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E-22
SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, February 1, 1947
Theatre
and
Icel Cream Parlor
The
TOWNE
Long Beach Calif.
Combining an ice cream parlor with a theatre, and tying the two most intimately together by walling the former in plate glass, Cabart Theatre Corporation's new Towne, in Long Beach, California, represents a further step in linking theatre entertainment with the profitable sale of refreshments.
The ice cream parlor is accessible from the street only, not from the theatre, but its entrance door does not open directly on the street. It is entered from the outer portion of the theatre lobby; to reach it, patrons must pass the box-office, although not the doorman. Theatre patrons, of course, can utilize the ice cream parlor by asking for a door check.
The foyer is spacious, its length is greater than the width of the auditorium. Persons entering from the lobby find a candy bar at their right. Turning left to reach the auditorium doors they find directly in front of them, on the end wall of the foyer, a huge, brilliantly illuminated attraction board telling them what picture is "coming soon." They cannot possibly help seeing the announcement.
At their left, beyond the ice cream parlor, are men's and women's lounges, at their right the doors to the auditorium lead into light traps; each light trap in turn gives access to two aisles.
The auditorium seats 1,308, in a fouraisle arrangement on one floor. The chairs, by American Seating Company, are all 24 inches wide, and all are spaced 36 inches back to back. They are high-backed, with low seat cushions. Clear vision is assured by the calculated floor pitch and by the location of the screen high up and
well back on the stage. The front seats are placed well back from the stage.
The color scheme of the entire theatre is outstanding in its simplicity. Foyer walls (except for the plate glass looking into the soda-fountain room) are finished in natural wood veneer. The carpet, by Alexander Smith and Sons, is dark red, gold and blue. The same carpet is continued into the auditorium, where the walls are of light gray color, graduated in intensity between the coves of the indirect lighting system. Auditorium drapes are gold, silver and rose; chair upholstery is rose.
Only the projection room is on the second floor. A dumbwaiter is provided to carry film.
The projection room is unusually well equipped, and additionally is fitted with some special apparatus. Because of the location of the theatre in the metropolitan Los Angeles area (actually in a new suburb of Long Beach called Bixby Knolls) the house will occasionally be used for previews of incompleted pictures. Consequently the projectors are provided with studio-type "dual film" attachments manufactured by International Projector Corp. Two films can be threaded in the same projector assembly. One, unreeling from the upper magazine, passes through the projector mechanism and thence, through a chute provided for that purpose, directly into the lower magazine. This film, which carries the picture only, is not threaded into the soundhead. The second film, which carries sound only, originates on a reel in the oversized lower magazine, passes up through the sound
THEATRE FOYER is clearly visible behind the glass-walled ice cream parlor.