Variety (Mar 1936)

1 ES Wednesday, ^larch 25,1936 >rZ< i Floods (Continued from page I) Into Seventh street, Itself , a gush- ing river. Everything Is desolate beyond description and everything will "have to -be rehabilitated. It is .conserva- tively estimated - that it will be at least seven or eight weeks before the houses In the flooded sections can reopen. Even that is. doubtful. Rush orders have already been dispatched for seats, and fixtures, ,Until'wateris pumped out of still submerged basements and sub.-base- ments, Officials CannOt determine .whether heating arid cooling , plants have been 'affected. ,.Th case they are, the,damage■ will be increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Penn's Heavy Damage Most seriously hit of all is the Penn.. Here five men nearly lost their lives by drowning when early last Wednesday morning, while they were frantically- trying to •re- move seats, the water" came rushing in through side doors and the audi- torium .'quickly filled. They scam* pered .to., a point of safety on the balcony deck where a big. front win- dow was .'broken and screams of . help brought rescue skiffs to the . side of the house. Fire escapes were lowered- and the endangered em-' ployees'dropped' into boats to safety. At the Alvln, where almost $200;- 000 had been spent on remodeling less thah ' two years ago, there is practically nothing- left to salvage. ' The seats were gone, so were the thick plush carpets, the lobby fit- tings, all of the wall < outfitting'^; the backstage equipment and valuable music libraries. Although the Fulton was closest tc the', rampaging Allegheny river, the damage^ to the Shea-Hyde house " not' as <great becai.se, of the comparative lnexpenslyeness of its fittings. Another hard-hi'> spot is the Barry,.' formerly: the Pitt, re- cently taken ..oyer by a group, of Cleveland operators. Only two weeks ago tbejynad finished spend- ing more tli'an $25,000 on new deco- rations to reopen the house and now it lies tinder two or three feet' of slimy iriud. WB's deluxe Stanley will likewise- have - a big loss. Here the entire auditorium was -submerged, with at leasjt 12 feet of water checked off in the .orchestra pit. ; The crest reached the second floor side boxes and came within a few Inches of pouring Into tlie front lo'ges.: Workers had already 'begun to remove the expensive carr- pfits "when flood warnings' were first .sounded but, like the men at the ''Penh, they, too, were caught by the onrushing torrents, forced to leave their job'unfinished and flee for" their lives.'' " Some of the more valuable furnishings were removed to safety Iri the:balcony but more" than $25,- 000' in musical instruments' a'n'd band' -properties were washed away. AnOtHer house in tlie Penn avenue '-vector,' where ..the flood w«is worst,, was the ; Variety, burlesque site* .iHere; as elsewhere, the entire first floor was undejf water , artd the'per- sonal wardrobes of the 'Flying High* company carried away .or . reduced to-. soaked ruins. The smalL-seat Cinema ..came off with only about $15,000 damage, since only its 200 seats were laid waste. In addition, however, the ' front, lobby was wrecked. , Unaccountable Losses In. most cases,- too, the personal belongings of employes.were ruined, with unaccountable losses on this end. Although the Warner and Casino, further uptown came out safely, they were not in operation after Wednesday (18) morning when the power went off and the entire city was plunged into total darkness. They are expected to resume just as soon as light and heat have been restored, probably this week, unless something unexpected develops. At the same time, Warners an- nounced that it would also re- open the Davis, closed for several months, to take care of the Stanley screen bookings. It wasn't expected, that the Davis would accept the Stanley's stage commitments, as well, however. By plane and whatever, other transportation facilities were still available, theattc executives from the various circuits began to pour into town over the weekend to speed the work of repairs and reconstruc- tion. In perhaps one or two cases, houses will not reopen until fall, since the two-month period neces- sary to put them in shape would carry over into the warm Weather. Only loss to houses in immediate suburban districts will be that suf- fered from interrupted operation. The only other spot where WB felt about 70 miles away, where at least one known theatre, the Cam- bria, was a desolate waste. Here, curiously enough, the Screen at- traction wa.s 'Dangerous'. Waters;' Two minutes after the title had' been flashed, water began pouring through the- lower floor and 100 patrons ran up to the, balcony for. their: lives. They were marooned there for several hours. Other Sectors Hi Scattered, reports from outlying areas' Indicated that several towns The Twist St. Paul, March 24. Local theatres finding the heat on anent bank nights, and up against local lottery laws in advertising money, prizes in the rags, solved; the situation by doing it this way: '250 Reasons Why You Should See 'Mutiny,* or '425 Reasons Why You Should Be at Blank Theatre Tonight/ Public caught on pronto. rnents will probably have to be „_ made. — . . through western Ohio and West |" Among the_ circuits,/Warner^ro? Virginia were also wrecked. Wire facilities were at a premium most or elsewhere have protection, will now. have to wait for film unless adjustments and releases are made in order to clear some pictures. None of the theatres msnaced b.