Boxoffice-April.1992

lusiness magazine of the motion picture industry .April 1992, $3.95 

/, 

Heart of the Countiy 

Director Michael Apted Explores 

A Troubled America in Thunderheort 

The Digital Siiaiceout: 1 

The Future of Cinema Sound 

f 

Beginning this Month 

A New Book Serial: 

When the Movies Learned to talk

— 

THE RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES KT-800 

— S E R I E S 

^ 

KINTEK 

STEREO 

THEATRE SOUND PROCESSOR 

224 Calvary Street, P.O. Box 9143, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254-9143 

(617)894-6111 FAX (617) 647-4235

1 Don't 

The business magazine of the motion picture industry 

APRIL, 1992 VOL.128 NO. 4 

Ifwr live iiiairdiiii; In llir fîiiiliniir n/ misaii. 

we shall ilesire jar iillwn the piotl lohirh tec .n-k /m niiisrlm. 

-BariK h Spino/a 

ON THE COVER 

Val Kilmer and Graham Greene star In Michael 

Apted's "Thunderheart," a political 

thriller set on an American Indian reservation. 

The film Is an April release from TrlStarfSee 

cover slory. page 8) 

Cover photo by Greg Gorman 

FEATURES 

1 2 Cover Story: Tales of Two Countries 

With "Thunderfiean," "Incident at Oglala" and "35 Up," director 

Michael Apted exposes the troubled souls of America and 

England. 

1 4 NATO/ShoWest '92 

A sold out trade fair, packed studio sponsored functions, and 

an upbeat mood made this year's affair a true celebration of 

the industry. 

1 6 Inside Exhibition: A Star is Reborn 

Malcolm and Amy Neal bought the Kiva in Las Vegas, New 

Mexico, and returned the colorful theatre to its rightful place 

in the city's history. 

50 The Numbers Page 

The top 20 films, the top 10 home video rentals, and March to 

May's film to video window. 

REVIEWS—Following page 40 

Edward II R-31 

Falling From Grace R-32 

1st International Festival of Short Films R-35 

Buy Kisses Anymore

OPENING CREDITS 

Seeing the Future of Cinema Sound 

Ashort time after our return from Sho- 

West, we received a call from Ted 

Hatfield, VP of exhibitor relations at 

TriStar. "The engineers at Sony want you to 

come and hear their new digital audio process," 

he said. "It's really spectacular, and 

you'll be one of the first to hear the setup." 

Always willing to be in on the ground floor of 

technical innovations, we made an appointment. 

On one bright and shiny pre-spring Los 

Angeles morning we drove over to Sony Pictures 

Entertainment, on the lot of the former 

MCM studio in Culver City. There we were 

met by Michael ). Kohut, senior VP of Sony 

post production facilities, who helped design 

Sony Digital Sound, and Fred Molting, special 

projects consultant for Sony Engineering & 

Manufacturing of America. 

We were escorted into the totally refurbished 

Cary Grant Theatre, which has been 

updated with all the technical accoutrements 

of the digital age, and given a guided tour of 

the new sound post production facilities. 

Here Sony was sparing no cost in upgrading 

their facilities: all editing, mixing and post 

production facilities were being computerized 

and outfitted with digital equipment to 

bring the ultimate in the state-of-the-art to 

Columbia and TriStar film soundtracks. 

But the most exciting aspect of our tour 

occurred when we sat down in the theatre and 

watched the final reel of "Total Recall." 5pectcicularwasa 

mild adjective of praise for what 

we heard that morning. We'd heard CDs 

reproduced on very expensive home theatre 

surround systems; we'd heard the impressive 

CDS soundtrack of "T2" when presented at the 

prestigious Pacific Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. 

But this digital presentation was more 

than spectacular, it was magnificent, definitely 

the future of cinema sound. 

Sony's plans for SDS are impressive. The 

actual process of encoding the digital 

soundtrackonto 35mm film (and where it will 

go on the filmstrip) is being kept a tidy secret, 

but there's no secret to what the system will 

offer exhibition: a "cost-effective, programmable 

'black' box to be added on to projectors" 

offering eight discrete channels of digital 

sound "compatible with other digital processes 

as well as Ultra-Stereo, Dolby A, Dolby 

SR, Shure, and monaural." In addition, SDS, 

though carrying the Sony name, will be sold 

through existing theatrical equipment channels 

and will be made available to whomever 

wants to use it. A best guess for the introduction 

of SDS: late summer/early fall. 

What does this hold for the future of cinema 

digital sound? According to Molting and 

Kohut, Sony's aim in introducing SDS is to 

give a new tool to the creative side of the 

industry (to offset any Japan-bashing, we were 

told that SDS was designed and created by 

studio engineers in Hollywood), but they are 

also going head to head with Strong's Digital 

LaserSound (a double system) and Dolby, 

which previewed its SR»D (single) system last 

Christmas. We have yet to hear Dolby's system, 

but we can't imagine that it would be an 

less magnificent to hear then SDS. 

Which system the Hollywood creati' 

community chooses will, of course, be instru 

mental in determining which system theatr 

owners will buy. But given the nature c 

Sony's investment here, the company ca 

certainly give Dolby and Strong a run for Ih 

money. There are several factors in Sony' 

favor, not the least of which is that they ow^ 

a major movie studio on whose films they ca: 

release their SDS soundtrack. Another facte 

is technical: SDS offers eight discrete chan 

nels of digital sound (and while there ma 

only be a handful of flagship theatres capabi 

of using eight channels of sound, these are th 

venues that set the trends). In addition, ther 

is 

a mighty economic factor on Sony's side 

the clout that the giant company holds ii 

marketing products, and the fact that Son 

wants to come in at a selling price consider 

ably lower than Dolby's announced SR»[ 

price tag. 

It might be interesting to see the titans c 

the sound industry battling it out for the hearts 

minds and pocketbooks of exhibitors. As Ion 

as the battle field is in the sound studio 

(where the cost for digital sound is minima 

and not in the movie theatres, exhibitioi 

should wish that the best process wins. Ther 

arealready several expensive CDS digital pro 

cessors gathering dust in theatres; let's nc 

repeat the mistakes of 1927 and 1953 i 

1993.—Harley W. Lond 

4 BOXOFFICE

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EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE 

PUBLISHER 

Harley W, Lond 

Picking up the slack for 

troubled Orion 

Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced 

the formation of Sony Classics, 

which will be headed by former Orion Classics 

executives Michael Barker, Tom Bernard 

and Marcie Bloom. The first film to be released 

by Sony Classics will be "Howards 

End," which had previously been slated to be 

distributed by Orion Classics. Following the 

latter's much-reported financial difficulties, 

Merchant-Ivory productions took the film 

back, setting the stage for Sony to pay a $3.5 

million guarantee, considerably more than 

the S2 million guarantee originally paid by 

Orion. According to SPE motion picture group 

president Jonathan Dolgen, "The formation of 

an autonomous specialized film division adds 

an important new dimension (o Sony Pictures' 

motion picture operations, and it marks another 

stage in the continuing growth and evolution 

of our business." 

British phenom Kenneth Branagh will produce, 

direct and star in two films for the 

Samuel Goldwyn Company, a major coup for 

the independent distributor. The first project, 

"Peter's Friends," is a contemporary comedydrama 

about a group of old college friends 

gathering for a reunion outside of London. In 

addition to Branagh, the film will star 

Branagh's wife, Emma Thompson; American 

comedienne Rita Rudner, who co-wrote the 

script with Marty Bregman; and British actorwriter 

Stephen Fry. The second film will bean 

adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado 

About Nothing," which will also co-star 

Thompson. Branagh, of course, rocketed to 

fame with his adaptation of Shakespeare's 

"Henry V," which was released in the U.S. by 

Goldwyn; the film earned Branagh Oscar 

nominations for Best Actor and Best Director. 

More recently, he directed and starred in 

Paramount's thriller "Dead Again," which 

played to commercial and critical success last 

summer. 

And speakingof Goldwyn, the independent 

distributer is beefing up its production slate, 

continuing its move toward production and 

away from acquisition. Among the projects in 

various stages of development are a biopic on 

the Barrymore family being scripted by Oscarwinning 

"Driving Miss Daisy" writer Alfred 

Uhry; a sequel to the hit "Mystic Pizza," 

which launched Julia Roberts' career; a remake 

of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," 

currently being written by "Talk Radio" 

writer-star Eric Bogosian; and a feature based 

on the TV series "American Gladiators." Set 

to go before the cameras are two projects 

written by highly-acclaimed playwrights: 

"The Secret Lives of Dentists," which Norman 

Rene ("Longtime Companion") will direct 

from a script by Craig Lucas ("Prelude to a 

Kiss"); and Tony-winner David Henry 

Hwang's ("M. Butterfly") "Golden Gate," a 

romance to star Matt Dillon and loan Chen 

(TV's "Twin Peaks"). Asked whether Roberts 

will reprise her role in "Return to Mystic 

Pizza," Goldwyn production head Tom Rothman 

indicated that it seemed unlikely: "Even 

though we'd love for her to do it, we're prepared 

to do the film without her." 

Producers Mace Neufeld and Robert 

Rehme have signed a two-year extension of 

their exclusive production agreement with 

Paramount. The pair, whose most recent picture 

was the football comedy "Necessary 

Roughness," is currently finishing up "Patriot 

Games," the highly-anticipated sequel totheir 

boxoffice smash "The Hunt For Red October." 

They are also developing a large slate of projects 

at the studio, including "Clear and Present 

Danger," the third title in author Tom 

Clancy's "October"/"Patriot" series; it 

is being 

adapted by John Milius, and will feature "Patriot" 

star Harrison Ford as CIA analyst jack 

Ryan, the character he took over from "October" 

star Alec Baldwin. Also in development 

are the musical "Speak Easy"; the period adventure 

"The Vâr Train"; the political thriller 

"Long Shot," written by James Grady ("Three 

Days of the Condor"); the cryonic-comedy 

"They Froze My Mother"; the political/racial 

drama "Dancin' Across the River"; the occult 

romance "The Devil in the Sixth Circle"; and 

the film noir "Undertow." 

Gary Lucchesi, who served as president of 

the Motion Picture Production Division at 

Paramount from J 987 through J 991 , has entered 

into an exclusive, multi-year development 

and production agreement with the 

studio. Lucchesi, who is executive producer 

on the upcoming thriller "Jennifer Eight," is 

currently developing several projects, including 

"Georgia O'Keefe," which will star Michelle 

Pfeiffer and explore the artist's 

affair 

with photographer Alfred Stieglitz; "Primal 

Fear," a mystery which John Malkovich will 

star in and co-produce; "Blue Belle," a hardboiled 

mystery based on Andrew Vacchs' 

novel; "Under the Gun," a romantic comedy 

co-scripted by Jeffrey Abrams ("Regarding 

Henry") and Jill Mazursky;and as-yet-untitled 

projects by award-winning playwrights Terrence 

McNally ("Frankie and Johnny") and 

Wendy Wasserstein ("The Heidi Chronicles"). 

Bits and Pieces: Bruce Willis, considered 

cold after the failure of "Hudson Hawk," has 

agreed to a pay cut, from a previously-agreedupon 

$13 million to $9 million, to star in 

Columbia's "Three Rivers". ..Kyle 

MacLachlan and Anthony Hopkins are starring 

in a new version of Kafka's "The Trial," 

adapted by Harold Pinter and directed by 

David Jones, the pair responsible for "Betrayal". 

..Jodie Foster is reportedly developing 

Imagine Entertainment's "The Bum," about a 

Malibu housewife who becomes infatuated 

with a beach bum, with Oscar-winning "Rain 

Man" writer Ron Bass. ..Signaling more hard 

times for Caroico, directors Oliver Stone and 

Alan J. Pakula have extracted themselves from 

the company and relocated to Warner Bros. 

Stone's last film was "JFK," which was made 

at Warners, as was Pakula's recent hit "Presumed 

Innocent". ..Francis Ford Coppola is 

teaming up with Jim Henson Productions for 

the first ever live-action version of 

"Pinocchio," for Warner Bros. The screenplay 

is being written by Frank Galati, who worked 

with Lawrence Kasdan on the adaptation of 

"The Accidental Tourist." 

SENIOR EDITOR 

Jeff Schwager 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

Marilyn Moss 

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT 

Kimberly Crowley 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 

John Allen 

Bruce Austin 

George T. Chronis 

Mari Florence 

Ray Greene 

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Alan Karp 

Karen Kreps 

Fern Siegel 

Mort Wax (International News) 

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HOLLYWOOD REPORT 

fore Levinson hit it big as a director. 

(Fox) 

Femme Nikita," but Warner 

Bros, is making it up to her by 

"Hexed" Arye Cross, who 

did a fine job as one of the genius-unit 

soldiers in "A Midnight 

Clear," gets his shot as a 

leading man in this comedythriller 

from first-time writer-director 

Alan Spencer. Gross 

plays a hotel clerk with a feverish 

imagination who gels more 

than he bargained for when he 

becomes involved with a beautiful 

fashion model named 

giving her the lead in this contemporary 

vampire drama from 

director John Landis ("Oscar"). 

She plays a female vampire who 

falls in love with an undercover 

cop who is infiltrating the mafia 

(Anthony Lapaglia). Robert Loggia 

and Don Rickles co-star, 

with Rickles reportedly donning 

some vampire make-up for several 

scenes. The screenplay is 

the first produced for newcomer 

Michael Wolk, (Warner Bros.) 

-^ fi^l 

Michelle Pfeiffer 

"The Age of Innocence" Red 

hot from the commercial success 

of "Cape Fear" and the critical 

triumph of "CoodFellas," 

Martin Scorsese tries to prove 

his versatility with this decidedly 

unScorsese-esque drama 

based on Edith Wharton's Pulitzer 

Prize-winning novel. A 

timeless romance interwoven 

with intrigue, suspicion, high 

drama, sacrifice, guilt and passion, 

this period drama (set in 

New York's fashionable high 

society circa 1870) is about as 

thematically distanced from 

Scorsese's usual mean streets as 

the director could get. The allstar 

cast includesMichelle Pfeiffer 

(a change of pace following 

her turn as Catwoman in "Batman 

Returns"), Daniel Day 

Lewis ("The Unbearable Lightness 

of Being ") and Winona 

Ryder (who stepped right in 

after finishing Francis Ford 

Coppola's "Dracula"). The 

screenplay was co-written by 

Scorsese and former Time magazine 

film critic Jay Cocks. (Columbia) 

"Toys" This fantastical comedy 

reunites two of the hottest 

names in the business: Robin 

Williams and Barry Levinson, 

who previously paired up for 

the blockbuster "Good Morning 

Vietnam." Williams stars as a 

whimsical toy maker who must 

save his father's toy factory from 

the clutches of his demented 

uncle. The supporting cast includes 

Robin Wright ("The Princess 

Bride"), Michael Cambon 

("The Cook, the Thief, His Wife 

and Her Lover") and Joan 

Cusack ("Broadcast News"). 

This picture marks another reunion 

as well: the screenplay is 

by Levinson and Valerie Curtin, 

who co-wrote such films as 

"...And Justice For All," "Inside 

Moves" and "Best Friends" be- 

Hexina (Claudia Christian). In 

what sounds a little like Martin 

Scorsese's "After Hours," the 

stunningly beautiful but off-kilter 

Hexina leads Gross on a series 

of hilarious, frightening and 

dangerous adventures. The supporting 

cast includes Adrienne 

Shelly ("Trust") and Norman 

Fell ("The Graduate"). (Columbia) 

"Bitter Moon" Roman 

Polanski hasn't made many 

films since he fled the United 

States after being accused of 

statutory rape more than a decade 

ago. But this one promises 

to propel him back into the spotlight: 

according to inside accounts, 

it's a steamy, erotic 

drama that promises to make "9 

1/2 Weeks" look like "Beauty 

and the Beast." Peter Coyote ("A 

Man in Love") stars as a mysterious 

American involved in a 

torrid and destructive relationship 

with a beautiful French 

woman (Emmanuelle Seignor). 

(Caroico) 

"La Femme Nikita" In this 

Americanization of the critically 

and commercially successful 

French thriller, Bridget 

Fonda ("The Godfather, Part III") 

takes over for Anne Parillaud as 

the hardened woman who is 

convicted of murder but avoids 

the electric chair by joining a 

covert organization of assassins. 

In the coarse of her training, she 

is educated to fit in with her elite 

victims, but along the way she 

develops a conscience and 

yearns to escape her new profession. 

Gabriel Byrne ("Miller's 

Crossing") co-stars as her supervisor. 

John Badham ("The Hard 

Way") directs, from the screenplay 

by Robert Gelchel I ("Sweet 

Dreams"). (Warner Bros.) 

"Innocent Blood" Anne 

Parillaud wasn't offered the 

chance to recreate her role in 

the American version of "La 

"Falling Down" Academy 

Award-winning actors Robert 

Duvall ("Tender Mercies") and 

Michael Douglas ("Wall Street") 

team up for the first time in this 

contemporary urban drama 

from director Joel Schumacher 

("Dying Young"). Duvall plays a 

Los Angeles police detective 

who is about to take an early 

retirement, until he finds himself 

on the trail of a man, played 

by Douglas, whose escalating 

violence reflects a growing frustration 

with city life. Tuesday 

Weld ("Once Upon a Time in 

America") co-stars as Duvall's 

wife. The screenplay is by Ebbe 

Roe Smith. (Warner Bros.) 

"Passenger57" Kevin Hooks, 

who starred as one of the children 

in the classic "Sounder" 

and went on to make his directorial 

debut with last year's 

"Strictly Business," returns to direct 

this airborne action thriller. 

It stars Wesley Snipes (one of 

Hollywood's hottest actors following 

the success of "Jungle 

Fever" and "New Jack City") as 

a troubled airline security agent 

who must confront an international 

terrorist (Bruce Payne) 

who is holding a planeload of 

passengers hostage. The catch is 

that the hijacker knows a secret 

about Snipes' past, and is planning 

to take advantage of it. The 

screenplay is by David Loughery. 

(Warner Bros.) 

"The Rest of Daniel" Mel 

Gibson stars in this romantic adventure 

that spans more than SO 

years. He plays a daredevil test 

pilot who tragically loses the 

woman he loves in Northern 

California in 1939. Unable to 

cope, he volunteers to be frozen 

as pari of a scientific experiment. 

