Radio today (Jan-Mar 1939)

INTERPHONE TRAPS BAD MONEY PASSER AT THEATRE An intercommunicating system installed between the cashier's booth and the manager's office of a Phoenix, Arizona theatre defeated an attempt to pass off a counterfeit five dollar bill, and opened up a new field for such systems in theatres, skating rinks, dance halls, amusement parks, and other places where tickets are sold to the public. Business was normal at the Fox Theatre in Phoenix one day recently when a woman approached the cashier to purchase a ticket with a bill which the theatre employee suspected was spurious. The resulting conversation was heard through the interphone system by Manager Louis B. Cbrist in his office. Hurrying to the booth, Mr. Christ questioned the woman, who thereupon produced a good bill, bought her ticket and entered the theatre. The manager phoned F.B.I, agents, but before they could arrive the woman had disappeared. The system, installed by Culver Radio Service, RCA Victor Commercial Sound Distributors at Phoenix, consists of a master control unit on the manager's desk and remote units in the projection booth and at other locations, including the cashier's office. The system is arranged so that the line from the cashier's booth is always open, for just such emergencies as that which occurred. AMPLIFIED CHIMES Mysteriously, chimes are ringing out in church belfries all over the country. Towers are certainly for chimes and it is certainly appropriate that the electronic art has now brought to life the "voice of the church." All churches using these chimes, who have reported on their congregations over this last Christmas, advise that they had the largest attendance that they ever had. The ease with which these chimes speak out is, of course, no mystery to servicemen; amplification and the tower projection of tones is the right answer. Not only is it the right answer because of economics, but it need not take second place to any other method for producing chime tone, states Maj. R. H. Ranger of Rangertone, Inc., manufacturer of amplified chimes. There are two general methods of electronic chimes; the first and Amplified chimes at any time over the speaker system in church belfry is possible with this Rangertone set-up using an automatic playing mechanism. 18 Ex-foreign secretary 'Tony Eden of England uses Western Electric's new noiseproof cardioid mike to blast the dictators before U. S. bigwigs. more completes where funds and facilities are available, is the use of standard tubular chimes, preferably placed in a sound proof room with a microphone pickup and appropriate tone projection. Where chimes are in the organ already, it is possible to pick these up with a microphone in the organ chamber. The second method, and one that is becoming increasingly attractive, is the use of sensitive records which have been made for this purpose. These records provide a very inexpensive method of getting the tone source and also makes chiming that is automatic and frees the organist at particularly important times in his work before and after services. SMART SHOPS USE SOUND TO SELL XMAS THINGS Smart Fifth Avenue shops went overboard this season in using sound to help Christmas sales. Leading the parade was Lord & Taylor's "bell window" which drew record crowds. The department store startled competition last year by keeping every window clear of merchandise. Store fronts were filled with white, Christmasy scene and tolling bells. Bells were synchronized with phonograph-played chimes. This year they repeated. Not to be outdone, Franklin Simon's promotion people put in an impressionistic display with angels playing organs. White and gold was the color motif, and again, not a bit of things to buy. A sound system furnished organ music. S. H. Kress's deluxe dime store, compromised by setting one window aside for a realistic scene of The Nativity. Sacred music, via records, poured out of a grilled panel above. Radio Today