\ the flood carried insurance to cover, operating sources' pointlnj out that houses in-vulnerable areas would have to pay so* much In premiums that the insurance companies would get more in Ave years coverage than the flood damage will amount to. ' was hardest hit. While the damage will run high In Pittsburgh for this company, Harry Kalmine, of the time, hieing used' for casualty lists and spot flood hews, and it was impossible to get any definite, check from these communities. Circuits refused or were unable to give out any definite Information. For the most part, they were stymied by complete darkness which voided any inspection efforts inside the deluged houses. Water pumps to clear basements were at a premium for days. But- the Stanley, Penn and Alvln managed to corral a few, although hardly enough to spill with any degree of rapidity.. While plans were being made to swing into action/again within a few days, the .few. houses all set-to go are faced with the possibility of a closed downtown for several more days in a guard against, vandalism and disease7"Aithough the city was at no time under martial law, several troops of national guard were brought Into town •' t0 ; patrol the stricken areas-and keep, outsiders behind the Golden Triangle bound- aries. Sewage : problems were also to be faced, -with Indications that this might. delay v resumption another week or so. All in. all, it . is easily the worst blow the motion picture business has ever suffered here, being itself far' greater, than the depression. Most observers likewise, see in it more than ordinary tragic results because it comes right on the heels Of the city's coldest- winter since 1397. Grosses have suffered'through- out the freezing months and the flood adds endlessly to the suffering physically and • financially. On Tuesday (17) night, late shows went on-as usual in the .downtown district; It. was generally knOwn ' at Troy, N. Y., were hit but were out that the . waters were rising but-nb- of operation only, two days. RKO district manager there, received Word, of the flood and had all rugs, furniture and other movable property taken to the top of the Stanley. The William Penn, a Loew house in the Warner Pittsburgh pool, was more seriously damaged, it is believed, while the Warner there also suffered heavily. Joe Bernhard, WB's general thea- tre operator, flew ■ to Pittsburgh Sunday (22) to personally survey the situation and supervise reconstruct tion plans. He will be back by the end of . the week. Herman Maier, Warner's construction and main- tenance chief, is iri Pittsburgh and will survey the other towns in that territory and New England which were hurt by the floods. The Cam- bria, at Johnstown, one of three houses WB has in that town, was seriously damaged and feared; that most all equipment will have, to be replaced. Water went to the roof of this house.. Warners' two houses in Scanton not as seriously injured but both out of operation. The Strand and State, Hartford, both WB, badly damaged and also closed down. ■ Both.Xioew houses in Hart- ford also affected, Warners Hit- Elsewhere Warners had to. close down Its Memorial, McKeesport, Pa., and also had to suspend operations at Ports- mouth, p.,-where the circuit has two theatres-but reported that in neither of these two spots was the damage so great. Warners also has a house at Hagerstown, Md., which - missed the worst part of the flood's. wrath. This is also true of the Roger Sher- man, New Haven. AH of the. three Warner houses body dared to believe they would ever get beyond Duquesne way, next to the bank. By midnight, however, it was still coming up and a short time later, house Staffs were propelled Into action, to save what- ever they could. But it was too late. Without a word' of warning, the crest leaped, two - and three feet^ swamping the workers'and sending the torrents in through : doors, lob- bies and exits. ~ Despite the havoc to the picture houses, the., Nixon, legit,., played right through with Idiot's. Delight,' curtailed only ■ by Lynn Fontarine'S neuritis. 