Awakening in 1992, he 

finds himself out of step with the 

times, until 

a tender friendship 

with a fatherless boy ("Radio 

Flyer's" Elijah Wood) and the 

Mel Gibson 

boy's mother (Jamie Lee Curtis 

reawakens his spirit. Newcomei 

Isabel Glasser and Joe Mortor 

("City of Hope") co-star for director 

Steve Miner ("Sou 

Man"). The screenplay is by Jeffrey 

Abrams ("Regarding 

Henry"). (Warner Bros.) 

"This Boy's Life" Based or 

the acclaimed memoir by 

Tobias Wolff, this drama tell; 

the story of a troubled family in 

1950s America. Leonard 

DiCaprio stars as the title character, 

while Ellen Barkin ("Sea 

of Love") is his recently-divorced 

mother and Robert De 

Niro is his colorful but abusive 

stepfather. As DiCaprio travels 

across the country with his troubled 

mother, he is forced to confront 

the legacy of his absent 

father, his stepfather's cruel behavior 

and his own desires. 

Robert Getchell, the Oscarnominated 

writer of "Alice 

Doesn't Live Here Anymore," 

wrote the screenplay for director 

Michael Caton-Jones ("Doc 

Hollywood"). (Warner Bros.) 

"Rich in Love" Director 

Bruce Beresford, writer Alfred 

Uhry and producers Richard 

and Lili Fini Zanuck—the team 

responsible for "Driving Miss 

Daisy"—have reunited for this 

adaptation of Josephir 

Humphreys' comedic novel, 

tells the story of a 1 7 year-old 

girl whose mother takes off, 

leaving the teenager in charge ot 

the household and her depressed 

father. The star-studded 

cast includes Albert Finney, Jill 

Clayburgh ("An Unmarried 

Woman") , Kyle MacLachlan 

(Agent Dale Cooper from "Twi 

Peaks"), Piper Laurie (anothei 

"Twin Peaks" star), Alfre 

Woodard ("Grand Canyon"; 

and Ethan Hawke ("A Midn 

Clear"). (MGM)

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After Hours ) 

TRAILERS: APRIL 

Howards End 

"A Room With a View" producer Ismail 

Merchant, director James Ivory and screenwriter 

Ruth Prawerjhabva la return to the work 

of novelist E.M. Forster for this look at British 

use, however, taking over a radio advice program 

and becoming a ratings sensation. The 

catch is that she's not the accredited psychologist 

she claims to be. Luckily, the reporter 

(Woods) who gets the assignment of exposing 

Stephen King's 

Sleepwalkers 

Mick Garris ("The Fly 2") directs King's first 

original screenplay. An erotic horror-fantasy, 

| 

society at the turn of the century. Anthony 

Hopkins ("The Silence of the Lambs"), 

Vanessa Redgrave ("The Ballad of the Sad 

Cafe"), Helena Bonham Carter ("A Room 

With a View"), Emma Thompson ("Dead 

Again") and James Wilby ("Maurice") star as 

members of two families whose fates revolve 

around an ancestral home called Howards 

End. (Sony Classics) 

Newsies 

her is smitten Griffin Dunne ( 

Philip Bosco ("Another Woman") and Jerry 

Orbach ("Crimes and Misdemeanors") costar. 

(Buena Vista, 4/3) 

There Goes the 

Neighborhood 

Jeff Daniels ("The Purple Rose of Cairo") 

and Catherine O'Hara ("Home Alone") star in 

this caper comedy about a search for $8.5 

million buried in New Jersey. Daniels plays a 

prison psychiatrist who learns about the hidden 

fortune from a dying inmate, only to 

ittcllsthetak ol shape shitlint,crealLiros wlio 

intiltrate an otherwise peaceful midwestern 

town in search of food—of the human variety. 

Brian Krause, Alice Krieg and "Twin Peaks"- 

star Madchen Amick star. (Columbia, 4/10) 

The Opposite Sex 

Formerly known as "Rules of the Game," 

this film stars Courteney Cox and Arye Gross 

("A Midnight Clear") in a romantic and comical 

look at a young couple learning the rules 

of sex and love. Directed by Matthew 

Meshekoff, it 

This live action musical is set in 1899, 

when millionaires Joseph Pulitzer and William 

Randolph Hears! scl oil a cuntruversy by 

raising prices on their newspapers. The result 

is a strike by the newsies—the young boys 

who sell the papers—that threatens to topple 

the newspaper empires. The young cast is 

headed by Christian Bale ("Empire of the 

Sun"), while Robert Duvall plays Pulitzer and 

Ann-Margret co-stars. Songs are by Alan 

Menken ("The Little Mermaid") and Jack Feldman. 

Choreographer Kenny Ortega ("Dirty 

Dancing") makes his directorial debut. 

(Buena Vista, 4/3) 

Straight Talk 

Dolly Parton and James Woods star in this 

romantic comedy directed by Barnet Kellman. 

Parton plays a dance instructor who 

loses her job because she spends too much 

time choreographing her students' personal 

lives. She puts her common-sense to good 

discover it's buried beneath O'Hara's home. 

They forge an uneasy alliance in hopes of 

finding the loot ahead of a group of escaped 

convicts. Hector Elizondo ("Pretty Woman"), 

Rhea Perlman (TV's "Cheers"), Judith Ivey 

("Compromising Positions") and Dabney 

Coleman ("Where the Heart Is") co-star for 

writer-director Bill Phillips. (Paramount, 4/24) 

The Player 

Legendary filmmaker Robert Altman returns 

to the big time with this adaptation of 

Michael Tolkin's ("The Rapture") novel about 

a film studio executive (Tim Robbins) who is 

harassed by a writer and ends up killing him. 

Purported to be the ultimate scathing satire of 

Hollywood, this one set off a bidding war 

among distributors and features a bevy of 

Hollywood celebrities in cameo roles, many 

as themselves. (Fine Line, 4/1 0) 

traces the path of their relationship 

from first encounter through the various 

stages of commitment. Kevin Pollack and lulie 

Brown ("Earth Girls are Easy") co-star. 

(Miramax, 4/10) 

Deep Cover 

Bill Duke, who made a strong directorial 

debut with last year's "A Rage in Harlem," 

returns with this contemporary crime thriller 

about a police officer who goes undercover 

to infiltrate and expose a drug lord. In what 

sounds like a rehash of the plot of "Rush," he 

becomes so involved in his assignment that 

he begins to have trouble distinguishing between 

real life and the role he has assumed. 

Larry Fishburne ("Boyz N the Hood") and Jeff 

Coldblum star. The screenplay is by Michael 

Tolkin ("The Rapture") and Henry Bean ("Internal 

Affairs"). (New Line, 4/15) 

111 BOXOFUCE

City of Joy 

Patrick Swayze (the subject of our February 

cover story) stars as a disillusioned American 

doctorwho regains his faith in mankind while 

Sandy Duncan, Christopher Plummer, 

Charles Nelson-Reilly and Phil FHarris also 

lend Bluth's drawings their vocal abilities. 

iGoldwyn, 4/3) 

The Playboys 

Robin Wright ("The Princess Bride") stars 

as an unwed mother who becomes the apex 

of a romantic triangle also involving policeman 

Albert Finney ("Two For the Road") and 

travelling actor Aidan Quinn ("Avalon"). 

Written by Shane Connaughton ("My Left 

Foot") and Kerry Crabbe and directed by Gillies 

MacKinnon, it was filmed on location in 

Ireland. Adrian Dunbar ("Hear My Song") 

co-stars. (4/24) 

Beethoven 

This comedy takes a look at a suburban 

couple and their three children whose orderly 

lifestyle is disrupted by the title character, an 

enormous but beguiling St. Bernard. The film 

builds to a confrontation with an evil veterinarian. 

Charles Grodin ("Midnight Run"), 

Bonnie Hunt and Dean Jones star. Directed 

by Brian Levant, this one promises to be a 

family treat. (Universal, 4/10) 

White Sands 

Willem Dafoe ("The Last Temptation of 

Christ") heads the cast in this thriller from 

Roger Donaldson, the director of "No Way 

working at a free clinic in India. But trouble 

arises when he challenges a powerful crime 

lord and urges his colleagues to treat lepers. 

Pauline Collins ("Shirley Valentine") co-stars 

as the founder of the clinic. Mark Medoff 

("Children of a Lesser Cod") wrote the screenplay, 

and Roland Joffe ("The Mission") directs. 

(TriStar, 4/1 7) 

Thunderheart 

Val Kilmer ("Top Gun") and Sam Shepard 

("The Right Stuff") star as FBI agents sent to an 

Indian reservation to investigate a murder in 

this thriller from director Michael Apted (see 

FernGully: The Last 

Rainforest 

This environmentally-conscious animated 

musical tells the story of a group of fairies 

living in the rain forest and a human boy who 

joins them in their adventures. The cast of 

voices includes Robin Williams, Tim Curry, 

Samantha Mathis and Christian Slater. It's 

directed by Australian Bill Kroyer, who was 

nominated for an Oscar for his animated short 

"Technological Threat." (Fox) 

IVIan Trouble 

Writer Carole Eastman, director Bob Rafelson 

and actor Jack Nicholson—who teamed 

Out." Dafoe plays a small town sheriff's deputy 

who becomes involved in a murder investigation, 

an undercover FBI sting and a 

treacherous web of mysterious happenings 

when he takes on the identity of a dead man. 

The supporting cast includes Samuel L. Jackson 

("Jungle Fever") as an FBI agent with a 

deadly secret, Mickey Rourke ("Wild Orchid") 

as an international arms dealer, Mary 

Elizabeth Mastrantonio ("Class Action") as a 

seductive woman of means and Mimi Rogers 

("The Rapture") as Dafoe's wife. (WB, 4/24) 

cover story, page 1 2). What they find is government 

corruption and a civil war among 

different 

factions of Indians on the reservation. 

Kilmer, meanwhile, begins to rediscover 

his own Indian heritage. Graham Greene 

("Dances With Wolves") co-stars as a tribal 

policeman, while Fred Ward ("The Right 

Stuff") is the head of one of the feuding factions. 

The screenplay, based on real events, 

was written by )ohn Fusco ("The Babe"). 

(TriStar, 4/3) 

Rock-a-Doodle 

Don Bluth, the animator-director best 

known for his work on the original "An American 

Tail," returns with this rockabilly musical 

that features both live action and animation. 

It tells the story of Edmond, a live action boy 

who is turned into an animated kitten while 

seeking to save his family and their farm from 

a devastating flood. Only Chanticleer, a singing 

rooster who brings up the sun with his 

crow, has the power to stop the rain. Glen 

Campbell provides the voice for Chanticleer, 

while Ellen Greene ("Little Shop of Horrors"), 

up to create the classic Five Easy Pieces" two 

decades back— reunite for this comedic 

thriller. Nicholson plays Harry Bliss, the 

down-on-his-luck owner of an attack dog 

business called "House of Bliss." Both love 

and trouble come his way when he and Joan 

Spruance (Ellen Barkin), a wealthy client, join 

forces. (Fox) 

The Babe 

John Goodman stars as the Sultan of Swat 

in this screen biography of the legendary 

Yankee Babe Ruth. The film follows him from 

his delinquent boyhood through his rise to 

national hero. Kelly McGillis co-stars as 

Claire Hodgeson, the former Ziegficid Follies 

showgirl who forces the Babe to confront the 

one thing that threatens his dominance of 

major league baseball: an insatiable appetite 

for wine, women and hot dogs. Directed by 

Arthur Hiller ("Silver Streak"). Writen by John 

Fusco ("Thunderheart"). (Universal, 4/1 7) 

A Class Act 

A clerical error switches the identities of 

two high school students in this new comedy 

starring the rap duo Kid 'N' Play ("House 

Party"). Kid is a brainy straight arrow who is 

forced to pose as Play, a tough hood, following 

the mix-up— if he lets on about the switch. 

Play has promised to brain him. Directed by 

DanielMiller. (WB, 4/8) 

Also in April 

"Hellraiser III" The latest in the saga of the 

Corlcone family finds Michael. ..oops. This 

one's a sequel to "Hellraiser." (Miramax) 

"Incident at Oglala" Michael Apted directs 

this documentary about American Indian 

leader Leonard Peltier, convicted of 

killing two FBI agents. Robert Redford produces 

and narrates. See cover story on Apted, 

page 12. (Miramax) 

"Edward 11" "Caravaggio" director Derek 

Jarman's politicized take on Marlowe's 16th 

century classic. (Fine Line) 

"Gas, Food, Lodging" Fairuza Balk, lone 

Skye and Brooke Adams star in this story of 

the troubled relationship between two daughters 

and their mother in a small town. Allison 

Anders directs. (IRS) 

April. 1992 11

" 

— 

COVER STORY 

Tales of Two Countries 

Soul 

singer James Brown 

may be known as the hardest 

working man in show biz, but 

filmmaker Michael Apted is giving 

him a run for his money. For 

Apted, an Englishman best 

known for his work on such cntically 

acclaimed Hollywood 

films as "Coal Miner's Daughter" 

and "Gorillas in the Mist 

has three films scheduled foi 

release 

in the first half of 1992 

"It was a very hard year for 

me." Apted says with typically 

British reserve. "I did them all 

within a year, and, unfortunately, 

the way it panned out, they're all 

being distributed around the 

same time. I would have preferred 

them to be spread out. So 

it's been a pretty rough 12 

months." Rough indeed. These 

days, many directors take years 

to develop a single project, and 

few, since the heyday of the studio 

system, have managed to do 

more than one film a year. But 

Apted felt so strongly about each 

of the three films that there was 

nothing to do but make them all. 

First there's "35 Up" (currently 

in release from The Samuel 

Goldwyn Company), the 

latest in his ongoing series of 

documentaries that has examined a diverse 

group of English people every seven years 

since they were seven years old. Then 

there's "Incident at Oglala" (coming this 

spring from Miramax), a documentary the things I look for in a feature: it had a 

about Leonard Peltier, the imprisoned strong political notion; also, along side it is 

American Indian leader many feel was un- 

a strong human and emotional story; and 

justly convicted of killing two FBI agents 

during riots on a reservation in the "70s. 

And finally there's "Thunderheart" (released 

this month by TriStar), a political 

thriller starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard 

and Graham Greene that's set on an American 

Indian reservation. 

For Apted, whose roots are in documentaries, 

it was easy enough to commit to the 

first two projects. But "Thunderheart" 

threatened to be the straw that broke the 

camel's back. "I was already doing 'Incident 

at Oglala,' so I already had quite a bit 

of information about the American Indians 

and what was going on in the seventies and 

With ''Thunderheart/' 

"Incident at Oglala" 

and "J5 Up, " director 

Michael Apted exposes 

the troubled souls of 

America and England 

By Jeff Schwager 

Senior Editor 

early eighties." explains Apted. "So when 

'Thunderheart' came along I may have responded 

to it a little quicker than 1 would 

have otherwise. But the script had for me all 

BoxoincE 

then there were some strong relationships. 

It's rare that you find all that in a script, so 

I wasn't about to turn it down." 

Apted admits that he was surprised when 

Robert Redford, who had long wanted to 

make a film based on Peltier's life, asked 

him to direct the documentary that became 

"Incident at Oglala." Redford, who ended 

up producing and narrating the film, wanted 

someone with both feature and documentary 

experience, and while Apted is one of 

the few world-class directors who fits that 

bill, he admits he knew little about the historical 

conflicts involving Native Americans 

in this country. 

j(l 

-^m^ 

"I knew pathetically little 

about it," he says. "It wasn't unti! 

I started doing "Incident ai 

Oglala' that I started reading up 

on it that I began to learn aboui 

it. I knew a little bit of the history 

of it. What I learned was that the 

story wasn't over. That the greal 

battle of the 19th century between 

the government and the 

American Indians over gold and 

the Black Hills, and their land 

rights and their political rights, 

was still continuing, and is in fad 

still continuing today. Now the 

government wants to dump nu- 

clear waste on their land. So the 

battles are still being fought, 

though perhaps not as violently 

as in the '70s." 

Following his experience with 

"Incident at Oglala," Apted was 

convinced that the only place tc 

shoot "Thunderheart" was on an 

actual Indian reservation. The 

studio wasn't thrilled with the 

idea, but Apted—who had gone 

through similar battles when he 

wanted to film "Gorillas in the 

Mist" in the jungles of Kenya 

was adamant, and eventually 

won out. 

"Shooting there brought a 

truthfulness to it," he says. "Everything 

that happens in the 

movie is true; it may not have happened ir 

that sequence or that compression, but il 

happened. So shooting on the actual loca-i 

tion gives the story a real verisimilitude, 

think it helps everybody to be where 

happened. Also, it gives you the tremendous 

natural beauty of the place. But whai 

I 

find so compelling is its got such incredible 

natural beauty, and also these appalling 

man-made monstrosities. The housing or 

the reservation—I don"t think I could have 

built that. When I first went out there I waj 

just shocked. It was impossible to believe 

you were in the continental United States 

You felt you were in the third world. 

"I got the sense that most people didn' 

know about this, that Americans had ; 

vague idea about the historical battles tha 

were fought but no one had a clue abou 

what had happened in the last 50 years. Sc 

I 

just had to really push the studio, who are

I 

never thrilled when you do that, when you 

take a unit miles from anywhere. I felt that 

I couldn't match that anywhere. It was 

unique. Td never seen anything like that 

and I wanted to put it on film. I like to shoot 

on location because I think these actual 

places bring something to the film. I'm 

taking an audience places 

they've never been before. I 

don't think those badlands has 

barely been shot at all in movies. 

It's exciting to feel you've shot 

in a place that's never been 

filmed before." 

TV f 

hile 

Apted earlie 

ferred to the politic 

enients in "Thunderhean." hi 

blanches when the subject conic 

up again. Like many filmmakers 

he's worried that 

terized as political 

being charac 

will daniatu 

the commercial chances ol , 

filin. "Look." he insists. "I don 

want to give people a bloody lee 

ture. I'm trying to make a com 

mercial film that people will go to see. So 1 

had to find a way to make the film personal 

and entertaining and not a lesson. That was 

really the challenge of doing 

'Thunderheart'—to make it accessible to 

people without threatening them or frightening 

them or giving them a history lesson. 

