Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1946)

E-4 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 7, 1946 Many New Equipment Items Shown At TESMA Exhibit The horn of plenty in motion picture equipment was poured out, November 8th11th, before the hundreds of visitors to the Tesma-Tedpa convention and exhibition at Toledo. Included in the latter were many new items of apparatus and materials which will bring advantages and benefits not previously known to both the theatre and the industry as a whole. Among the new devices which members of the Theatre Equipment and Supply Manufacturers Association displayed before members of the Theatre Equipment Dealers Protective Association were a new hand-operated ticket machine, developed by General Register Corporation, as fast in action as that company's electrical ticket issuer, but less expensive in first cost and maintenance. It may ultimately replace the electrical device, General Register thinks. Also shown was a new and very inexpensive box office safe that is thoroughly proof against hold-ups unless the holdup men have unlimited time in which to work; an ozone generator with new electrodes which does not create nitrous oxide gas as an unwanted by-product; a new TO USE the new Fontaine cue marker, shown above, the projectionist merely inserts the film, as seen in the upper illustration, framing it correctly over the framing aperture; then closes the device as shown in photo immediately above and twirls each of the four knurled knobs. Hollywood-type cue marks, in the correct Hollywood location, appear on four successive frames, as in a new print. method of blacklight ornamentation which utilizes as light source a simple fluorescent tube, as easy to operate as any fluorescent tube; a wholly new projector by Motiograph; a new material for interior and exterior theatre walls, and many others. A minor equipment detail that is very likely to have major importance in saving this industry the huge sums now lost annually through mutilation of film is the cue marker. Two new models of this simple item, by two different manufacturers, were shown. Both are inexpensive (the smallest theatre can afford them and never notice the cost) ; both are effective. More widespread use of cue markers, now that several different types are available, can reasonably be expected to reduce substantially the lip-stick smears, paper-punch holes, and other mutilations that projectionists now apply to the film to warn themselves of the time for changeover. Shown also were many items which, while not revealed to the public for the first time at the Tesma convention are still very recent — such as the Retiscope curved screen, the Forest electronic arc lamp and Compco Corporation's new sand urns. Ticket Dispensers General Register's new manual ticket machine operates in exactly the same way as their electric dispenser except that the electric machine delivers tickets when the appropriate buttons are pressed, but with the manual model the cashier must both press the buttons and work a lever conveniently located under her wrist. The lever takes the place of the electric motor in actuating the mechanism. The manual, like the electrical machine, consists of a number of units each of which can dispense a different type of ticket, but in the manual model these units are totally independent of each other. They are not interlocked through an electric motor or through anything. Each is completely removable as a unit, leaving the others totally unaffected. No trouble or flaw that may develop in one can influence the others in any way. This type of construction makes possible a new policy with respect to servicing, which is intended both to reduce the theatre's cost in maintenance, and at the same time prove more profitable to General Register than the former policy — the new maintenance practice being far more efficient. If any unit of the new machine ever gives any trouble that is beyond the maintenance abilities of the theatre staff, it is removed and returned to the dealer who sold the equipment. The dealer replaces it with a new unit from his shelves, and that is the last the theatre ever sees of the defective one. The exchange is free if the trouble occurs within the guaranty period, after that there is a price for the 3xchange which varies according to the age of the faulty unit. That unit is never repaired. It is returned to the factory and torn down to its component parts. Each part is then ex amined, and discarded or retained according to its condition; the parts retained are built together into new units on an assembly line, with assembly line efficiency. The saving effected, as compared with painstaking hand repairs, results in an advantage to General Register at the same time that cost to the theatre is reduced. Also on display at the Tesma show was a new non-mechanical ticket dispenser by GoldE. It has a chromium top plate and two, three or four separate magazines into which ticket rolls are inserted. The end of each roll protrudes toward the cashier through a dispenser tab slot; she draws it toward her until she has drawn out the correct number of tickets, and then tears them off against the dispenser tab. An internal spring device transmits the "feel" of proper ticket count to the cashier. The dispenser tab is marked for easy reading to show the cashier at a glance which ticket each magazine holds. Five and sixmagazine units are available on order. iVetu Projector The Motiograph AA mechanism, also unveiled for the first time at the Toledo convention, embodies a number of features new to this industry. One striking detail HAND-OPERATED General Register Corporation ticket issuing machine. In this novel device the lever the cashier is shown pressing with three fingers and thumb provides the operating force and makes an electric motor unnecessary. The model pictured consists of three units in one case, each unit being totally independent of the others and removable for repair or replacement without reference to the others.