We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
RINGSIDE THEATRE TELEVISION FIRST CAME INTO PROMINENCE EARLY IN li>49 AT THIS BROOKLYN MOTION PICTURE HOUSE. Theatre TV-A New Industry Contract Signed by Fabian Theatres Expected to Bring RCA Telcrision to More Than 50 Morie Houses; Pact Regarded as Forerunner of Nationnide Enterprise; Milestones in Video's New Serrice Recalled. By W. W. Watts Vice I'rcsidcnl in Chiiij/c of Engincvriiig I'rodiictn nrpartnictil, RCA Victor Division. THEATRE television, a poten- tially tremendous new industry an<i a potentially powerful mass medium of entertainment, educa- tion, cult u r a I development, and news, was born jls a commercial entity this past summer with the sijrninj? of a contract betwi>en Fabian Theatres and the Radio Corporation of America for the first permanent, commercial installation of instantaneous, theatre-size 'l'\' projection e(|uipment. This installation, for which the first unit of commercial dcsijrn is now in production in the RCA plant at Camden, will be made in Fabian's Brooklyn Fox Theatre early in 1950. Termed by S. II. Fabian the "provinp jrround" of tlieatre tele- vision for his circuit of more than 50 theatres, the jiioneer Brooklyn installation is also envisaped by leaders in the television and motion picture industries as the forerunner of a nationwide theatre-television service. Spyros Skouras, iiresident of the 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation has disclosed plans for the installa- tion of instantaneous TV equip- ment in more than 20 West Coast theatres. He predicts that theatre television will be established on a national b;usis within seven years. It is recalled in this connection that it tr)ok the "talkies" only five year.s to displace 22.000 "silent" motion picture houses in favor of 15,000 theatres wired for sound. Com- putinjr the investment, profit, and employment opixirtunities in initial e(|uipment rt'iiuirements alone—on llic l)asis of the nation's approxi- mately 20.000 theatres and the pres- ent equipment price of $25,000 per theatre — the immense economic significance of the 500 million dollar development is self-evident. Further indication of the immi- nence and immensity of the pro- jected new service of theatre tele- vision is found in the statement of roinimum recjuirenients for fre- quency channels filed August 30 with the Federal Communications Commission by the Society of Mo- lion Picture Engineers. The SMPE rei'ommended that the FCC set aside approximately (iO channels in the higher part of the spectrum, where they would not interfere with the 54 channels now earmarked for home television service. This num- ber of channels, said the SMPE, is needed to jirovide for a nationwide competitive system in which a large number of program-originators can operate. Broadway in Every Town The prospect of a "Broadway in every town" is seen in such a sys- tem. Its entertainment possibilities include the telecasting of motion picture or other productions from a central theatre to subscribing sub- urban theatres throughout a given communitv or area, the use of inter- [10 RADIO AGE]