"I'm not necessarily one to do films about 

politics. I mean. 'Gorillas in the Mist' was 

not about politics, as such. When I 

say it's 

a political film, I mean political with a small 

'p"—in the sense that is in some way about 

the way we live. I hope my films do have 

some political substance, not in the Washington 

sense, but in a kind of life sense. But 

it's very difficult: I 

don't think the climate 

is congenial to those kind of films. That's 

why it's important to me and filmmakers 

like me that a film like Thunderheart' does 

well." 

One film that has certain similarities to 

'Thunderheart" that has done well is Oliver 

Stone's "JFK." Like "JFK," "Thunderheart" 

has its basis in reality, but ultimately 

moves away from fact. While many have 

criticized "JFK" as a distortion of history 

that is dangerously misleading. Apted 

doesn't think the same case can be made 

against the fictionalized "Thunderheart." 

"I think we are true." he says. "You 

know. I would hate people to walk away 

thinking. "Oh that's a good story, but it 

couldn't have happened.' It is based on 

substantiated fact. It's not what 'JFK' had 

to be. based on a lot of contention, a lot of 

theory, a lot of opinion. Mine isn't based on 

that. I would maintain that every single 

event depicted in the film actually happened. 

So "JFK' is more opinionated, more 

contentious, and more argumentative, more 

to do with all that than "Thunderheart' is. 

don't think it's bad if people come out 

thinking these things really happened, because 

in a composite sense they did." 

Still, despite the troubled political landscape 

that "Thundcrheart" depicts. Apted 

thinks that the situation in his own country 

is worse. "I think the politics in England are 

just horrible." he exclaims. "The whole 

Northern Ireland issue, both in the fields 

and in the courts, is horrendous. It's far 

w.Msc ihaii .inMhiii!' >ou ha\c in America. 

So I'm not an Hnglishman who's come here 

to take the high moral ground; I'm not here 

to point the finger at problems America has. 

I 

feel it's easier to be brave in America than 

it is in England. I can't imagine the equivalent 

of a 'Thunderheart' being made in 

England, whatever it would be. There's a 

lot wrong with American society and with 

the movie industry, but at least people have 

got the balls to make films like 'JFK' and 

"Thunderheart.' I don't see that films like 

that get made in England." 

Despite the cache he has secured with his 

success in Hollywood. Apted doesn't anticipate 

returning to England to make films 

reflective of that world. "I think it's impossible." 

he says of the possibility of making 

a political film in his homeland. "There 

are certain formulas that don't work in England. 

Moviegoing is not part of the culture. 

You can't recoup your investment because 

of that. And since we share the same language 

as America, our culture has been 

swamped from time immemorial. 

"My country's been in a recession for the 

last 20 years. My country is screwed in a 

way that America may become. But America 

has a much stronger economy. England 

has a much more fragile economy. And 

something like the movie business, the 

amount of money it takes to put a movie in 

the marketplace, makes it 

impossible to do 

there. Also, you have to weight that against 

my particular taste in movies. I don't want 

to go back to England and make small-budget 

movies for the BBC and Channel Four. 

I did that and I wanted to get away from all 

that. So I've always had a desire from my 

early days to be in the mainstream, and if 

you want to be in the mainstream you have 

to do that here. There is no mainstream 

cinema in England, and I don't think there 

ever will be again." 

Nevertheless. Apted does return to England 

every seven years to do the latest film 

in the ""Up" series. His first job in the movie 

business was as a research assistant on the 

original "7 Up." and he has directed every 

ensuing installment. For Apted. the point of 

the films is very clear: that the country's 

rigid class system shapes the 

lives of English people from the 

time they are bom. ""The class 

.system in England has a very 

powerful influence on people," 

he says. "It's been a very pervasive 

force in English society." 

Having followed the same 

group of people from the time 

I hey were seven, Apted has seen 

how little they've been able to do 

to alter the expectations that the 

class s\ stem has imposed on their 

.. But what about the expectations 

put upon them by appearing 

in a documentary every seven 

years? Has that altered their 

lives? 

"I don't believe they've lived 

iheir hole lives thinking about the seventh 

year.' he says. "I don't think their lives have 

become self-serving for the film. Psychologically 

it can't be easy for them to have 

their lives put on display every seven years, 

but I 

don't believe that the surface of their 

lives has changed very much. If it was, the 

whole thing would become pointless. It 

would become a film about being in a film." 

Indeed. Apted's belief in the project is so 

strong that he's developing companion series 

focusing on the United States and the 

former-Soviet Union. Although he lives in 

America now. Apted makes no predictions 

about what Americans will learn from their 

own "Up" series. "Who knows?" he says. 

"That's what so interesting about it. You 

don't know. No one knows. We made decisions 

about what kind of people we would 

choose, what kind of issues we would deal 

with, what issues we thought would be important 

in America over the next thirty 

years: the breakdown of the inner cities; the 

widening gaps between the rich and the 

poor; the rewriting of the ethnic face of 

America. Now how important all that is, 

only time will tell. But that's the excitement 

of the series. That's what we home in on." 

Nor, Apted says, could anyone have predicted 

what would have become of him had 

he been a subject in the series. "I don't think 

you would have foreseen what's happened 

to me." he says. ""I think you would have 

been surprised that my life took the course 

it did. At least until 2 1 . when it became clear 

that my whole life was sort of dominated by 

a desire to be in the theatre and get into show 

business. At se\en and 14 I was a very 

reluctant, docile kind of person. And at 28, 

I 

don't know w hether you could have seen 

I'd have come to America and built a career 

here. But I think from seven and 14 it would 

have been a big shock to have seen what 

would have become of me." 

^ 

April, 1992 13

s 

NATO/SHOWEST '92 

A Celebration of Our Industry 

NATO/ShoWest '92 Generates Excitement 

By Jeff Schwager 

Senior Editor 

What a difference a few months can 

make. Last October, as exhibitors gathered 

in Atlantic City for ShowEast, the 

industry's mood was one of concern and 

depression—recent months had been anything 

but kind to the movie business. But at 

February's NATO/ShoWest at the Baily's 

Casino Resort in Las Vegas, all that had 

changed. Following the explosive holiday 

resurgence at the boxoffice, theater owners 

were in an upbeat mood, and a renewed 

feeling of optimism filled the banquet halls 

and the trade show floor. 

As it turned out, NATO/ShoWest '92 

was just the occasion to add to that mood. 

The four-day event (February 17-20) gave 

exhibitors the opportunity to share the dining 

room with a bevy of stars, 

catch previews 

of what looks like a promising year 

of movies and check out an abundance of 

new products. Unlike last year, when Twentieth 

Century Fox and New Line were the 

only distributors to sponsor major events 

and show product reels, this year's show 

featured functions with Columbia, Warner 

Bros., Paramount, Universal, Disney and 

Miramax—the result of NATO/ShoWest' 

decision to pick up the food tabs, which 

generally run around $50,000. The result 

was an ebullient mood: as NATO's Tim 

Warner put it, "It turned out to be more a 

celebration of our industry than a convention." 

NATO/ShoWest '92 got under way with 

MPAA president Jack Valenti's traditional 

opening remarks, a sort of state of the industry 

address. While Valenti conceded 

that movie attendance had hit a 1 5-year low 

in 1 99 1 , he cited a record-breaking December 

turnout at the boxoffice as a signal for 

hope. And he pointed out that the negative 

cost of an average studio film had gone 

down for the second time in 1 2 years, while 

marketing costs rose less than one percent. 

"I can't tell you what a triumph that is," 

Valenti said. "There was almost a passion 

for holdini! costs down." 

EDI Golden Reel Awards: Entertainment Data Inc. bestowed its annual awards during NATO/ShoWest. 

Winners and presenters, from left: John Cavaliere. segment manager food service concessions. 

M&M/fVlars: Ray W. Syufy of Syufy Cinemas: James Spitz, president of domestic distribution for Columbia 

Pictures: Larry Gleason. president, theatrical exhibition group. Paramount: Bruce Snyder, president 

of distribution. Twentieth Century Fox: D. Barry Reardon. president. Warner Bros. Distribution 

Corp. : Marcy Poller president and owner of EDI: William Soady. executive vp of domestic distribution 

for Tristar: tJlichael Kaiser, president of marketing for Orion Pictures: Phillip Garfinkle, senior vp of EDI, 

and James Edwards, CEO of Edwards Theatres. 

Valenti also concurred with ciitics who 

blamed last year's August-November 

slump on a crop of dismal movies. "We did 

not have out there what I 

call audience-alluring 

pictures," he admitted. "There is only 

one constant in our mesmerizing business: 

if we make movies that have high entertainment 

quality, the audience will come. If we 

make movies that just don't have it, the 

audience stays away in droves." 

Last year's slump, of course, was particularly 

hard on independent exhibitors, and 

one of the show's most interesting panels 

addressed these problems. Titled "Predicting 

the Future of Independent Exhibition." 

it reaffirmed the optimism of independent 

theatre owners even in the face of the recession, 

challenges from home video and other 

emerging technologies (including pay-perview), 

and the ever-increasinu clout of the 

major chains. 

Jack Sawyers of Utah's Cedar City Cinemas 

seemed to sum up the feelings of 

many independent exhibitors when he 

stated, "We made it through the depression: 

we made it through television; we made it 

through home video; and we're going to 

make it through the new technologies.' 

However, many participants in the panel 

criticized the studios, expressing anger over 

product shortages, per-capita provisions 

and product that doesn't appeal to 

America's smaller communities. According 

to Marshall Smith of Wyoming's Financial 

Resources chain. R-rated films tend to 

see 50-60 percent drops after opening 

weekends in his communities, while family 

fare has far more staying power. 

Another exhibitor concern addressed by 

a panel was the pattern of violence that has 

14 MOXOKUCE

' 

sunounded the openings of some black-ihemed 

movies over the last year. The panel, 

"The Importance of Black Film in America." 

featured filmmakers John Singleton 

(who had just received Oscar nominations 

for his screenplay and direction of "Boyz N 

the Hood"); George Jackson and Doug 

McHenry ("New Jack City"); Warrington 

Hudlin ("House Party"); Robert Townsend 

("The Five Heartbeats"); and Paramount 

Motion Picture Group president Barry London. 

McHenry got the panel off to a rousing 

start 

with an impassioned speech that decried 

media coverage of the violence surrounding 

the openings of "New Jack City," 

"Boyz N the Hood" and "Juice." He and 

partner Jackson proposed a series of public 

service announcements that would serve as 

an educational tool for young blacks who 

attend these tllms, but pointed out that to 

get these PSA's off the ground they would 

need the support of studios and exhibitors. 

"As the gatekeepers of culture, we can participate 

in an exchange" with audiences. 

Jackson said. Rather than blaming the 

media, Townsend blamed the studios for 

the incidents of violence, saying that trailers 

emphasize the violent aspects of anti-violence 

tllms like "New Jack City" and "Boyz 

N the Hood." He called for studios to stop 

pandering to the worst instincts of potential 

moviegoers. 

Perhaps the most interesting part of the 

panel came during an exchange between 

Singleton and a Michigan distributor, v\ho 

charged that using rap star Ice Cube as an 

actor in "Boyz N the Hood" attracted audiences 

who agreed with the controversial 

rappers' anti-establishment messages and 

encouraged violence. Singleton defended 

his casting, and refused to address questions 

about his siar's song lyrics, insisting that the 

disLii^îon lu- kcpl to his film and its message 

lo "lin.reasc the Peace." Also speaking 

of "Boyz N the Hood" was Loews chairman 

A. Alan Friedberg, who told how his company 

resisted pressure to pull the film from 

a Boston theatre in the wake of opening 

night violence, despite threats of eviction 

from the property's owner. "What we have 

is the killing of an idea," if such censorship 

is allowed, said Friedberg. "It may not be 

the equivalent of homicide, but it is a very 

chilling idea." 

at 

Perhaps the hottest topic of conversation 

the convention was Universal's call for 

reduced Tuesday ticket prices ( see National 

News, page 37). At the show's economic 

conference. Twentieth Century Fox's Tom 

Sherak said that "the idea of telling an exhibitor 

how to fix prices is absolutely insane," 

bringing a round of applause from 

the audience. Columbia's Jimmy Spitz, 

meanwhile, said that the plan would backfire, 

increasing attendance on lower-priced 

Tuesday's but decreasing admissions on 

regular-priced weekends, thus costing exhibitors 

and distributors money. 

But many exhibitors agreed with 

Universal's proposal, saying it would be 

one way to bring disappointed patrons back 

to the theatres. "The public ha become very 

price sensitive." noted Cinemark Theatres 

president Lee Roy Mitchell. And Goodrich 

Theatres president Ira A. Korff said the plan 

would help eliminate the "perception of the 

public that going to the movies is a costly 

venture." 

Other NATO/ShoWest highlights included 

RDI's annual Golden Reel Awards, 

recognizing tllms that grossed over SIOO 

million at the boxoffice in 1 99 1 . This year's 

winners were "Dances With Wolves." "The 

Silence of the Lambs," "Robin Hood: 

Prince of Thieves," "Sleeping With the 

Enemy," "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" 

and "City Slickers." A Platinum Reel 

Award and Woridwide Reel Award were 

given to "Home Alone." as the year's highest 

grossing domestic and woridwide release. 

Among the celebrities who turned up 

at luncheons and dinners were Eddie Murphy. 

Michael Keaton. Mel Gibson. Danny 

Glover. Jodie Foster, Rodney Dangerfield, 

Dolly Parton (who sang a pair of numbers 

at Disney 's dinner), Tom Cruise. Spike Lee, 

Ron Howard and James Caan. In addition, 

Pepsi sponsored a concert featuring Ray 

Charles. And among the upcoming films 

glimpsed during product reels that caused 

the greatest stir were "Batman Returns." 

"Aladdin." "A Few Good Men." "Far and 

Away." "Patriot Games" and "Boomer- 

Theatre Audience. 

and lAP Continue tqrîme 

Industry Stttiidardfor 

|^,.^ 

Quality Motion Pu tme and^^SS^d Presentation 

I ncasA?n hntertatnjftît ( ompOftS' 

\ » P.O Box 2009 S

, 

— 

INSIDE EXHIBITION 

A Star is Reborn 

When Malcolm and Amy Neal bought the Kiva 

Theatre in Las Vegas, New Mexico, they returned a 

colorful theatre to its rightful place in the city's history. 

Las 

By Marilyn Moss 

Associate Editor 

Vegas, New Mexico may sound 

like the name of a city that's sitting in 

the wrong stale. It may also be a city 

easy to overlook in contrast to some larger 

populations that suiTound it and supercede 

it in celebrity—Santa Fe and Albuquerque, 

to name two: Taos, to name another, which 

has long been famous as an artists' colony Vegas. 

and known as the chosen city 

of exile for British novelist 

D.H. Lawrence during the last 

years of his life. But don't 

overlook this "other" Las 

Vegas just yet—for sure, 

some colorful names of 

Hollywood's earliest days did 

not. 

This city of Las Vegas, in 

Northern New Mexico some 

60 miles from Santa Fe, has a 

unique Hollywood history all 

its own. It's the site where 

Tom Mix and Romain Fielding 

had their movie studios 

back in the early part of this 

century when movies first 

began to take hold of our imagination. 

More so, the town 

remains a location venue even 

today; it's home to film producers 

several times a year, 

given the area's mixture of 

Old We.st and Victorian environs. 

Yet a good part of Hollywood 

history has also been 

restored to Las Vegas, New 

Mexico— in the form of the 

first run. independent Kiv; 

movie house that was refurbished a little 

over a year ago by its new owners, Malcolm 

and Amy Neal, and that now sits as a monument 

to the early days of moviemaking in 

the town. That is why, says Neal, that once 

c\ery three months he and his wife. Amy, 

run classic Hollywoinl films at the Kiva. 

Given the theatre's roots in the past, this 

would seem only natural. 

Built in 1912 in what is now called the 

"Old Town" section of the city by a member 

of the Maloon family (who now, at age 8 1 

still lives in Las Vegas, and owns the land 

upon which the theatre sits), the Kiva has 

been given new life in the same way that the 

town's inhabitants have been given back a 

part of the history that belongs to Las 

Ihc Neal (who hails from England, where. 

before coming to this country, he was involved 

in exhibition, theatre and television 

production in that country as well as in 

Canada), ran into a bit of luck when he first 

found out about the Kiva theatre. A little 

over a year ago. the Neals. while living in 

Dallas and on vacation in Santa Fe. happened 

to see an ad in the paper about the 

Kiva and sub.sequently moved to Las Vegas 

and bought the theatre. Three months after 

their purchase, they began renovating the 

building, and just last year— in March, the 

Kiva had its grand reopening. 

The theatre had been closed for several 

years at the time the Neals bought it. yet it 

was still operational and most recently had 

been running X-rated films. At first the 

Neals thought that the Kiva would require 

"merely a new coat of paint," 

says Malcolm Neal, but this 

was hardly the case. The couple 

ended up embarking on an 

c\tensi\e renovation job that 

LOst them approximately 

SSO.OOO and became a great 

"labor of love." They tore out 

the entire inside of the theatre, 

rebuilt the lobby, enlarged the 

concession area and installed 

new , reclining seats—save for 

20 of the originals (the Kiva 

had opera seats that the townspeople 

asked the Neals not to 

remove because they were so 

comfortable; the couple found 

what they thought to be the 

best of them and saved them). 

The Kiva originally had 300 

seats when the Neals bought 

it; there are now 250. The 

Neals also revamped the projection 

room and its equipment 

and installed the latest in 

Dolby Surround Stereo, with 

four amplified channels 

left, right, center and surloiiiitl 

and ihiiiccn speakers 

ihioughoLit Ihc ihcaire. 

Because the thealie's building is listed on 

the National Register of Historic Places. 

Neal says that, "It couldn't be changed on 

the outside, except for [our] painting it. And 

the marquee is not the original one, but is 

from the 1930s [the last time the Kiva was 

refurbished)." Also original are the tiles on 

the tloor to the entrance of the theatre thai 

\(> KoXOKIlCE

QUIKSHIP 

spell out the theatre's name. In addition, 

there are the original Art Deco glass wall 

sconces that light the inside of the theatre 

before and after performances and the original 

solid, three-inch hardwood floors, 

which remain uncovered except for newly 

carpeted aisles. 

