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| Exhibitors Herald, 21-June-1924 |
Many Innovations Mark New
Forum Theatre at Los Angeles
By HARRY HAMMOND BEALL
(West Coast Representative of Exhibitors Herald)
A BIT of old Rome transferred to Los Angeles, gathering a plentitude of artistic treatment en route -- such is the Forum theatre, newest temple of the cinema in the "City of the Angels." History but repeats itself in this case. Times without number what is a vacant corner in Los Angeles today is a beehive of activity tomorrow. And the day after, the artisans, having gone their way, leave behind some useful monument that represents a spoke in the wheels of progress ever turning in the fastest growing city in the world.
A little more than a year ago the Forum was a dream in the mind of William A. Hussey, president and general manager of the new Roman temple of the silent drama. It was a dream Hussey had carried in his mind for years -- the building of a monument to the picture industry, a monument that would typify Roman art with modern treatment.
Visioning a theatre of this type presents a colossal task. The mind who could see it as a vision commands greater admiration when the visitor sees the completed work -- an achievement that merits the term "the most complete amusement unit in the world," and merits it without challenge.
The rich splendor of the Forum presents a picture difficult to paint in words. Lying at an angle from Pico street, a triangular forecourt, or esplanade leads up to the massive bronze doors that set well back behind fluted columns. On the base of the triangular esplanade is a replica of the statue found before the Forum in Rome. It rises thirty-two feet high. Around the base a fountain plays and rising from the center of the fountain is a shaft surmounted by a ball on which the figure of a woman is poised.
Rising four stories, the front elevation is topped with four great urns within which are colored electric lights and out of these urns comes steam that reflects the colors of the rainbow as the tiny particles of steam catch the ever-changing lights. Back of these four pseudo-incense burners is a row of Italian cypress which give a harmonizing effect in conjunction with the white walls of the theatre, the urns with their multi-colored wisps of steam, plus the dark green of the trees which etch themselves against the night sky. So much for the first impression gained before the visitor enters the spacious rotunda.
The rotunda is shaped like an ellipse and supported by thirty-foot columns that present the appearance of worn stone is a dome on which are painted scenes that typify great epochs in Roman history. On one end of the ellipse are the ticket windows; on the other an opening into the lounge room, while on across the rotunda from the massive Pompeiian doors is the Roman Gardens which separate the rotunda from the auditorium proper.
Two fountains grade one side of the Roman gardens, these having cherubic figures over which water plays. From one end of the Gardens, which, by the way, carry on their walls both murals and tapestries, is a stairway leading up to the mezzanine which is furnished in period furniture even to the grand piano. From the mezzanine one looks down on both Roman gardens and rotunda and the mezzanine carries smoking rooms for gentlemen, nor have the ladies been neglected in this respect. The fair sex may do their smoking privately, or semi-privately according to their tastes. Plate glass windows provide a view of the vast auditorium, while midway across the mezzanine is the projection room with one side glassed so that patrons may discover the mysteries attendant to projecting film on the screen.
Below the Roman gardens and the rotunda is something akin to the old "green room" clubs of many rialtos. Here the Forum provides its patrons with facilities for playing billiards and pool, special card and Mah Jong rooms, light refreshments from the soda fountain and an Italian renaissance room where lunches are served.
Four floors up and skirting the front facade of the big structure is the Forum Roof Garden, spacious, finely appointed, interesting. Finest of chefs provide viands to tempt the epicurean connoisseur. Syncopators make the toes tingle with desire to dance, soft lights coming from huge pedestal bowls around the sides of the room, lend an air of romance, while through the French doors that compose the entire north side of the inner restaurant is a colonnade, furnished in Chinese wicker where one may dine virtually in the open and at the same time feast on the glimmering panorama that stretches from Pasadena to the sea.
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| Exhibitors Herald, 21-June-1924 |
Nor are these all the innovations afforded by the Forum. Directly across the street from the big Roman edifice, ground has been acquired, leveled, surfaced, marked off into stalls and numbered so that patrons reserving seats for any performance may also reserve a "seat" for his car as well, at a cost of only ten cents. He drives up to the Forum parking station, hands an attendant his parking ticket, the attendant takes the car and pilots it to the space reserved just as the usher in the theatre shows the patron to his seat. The patron receives the stub of the parking coupon with which he obtains his car when he is ready to leave. A filling station on the front of the auto park provides the essentials for motor car operation.
Now for the theatre itself, shorn of innovations, as far as possible. However, innovations seem such an inherent part of the Forum auditorium that resolving them to a common denominator is no easy task.
The big auditorium with its more than 1,800 seats all on one floor, installed by the American Seating Company, presents the patron with an illusion -- the illusion of sitting out in the open. Especially is this true during the time the stage holds the attention, or rather the screen. The East wall typifies, in mural painting, the dawn -- a glorious day breaking over a scene of compelling grandeur, one that combines mountain, valley and ocean, or sea in the background with Roman ruins, trees, shrubs, flowers and here and there graceful figures in various poses in the foreground. At intervals this scene is broken by pillars which support a coping, or cornice. It is as if one were looking out through the pillars that support a porch.
On the west wall is a scene similar in context, but representative of the lengthening shadows of evening. Above, and poised like a giant bird in the ether is a 50-ton canopy of concrete, steel, lath and plaster, painted to resemble silk and suspended from the ceiling proper some ten or fifteen feet. In the center of this canopy is suspended a massive chandelier.
To the theatre patron as he sits in the theatre, the canopy reminds one of a great umbrella, out from under the edges of which is glimpsed an ever-changing sky, which blends down into the mural paintings on the walls. A note-worthy achievement in perspective has been accomplished in the paintings so that it seems that one can look miles in the distance from his vantage point below the big canopy.
A complete air washing plant housed in a separate building that there may be no annoying vibrations or sounds in the theatre, provides a complete change of air in the theatre every two minutes. Unlike most theatres, this fresh air is brought into the theatre at the top and is forced out at floor level so that patrons feel no draught at the feet. Included in this air-washing building is a refrigerating and ice-making plant. This serves two purposes -- keeps the air in the theatre at any desired temperature and furnishes ice for the soda fountain, drinking fountains and for the roof garden.
The Kimball organ is said to be the largest organ unit ever made for a theatre. It has four keyboards and more than 500 keys and stops. When not in use the playing unit is lowered on an elevator into the orchestra pit.
Power’s projectors were selected by Mr. Hussey for his new playhouse.
The stage of the Forum is sufficiently large to accommodate any stage production. In addition there are two prologue stages, one on either side of the proscenium arch.
Every light in the theatre is on a dimming attachment controlled from the huge switchboard backstage, declared to be the most modern piece of equipment of its kind extant. Lighting effects have been carried out to the nth degree and so startling and appealing do these become during the performance that it is difficult to center the attention at all times on the screen.
The approximate cost of the Forum was $1,500,000 and it marks a new achievement in the realm of motion pictures, according to travelers and critics who are familiar with the trend in theatres in the last decade.
Among those who are aiding William A. Hussey in putting over The Forum are Julius K. Johnson, managing director and featured organist; Fred Valles, house manager; L. W. Barclay, director of publicity and Henry Young, director of exploitation.
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| Exhibitors Herald, 21-June-1924 |
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| Los Angeles Daily News, 27-June-1924 |
The opening attraction at the Forum was DW Griffith's epic of the Revolutionary War, America.