'Three Men on a iHorse' opened' on schedule Monday night (23). Another downtown house to feel the flood was the. Aldine, a closed Loew property. Water got Into the theatres here were also affected but damage all around said to be slight. While understood, that theatres in i Wheeling, W. Va„ also suffered, the three houses which. Warners had there were recently .returned to the Dlpson circuit. Comerford circuit and other indies in the - stricken zones have numerous houses out'of operation and no telling how soon any of those hit by the flood waters will be able to resume. . At present in Pittsburgh,. Johnstown and other spots where, waters. have, receded* operators, .are pumping their cellars dry and hope that heating and other equipment can be dried out. ' Following a weekend trip to Pitts-* burgh by Joe Vogel, LOew operator, who flew out to inspect the .William Penn there; Harry Moskowitz of the Loew construction department, has lobby here although the house for gone there to supervise'work. House the most part has been stripped for some time and the damage was be- lieved only to be a few thousand dollars. For a while, It was believed that Loew's might open the Aldine to take care of the Penn's product but this wasn't felt feasible since it would cost too much to get the house in operation again. More than 5,000 theatrical em- is being pumped out now. The wa- ter rose in the Penn so high that it engulfed half of the loge seats. Loew's fears reseating and many other replacements will be neces- sary.. Loew's In New England In Hartford where Loew has two houses, the damage will not, be so great since water merely flooded ployees^will be affected ranging for basements in the Poll and Palace a period up .to two months. N, Y. Execs O.O. Damage With flood waters subsiding in stricken areas in the east; theatre operators out of the New York home-offices are surveying damaged theatres and . laying, plans for as early a restoration as possible. While not yet possible to estimate damages and the amount of repair work ox' replacements necessary, hope is that those theatres which are closed down will be ready to re- open in two weeks or. shortly after. Much depends, in numerous in- stances, on whether generators, Both are closed. Most of the equip- ment in these two theatres were moved higher as the flood ap- proached. This was also true of the Poll, Springfield, Mass., which Loew operates. With the flood waters threatening Cincinnati, fears are held that dam- age may result there. RKO has sev- eral houses in this key. Further down on the Mississippi grave fears are reported felt by the Saenger circuit and other operators in states bordering on the river. With numerous theatres closed down in flood ravaged centers^ dis- tributors are suffering loss in delay °°° H u? !.f^ m ^ and gating plants on playdates and possible cancella' t'ons due to interrupted operations In the stricken can.be repaired or will have to he replaced. This isn't known as yet in the hardest hit of the flood-struck towns, including Pittsburgh, Johns- town and Scranton, Pa., and Hart- ford, Conn. It is hoped that seats in some of the affected theatres can be reconditioned. Rugs and other decorations, stage equipment and furniture were also so badly dam- tae flood was at Johnstown, Pa., J aged in most cases that replace- areas, even after theatres reopen, it will be some time before business is restored to nor- mal and the same flow of patronage as before may be expected; with-.so many people either wiped out com- pletely or suffering heavy damage. Theatres which were not affected by the floods but over which closed houses in Pittsburgh, Johnstown Hartford Theatres Reopen Hartford, Conn., March 21. Despite the big loss in box ofttce receipts ,as result of four-day close- down of some 60 theatres in Hart- ford, Springfield and neighboring cities.and towns, as result of the overflowing- of Connecticut; River bank, theatres are optimistic and hope to be open again' this week. Every motion picture house and theatre in -this metropolitan area was forced to close , when. electric power gave out arid streets were blocked by overflowing water. Opening days for new productions meant nothing here. Theatres simply were water, logged and in many cases theatre men could not even get near their houses. On Friday night at a performance of the PWA theatre group, audi- ences were driven out of the. State Theatre by incoming water. Every theatre in this city will . give a benefit, performance for flood suf- ferers on Sunday. (29), entire pro- ceeds to be turned'oyer to the local Chapter of the Red Cross. At 5: 30 Friday night when! rising flood waters shut off Its regular source of electric- power- station WTIC turned to batteries, which it maintained for emergencies. The broadcasting, however, was inter- mittent and the. station issued periodic news bulletins, * relaying programs coming to it over the Red network from WEAF in New York. Station WDRC discontinued broad- casting at approximately 6 p.m., Friday night and has been silent ever since. , Holiday spirit covered the city of Hartford. over the weekend. Hun- dreds of thousands of sightseers, gathered In the flood zone and pea- nut Venders reaped a harvest. Candles were at a premium. Ex- actly when electric .facilities will be restored in this city Is not definitely known. Approximately two out of more than 60 theatres in this vicinity will be reopened for business by Wednes- day morning. In greater Hartford, area many of the theatres are flooded and in most cases lack of electrical current was the cause, of the closing. Meanwhile residents Of' this town cut off from, the rest of the world are making their way. by other methods to nearby towns to 'attend' films. It is said that more' than : 6,000 resi- dents of .Hartford by one method Or another made their way to New Britain Sunday to see pictures. The New Britain theatres were Unable