The Kiva is the oldest theatre in the town. 

"the original place in Las Vegas to see a 

The Kiva's refurbished auditorium 

movie," says Neal. At one time there were 

four movie houses, but now there are only 

two. the other being the Serf Theatre, just a 

few blocks away on the city's main drag. 

Adds Neal. one of the reasons he and Amy 

decided to invest in the Kiva and refurbish 

it was that they thought the city could easily 

support a second theatre. So far, they've 

been right; Las Vegas is a town with two 

universities and a population of families 

who like to do things together. So, seeing a 

movie is high on everyone's list. 

The Kiva is unique in several other respects: 

it stands as an homage to its own 

past. Says Neal, "Being that it's an old 

building, there was an extra challenge in 

refurbishing [it]; 

nothing was the standard 

size. [We found] lots of nooks and crannies 

and little staircases and even a crying room 

upstairs." A crying room is clearly an invention 

of the past (although word has it that 

the idea is being brought back), a room next 

to the projection booth that had a glass 

window to the theatre screen that could 

accommodate mothers who needed a refuge 

should their babies begin to cry during a 

film's performance. And, as another homage 

to the past (and given that the Kiva is a 

one-screen house), the Neals have kept the 

theatre's old brass ticket machine. Most 

interesting of all is the origin of the name, 

Kiva. Says Neal, "The word is American 

Indian and means 'meeting room, or the 

meeting place of the chief.' Every pueblo 

had its kiva." 

The Kiva took almost five months to 

refurbish, not the one month the Neals had 

first anticipated. For example, says Neal. 

when the couple first took over the theatre 

it still had two 1930s Super Simplex projectors 

with arc lamps. They had to go. Now 

there is a single Cinemeccanica projector 

and a Westrex tower film carrier system. 

"Space is a premium in the 'old' projection 

booth," says Neal (who is the Kiva's sole 

projectionist), "and the new system was 

especially designed with that in mind." The 

Kiva also has an ORC dual slide projector 

system used before 

shows for announceiTients 

and a 

review of some of 

the previous 

week's events in 

the town. 

On top of this, 

there was a specific 

reason for keeping 

the Kiva a 250-seat 

house. Fifty seats 

were removed not 

only to accommodate 

the expanded 

concession area but 

also to deepen the 

stage of the theatre 

by 10 feet to make room for future non-theatrical 

presentations being planned. In addition 

to nightly movies and matinees on the 

weekends, the building is available to rent 

for concerts, talent shows, recitals and small 

productions. 

The response from the town's 16,000 

inhabitants to their "new" theatre has been 

very positive, says Neal, especially because 

patrons know that the Kiva is well run by 

owners who want people to see movies in 

the best possible environment. Business at 

the Kiva generates mostly from word of 

The Kiva's expanded 

mouth, and the word has gotten out that Las 

Vegas has a new (and newly refurbished) 

star in the city. It's only fitting, then, that 

for the Kiva's grand opening night in March 

of last year, the Neals played a restored 

version of Vincente Minnelli's "A Star is 

Born. " Change that to. ..a star is reborn, wm 

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April. 1992 17

18 Boxoffice 

Cinema Sound 

Digital Clioices 

By John F.Allen 

High Performance Stereo 

sumniei s digital stereo release of 

Last 

••Teiminatoi 2 reported a boxoffice 

increase averaging 68 percent in those 

theatres presenting a digital print compared 

to those theatres with conventional analog 

presentations. This should be expected. The 

pubHc has shown a very strong desire for 

digital stereo's quality by their purchases of 

compact discs. 

The "Terminator 2" boxoffice increase 

parallels ourexperience with the pioneering 

digital presentations of "Fantasia," which 

we mounted seven years ago, as well as 

other recent digital releases. I have always 

maintained that digital stereo, properly presented, 

will sell more tickets. I further believe 

that this industry not only should have 

digital sound, but that it must have it! 

Several organizations have proposed or 

implemented various schemes to present 

digital sound with motion pictures. Seven 

companies. Optical Radiation Corp., Dolby 

Laboratories, Strong International, The National 

Film Board of Canada, Karasync 

Digital Audio and Sony, have all proposed 

distinctly different digital processes. The 

seventh company. High Performance Stereo, 

which is my company, was the first to 

bring digital stereo to commercial movie 

theatres in 1984 and 1985 utilizing double 

systems and digital ready HPS-4000 sound 

systems. We do not offer a digital processor. 

Rather, we specialize in theatre loudspeakers. 

Since 1 have discussed the 

speaker and amplifier requirements for digital 

stereo in previous articles, this article 

will concentrate on the six primary digital 

film 

processes which have been most recently 

proposed. 

Different Paths Toward the Same Goal 

In one way or another, all the proposed 

digital film systems offer sound quality 

which can be considered generally equivalent 

to the compact digital disc. This is to 

say that they all have similar dynamic 

range, signal to noise ratios and low distortion. 

They also offer at least the same six 

discrete channel sound format. These channels 

are designated: left, center, right, left 

surround, right surround and bass. The NFB 

system departs slightly from the totally discrete 

approach by deriving the bass channel 

from the low frequency sum of the left, 

center and right channels. Some systems 

also offer additional channels for SMPTE 

and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) 

time code information. While differences 

in the sound quality available from 

these systems should, theoretically, be relatively 

minor, these different processes employ 

totally different digital data storage 

schemes and digital manipulations. In other 

words, none of the proposed digital stereo 

film formats is "the least bit" compatible 

with another. 

Cinema Digital Sound 

Optical Radiation Corp. teamed up with 

the Eastman Kodak Co. and was the first to 

market a technology for marrying digital 

audio to both 35mm and 70mm motion 

picture release prints. Cinema Digital 

Sound, or CDS, prints have no conventional 

analog soundtrack. The CDS digital track 

occupies the normal soundtrack area. As 

such, these prints 

have been reserved for 

tho.se theatres equipped with a CDS processor 

and associated sound pick up (reader) 

mounted in a penthouse atop the projector. 

The sound quality is excellent and the error 

correction scheme quite impressive. The 

system is now so well refined that the "T2" 

openings went without a hitch. Thus far, 

only the CDS system has actually been used 

for official composite digital releases. 

La.st November, ORC announced that 

they were sharply curtailing their CDS activity 

and attempting to find a buyer for 

their CDS system. At this writing, none has 

been found and it is not clear whether the 

CDS system will ever be used again. Because 

the CDS system serves as the stepping 

off point for digital sound on film, I 

felt it useful for this article to include this 

discussion, at least as a reference for comparing 

the other digital systems being offered. 

Whether or not we see CDS prints 

again, the system itself, as well as Howard 

Flemming and the dedicated team that built 

it. are certainly worthy of this industry's 

admiration and respect. 

SR«D 

Dolby's new digital stereo format, called 

SR'D, places the digital information between 

the sprocket holes on the soundtrack 

side of a 35 mm print, allowing a normal 

(Dolby SR encoded) analog soundtrack to 

remain in place. This provides all the advantages 

of a compatible single inventory print 

release. Thus, SR'D digital 

prints can be 

played in any theatre whether digital or 

analog equipped. At present, Dolby has not 

announced a digital system for 70mm 

prints. 

Curiously, Dolby Labs, has spent most of 

the last decade publicly down-playing the 

advantages of digital sound while quietly 

developing digital processes of their own, 

designed primarily for transmission purposes. 

With the introduction of the CDS 

system, however, Dolby responded with 

one of their Audio Coding systems called 

AC-2, adapted for motion picture sound. 

The SR'D processor is priced at $ 1 9,600.00 

Dolby's AC-2 process involves what is 

called a "low bit encoder." Normally, digital 

recordings store all the digital bits produced 

by the analog-to-digital converter. 

This requires lots of data storage capacity 

of one form or another. Unfortunately, the 

storage area on a film soundtrack is limited, 

thus requiring some method to squeeze the 

digital information onto the film. Thus, low 

bit encoders are used when such storage 

capacity is limited. They "compress" or 

reduce the digital data so that it can be 

stored in less space. The challenge for low 

bit encoders is, of course, to reconstruct the 

coinpressed, or coded, data upon playback, 

so the original audio signal can be accurately 

restored with no change in sound 

quality. This is essentially impossible with 

current technologies. Increasingly clever

Digital Choices 

digital manipulations and masicing techniques 

are employed to maintain audio 

quality as much as possible and carefully 

fool our ears in ways that hide the discrepancies. 

Dolby's AC-2 system isn't perfect. In 

fact, no manufacturer of low bit encoders 

has made any such claims of perfection. 

Having said that, it must also be said that 

Dolby's AC-2 system does a very good job 

at minimizing sound quality degradation. 

Indeed, one would have to listen quite carefully 

to both the original and encoded recordings 

to detect any losses. With or 

without such a comparison, however, audiences 

are likely to be as impressed with this 

digital system as any other. 

A Preview 

This past winter I visited a theatre where 

Dolby had temporarily installed an early 

version of their SR'D decoders. This 

installation was one of several unannounced 

tlnal field tests to be carried out 

before SR'D's scheduled introduction later 

this year. "Star Trek 6" was selected to be 

the first feature recorded in SR*D in part 

because of the dynamic range which the 

sound for such films employ. 

As with the CDS digital system, the 

sound in this presentation was discrete, 

clear, with a wide frequency range; and it 

all came out of the proper speakers. This last 

item may seem trivial but it isn't. There 

were no audible errors, dropouts or any 

indication that the system reverted to the 

analog soundtrack at anytime. This is particularly 

significant because my visit occurred 

late in the run. Any damage the 

digital track might suffer by being located 

between the sprocket holes would likely 

have been more evident at this point. 

While Dolby's digital system worked 

well, the entire presentation lacked involvement 

due to this (brand new) theatre's loudspeakers 

which were unfortunately 

inadequate for digital stereo. Even though 

the level was quite correct (perfect really, 

along with an excellent mix) the sound was 

thin. 

In other words, there was certainly a 

lot more sound on the track than the audience 

ever heard. More about this problem 

later. 

The National Film Board of Canada 

In late 1988, the National Film Board of 

Canada (NFB) contracted with several 

firms to develop a digital sound on film 

recording system. The result was a significant 

research program. Like the CDS system. 

The proposed NFB system places the 

digital information in the analog soundtrack 

area of a 35mm release print. Hence these 

no motion picture has been released in this 

format. 

Digital Lasersound 

Strong International has also entered the 

digital stereo competition, but with a significantly 

different approach called Digital 

LaserSound. The most obvious difference 

is that this is a double system. Rather than 

storing the digital data on the print. Strong's 

system puts the digital information on a 3 

hour, 1 2 inch laserdisc. The disc is synchronized 

to the film using SMPTE time code 

which is printed along the edge of the film. 

If synchronization with the picture is 

lost 

for any reason, the system is switched back 

to the film's analog stereo soundtrack. The 

speed with which this system has been demonstrated 

to re-establish digital synchronization 

and return to the digital disc is a quite 

remarkable few seconds: this even when an 

entire minute of film is missing. 

Using a laser disc offers several advantages: 

The first is the obvious one of allowing 

the prints to be single inventory and 

playable in any theatre. Less obvious, but 

no less important, are the advantages of 

easy language replacement, uncompressed 

digital recordings and even two additional 

audio channels. Strong's system provides 

what they call "true CD quality, 16 bit, 

44, 1 00 Hertz uncompressed digital audio." 

This means that there are no data reduction 

manipulations to overcome or hide during 

playback ( beyond the "normal" analog-digital-analog 

conversion processes.) Their 

DLS6 digital processor can also be expanded 

to provide eight discrete channels. 

This could be a welcome advantage for 

special venue theatres with wide screens 

which can benefit from five full-range 

channels of sound behind the screen, rather 

than the current three full channels plus a 

bass-only channel. Most will recall that the 

original 70mm films were recorded with 

five full screen channels plus one surround 

channel. With the DLS6 system, this format 

is once again available, but in digital sound 

digital prints will only play on property and with stereo surrounds. 

equipped projectors. 

Strong's Digital LaserSound processor is 

One of the most interesting aspects of this priced at about $9,500.00. or about one-half 

system is that the sound recording camera that of Dolby's SR'D. Such a price differential 

may help overcome distribution's 

is designed to photograph either analog or 

digital soundtracks. The projector's sound aversion to double systems. 

pickup is also capable of reading both types 

of recordings. 

Karasync 

The proposed NFB system requires compression 

techniques which are unspecified The Karasync system is being developed 

in their 1990 technical paper. At this time, by Karasync Digital Audio, Inc. of Connecticut 

under the direction of John J. 

Karamon. Like the Strong system, the 

Karasync digital process is an eight channel 

double system with the digital soundtrack 

synchronized to the film. This system differs 

dramatically in the way the picture and 

the digital sound are kept together. The 

print used can be a normal analog print. No 

special time code or other mechanical 

means are used for synchronization. Rather 

than rely on such techniques, the Karasync 

design keeps the digital track locked to the 

analog soundtrack on the film by constantly 

comparing the audio recordings themselves. 

The analog and digital soundtracks 

are matched to each other and kept together 

by the use of a small computer. This means 

that any normal 35mm, or even 16mm, print 

could be used and presented in digital stereo. 

Like other double systems and Dolby's 

dual soundtrack process, the Karasync reverts 

to the conventional analog track anytime 

the digital sound in not synchronized. 

For a more complete description of 

Karasync. see the February, 1990 issue of 

BoxoFFiCE, page SW-52. 

Sony Digital Sound 

In February, Sony Corp. announced a 

digital sound on film system which is expected 

to be available for theatrical use 

within the next 12 months. Called Sony 

Digital Sound (SDS), this format will contain 

eight full 20 Hertz to 20 kiloHertz 

bandwidth channels of digital audio placed 

on the film along with the normal analog 

soundtrack. The expectation is 

that this is 

intended to revive the practice of using five 

full range channels behind the screen with 

the addition of a bass channel and stereo 

surrounds. With eight channels, of course, 

virtually any format is possible. For instance, 

one could have five screen channels 

April, 1992 19

Cinema Sound 

and three siiiTound channel 

wall and rear wall. 

So far. only Sony has announced a system 

with eight full range digital channels on 

a composite and analog compatible release 

print. Just where on the print the digital 

information is to be placed has not been 

announced. The remaining available area 

on a 35mm print is quite limited, so we must 

wait to learn how this is to all be accomplished. 

A Wish Fuinilment? 

Given the forgoing discussion, imagine 

if you will a 35mm release print with a 

normal stereo analog soundtrack, plus 

SMPTE time code for the Strong laserdisc, 

a Dolby digital track and a Sony digital 

track as well. Creating such a print could 

drive the people in the post-production facilities 

and the film laboratories positively 

crazy. But it would provide the exhibitors 

with the opportunity to select which digital 

process they want, rather than being forced 

wall, right to accept one without any price competi 

The "Rest of the Story" 

My e.xperience with the digital presentation 

of "Star Trek 6" and a similar experience 

I had listening to a CDS print of 

"Edward Scissorhands" (both with "modern" 

sound systems) confirms my fear that 

without better theatre speakers and amplifiers 

(especially speakers), digital stereo isn't 

going to make much of a difference. To put 

it another way, updating just a theatre's 

speakers and amplifiers will result in a far 

greater improvement in sound quality than 

installing a digital processor alone. Do both 

(properly), and the results will be sensational: 

a true revolution. Self serving as 

these statements may seem, and I admit 

they are, they are also undeniably true. 

While those offering digital film sound 

processes will be more than happy to discuss 

the 

advantages and benefits of their 

system, don't expect too much disclosure 

when it comes to advice on speakers and 

amplifiers which, after all, they do not design, 

manufacture or sell. What is most 

often said is that while a particular process 

will sound best over the best sound systems, 

it will also be as successful with all the 

existing theatre playback systems; a ridiculous 

notion to say the least. 

It 

is notable that since their introduction 

in the mid 1970s, every proposed improvement 

in optical stereo soundtracks has 

failed to gain wide acceptance. This can 

even be said to some degree for Dolby's SR 

system, which should have all but replaced 

the older Dolby A system by now. Proponents 

of advanced soundtracks have generally 

been extremely careful about advising 

theatre owners to replace their existing 

loudspeakers and amplifiers. The constant 

refrain has been that producers and exhibitors 

would not adopt improved recording 

formats if they also included the need to 

replace all 

those small inadequate speaker 

systems and power amplifiers found in too 

many theatres. Unfortunately, without better 

playback systems, the superior recording 

formats never had a chance. Without a 

superior playback system, the improvements 

were very often considered insufficient 

and not worthy enough of their 

cost. The truth is that the typical existing 

theatre sound systems simply "squashed" 

everything, so most of the (sometimes substantial) 

performance gains were "lost in the 

speakers." 

While some theatre owners would no 

doubt be reluctant to upgrade their sound 

systems, our 1988-1989 Boxofhoe/SMPTE 

survey (see Boxoffice, March, 1989, page 

SW-42) revealed a rather healthy willingness 

on the part of theatre owners and equipment 

buyers to replace obsolete speakers 

and amplifiers, when necessary, in order to 

obtain the full 

presentation and boxoffice 

benefits of digital stereo. 

Which digital sound on film technology 

will "win?" Time (not to mention economics 

and plenty of industry politics) will tell. 

But in one form or another, digital sound is 

going to be an important part of the future 

of exhibition. Exhibitors and distributors 

alike should explore every opportunity to 

learn about and compare the propo.sed digital 

motion picture processes: each as compelling, 

thoughtfully designed and 

incompatible with each other as you can 


© Copyhfiht 1W2. John F. Allen. All 

Rights Reserved.

Cinema Sound 

The Digital Future of Sound 

By Tonilinson Holman 

LucasArts Entertainment Co. 

THX Division 

Springing up over the last several years 

have been eight different and incompatible 

systems to supply digital 

sound to motion picture theatres. Some are 

sound-on-film systems, while others are 

double systems. Some use compatible 

prints, while others require specialized 

ones. Many use data compression schemes 

to limit the amount of information which 

must be stored; others find that to be a 

problem. It is a time of great confusion, but 

from this confusion may emerge new opportunities 

for both exhibitors as well as 

manufacturers. 

