Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1942)

24 S H O .M E N • S TRADE REVIEW July 18, 1942 New York's Newest Neighborhood Theatre Theatres Must Help Scrap Metal Drive by The Center Theatre, Long Island City, ranks as one of the "last for the duration" neighborhood houses in Metropolitan New York. Complete contract for design, construction and equipment of the project was carried out by Amusement Supply Co., New York. The Center has a seating capacity of 600, all seats located on one floor, with row spaces oi thirty-six inches back to back, and all chairs of full spring construction with upholstered backs. The seating plan provides for two aisles. Terra Cotta, extruded aluminum, stainless steel and Flexglass feature the exterior decoration, while stone texture plaster with wainscot and base of golden oak are used in the lobbies and standee spaces. Auditorium walls are treated witli homespun fabric. Simplicity of design and modern equipment feature this deluxe theatre, efficiently designed and well constructed to serve its neighborhood location. The Center Theatre is owned by the Squire-Queens Corp., occupies a plot of 20,000 square feet. At left, Exterior; Above, outer lobby; Below, Foyer and Auditorium. Turning in all Junk Lack of response to the Government's many drives for the gathering of scrap materials may bring about a situation where requisitioning will be necessary, it was pointed out by R. Merrill Decker, regional director of the Industrial Salvage Section, WPB, in a recent statement. Theatres, always foremost in any patriotic drive, are in position to add materially to the pile of necessary salvage by conducting a thorough search of the premises and either contributing or selling that accumulation of junk that has cluttered storerooms, basements and closets for years. Your Uncle Sam is in need of those broken seat standards, that dismantled and cumbersome exhaust fan, discarded when modern cooling was installed, that accumulation of broken and frayed electric wire, those bent aluminum display frames, the damaged and discarded brass cuspidors, standee posts, and those battered and useless projector fittings that were replaced when you modernized the booth. Some idea of the amount of this junk on hand at the average theatre that could be converted into war munitions invaluable in the fight against the Axis is shown in a recent letter from Joe Hornstein. Hornstein advises that in a theatre where his company was doing some work he encountered the following : An old motor generator, a broken exhaust fan, several odds and ends of copper wire, a dented and damaged beyond repair brass standee post, two dilapidated and beyond repair aluminum display frames, about 50 broken end and middle standards of old theatre chairs, the frame of a chrome settee, four old rubber mats. On interrogation the janitor, when asked how long the scrap had been stored in a corner of the stage, replied that he had only been employed at the theatre four years and the scrap liad been there when he first went to work. Just how necessary it is for theatremen to lend their every effort to the accumulation and salvage of essential war materials can be determined from the following figures showing what the needs of the Government are for the current year and the amount that must be acquired through the collection of scrap. Mr. Decker says : "Ninety-odd million tons of steel will be required, 32,000,000 tons of which will have to come out of scrap." Of 5,000,000 tons of copper needed 2,000,000 tons will have to be found in scrap and virtually all of the 800,000 tons of rubber will have to be reclaimed from scrap. Already eigTit blast furnaces have been shut down because of lack of raw materials and the need of instant and monstrous salvage collections is imperative. How about taking a real careful looksee through all of those nooks and crannies and seeing how many tons — yes, we mean tons — you can locate to help your Uncle Samuel build the guns and mould the bullets that will smack the Axis ? Calls Theatres "Safety Havens" in Gas Attacks Modern theatres with proper ventilating systems can be turned into havens of safety from gas attacks, A. W. Wright, chemical warfare expert with the City Engineer's Office, has informed members of the Los Angeles Theatre Defense Bureau. "You can do a service to the public if you will advise them not to fear war gases, but to respect them," Wright said. "They are not as dangerous as is generally believed, if properlv and quickly neutralized."