to take care of the overflow after 7.30 p.m. ' Jack A. Simons, manager of the Poll theatre, narrowly escaped death when escaping fumes from an oii burner, almost suffocated him while sleeping. Water seeping into the.basement of the theatre caused the fumes'. An usher looking for the manager found him asleep iri his office and called for aid. SimonB is recovering. More than 500 people jammed the doors of the first theatre to open in Hartford today within an hour after the opening. Entire theatre seating 2,500 was filled. Hartford,, regard- less of the terrible flood conditions, was in a gay and festive mood. The only thing missing on the dry streets was the circus balloons and side shows. Candles being used by householders without power were selling for 10c. a piece for the ordinary dime a dozen size. leveland's Benefit Cleveland, March 24. Upper Ohioan cities. Including Cleveland, not hit by any floods yet, and possibility i a very thin. Near- est flood area is in Portsmouth, O., 300 miles below Cleveland. First benefit for flood victims was given by Station WGAR, handled byi Sydney Aridorn, gossip commen- tator. Show netted $1,300. LoeW Warner and RKO houses joined all local cafes in putting on another 00-act benefit on Hipp's stage to- night (24), with proceeds to be given to Red Cross relief fund. Easton's Free (Ice) Shows Easton ' Pa - March 24. Although few of theatres in Le- high Valley suffered any physical damage by floods during the past two weeks, business was consider- ably affected as thousands of people Pittsburgh, March 24. Pittsburgh's first-run houses, i«„ spite Lent and high-water, "' heading for the best week in month* when the flood broke and kayoed grosses everywhere. . At the Penn* •Wife vs. Secretary* in Ave days «ot ; around $10,000, while at the Stanley 'Louis Pasteur' and Xavier Cugat's band were headed for an excellent $21,000 session. As it was, the combd wound up with about seven grand less than that. in the. second week of its Alvln run,- 'Country Doctor' had collocted around $6,000 and was scheduled .to remain a third week, while at the Warner, 'Modern Times,' moved here after its \yeek at the Penn, was saH* Ing to a $6,000 take. Before it was shut down Wednesday (18) when the power went off, it had reached a bit above. $4,000. At the. Casino, the screen attrac- tions, of all things, was 'I Conquer the Sea;' with Ann (Betty Boop) Little's '45 Minutes from Broadway* unit, on the stage, and had reached $3,800 when the flood broke, while the Fulton managed to get about $1,600 out: of "King of the Damned' and ' Ifst a Girl* in the abbreviated session. General realignment of grosses expected all along the line for next few weeks; with best break of all looming for Casino, which George Jaffe, former burlesque operator, re- ; ' cently took over as Combination policy house. Untouched by flocfl waters, Casino "will probably resume • operations this week and with only stage show In town;and at 40c. top should clean up and recoup losses suffered' in last couple of weeks. ' It'll mean & boom too for Warner and Davis, which is to reopen, while nabe biz is expected to jump, too, as result -of abbreviated downtown operations. It was reported that one or two first-run headquarters might be established in East Liberty dls- -trict until situation is back to nor- mal again, were homes. Several parts of Easton were cut off from the central part of the city by the flood and were unable to get - into the theatre zone, except by using boats to leave their homes. All theatres in Easton had slim nights? for several days while .the flood was - at its height. At Allentown and Bethlehem th. same situation . existed, and theatres felt the drop in business. Instead of going to theatres thousands went to witness tlie dam- age done by the floods. The banks of the Delaware in Easton wire crowded by thousands of people .(lay and night while the river was' In flood stage, and spectators were en- tranced by the millions of tons of Ice which were carried down-the river. altimore,. March 24.. Last week's flood threw out of commission the Sti-and, Maryland, Capitol and Garden theatres in Cumberland. Water averaged about 10 feet In depth in each, and man- agements figured it will be three to five weeks before they can reopen; none is figured hopelessly damaged. In Upper. io Valley Steubenvlile, O., March 24. . Theatres in the upper Ohio valley suffered heavily from the series, floods which swept the area from Pittsburgh to below Wheeling, W. Theatre operators said no effort was .mrdwin several of the towns to open during the peak of the flood stage, while, in other towns along the valley film houses were several feet under water. Fllrn deliveries were retarded by blocked highways out of Cleveland and in the East Liverpool district main highways were under water resulting in film trucks turning around and seeking the higher levels. In some instances film deliveries were made by boat Attendance In many of the more seriously affected towns was off » s much as 60%. Stage shows- perienced difficulty In-reaching sev- eral of the towns and in some i«* stances stage units were complete* to Cancel bookings.