There have been similar times of competing 

technologies in this industry's past. Although 

there has been relative technical 

peace for quite a long time now, the early 

days of sound were not neariy so "nice" as 

in recent years. For example, you would 

have to call the time around the introduction 

of sound the Era ofFormat Wars. Lawsuits 

were rife, and the lawyers probably made 

more out of the confusion than did the inventors 

from the competing sound systems! 

So, with the introduction of several different 

digital sound systems, are we headed 

for a new era of format wars? What are the 

advantages and disadvantages of the various 

proposed and introduced systems? And 

what about the effect that these digital films 

will have on the rest of the sound system, 

the loudspeakers for instance? 

Taking the whole impact of the new systems 

into account, the biggest question that 

should actually be asked is: "Is my B- 

Chain' Sound System suitable for the future?" 

Does it have: adequate loudness 

range from soft to loud, frequency range 

from bass to treble, low distortion, high 

speech intelligibility and uniform coverage 

of the audience that allows it 

to live up to 

1 The traditional theatre sound system is divided 

into two parts, an A-Chain and a B-Chain. 

The A-Chain is the part that encompasses the 

film, the projector and its sound head, playing 

back the sound and turning it 

into a standardized 

signal. The output of the A-Chain is where the 

different sources (analog, optical, magnetic, 

35mm, 70mm, digital sound-on-t'ilm or digital 

the challenges of the new delivery systems? 

The reason this is the biggest question of 

all is that answering it may have the greatest 

cost impact of all. If adding digital capability 

to a sound system already in theatres can 

be done for just a few thousand dollars, will 

the audience be able to hear the improvement? 

What about the investment in the 

total condition of the theatre, including 

room acoustic treatments for sound isolation, 

reverberation and background noise 

control? You can see that the question rapidly 

becomes a much more global one than 

whether the input is digital or analog. 

Why Digital in the First Place? 

Of course, as with any new technology, 

the answer to this question is partly technical 

and partly market oriented. The technical 

reason for digital systems is simple: 

digital technology is a way to make a great 

many copies of an original which have all 

the properties of the original—copies can 

be considered clones of the source if certai n 

conditions are met. 

The inherent flaw with analog is the inability 

to copy exactly, over and over, from 

generation to generation. While a great deal 

of work goes into making analog re-recordings 

during post-production, and release 

printing, as audibly transparent as possible, 

ultimately a properly designed digital system 

is bound to win in any assessment of 

the ability to copy multiple generations 

transparently. 

On the other hand, the inherent problem 

with digital is not in copying, but rather in 

the conversion, back and forth, from the 

analog to the digital world. While the conversion 

technology for the system used on 

the Compact Disc, called linear Pulse Code 

Modulation (PCM), is well developed, systems 

for digital sound-on-film require new. 

more complex methods. This is because the 

double system) all are made to be as interchangeable 

as possible. The B-Chain is 

the rest of the 

sound system, including room equali/alion. electronic 

crossovers, power amplifiers, loudspeakers, 

and room acoustics. The B-Chain is used to 

play back any of the sources, analog or digital, 

optical 

system. 

or magnetic, sound on tllm or double 

conversion requirements are made more 

difficult in the film worid, where there is not 

enough space on the film to represent the 

sound simply using linear PCM. This leads 

to a requirement for reducing (compressing) 

the amount of data before it is stored, 

and as well as introducing possible concomitant 

consequences on the sound quality. 

Another problem is that, given the way 

digital information is generally represented 

on media (tape, film etc.), there tends to be 

a hard limit as to whether a system works 

or not. In other words, digital systems, due 

to their sophisticated error correction capabilities, 

may seem to be working propedy 

when, in fact, they grow closer and closer 

to the edge of complete failure. Analog 

systems, by contrast, often fail "gently," 

giving some sonic warnings of degradation 

before abject failure. 

Where is analog best applied, and where 

digital? Analog excels today at the beginning 

and end of the process: the microphone 

preamplifier and the power amplifier driving 

the loudspeaker. In addition, it is also 

the most practical for many complex production 

processes, since the equivalent digital 

technology either doesn't exist, or is 

hugely more expensive. Still, uses for digital 

technology grow day by day in production 

and post-production of pictures, and it 

is only a matter of time before they become 

dominant. 

As mentioned, digital excels where there 

is a need for producing many copies which 

perform exactly like an original. This definition 

fits 

the needs for release prints extremely 

well, since film sound technology 

has concentrated from the beginning on 

bringing everyone, no matter where, the 

same experience. So, w ithout a doubt at this 

point, there is a very good fit between the 

needs of the film industry and the capabilities 

of digital sound technology applied to 

film prints. 

The other reason mentioned above is 

marketing. At a time when the word digital 

means better sound to most people due to 

the popularity of the Compact Disc, the fact 

that the film industry still uses analog delivery 

seems at best quaint to some. While we 

should not be driven into a technology just 

to be able to tout it on the marquee, this 

factor does mean that soine of those people 

April, 1992 21

Cinema Sound 

the marketers call "early adopters" are now 

waiting for exhibition to deliver an experience 

they already have at home! 

Digital Standards 

All but one of the known proponent cinema 

digital systems adhere to the SMPTE 

Digital Sound on Film Subcommittee" proposals 

regarding the number of sound track 

channels and their disposition. This means 

three screen channels, left, center, and right; 

two surround channels, left and right; and 

one low-frequency channel for routing to a 

subwoofer. The proponents of one system 

feel that there should be five screen channels 

instead of three, but agrees with the rest 

of the subcommittee's findings. The subcommittee, 

which began its work .several 

years ago, also addressed questions of ref- 

2 "Digital Sound on Film" may have been a 

misnomer; it 

should probably have been called 

"Digital Sound for Film" since its conclusions 

cover whether the sound is 

recorded on the film 

erence loudness, frequency range, and dynamic 

range, and all the proponent systems 

so far as is known claim adherence to these 

standards. 

This voluntary standard establishes that 

any digital sound system will have as much 

dynamic range as the film masters from 

which the prints are made, but it also sets a 

practical upper limit: widely used film 

sound systems are not expected to be able 

to make as much noise as a live rock concert. 

Sound-On-Film vs. Double System 

Digital Reproduction 

In sorting out the differences between the 

various digital systems, we can break down 

these systems into two categories: whether 

the representation of the sound is recorded 

onto the film itself, or onto an additional 

medium (such as a disk or tape) to be played 

back along with the film. 

Sound-on-film systems naturally have 

the advantage that only a single medium is 

needed to transport the complete print to 

theatres. Nevertheless, proponents of the 

various double systems point out some potential 

advantages: 

One advantage of recording on a separate 

medium is that the prints need be no more 

than ordinary release prints, with no 

changes whatever in their production or 

distribution. For these systems, the electronics 

are given the added task of synchronizing 

sound and picture using a variety of 

schemes by the various proponents. On the 

other hand, there are electronic implementations 

which require a narrow timecode 

track that needs to be recorded on the 

film to provide an index to synchronize the 

sound to the image. This would not disturb 

the conventional picture or sound, so would 

result in compatible prints, with very little 

if any additional cost in manufacturing. 

A second potential advantage in double 

systems comes into play in the wear of the 

medium. An optical disc medium, for example, 

has virtually no wear mechanism, 

allowing for extremely long life: in fact, 

synchronized Compact Discs are used by 

IMAX in their long running applications. 

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with good results. That is not to ignore 

various digital tape formats, some of which 

have proved their reliability in tough computer 

applications. 

Double system sound may also use the 

conventional linear PCM system as used on 

the Compact Disc, which is well known and 

understood. Sound-on-film systems are 

forced by the space available to use newer, 

more complex approaches. 

Single-Print Inventory vs. Specialized 

Prints 

Among the digital sound-on-film systems, 

there is the question of whether or not 

release prints are compatible with conventional 

prints. Compatible prints (al.so called 

"single print inventory") have a conventional 

sound track plus a digital track 

printed somewhere else on the film. Noncompatible 

prints use up the conventional 

sound track area for the digital track. Here 

the conventional sound track area is larger 

than any "left over" space on the film. Devoting 

such a greater area to the track potentially 

permits either greater error correction, 

less aggressive digital compression, or 

both. But this must be weighed against the 

difficulties caused at laboratories, distributors, 

and exchanges in having a dual print 

inventory. 

Single-print 

inventory also implies another 

important advantage. Since the very 

definition of single-print inventory is that it 

must also contain a conventional sound 

track, this also means that there is 

a "fall 

back position" for when problems arise on 

the digital track. We mentioned earlier that 

most digital systems tend to fail "hard," that 

is, without much notice. So the ability to 

detect failure, and to switch to a back-up 

analog track (which happens also to be useful 

for theatres not equipped with digital 

decoders) is a big plus. 

What Processes are No Longer Needed 

Once Digital is Installed 

Perhaps surprising to some is the fact that 

each and every 70mm release, having potentially 

high sound quality, must have a 

theatre's sound system "tuned" to the prints 

or the inherent quality does not have a hope 

of being recovered. The variation in frequency 

response, or bass-to-treble balance, 

from release to release is plainly audible to 

the casual observer. Although this need not 

be so, the practice is that every projector has 

to be tuned up for every print. 

Recently 1 saw a picture at the dubbing 

stage, just at the end of post-production and, 

one week later, 1 saw the same film in a 

premier 7()mm presentation. The difference 

was startling, as this was a film really dependent 

on the performance of the sound 

system. In the theatre, the bass was very 

weak, despite the fact that both the dubbing 

stage and the theatre were equipped w ith the 

same B-Chain sound systems, and were 

even roughly the same size! The difference 

was in the performance of the 70mm analog 

print which, although adjusted for the picture 

by a competent technician, nevertheless 

had less bass actually recorded on it 

than on the printing master. There was no 

way one could say that the audience had the 

same experience as the director had in- 

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Cinema Sound 

tended ! ( By the way, this picture was rushed 

in post-production and did not use the 

LucasArts Theatre Alignment Program 

|TAP] service of print checking, which 

should have caught this problem.) 

So. the fact that any of the digital systems 

will produce day-to-day results more consistent 

than the release-to-release variations 

of the 70mm format is extremely important 

and useful to the business. 

In addition, all the digital systems should 

get rid of the other A-Chain adjustment 

blues that every technician knows about: 

the month-to-month variations that occur 

due to bulb ageing, mechanical drift (often 

best called screwdriver drift), and other 

maladies that such systems are subject to. 

Of course, the question remains as to how 

"tweaky" (subject to perpetual adjustment) 

the new digital systems are. 

What Process is Retained 

There is one other process, also familiar, 

that digital does not do away with-room 

equalization, or sophisticated bass-to-treble 

balance of the sound system. This is 

not a 

new problem, but one that was recognized 

in the 1 930s as "reproducing each note of a 

piano at equal strength." Room equalization 

is used in all systems to greatly improve the 

uniformity from room-to-room, and this 

process will stay in place as long as rooms 

are different.' The process might some day 

be made digital, but the same features that 

affect room tuning today will also affect 

room tuning tomorrow: it takes a spatial and 

a time average of the sound in the room to 

produce consistent results. This is vital and 

will remain so. 

The Rest of the Sound System 

The performance of the B-Chain, as outlined 

above, is arguably just as important to 

the overall sound quality as installing the 

new digital systems into theatres. The same 

concerns that good sound design has 

brought to bear for years become more evident 

when what is being fed into the system 

is improved. Long ago, we found that to 

make and sell equipment in isolation from 

the environment into which it was to function 

was not the best way to get high and 

uniform quality. 

The prerequisite for good room acoustics 

must be given due consideration during 

overall design. Isolation from adjacent 

noise sources, especially other movies, has 

become well known to laypeople as something 

which separates one theatre complex 

from another. Somewhat more subtle, but 

still readily evident, is the background noise 

of the air handling equipment. Is it really 

quiet enough to make use of the capability 

of a digital system to play very softly? A 

good sound installation will control the 

background noise, making the improvement 

in noise level of digital films audible 

in the theatre. Reverberation time should 

also be controlled. It is the overall impact 

of reverberation and noise added together, 

along with loudspeaker characteristics, that 

3 It could also be said that "room equalization" 

has actually often been used in the past more to 

alleviate loudspeaker problems than room problems. 

More recently, standardized loudspeaker 

systems have come to be installed identically 

from room to room, leaving the equalizer to make 

up just for the difference in room acoustics.

1 

. 

Digital Future 

make for bad or good speech intelligibility. 

Lowered reverberation time also produces 

a stronger sense of localization in 

stereo, something which is important for 

digital systems. The reason is that digital 

systems have at least five discrete widerange 

channels, and it is desirable that the 

audience hear the direction of each of the 

channels. This is improved in a room with 

low reverberation time, compared to a room 

with long times, which tend to smear 

sounds together. 

At the top end of the dynamic range, the 

power capability of the amplifier, as well as 

loudspeaker sensitivity, have to be considered 

if low distortion is to be a goal. In 1 983, 

THX set a requirement in its installations so 

that a system's headroom would be greater 

than the magnetic films in use in post-production. 

This meant that it was basically 

impossible to hear power amplifier distortion 

in a THX installation operated at the 

calibrated volume control setting, because 

the film would always distort before the 

sound system. Today, with digital delivery 

systems finally reaching the capabilities of 

the post-production process, the capabilities 

of the best sound system installations 

can now be utilized to deliver the highest 

levels desirable without distortion. 

the headroom of THX .systems is 

In fact, 

set to be 

just beyond the capabilities of even digital 

systems! 

What about "Digital Ready"? 

Despite its use in marketing, "digital 

ready" as a term can be applied to current 

sound equipment: all power amplifiers and 

loudspeakers are capable of taking in a 

source which is digital, since the digital-toanalog 

converter at the output of the digital 

processor makes the signal analog. The 

question is whether the B-Chain can then 

fully handle the signals without distortion, 

and whether the other goals of theatre sound 

are met. These are: 

Wide frequency range. 

4. Wide dynamic range and low distortion. 

2. Smooth response over the range. 

3. Uniform coverage of the audience. 

5. High dialogue intelligibility. 

6. Good localization of screen channels 

and envelopment by surround channels. 

Conclusion 

We have discussed digital sound in light 

of some of the tradeoffs involved in the 

choices of delivery systems. While many 

types of digital delivery systems are being 

considered by the marketplace, all share 

one common challenge: how well the improvements 

due to digital are heard is completely 

dependent on the rest tif the theatre 

sound system. 

^ 

Tomlinson Holman is Associate Professor 

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April, \W2

Cinema Sound 

Mono Sound in the Digital Age? 

The 

By Dan Taylor 

Kintek, Inc. 

buzzword is Digital. Millions of 

consumers tcnow and love it as CD's 

in their homes and on the radio. Cinema 

Digital Sound (CDS) proved that digital 

movies can outgross their analog 

counterparts in day and date releases, and 

since the introduction of CDS a host of 

companies have jumped on the digital 

bandwagon offering a variety of formats for 

digital motion picture sound. Dolby announced 

the availability of their digital 

hardware at ShoWest, with several SR*D 

releases slated for this summer. Strong International 

introduced their Digital 

LaserSound hardware at ShowEast and are 

continuing negotiations with distributors 

for motion picture product. Karasync Digital 

Audio has advertised their system in 

Bo,xoffice. And, perhaps most significantly, 

Sony announced, in a February 14th press 

release and to the industry at the Columbia 

Pictures luncheon during ShoWest. their 

entry into digital motion pictures with hardware 

and film available this summer. 

But, with all the talk about the digital age 

in movies it is incredible to note that approximately 

50 percent of the nations 

23.000 theatres can't even play stereo. Surround 

sound is a far bigger buzzword than 

digital when consumers talk about the hot 

lopic of home theatre, and exhibitors should 

take advantage of the 100 percent stereo 

release policy that Hollywood has finally 

adopted. 

Technological advances in motion picture 

exhibition can only benefit our industry. 

Exhibitors should welcome any 

improvement that enhances the presentation 

of film product in their theatres, as new 

technology makes for a more realistic experience 

for their patrons and keeps them a 

step ahead of home theatre. This translates 

into greater ticket sales. But it seems that far 

too many exhibitors still subscribe to the old 

school that says: "Give me the right picture 

and audiences will come see it even if I 

show it on a bed sheet and use folding 

chairs." This kind of thinking helped contribute 

to the demise of the ORC/Kodak 

CDS system after six successful picture releases 

because of a lack of hardware sales 

to exhibitors. Granted, the CDS hardware 

was costly and the prints non-compatible in 

all unequipped theatres, but the system 

worked well and delivered the grosses. 

Today's standard analog stereo optical 

(SVA) sound track continues to be a marvelous 

invention. It has allowed for a cost 

effective, high quality audio storage medium 

that produces surround sound, yet is 

still compatible with any 35mm motion picture 

projector in the world. The introduction 

of Spectral Recording (SR) by Dolby in 

1 988 further improved the SVA track, making 

it closer to the quality of digital for a 

fraction of the hardware cost to the exhibitor. 

Yet, since it will play on any projector 

equipped for sound, many exhibitors still 

have mono sound systems. And those who 

have understood the importance of total 

stereo capability have been curiously slow 

to upgrade to play SR. 

As 

part of their 100 percent stereo 

release policy the distributors are 

making more SR films available 

each month. A major reason for this is that 

the product can be transferred directly to 

VHS Hi-Fi and Digital Laserdisc for home 

theatre presentation, which is the Consumer 

Electronics Industry's fastest growing 

market. When the SVA and SR 

theatrical versions of these films are played 

on mono sound systems in the theatre, the 

surround information that is encoded on the 

sound tracks "disappears" as it is invisible 

to a mono solar cell pickup. Therefore, during 

the most visually dazzling scenes, the 

surround sound that is designed to involve 

the viewer for the greatest impact is gone. 

How can this be worth today 's ticket prices'? 

The fact is it isn't; and the public, though 

they may not know technically what is 

wrong, is aware that there is no excitement 

in what they're watching. 

Several American companies manufacture 

low cost systems that reproduce all the 

sound encoded on today's stereo optical 

sound tracks for a completely satisfying 

surround sound presentation. Many exhibitors 

already embrace the idea that the consumer 

pays the same ticket price to see a 

picture whether presented in a small auditorium 

or a large state-of-the-art auditorium. 

