to the second and to the third Qr studio floor. A feature of the design is the ease with which it may be emptied of its occupants should occasion arise, sixty second being stated as the limit of time required for such clearance. On the first floor are the shipping and receiving departments and foreign department and machine shop, laboratories and workrooms, the projection rooms and the cutting rooms. On the second floor are the reception room, Mr. Fox’s private suite of offices, the executive offices, dressing rooms, carpenter shop, moulding room and the restaurant, where employes may obtain meals at moderate prices. The third floor is monopolized by the great stage of 38,000 square feet area and the dressing rooms of the stars. In regard to dressing room facilities it may be stated that the studio has accommodations for one thousand players. The building has its own electrical generating plant, which furnishes all the light and power required by the entire organization. The telephone system is notably efficient, the four position switchboard giving entrance to twenty-nine trunk wires. The laboratory has a capacity of three million feet of film per week and is remarkably complete in every detail. The lighting system is of the overhead system, with remote control, and insures the maximum of efficiency with the minimum of effort. In the carpenter shop and the machine room are installed complete equipments of wood and metal working machinery, allowing of the production of all required scenic effects and the erection of sets without loss of time or the necessity for relying upon outside aid. The giant stage offers facilities for the simultaneous efforts of twenty directors working with full size stage settings and an air-conditioning plant, installed at an expense of $125,000, furnishes purified air to all interior departments, such as laboratory, dressing rooms, projection rooms and vaults. Fox News Out on Time Regardless of Strike THE strike of film laboratory workers, tying up printing and developing, assumed serious proportion, especially in the case of news reels which must be gotten out immediately. Fox News was among those affected, and drastic action was required. The supervising director of Fox News ascertained that four of his cameramen had had laboratory experience, and to them he assigned other cameramen and assistants. With the help of the entire staff of editors and clerical force, the new reels were developed and printed, cut and assembled. It was the work of an entire night to get the many prints ready for shipment to the exchanges in other cities. A fair conception of this job may be gained by the fact that Fox Film Corporation has twenty-six exchanges, each using at least five prints, and in many instances a great many more. The prints, however, were ready for shipment and reached the exchanges on time. MacDermott in Fox Films Marc MacDermott, the sterling actor, and well known leading man of numerous motaion picture productions, forced to absent himself from the screen for over a year, owing to a serious operation, has returned and is now hard at work at the William Fox studios in New York. His return to filmdom under the William Fox banner will be welcome news to exhibitors and motion picture patrons alike, doubly so, because of the fact that he returns in a big special production entitled “While New York Sleeps.” His work, which is one of the outstanding and salient things of this production, which is made up of three distinct episodes, each entirely separate from the other, and depicting different phases of life in the great metropolis as it really is, surpasses anything that he has heretofore achieved in his long career, which includes work in the support among other famous actors of Richard Mansfield. More Views of Fox Studios and Plant. Left to right: Auditing department, telegraph and mailing departments and the office of Fox News.