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.
Max 27,
S H O W M 1'. N ' S T RAD
K V. \ I VV
Pcujc 19
PRESENTS
May 27, 1939
Quality Counts
TOUGH job, pleasing the pub^ lie! But, boy, how it pays when you do. What makes the job more exacting for theatremen generally, is that there is an increasingly discriminating public to be catered to in matters of screen shows, and picture show houses. Just as big pictures with big-name casts have made the public look for more and more in show value, the more commodious and luxurious theatres of the downtown metropolitan type have made patrons everywhere more critical of theatres in which they view the films.
It isn't possible for every theatre to be up to the scale of magnificence, spaciousness, luxurious appointments and extensive service staffs that are a necessity in the case of the theatres in downtown areas. But the same atmosphere of quality can be achieved in the small theatre no matter how modest its proportions and more limited its space for lounges and service rooms. And it is this which the monthly Equipment and Maintenance section of this paper undertakes to make more general by practical examples of how the ideal of quality can be attained in every department of a theatre's furnishings, operation and upkeep.
The community theatre and the small town house must have this quality or see its patronage drained by the more modern and striking competitors who are within a short automobile trip or bus ride from its own ticket office. And the community theatre that has this "big town" atmosphere can go out and draw patronage from a larger area.
Superior projection, for example, is something on which no deluxe theatre has a monopoly. Right in Manhattan's Broadway district, in which you will find some of the most commodious theatres in the world, there is no screen where the projection is finer than at a theatre
A MONTHLY
Section
THEATRE UIPMENT
and
MAINTENANCE
built years, and years ago — not for pictures, mind you, but for stage plays. We mean the Astor, where MGM currently is presenting ''Goodbye Mr. Chips." This converted ''legit" house affords its patrons a brand of projection and sound unsurpassed by any in the land.
The spic, well-groomed appearance of the Music Hall is something any theatre can duplicate — even if the magnificence and costly furnishings are not there to da2,2,le the eye. It's the clean, fine "housekeeping" that counts in creating the atmosphere.
The fresh air; alert courteous attention; clean, comfortable seats in the auditorium; sanitary and well equipped wash rooms; lounges, if any, free from that grimy un-dusted look and choking air of stale smoke — and with an attractive chair that fits into the style and si2,e of the room, a table or so ditto, a vase or goodlooking smoking stand or cigaret urns with fresh clean sand in them, good lighting, color in the lobby and out front. Yes, the small theatre, the very modest little house can also have that deluxe air.