Often, the more sophisticated patron 

is too busy to get to the theatre on first break 

and will wind up seeing a picture in one of 

these smaller auditoriums. But too many 

exhibitors have yet to realize this and will 

spend large sums to equip the largest auditoriums 

while completely neglecting the 

smaller ones in a multiplex. This policy 

does not make good business sense. You 

can please more people more of the time 

with surround sound in every auditorium. 

Digital sound unquestionably enhances 

the movie going experience, 

although no one knows which digital 

sound system will ultimately become the 

standard. We do know that the cost of the 

digital hardware alone, from any of the 

current players, will be between 510,000 

and $20,000 additional per screen over and 

above the cost of an SVA sound system. 

Thus, the sum to add digital to a capable 

existing sound system would be the same as 

purchasing between two and four low cost 

stereo systems that would provide a dramatically 

improved presentation for mono 

equipped auditoriums. Those exhibitors 

whose theatres are not equipped to play the 

standard analog stereo sound track of today 

in every screen should reappraise their priorities 

and eliminate those mono auditoriums. 

Current interest rates make this a good 

time to invest in your presentation. Digital 

may be a buzzword, but surround sound still 

is hotter. Movie goers want it whenever 

they go out to a theatre. 

The presentation quality increase from 

mono to surround sound is far more significant 

than the increase from Dolby SR to 

digital, and more auditoriums will benefit 

from the equivalent monetary investment. 

This translates to a greater number of patrons 

all having a positive experience at 

your theatre every time they go. You definitely 

should appreciate the fact that digital 

sound is the next frontier. Equip as many 

screens with digital as is 

feasible and help 

enhance the motion picture theatre experience, 

but don't neglect your mono houses. 

It will ensure the health of our industry by 

attracting even more movie goers looking 

for a "Disneyland experience" in their 

neighborhood theatres. 

Ut 

Dan Taylor is vice president marketing 

and sales for Kintek, Inc. and president of 

the Intersociety for the Enhancement of 

Theatrical Motion Picture Presentation. 

26 BOXOIHCE

Cinema Sound 

Theatre-Friendly Aids For 

The IHearing-lmpaired 

By George T. Chronis 

-m-anuary 26, 1991 was the deadline for 

I initial compliance with the Americans 

J with Disabilities Act (ADA). This siglificant 

legislation was signed into law on 

uly 26th, 1990 as a way of addressing the 

oncems of the nation's estimated 43 milion 

citizens with disabilities. As with all 

msinesses serving the public, exhibitors 

vere charged with taking measures to make 

heir establishments more accommodating 

o this segment of the public. The law stipilated 

the following: 

A disabled individual is a person who 

las an impairment, physical or mental, that 

;ubstantially limits one or more major life 

ictivities, has a record of such impairment, 

)r is regarded as having such impairment." 

Title III of the law covers new and existng 

public accommodations, and calls on 

)usinesses to make minor changes to imjrove 

accessibility to their current premses. 

These changes include furnishing 

luxiliary aids when necessary to ensure efective 

communication, provide goods and 

services in an integrated setting, remove 

carriers to the disabled whenever possible, 

Dr provide alternative measures to over- 

;ome barriers too expensive to remove. 

All changes must be easy to accomplish 

md minor in cost. The intent of the law is 

hat any cost incurred should be recouped 

3y additional business from patronage by 

disabled patrons. 

Since exhibitors have already been reponsive 

to state and local building codes 

requiring easy access and accommodation 

3 wheelchair-bound customers, the major 

hange required by the ADA comes in the 

Auxiliary aids clause, in particular, assistive 

hearing devices. Fixed seating assembly 

areas that accommodate 50 or more people, 

or have audio amplification systems, must 

have a permanently installed assistive listening 

system for the hearing- impaired. 

Section 4.1.3 19(b) goes on to require "the 

minimum number of receivers to be provided 

shall be equal to four percent of the 

total number of seats, but in no case less 

than two percent." 

Norm Schneider, president of Smart Theatre 

Systems in Norcross, Ga., explains why 

such systems are important. "Hearing-impaired 

people will not often go to the movies 

since they cannot understand the words. 

Because of the acoustics of the room, the 

hearing-impaired (who are not deaf) generally 

cannot understand the consonants in 

words, which completely changes the 

meaning of such words. By using a headset 

they get a very clear reproduction." 

In the last 18 months, a number of vendors 

have stepped in to supply theatre owners 

with systems which comply with the 

new regulations. 

Many vendors have been in the hearing 

assistive business for years, serving school 

districts or international translation needs 

such as can be found at the United Nations, 

and have adapted their equipment for theatre 

use. Other companies are new to this 

market, but familiar to theatre owners. Two 

basic systems are available to theatre owners 

for installation to meet ADA regulations, 

and the major differences between the 

systems are in how they transmit their signals. 

Many use FM radio signals, most on 

bands already set aside specifically for such 

use; others may use regular commercial FM 

bands via a tight short range signal. Some 

systems use infrared light to transmit the 

sound. 

Which among the competing systems is 

best depends on a host of factors: the size 

of the theatre, radio frequency conditions in 

the surrounding neighborhood, and 

whether the location is a multiplex. Luckily 

for exhibitors, most systems are very easy 

to install: they plug into existing sound 

systems and they are relatively inexpensive 

to purchase. 

common 

A 

installation consists of a 

base unit which is cabled into a 

theatre's audio channel which transmits 

a signal into the theatre. Hearing-impaired 

patrons can pick up these signals 

with pocket-sized receivers they may already 

own, or which are loaned free of 

charge by the theatre management. The emphasis 

is on free, since the ADA prohibits 

businesses from charging customers for the 

use of such aids. Most receivers can also 

accommodate adapters which attach to 

hearing aids. 

Both infrared and FM systems can transmit 

their signals in either mono or stereo. 

While exhibitors may wish to provide their 

hearing-impaired customers with as rich a 

movie going experience as possible, 

Charles Beatty, president of Audex in 

Longview, Texas, cautions that exhibitors 

shouldn't assume this must mean stereo. 

"The hearing-impaired really don't benefit 

from a stereo signal. What they really 

need is an improved signal-to-noise ratio. 

As far as they are concerned, a mono signal 

put into both ears is wonderful. In fact, 

splitting between the two ears sometimes 

creates poorer discrimination because of a 

lack of redundancy. If you split the highs 

and lows with stereo, they don't get the flat 

response in each ear which helps them discriminate. 

The key to helping the hearingimpaired 

is to deliver to their ear a 

comfortable volume with as little loss of the 

high frequencies as possible." 

Phonic Ear in Petaluma, Calif, has been 

in the business for nearly 30 years, providing 

transmitters (often called emitters) and 

receivers using FM signal bands set aside 

by the Federal Communications Commission. 

Besides a long track record behind 

their products, the company can also provide 

a service edge, according to Phonic 

Ear's Kathy Anderson. 

"The law says that businesses must let the 

community know their facilities meet ADA 

standards. We have been in this business for 

29 years, working with theatres specifically 

during the last three. So, we are in contact 

with hearing-impaired organizations all 

over the nation, and when a theatre installs 

our equipment we send out a notification to 

local disability groups, school districts and 

audiologists to let them know this facility is 

now hearing accessible." 

Since hundreds of thousands of FM receivers 

are in use, chances are many potential 

hearing-impaired theatre patrons 

already own one, making it easy for them to 

take advantage of FM-equipped theatres. 

ApriM992 27

— 

Cinema Sound 

However, a drawback for FM-based systems 

can be the same FCC approved bands 

they are designed to use. For example. 

Audex's Beatty says there are interference 

problems cropping up with FM systems. 

"We are also a distributor of radio auditory 

trainers for public schools, and we are 

aware the problems radio systems are having. 

The pager industry is allowed to transmit 

on the same frequencies as the 

hearing-impaired radio band, 72-76 MHz. 

,\s more pager towers go up. they are causing 

inteiference with these hearing-impaired 

systems. 

According to Smart Theatre Systems, its 

FM- 1 unit eliminates this interference problem 

because it transmits on the standard 

commercial FM band. Anyone with a common 

Walkman can pick up the signal. With 

no interference problem, an FM system can 

be a perfect choice. However, owners of 

multiplex theatres will have to make sure 

they equip adjoining theatres with emitters 

which broadcast on separate frequencies so 

one theatre's transmission does not bleed 

over into the one next to it. In addition, 

theatre employees will have to make sure 

they distribute the correct receiver set for 

the correct frequency in each theatre. 

Infrared systems, such as the ones manufactured 

by Audex. while not as common as 

FM systems, can eliminate most of the previously-mentioned 

drawbacks. Since they 

transmit on infrared waves of light, there is 

no interference. Emitters in adjacent auditoriums 

can transmit on the same carrier 

frequency since infrared light cannot bleed 

through a wall. As many public facilities 

such as museums, .schools, auditoriums and 

churches already are equipped with infrared 

systems, many people will already own receivers 

which can work with any infrared 

system. 

A drawback unique to these systems can 

be the structural design of theatres. Receivers 

require a line of sight to the emitter in 

order to pick up the signal. Large theatres 

may have blind spots necessitating a secondary 

emitter to cover the entire theatre 

floor. 

As businesses across the nation scramble 

to accommodate the new federal law. 

Audex's Beatty believes exhibitors were 

already way ahead of the legislation. 

"The ADA has brought a lot of interest to 

our products, but the movie theatre industry 

has been one of the few industries that had 

an intense interest in this long before the 

law became a reality. A lot of circuits were 

putting systems in before it was required, 

primarily as a service to their customers. 

They felt it would bring more people into 

7he Other Side of the Receiver 

Companies manufacturing assistive 

listening systems can provide exhibitors 

with a wide range of advice, 

yet they can't always provide the understanding 

that comes with working with the 

hearing-impaired on a daily basis. To get 

a better grasp of what really matters to the 

hard of hearing. Boxoffice spoke with two 

hearing care professionals: Marjorie Harris, 

director of the Cominunity Outreach 

Program at UCLA's Hope for Hearing 

Research Foundation in Los Angeles; and 

Brenda Battat, deputy executive director 

of Self-Help for the Hard of Hearing in 

Bethesda. Md. 

One of the first things exhibitors will 

have to realize is that this is a market that 

has been neglected. Society as a whole has 

been slow to accommodate the needs of 

the hearing-impaired. While Harris finds 

hearing-impaired people are grateful for 

any installed systems they may find in 

their community. Battat is quick to caution 

there is no consensus concerning which 

system or receiver is best. 

"The basic thing to remember is that no 

one system is going to be right for everybody—hearing 

loss is so complex. If I 

were a theatre owner. I would strongly 

suggest getting a variety of hearing-impaired 

people to try out the system for you. 

But within that group, there's going to be 

different levels of satisfaction and there 

just is nothing you can do about that 

there are so many complex factors involved." 

A misconception that theatre owners 

may have is that since a person is hard of 

hearing, he or she will be a relative expert 

on the working features of the many different 

available receivers. In a great many 

cases, Harris finds this simply isn't true. "I 

part that receives the signal, they have to 

know that they can't turn sideways, they 

have to know they must take their hearing 

aid out. A lot of people hold the bottom 

part up because they think they are going 

to get better signals, and they end up covering 

the receiver. They also have to learn 

that if they turn the receiver up too loud 

they'll disturb everyone around them." 

What Harris suggests is that a little extra 

attention on the part of the theatre staff can 

go a long way. Employees can be trained 

to provide simple operating instructions to 

customers checking out receivers. In addition, 

she believes having the same information 

on signing and give-away cards is 

very helpful. "Such a card would be very 

good because the patron probably would 

take it home, and it would remind them of 

the theatre and how wonderful the experience 

was." 

As for the relative superiority of one 

receiver headset or another, again there is 

little consensus. Some sets work in conjunction 

with hearing aids, others are designed 

to be used with the aids taken out. 

Given that the most likely choice of 

exhibitors will be headphone sets. Battat 

suggests that care be taken in choosing 

lightweight units which will remain comfortable 

for extended periods of time. 

Other than comfort, the only other consideration 

that Harris finds important is how 

well the receivers are maintained. 

"I think there is a problem in that sometimes 

the systems in some of the theatres 

are not maintained. Employees may forget 

to charge or change the batteries, causing 

them to conk out in the middle of a show. 

I also think it is important that these units 

be kept clean-after all. people put them 

near their ears." 

Now that the ADA has mandated assistive 

listening devices. Harris is adamant 

about encouraging the hard of hearing to 

take advantage of the equipment. She, 

points out as extremely useful the special 

symbols appearing with movie listings in 

newspapers such as the Los Angeles 

think a lot of hearing-impaired people 

don' t know how to use the systems, or they Times, as well as the efforts groups such 

aren't given proper instructions. For example, 

with an infrared system, people "What we do with our patients with 

as her own can accomplish. 

have to know not to put their hand over the hearing impairments is that we always 

the movies because these systems would 

help the hearing-impaired enjoy them 

more." 

IH 

publicize the theatres that have the systems, 

and we tell them to go and use them. 

These systems are not going to do anyone 

any good if hearing-impaired people don'l 

ask for them." -G. Chronis 

George T. Chronis is a regular i 

lor to BoxorriCE. 

28 HoxoiliCK

1 

Buyers Guide: Hearing Assistance Systems 

ASSOCIATED HEARING 

INSTRUMENTS 

i796 Market Street 

Jpper Darbv. PA 19082 

!(X)-253-3442.: 1 5-352-0600 

; 

15-352-2469 

Dan Lihby. Vice President 

ar> Bond. Nat' I 

Sales Mgr. 

'^M and infrared instruments for the hearing 

mpaired. 

AUDEX 

3 N. 4th Street 

Longview.TX 75601 

300-237-0716 (USA & Canada) 

Fax:903-753-9546 

Charles W. Beatly, Jr.. President 

Infrared assistive listening devices. 

AUDIO VISUAL 

SYSTEMS & ENG. INC. 

320 St. Louis Avenue 

Woonsocket, RI 02895 

401-767-2080 

Fax:401-767-2081 

Ronald W. Adams, President 

David A. St.Onge, Eng. Dept. 

Assistive hearing systems. 

HEARING IMPAIRED 

TECHNOLOGIES 

8205 Cass A\cnue,: 

Darien, IL 60559 

708-963-5588 

Fax: 708-963-6088 

Hearing devices. 

MARBLE COMPANY, THE 

421 Hart Lane/ P.O. Box 160080 

Nashville, TN 372 16 

800-759-5905,615-227-7772 

Fax:615-228-1301 

Ron Purtee, General Manager 

Hearing enhancement systems. 

NATIONAL CAPTIONING 

INSTITUTE 

5203 Leesburg Pike 

Falls Church VI 22041 

703-998-1530 

Fax: 703-998-2458 

John ED. Ball. President 

Eileen Smith, Executive Dir. of Consumer Mkting 

Morgan Bramlet, Mgr. ot' Public Relations 

Audio link for personal listening systems. Closed 

captioning technology. 

ODYSSEY PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

5644 Baldwin Ct. 

Norcross, GA 3007 

404-448-4873 

Fax:404-449-1087 

Eve Miller, President 

Assistive listening systems. 

PHONIC EAR 

3880 Cypress Dr. 

Petaluma, CA. 94954-7600 

707-769-1110 

Fax: 707-769-9624 

Rick Steighner, Sales Mgr. 

Easy listener FM hearing enhance 

SENNHEISER 

ELECTRONIC CORP. 

6 Vi.sta Dr./P.O.B. 987 

Old Lyme, CT 06371 

203-434-9190 

Fax:203-434-1759 

Al Zang, Pro Products Mgr. 

Infrared assistive listening devices. 

SIEMENS HEARING 

INSTRUMENTS 

lOConMiliih.m \\c 

Pisc,U.iwas.N.I()SS55-l.W7 

800-766-45(K) 

Fax: 908-562-6696 

John J. Zei, President and CEO 

Bob Woodhall, VP Sales & Marketing 

David Beaulac, Mgr of Special Products Division 

Designs, manufactures and markets custom. 

programmable and BTE hearing instruments, in 

addition to distributing special assistive listening 

devices for the hearing impared. 

SOUND ASSOCIATES, 

INC. 

424 West 45th St. 

New York, NY 10036 

212-757-5679 

Fax:212-265-1250 

Richard Fitzgerald, Owner 

Adrienne Davis, Nat'l Sales Mgr., Infrared Div. 

Sound systems, sales and rentals. 

Listening 

devicesfor the hearing impaired, sales and 

rentals. 

SOUND PLUS/UNEX 

CORP. 

27 Industrial Ave. 

Chelmsford, MA 01824 

508-256-8222 

Fax: 508-250-9055 

Katherine Coch, Marketing Mgr. 

Listening devices for the hearing impared. 

TELEX SOUND 

ENHANCEMENT 

9600 Aldrich Ave South 

Bloomington, MN 55420 

612-884-4051 

Fax:612-884-0043 

JeffPeters.Nat'l Sales Mgr. 

Hearing assistance systems. 

ULTRA-STEREO LABS 

INC. 

18730 Oxnard St., Unit 207 

Tarzana,CA913.56 

818-609-7405 

Fax:818-609-7408 

Jack Cashin, President 

Felicia Cashin, VP 

Hearing assistance systems. 

WILLIAMS SOUND CORP. 

10399 West 70lh St. 

Eden Prairie, MN 55344-2252 

800-328-6 1 90/ 6 1 2-943-2 1 74 

Fax:612-943-2174 

Paul Ingerbrigtsen, VP of Marketing 

FM and infrared hearing assistance systems. 

April, 1992 29

; 

Cinema Sound 

When the Movies Learned to Talk 

Bv Ted Uzzle 

Preface 

Perception, attention, recognition, 

memory, iunguage: these are the very 

stuff of cognitive science. They are the 

way we know the world, and the way the 

world knows us. Consider seeing and hearing. 

We do not see Hght, nor do we hear 

sounds. We see objects in space and we hear 

events in time. By a process known as 

stream segregation we parse out meaning 

from the bewildering kaleidoscope of light 

rays and superposed sound waves ever presented 

us. 

