Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1940)

February 3, 1940 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW Page 47 MORAL IN RHYTHM His patrons have no favorite film; Each year make no selection. All pictures look alike to them Because of poor projection. Golde Announces New Line of Sand Urns, Steel Booth Tables A new line of moderately priced sand urns and steel booth tables has been announced to the trade by the GoldE Manufacturing Company of Chicago. Of the usual heavy GoldE construction, the sand urns have the full-spun CuNi plated top, with ornaments as modern as 1940, according to the manufacturer, and priced moderately for quick turnover. Described as having a top of heavy gauge cold rolled steel, formed and reinforced at all corners, the new booth steel table is made in both five and six-foot lengths. One drawer is in the five-foot table; two in the six. The tables are of sturdy construction and welded throughout, since no bolts or rivets have been employed. All joints are solidly welded. Legs of heavy angle iron are welded to the body and cross braces. Each table has a leveling device. Chief among the features appreciated by projectionists is the lip at the back of the table which prevents schedules, tools and other material from being pushed ofif the back end. Many Uses for Robot Switch An automatic electrical device which responds to almost unmeasurable electric change in the human body to turn lights on and off, sound alarms, and perform numerous other services, has been developed by RCA. Known as the RCA Electronic Control, the device is a capacity-operated relay. No photocell or light beam is utilized. The relay responds instead to the change in electrical capacity which taken place when a person approaches. Applications for the Electronic Control in the theatre extend from novel lobby displays which light up when a patron approaches, to protection against illegal entry into the theatre through exit doors. The unit is housed in metal cabinet, and is completely self-contained. It operates from a standard 110-volt AC power supply. Ice Machine Sales Increase For the first quarter of its fiscal year, the York Ice Machine Corporation's sales volume is 47 per cent ahead of the same quarter last year, according to William S. Shipley, president. In the three months ending December 31, 1938, orders booked amounted to $2,438,946, but for the same period last year they amounted to $3,588,629. S.O.S. Corp. Acquires Int'l Theatre Accessories, Affiliate S.O.S. Cinema Supply Corp. has taken over International Theatre Accessories Corp., with which S.O.S. was affiliated for years. The two concerns jointly occupied the premises at 636 Eleventh Avenue in Manhattan, where they manufactured and distributed a varied line of theatre equipment. There will be no change in the officers or the directors under the new set-up. Poorly Kept Toilets May Drive Away Patronage WE'RE going to talk about toilets! It's the one part of the theatre that generally is unmentioned. It's not a pleasant subject, but it is a most important one. If you should stop a dozen theatremen and ask them what they consider the most important part of their theatre, or the part requiring the closest care and inspection, we venture the guess that most or all of the dozen would say "projection" or "sound," or both. To most theatremen the word "important" always centers around their projection booth and mechanically they are right. But leaving the physical element of the theatre alone for the moment, suppose you ask the same question and see what answers you get. We know what ours would be — "Toilets." And we wouldn't bat an eye or delay a moment in giving our answer. We can still recall one of the greatest theatre operators this industry ever knew who once having acquired new theatres for his circuit, always made a trip around them by himself, paying his admission and once inside the theatre, made a bee-line for the toilet and lounge rooms. He told this writer on more than one occasion that it made no difference to him how the business of the particular house happened to be. If the men's room was smelly, sloppily maintained, or dirty, his orders went out the next day to make a change in managers. His chief weakness was smells. To him any theatreman who had to resort to chemical drip machines, deodorant cakes on the walls and other artificial means, that theatreman just didn't know his business. Odors Can Be Eh'tninafred Ninety-nine per cent of all toilet odors can be permanently eliminated and kept away through the medium of soap and water. The other one per cent is strictly a matter of care and inspection. Urinals scrubbed carefully every day; floors around urinals treated the same way, good ventilation established and maintained, floors kept spotlessly clean and washed diligently with soap and water after shows and occasionally mopped up with a "clean" mop several times during the day; these are the ingredients for a clean smelling toilet in any man's theatre. And we defy anyone to disprove these claims. Sure, there's the easy way of being neglectful; failing to check your janitors or cleaners and then trying to overshadow or, as one sage put it, "out-smell the smell" through drip machines, deodorant cages or urinal cakes or crystals. All of these things are merely the tools of inefficiencj' in theatre management. The intelligent manager will personally see to it that the toilets are scrubbed every day before the house opens. He will make sure that the ventilation is good and that there's plenty of it. He will make it a point to see that an usher, especially in the men's room, will inspect that room NOT LESS THAN ONCE EVERY HOUR OR HALF HOUR, depending on the traffic of the theatre, and that the usher on each visit should flush each urinal several times. It is no secret that the urinals cause most of the odors in the men's toilets. But once they are scrubbed clean and then flushed frequently during the day when the use is the heaviest, they can be kept not only clean but odorless, too. To avoid clogging up of urinals, keep a large urn, sand-filled, close by where cigar and cigarette butts can be thrown. If j'ou have no place for men to throw these things the chances are they will go into the urinals. Anything that gets into these urinals and becomes soaked will definitely start the odors you are trying to eliminate besides choking up the drains. So, although the projection IS the heart of your physical theatre equipment, bad toilets will drive away lots of good patrons just as much as poor projection and sound. New Type Toilet Seat Sterilizes the Surface With a heightened public awareness that many dread ailments are transmittable through the common toilet seat, interest is centering on a new device which completely sanitizes toilet seat surfaces after each using. The Sterilseat, introduced to the market recently, employs the germ-killing rays of the Westinghouse Sterilamp to effect high degree of sterilization. Completely automatic in operation and engineered for installation on existing plumbing fixtures, this seat unit consumes no more current than a small electric bulb. Claimed to be troublefree, semi-annual replacement of the tubular lamp is said to be the only replacement required. While new in its application to the sanitization of toilet seats, the Westinghouse Sterilamp is a tried and accepted product by physicians and bacteriologists in a number of fields. Many leading hospitals reduce air-borne contamination over operating tables by exposing the patient to the sanitizing rays of this amazing light. Another of its uses is as a bactericidal element in the meat packing industry. When the Sterilseat unit is approached the seat is in a vertical position, flush with the back panel. To use, the seat is pulled down. After use, it automatically returns for sanitization.