From objects viewed in space and events 

heard in time, we weave the narratives of 

our lives. Our visual and auditory perceptions 

merge toward each other when we 

see images that move over time, and hear 

sounds with directional perspective. When 

these are stimulated by the craft of man, the 

goal is suspension of disbelief, a goal as 

ancient as picture-painting or the singing of 

tales in Homeric times. For disbelief to be 

suspended, the perceptions must be about 

something. 

The eye and the ear are, simply, miracles. 

The machines that match their versatility 

and power are no less miracles. When these 

machines convey ideas that touch us 

deeply, that make us laugh and weep, they 

are the instruments that explore the nature 

of humanity. 

This book began as a lecture to a class in 

sound recording at Trinity College in Hartford, 

Conn., on November 27, 

1979. Further 

developed. I read another early version 

to the Audio Engineering Society on 6 May 

1 980, at the Goldwyn Theatre at the Academy 

of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

A still further-developed version was read 

to the Midwest Acoustics Conference on 5 

May 1984, at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

This is hardly my last word on the subject. 

All errors and omissions are mine only. 

Our 

The Temporal Problem 

work through the night in his laboratory, 

and then curl up under the stairs and sleep 

through business hours. Perpetually late to 

his own appointments, he kept to his own 

clock, and in a sense his greatest inventions 

were time machines, freeing man from the 

tyranny of the Earth's rotation. Just as the 

inventions of Morse and Bell conquered 

distance, Edison conquered time. The 

bright and steady output of the incandescent 

light made daytime activities possible at 

night. The motion picture made it 

unnecessary 

to arrive at the theatre in time for the 

curtain; with Edison's apparatus you 

watched shows whenever you wished. With 

the phonograph there was music when you 

wanted to listen, not just when there were 

musicians ready to play. 

Today we cannot appreciate the sensation 

that followed the introduction of the 

phonograph in 1 877. The concept of recording 

sounds was as amazing as we would 

regard a machine that records thoughts. 

Sound is invisible, it leaves no mark, there 

is nothing to hold a ruler against. It is 

weightless; there is nothing to capture in a 

bottle, but Edison did just that. Edison always 

called the phonograph his favorite 

invention, and explained that his partial 

deafness was the spur. Fifty years later his 

incandescent light would come to be regarded 

as his greatest product, but only by 

others, never by Edison. 

Although Edison hit on the idea of the 

tinfoil phonograph almost by accident, he 

thought of it in conjunction with the moving 

picture almost from the beginning. His first 

attempt used two cylinders on one shaft. 

One cylinder carried the sound track on 

tinfoil, to which he would listen with stethoscope 

earphones. The other cylinder carried 

a spiral of tiny photographic prints, at which 

the user would peer through a microscope. 

In later years Edison would say that a 

decade passed before it occurred to him to 

devise a machine "to do for the eye what 

the phonograph did for the ear." It didn't 

happen that way at all. Edison's memory 

was dimmed by the passage of years, or 

perhaps by the progress of one of his interminable 

patent suits. The motion picture 

story begins, as do so many, with project stalled because he couldn't make it 

Thomas Edison. We forget, today, in work. The problem lay in the photographic 

canonizing Edison, how peculiar he materials, glass plates, which were almost 

was. He slept and ate at odd times. He'd impossible to manipulate. Unknown to Edison 

a Frenchman working in the United 

States, 

Louis LePrince, devised a way tc 

project moving pictures from glass plates 

He had demonstrated this in 1886, but he 

disappeared in 1890, apparently the victirr 

of abduction and murder, and drops out ol 

our story. 

Others also saw the connection instantly 

A British inventor, Wordsworth 

Donisthorpe, attempted a glass-plate 

method that could show two to four photographs 

per second. In the 24 January 187^ 

issue of Nature he wrote. 

By combining the phonograph and the 

kinesigraph I will undertake not only to 

produce talking pictures of Mr. Gladstone 

which, with motionless lips and 

unchanged expression, shall positively 

recite his latest anti-Turkish speech in 

his own voice and tone. 

Not only this, 

but the life-size photograph itself shall 

move and gesticulate precisely as he did 

when making the speech, the words and 

gestures corresponding as in real life. 

The 

next real advance came in 1888 

when George Eastman made avail 

able to Edison tough, flexible strips O; 

film in long lengths. This film, nitro-cellulose, 

was perfect in every way but one: i 

was chemically related to gunpowder. Yoi 

discovered this, to your distress, if you let 

spark get to it, 

or let it pause too long in tht 

heat of the projection light. Edison punchec 

sprocket holes in this film and tinkered fo 

a while. Soon he turned the project over t( 

W. K. L. Dickson, a Scotsman and amateu 

photographer who worked in his labs. 

In October 1889 Edison visitec 

Dickson's workshop and was greeted by ; 

film of Dickson, approximately synchro 

nized with a phonograph, saying, "Hello 

Mr. Edison!" The first movie, the verv'firs, 

movie, was a talkie. Even today historian: 

aren't sure whether the image was projectet 

onto a screen (as Edison would laterclaim) 

or whether this first machine was of thi 

peep show type. 

The first machines Edison exploite( 

commercially were peep shows using a con 

tinuous loop of film loaded onto a loop tree 

The user paid his coin, looked through 

. 

lens, and cranked the handle. These ma 

chines had no provision for sound. Un 

doubtedly Edison meant to introduce souni 

30 BOXOKFICK

s 

Book Excerpt 

The Early Years of Sound 

ter, at a higher price. Edison made niillojons 

with films made in the biaclc mariah, 

id around New Jersey, but lost tens of 

lillions to piratical infringers. 

In 1 895 Armat and Jenkins demonstrated 

o(|ie projected movie in Atlanta, and this 

ecame the standard method of showing 

loving pictures. Edison had often voiced a 

;ar that showing movies to large audiences 

/ould use them up too quickly. That didn't 

appen, but at once the future problem of 

laking the movies talk was made much 

lore difficult. A single peep show user 

ould wear a stethoscope without any prob- 

;m. Reproducing sound for a large audince 

was much more complicated. 

Edison did no more development of talkng 

pictures until 1913. w hen he made nineeen 

talkies and toured them around the 

ountry . 

This contraption, called the kineto- 

)hone. used a standard Edison kinetoscope 

)rojector in the projection room, and a 5 '/!- 

nch diameter celluloid cylinder player on 

he stage. The two were synchronized by a 

lelt and pulley, sometimes hundreds of feet 

ong. The success was what you would expect 

for so outlandish a device: the kinetoihone 

was an absolute, unmitigated disaster 

echnically. and financially. In December 

'1914 a spark got to Edison's film storage 

vault and most of his plant was lost in either 

the explosion, or the fire that followed. This 

ended his active participation in the movies, 

and he passes out of our story with words 

he wrote at the very end of his life: 

I 

consider that the greatest mission of 

the motion picture is to make people 

happy, and to bring more joy and cheer 

and wholesome goodwill into the world. 

And God knows we need it. 

The Financial Problem 

1906 the Warner Brothers opened the 

InCascade Theatre in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. 

Within a few years they had 

formed a chain of theatres, and had also 

formed the idea that although they were 

making a lot of money they could make a 

lot more by producing pictures to show in 

their own theatres. Many theatre owners 

have been seduced by this myth, but few 

with such disastrous consequences. By 

1925 Warner Brothers combined a production, 

distribution, and exhibition outfit in 

one company, and they were on the verge 

of bankruptcy. Samuel Warner was desperate, 

and he was ready to take a gamble. 

Many romantic stories have been told 

about how two industrial giants. American 

Telephone and Telegraph, backed by J. P. 

Morgan's money, and the Radio Corporation 

of America, backed by the Rockefeller 

interests, jumped into the talkies. Why did 

they do so? Probably the simplest answer is 

the most accurate: they were working in 

related fields: they sensed a new market: 

they had some products; they had some 

patents: they had research labs; they had 

manufacturing capacity: they decided to 

give it a go. 

RCA was founded in 1919 by General 

Electric and Westinghouse, uneasy bedfellows 

even this many years after the bitter, 

vicious electrical wars between Edison and 

George Westinghouse (with Tesla defecting 

from one to the other). AT&T assigned 

the job to Western Electric in Chicago. 

Western Electric had been the Bell system' 

last major competitor, back in the days 

when quite small towns might have four or 

five telephone companies. By the early 

1920s, the time of our story, it had been 

bought by AT&T and was both the research 

and manufacturing arm of the combined 

company. 

Edward Craft had demonstrated a talking 

picture apparatus at Yale University in 

1922. Little is known about it except that it 

was used to recite an animated lecture on 

the behavior of vacuum tubes. That same 

year Craft was made chief engineer at Westem 

Electric. By 1924 the Western Electric 

film sound system was demonstrated to all 

the largest studios, none of whom were 

interested. They were making quite enough 

money from silent pictures, thank you very 

much. Crafi didn't push very hard, because 

the Bell laboratories had just been formed 

in New York City, and Craft was put in 

charge. He had to oversee the transplant of 

his labs and projects from Chicago to Manhattan. 

Besides, as late at May 22, 1926 

Thomas Edison (remembering his own experience 

of 1913) would rashly declare, 

"No field exists for talking pictures." 

It wasn't until the following year that 

Samuel Warner, at sound engineer Nathan 

Levinson's urging, went to see and hear the 

system. He saw it had bugs, but he decided 

the Bell Labs could work them out. He 

decided to gamble the mortgage. On April 

20, 1926 Warner bought exclusive rights to 

the telephone company's talkie system. 

Western Electric set up Electrical Research 

Products, Inc., 

or ERPI, to exploit 

their talking picture apparatus. Two months 

later Warner opened a recording studio in 

the Old Manhattan Opera House on 34th 

Street, staffed by a combination of Warner 

and ERPI employees. Two months after 

that a series of talking short subjects opened 

at the Warner Theatre in New York. 

"The Jazz Singer" opened in October 

1927. It cost one-half million dollars to 

make, and brought in two and one-half million 

dollars. Profits like that showed the 

studio they were on to something. They 

bought up Stanley Theatres and frantically 

began wiring up its 250 houses. Shortly 

thereafter they bought control of First National 

Theatres, and got an additional 500 

theatres. Each sound installation cost between 

$5,000 and $20,000. By the end of 

that year, some thirty-seven million dollars 

had been spent by the film industry on 

sound equipment. At the beginning of 1 929 

Warner Brothers had a net worth of $16 

million. At the end of that year they had a 

net worth of $230 million. Over 5,000 theatres 

world-wide were equipped with Western 

Electric apparatus, almost 2,000 

theatres world-wide with RCA apparatus. 

In the United States alone these represented 

a bit over half the 8,000 theatres equipped 

for talkies. 

Years later ERPI engineers looked 

back with a laugh, and with the tune 

rom "Whoopee": 

A little band of engineers: 

A piece of wax, some silent gears 

A little sound work 

A little groundwork 

For making ERPII 

A Flatbush barn, some strips of felt; 

And the acoustics. Oh, how they smelt! 

The things we made work 

To do the spadework 

For making ERPI! 

Pigeons in every corner: 

Rumble of subway trains: 

April. 1992 

M

; 

Cinema Sound: Book Excerpt 

Prayers by the Brothers Warner; 

Stop shooting if it 

rains. 

And then the whole world was hearing 

Mammy"": 

Or other things that were just as hammy 

And I'm afraid 

That price we paid 

For making ERPI! 

There were now three systems in use. 

Western Electric was offering a system that 

grew out of telephone and public-address 

research; theirs was the system that Samuel 

Warner had named Vitaphone. RCA took 

over the research that had already been done 

at General Electric and Westinghouse. 

They called their system Photophone, ironically 

a trademark of Alexander Graham 

Bell, whose registration had run out. The 

Case-de Forest Aeohte was championed by 

William Fox: his newsreel service, the Fox 

Movie News, the Eyes of the World, became 

the Fox Movietone News, the Eyes 

and Ears of the World. 

In February 1 927 the large film producers 

asked Will Hayes to select a system they 

could all use. Hayes relied on his experience 

as Postmaster General, and did nothing. 

Western Electric sensed an opportunity, 

and at great expense bought back from 

Warner the rights to Vitaphone so ERPI 

could serve the entire industry. By the 

SUPERGLO 

A durable pearlescent, 

smooth surface 

offers maximum reflectivity 

& \\gh\ distribution. 

spring of 1928 all the large producers had 

signed up. The Aeolite was dead: after William 

Fox was forced out of his company, it 

signed up with ERPI. RCA was on the 

outside, running a distant second, with its 

nose pressed against the glass. In October 

1928 RCA decided to jump in all the way: 

they joined with Pathe and the Keith Albee 

Orpheum theatre chain to form RKO. They 

made and released '"Radio Pictures"" and 

showed them in their own theatres. 

two curious ironies m passing. 

Samuel Warner, who single- 

Wenote 

handedly took the financial risk of 

bringing the talkies out of the labs and into 

the theatres, died the day before "The Jazz 

Singer"" opened. Across the street from the 

Warner lot in Los Angeles was a junior high 

school, and in the 1930"s a student got into 

the habit of hanging around the sound department 

after school: Cyril Harris, designer 

of New York's famed Avery Fisher 

Hall. 

In the cynical formulation of the Hollywood 

studios, you're only as good as the 

boxoffice takings of your last picture. Consider 

Frank Capra, who directed many classic 

and very profitable pictures. His career 

ended abruptly, and permanently, with one 

money-loser named "A Pocketful of Miracles" 

(UA, 1961). 

HURLEY SCREENS 

SILVERGLO 

A smoothi, aluminized 

surface offering the 

highest reflectivity for 

special applications 

such as 3D. 

MW-16 

A heavy guage matte 

white surface offering 

excellent light distribution, 

image clarity, and 

color rendition. 

This is equally true of technical pro 

cesses. People lined up to see talkies. The; 

did not line up to see silent pictures. No 

even Charlie Chaplin could make a silen 

picture profitable. 

Consider some visual processes by anal 

ogy. One money-making picture was re 

leased in the widescreen process callei 

SuperScope: 'Invasion of the Body Snatch 

ers"" ( Allied. 1956). The next several Super 

Scope pictures lost money, and th' 

inventors, the Tushinsky brothers, wer 

into another business: importing Sony tap 

recorders for the U.S. hi-fi market. 

Consider VistaVision, a widescreen pro 

cess championed by Paramount 

Hitchcock's "North by Northwest"" (MGM 

1959) was a big hit in VistaVision, but th 

next few releases lost money, and the pro 

cess was dropped. 

We have seen the same thing happen wit; 

70 mm film and six-track stereophoni 

sound in 1969 and 1970. "Hello Dolly 

(Fox, 1969) and "Ryan's Daughter 

(MGM, 1970) were released in wide-gaug 

film and stereophonic sound. Great thing 

were expected of them: one was a Davii 

Lean saga, the other a smash Broadway hii 

Yet, they were both bitter disappointment 

at the boxoffice. At the same time anothe 

picture was released as the bottom half of 

drive-in double bill. There was no sta 

value: it starred the son of the head c 

American International Pictures, James H 

Nicholson. The picture, "Easy Rider"" (Cc 

lumbia, 1969), made a freakish fortune 

first-run as a drive-in cofeature, it had sub 

sequent runs in large downtown theatres. 

The gimlet-eyed studio heads chewetheir 

cigars and got the message. Stereophc 

nic sound and wide gauge film do not pa 

their way. MGM showed their level of con 

fidence in their traditional big-budget pic 

ture by getting into the hotel busines^ 

There was no financial guarantee attache 

to wonderful new technical processes. 

M 

%^^^ 

FRAMING - 

FAX #301-838-8079 

All types available. 

/f/////z/7/7//yA^ 

AUTOMATED HIGH SPEED 

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manufacturer and repair center 

Hui1«y tcf*«n Corp 

A SubSKjiarv of Cemccxp 

1610 Robin Circle 

Ted Uzzle, editor ofSound & Video Con 

tractor magazine, is a long time audio fei 

low-traveler and frequent contributor t 

BoxoFFiCE^ He is also the author ofnumei 

ous audio technical papers, lectures, an 

seminars. 

Comments from readers correcting et 

rors or extending the story, and especiall 

personal reminiscences, are welcomi 

Please write the author care of Boxoffice 

Next month: The Macro-Techincal an 

Micro-Technical problems. 

32 Uoxoinch

2 

Cinema Sound: Buyers Guide 

\B INTERNATIONAL 

LECTRONICS 

1(l(i\crnonSlrcct/POB 1105 

sl-mIIcCA 95678 

16-783-7800.714-777-2290 

714-777-3067 

obert Bird. President 

win I.askey, Vice President 

>uml equipment. Manufuclurer itfa hroi 

tf 

power amps. 

VL SYSTEMS 

1^40 S.W. Sixth Place 

icala. FL 32674 

400-228-7842 

ax: 904-854-1278 

ary A. Thurston, Marketing Mgr. 

coitstic sound control panels designed l< 

nhance the cinema listening 

\LPRO ACOUSTICS DIV. 

00 Saint George Ave., Suite A 

efferson, LA 70121 

'04-733-3836 

ax: 504-733-3851 

larold Hawkins. President 

I'vonne B. Foerster, Vice President 

[cDuslical panels for reverberation control. 

ALTEC LANSING 

10x26105 

DklahomaCity,OK73126 

t05-324-5311 

405-324-8981 

lohn Sexton, Sales Mgr. 

Voice of the Theatre" sound .systems

Cinema Sound 

DECOUSTICS LIMITED 

1 5 Webster Street 

North Tonawanda, NY 141 20-5874 

716-692-6332 

65 Disco Rd. 

Elobicoke. Ontario, M9W 1M2 

416-675-3983,800-387-3809 

Fax:416-675-5546 

John Balog. Director of Corp. Accts. 

Steve Wilson, VPInfl Sales 

High performance acoustical panels. 

DOLBY LABORA TORIES 

INC. 

lOOPotreroAve. 

San Francisco, CA 94103 

415-558-0200 

Fax:415-863-1373 

Ray Dolby. Chairman 

Bill Jasper. President 

loan Allen. Vice President 

Eul Schummer, VP Marketing/Licensing 

Sam Chavez, Cinema Tech. Mgr. 

Bill Mead, Dir. Marketing 

1350 Ave. of the Americas 28th Floor 

New York, NY 10019 

212-767-1700 

Fax:212-767-1705 

Michael Dicosimo, Dir. East Coast Film Div. 

1149N. McCaddenPl. 

Hollywood. CA 90038 

213-464-4596 

Fax:213-464-1845 

David Gray. Dir. Hollywood Film Div. 

SR'D digital sound. SR & NR dubbing equipment. 

post-production sen-ices, cinema processors. 

edge code readers. 

ELECTRO-VOICE DIV., 

MARK IV 

345 Herbert Street 

Gananoque. Ontario. K7G 2V1 

613-382-2141.613-382-2142 

Fax:613-382-7466 

Neil Andison, VP/General Manager 

Michelle Woods. Customer Service Mgr. 

Canadian division of Electro-Voice. Inc. 

Theatre sound products. 

EPRAD INC. 

2541 Tracy Road 

Northwood. OH 43619 

419-666-3266 

Fax:419-666-6534 

Theodore J. Stechschulte , General Mgr. 

Two andfour channel stereo processors, booth 

monitors and exciter suppliers. 

FABRI-TRAK 

ACOUSTICAL WALL 

SYSTEMS 

D. ZELINSKY & SONS INC. 

165 Valley Drive 

POB 640 

Brisbane, CA 94005 

415-467-3700 

Fax:415-467-4211 

Karen Hexem, General Manager, 

Fabri-Trak Division 

Fahri-Trak acoustical wall system. 

FRAZIER, DIV. OF 

SOUND-CRAFT 

Route 3 Box 319 

Morrilton,AR 721 10-9532 

501-727-5543, 800-422-7757 

Fax:501-727-5402 

James R. Truelsen President 

Point source alligned loudspeakers, screen and 

surround channel. 

GLEN O'BRIEN 

MOVABLE PARTITION 

CO. 

5301 E. 59th St./P.O.B. 300200 

Kansas City. MO 64 130 

816-361-5700.800-821-3595 

Fax:816-363-7034 

Stephen R. Nichols. Executive VP 

Tim Hoiting, Vice President 

Manufacture & sell theatre acoustical mill panels. 

GREATER UNION 

VILLAGE TECHNOLOGY 

19-25 Marsden St. Canipertown 

NSW 2050, Australia 

02-550-5488 

Fax:02-517-1946 

Graham F. Codd, General Manager 

Sound processors, sound systems, 

HAFLER 

613 S.Rockford Drive 

Tempe, AZ 85281 

602-967-3565 

Fax:602-894-1528 

Rick Gentry, Nat'l Sales 

Margie Williams, Asst. Natl. Sales Mgr. 

Power amplifiers. 

HIGH PERFORMANCE 

STEREO 

M Bowen Street 

Newton Centre, MA 02 1 59- 1 820 

617-244-1737 

Fax:617-244-4390 

John F. Allen, President 

Computer designed digital & SR ready HPS-4000 

sound systems. 

INTERSONICS INC. 

3453 Commercial Avenue 

Northbrook. IL 60062 

708-272-1772 

Fax: 708-272-9324 

Barry Bozeman, Nat'l Sales Manager 

Bass Technology Series subwoofers. 

KINETICS NOISE 

CONTROL 

6300 Irelan Place 

Dublin. Ohio 43017 

614-889-0480 

Fax:614-889-0540 

Larry Holben, VP Interior Systems 

Acoustical wall treatments and environments. 

KINTEKINC. 

224 Calvary Si. 

Waltham, MA02I54 

617-894-6111 

Fax:617-647-4235 

Zaki Abdun-Nabi, President 

Dan Taylor. VP Marketing & Sales 

Sarah Fuller. Marketing & Sales Admin. 

Stereo optical processors, power amps, powered 

suhwoofcrs. speakers, stereo sound systems. 

KLIPSCH & ASSOCIATES 

P.O.B. 688 

Hope, AR 71801 

501-777-6751 

Fax:501-777-6753 

Gary Nelson. VP Sales/Mktg. 

Speakers. 

MARBLE COMPANY, THE 

421 Hart Lane/ P.O. Box 160080 

Nashville. TN 37216 

800-759-5905,615-227-7772 

Fax:615-228-1301 

Ron Purtee, General Manager 

Processors, 

hearing enhancement systems, 

narrow slit sound lens, exciter lamps. 

MARK IV CINEMA 

SYSTEMS 

60U Cecil Street 

Buchanan, Ml 49107 

800-544-2154 

Fax:616-695-6831 

Todd Rockwell, Mktg. Mgr. Cinema Products 

Altec Lansing and Electro-Voice cinema sound. 

MASSA STUDIO SOUND 

15l4W.M.it:noliaBhd, 

Burbank.CA 91506 

818-848-5633 

Fax:818-84.3-5758 

Charles Massa. Owner 

Theatre sound projection equipment and design., 

equipment racks. 

34 BOXOFFICE

1 

Buyers Guide 

\/IEYER SOUND 

ABORATORIES INC. 

832 San Pablo A\c. 

erkcley.CA 947(12-2204 

0-486-1166 

ix: 5 10-486-8356 

indy Ramos. Nat'l Sales Mgr. 

lark Johnson, Dir. of Technical Mktg. 

oudspeciker systemsfor sound reinforcen 

scording applicalions. 

ODYSSEY PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

5644 Baldwin Cl. 

Norcross. GA.30071 

404-448-4873 

Fax:404-449-1087 

Eve Miller, President 

Assistive listening systems: specialty 

manufacturing theatre products: consulting. 

PEA VEY ELECTRONICS 

7 1 1 A 

Street 

Meridian, MS 39.301 

601-483-5365 

Fax; 601 -484-4278 

Lance Schmidt, Inl'l Sales Mgr. 

Loudspeakers and power amps for theatre 

]/IONSTER CABLE 

PRODUCTS INC. 

74 Wattis Way 

0. San Francisco, CA 94080-6761 

15-871-6000 

•ax: 415-871-6555 

Joel Lee, President 

Jarry Thornton, Pro. Products Mgr. 

Jary Reber, Special Projects 

iigh performance interconnect and speaker 

ables. 

OMNIMOUNT S YSTEMS 

10840 Vanowen Street 

N. Hollywood, CA. 91605 

818-766-9000 

Fax:818-766-9437 

Stacy Ward, Sales Coordinator 

Universal speaker mounting assemblies, 

approved hy Lucasfilmfor hanging surround 

speakers. 

PRODUCTS SALES 

ASSOC. 

1 70 Cherry Valley Ave. 

West Hempstead, NY 11552 

800-346-8 1 07, 5 16-485-9 1 8 

Fax:516-485-9207 

William J. 

Geams, President and Sales Mgr. 

Comfort Weave acoustical facings. 

CY YOUNG INDUSTRIES, INC. 

zZZ While Zzz 

z ^ ^ Theatre Sleeps ^^z 

* Reupholster 

your 

chairs 

KARASYNC 

OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO 

loioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioi 

Digital Audio for Film 

Universal Compatibility 

* "State Of The Art" Cy Young Cup Holder Armrest 

1-800-729-2610 

John Karamon 

J.K. International, Inc. 

19 Berkelev Street 

Stamford, Cl 06902 

USA 

April, 1992 35

oiujioiwnts 

1 

Cinema Sound: Buyers Guide 

QSC A UDIO PRODUCTS 

1926 Placentia Ave. 

Costa Mesa. CA 92627 

714-645-2540 

Fax:714-645-7927 

Barry Andrews, CEO 

John Andrews. COO 

Pat Quilter, VP/Engineering 

Pete Kalmen. Sales Manager 

Professional power amps. 

ROM INDUSTRIES 

3342 Lillian Blvd. 

Tilusville, FL. 327S0 

407-269-4720 

Fax: 407-269-4729 

Ronald Goigel. President 

Chris Duffey. VP 

Stereo sound equipment. 

RANE CORP. 

10802 47th Avenue W. 

Mukilleo. WA 98275-5098 

206-355-6000 

Fax: 206-347-7757 

Larry Winter, VP Marketing 

Ray Bloom, Dir.of Sales & Marketing 

Amplifiers, sound processors, mi.wrs. crossov. 

REED SPEAKER MFG 

CO. INC. 

7530 W. 16th Ave. 

Lakewood, CO. 80215 

303-238-6534,303-237-8773 

Sam Reed, President 

In-car speakers, raw speakers & repair 

RENKUS-HEINZ INC. 

17191 .Armstrong Ave. 

Irvine. CA. 92714 

714-250-0166 

Fax:714-250-1035 

Harro K. Heinz, President 

Carl Dorwaldt, Natl. Sls./Mktg. Mgr. 

SmarlSound systems, professional sound produc 

SMART THEATRE 

SYSTEMS 

5945 Peachtree Corners East 

Norcross,GA. .30071 

404-449-6698, 8(X) 45-SMART 

Fax:404-449-6728 

Norm .Schneider, President 

Oscar Neundorfer. VP Engineering 

liroad rani:e nf sound , 

and svslei 

SONIC S YSTEMS INC. 

737 Canal St. Bldg. 23 

Stamford, CT 06902 

203-356-1136 

Fax: 203-324-0893 

John J. Karamon, VP Marketing 

Soimdsphere omnidirectional speakers. 

SOUNDFOLD 

P.O. Box 292 125 

Dayton, Ohio 45429 

5 1 3-293-267 1,51 3-293-934 

Fax:5L3-293-9542 

Tony Sickels, President 

Art Sickels, CEO 

Tom Miltner. Sales 

Julie Huntington, Sec/Bookkeeper 

Acoustical wallcovering systems and fr, 

.•services. 

STRETCHWALL 

42-03 35th Street 

Long Island City. NY 11101 

718-729-2020 

Fax:718-729-2941 

Don Weber. Product Manager. East Coast 

415-822-4322 

Fax:415-822-2926 

Guy Murnig.VP West Coast 

Fabric covered acoustical wall sxsleins. 

THX SOUND SYSTEM 

PROGRAM/LUCASFILM 

LTD. 

P.O. Box 2009 

San Rafael. CA 94912 

415-662-1900 

Fax:415-662-2186 

Buzz Hays. Dir.of Eng.THX Div. 

Julie Petersen. Dir. Professional Services THX 

Div. 

Ross Hering. Dir. of Sales THX Div. 

Kim Yost. Marketing Coordinator THX Div. 

THX is a comprehensive appoach to theatre 

soimd system dcMi;n iiiul insiuUation. The 

program enconipu\\c\ llicdlrc thousiics (Uul 

sound equipincnl I'lIX pnn utc.s certain 

proprietary hardware wlncli includes the THX 

' 

and crossf 

TECCON ENTERPRISES 

LTD. 

6S6ClitTsideDr,/P.O.B.38 

San Dimas.CA 91773 

714-599-0817.818-915-4244 

Fax:714-592-2408 

Jack Dimmers, President 

Susan E. Adams. VP 

Magnetic sound recording heads, inagneiic & 

optical pre-amps, power supplies, calibration 

films. 

TELEX SOUND 

ENHANCEMENT 

9600 Aldrich A\c .Soiilli 

Bloonimglon. M,\5.''42(l 

612-884-4051 

Fax:612-884-0043 

Jeff Peters, Nat'l Sales Mgr. 

Wireless inic systems, intercoms., and he 

assistance systems. 

TOTAL AUDIO 

3849 Merriam Dr. 

Overland Park. KS 66208 

Richard Stevenson. President 

913-362-3762 

Manufacture stage speakers, update and 

e.xsisling speakers. 

ULTRA-STEREO LABS 

INC. 

18730 Oxnard St., Unit 207 

Tarzana.CA 91356 

818-609-7405 

Fax:818-609-7408 

Jack Cashin. President 

Felicia Cashin.VP 

Theatre sound processors. 

UREI/JBL 

PROFESSIONAL 

S5(l() Balboa Bhd./P.O.B. 2200 

Northndge.CA91329 

818-893-8411 

Fax:818-893-3639 

Ronald H. Means. President 

Mark Gander. VP Marketing 

Ken Lopez. VP Sales 

Steve Armstrong, Director of Sales 

Soiatd and signal processing equipment, amps, 

equalizers, speakers and soundheads, etc. 

VISTASCOPE CORP. 

1314 Ellsworth Industrial Dr. 

Atlanta. GA.W3 18 

404-351-3618 

Fax:404-352-1288 

Kirk Wooster, President 

Wide-screen film production company .serving tti 

museum, entcrtaiimienl and specialty theater 

markets. Custom productions, theater design ani 

nrallation ami projection and sound equipment. 

WESTAR SALES & 

SERVICE LTD. 

6750 N.E. 4th Court 

Miami, FL. 33138 

305-756-0699. 305-754- 1 1 75 

Fax: .^05-758-2036 

Steve Krams. President 

Data Rcusch. VP 

Stereo sound processors. 

36 BoxoiiKl

iller Departs Fox 

In a move that stunned Hollywood, B

. 

INDUSTRY 

BRIEFINGS 

Christie Electric Merges 

Theatre Division With 

Ushio America 

Tom E. Christie, chiiirmjn of Christie Electric 

Corp., has announced the merger of the 

company's Theatre Division with Ushio 

America, Inc. of Torrance, Calif. The agreement 

is scheduled to close on April 1 , 1 992 

The new entity will operate as Christie, 

Inc., a subsidiary of Ushio America, with 

operations continuing at Christie's present 

facilities in Cardena, Calif. Mr. Christie will 

remain at the helm as Chairman and CEO. 

"The joining offorces between Christie and 

Ushio is a logical continuation and strengthening 

of a 23-year relationship between the 

two companies," Christie said. "The financial 

and technical resources of Ushio will significantly 

contribute to the growth and development 

of the Theatre Products Division in both 

the U.S. and worldwide." 

Christie has been distributing a line of 

Ushio xenon bulbs since 1969. Ushio is a 

leadinq international manufacturer in the 

lighting industry, specializing in halogen, 

xenon and other discharge lamps. 

Movie Hotline Expands 

Service 

Movie Hotline, an interactive movie information 

service produced by Teleflix Inc., of 

Mount LaLirel, N.|., is moving off the pages of 

USA Today and is jockeying to become a 

nationwide service. The service allows moviegoers 

from anywhere in the U.S. to use a 

touch tone telephone to find where a film is 

playing in their area and to hear information 

describing new movies from Columbia, 

MCM, TriStar, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt 

Disney, Warner Brothers, and Universal. 

By listening to instructions provided by a 

voice menu, the service allows callers to hear 

their choice of a synopsis, an audio preview, 

a parents' guide and coming attractions for 

current motion pictures. A theatre locator 

option provides the name, address and phone 

number of local theatres where a film can be 

seen. 

Movie Hotline's theatre locator is supported 

by over 1 00 of the largest U.S. theatre 

circuits, includingCarmike, General Cinema, 

Loews, Mann and National Amusements, 

with new theatres still being added. The company 

states that it is the only information 

source providing a nationwide theatre locator 

and audio previews of current films on demand. 

The Movie Hotline is a pay per call service, 

which moviegoers can access by calling 1- 

900-737-FILM.To hear information for a particular 

film, callers enter a two digit code 

number, available through an on-line menu 

or by turning to the Movie Hotline listing 

block in the "Life" section of USA Today. The 

Movie Hotline listings will soon be available 

in other print publications. 

EASTERN NEWS 

CHERRY HILL, NJ 

Score Board, Inc., based here, announced 

that Paramount Pictures has agreed to grant a 

license to the firm's Classic Games, Inc. unit 

todevelop, manufacture and marketa limited 

edition trivia game of "Star Trek." Under the 

two year agreement, the game board on the 

film series will be marketed by Class Games 

through retail 

stores and cable home shopping 

networks. 

PHILADELPHIA, PA 

The Philadelphia Festival of World Film, 

scheduled for May 6-17, received another 

major financial boost. It was awarded a 

$ 1 00,000 challenge grant from the local Pew 

Charitable Trust that will match corporate 

contributions. This is in addition to the 

$200,000 awarded by the National Endowment 

for the Arts, which first made the festival 

a reality. The festival will present a diverse 

collection of 35 to 40 premiere and classic 

films from around the world as well as special 

events and seminars with notables from the 

film industry. The festival films will be presented 

at various AMC, United Artists and 

Ritz theatres in addition to several special 

programs at International House, the Free 

Library of Philadelphia and the Cershman 

YMAWHA. 

The Philadelphia Variety Club rang up another 

record total for its annual Telethon on 

Station WPVI-TV. Monty Hall, Master of Ceremonies 

for the 20-hour overnight telethon, 

announced a record total of $1,508,082. Big 

help came from the eight major supermarket 

chains throughout the area, which accepted 

manufacturers' discount coupons in a "Cash 

for Kids" campaign. 

Radio station WFLN, the classical music 

station in the city, hosted a special screening 

for its 

listeners of the film "The Inner Circle" 

in advance of its opening at the UARiverView 

Theatre. Also, for the opening of "Stop! Or My 

Mom Will Shoot" at UA's Samerica 4, free 

passes for the advance screening were distributed 

by Messanotte, a center city restaurant. 

And the Ritz 5 Theatre had Border's Bookshop 

in center city distributing passs for an 

advance screening for "Mississippi Masala" 

while movie passes good for the length of the 

engagement of "Alan and Naomi" were given 

out by Michael Elkin's "On the Scene" column 

in the weekly Jewish Exponent newspaper 

in a random drawing among readers 

sending in their names. 

SOMERVILLE, MA 

The fourth "Sight and Sound Sunday" was 

presented at the Somerville Theatre, the program 

being a mixture of \ int.igc film and live 

entertainment. Charlie ( li.iphn's " I he Rink" 

and two Buster Kealon shorts, "The 

Balloonatic" and "Cops," were accompanit 

by live music conducted by Martin Marks 

MIT. All proceeds benefitted the 1992 Ne 

England Children's Film and Video Festiv 

and the Open Center for Children in Some 

ville. 

BROOKLINE, MA 

The Coolidge Corner l-ll hosted the 171 

annual 24-hour Science Fiction Film Mar, 

thon with the 1 992 motto reading "SF/1 7: Ol 

Enough to Know Better, Young Enough to St£ 

Awake." Titles included "Navy Vs the Nigi 

Monsters" (1966), "The Adventures of Ca| 

tain Marvel" ( 1 942), "I Was A Teenage Wen 

wolf" (1957) and "Late tor Dinner" (1991 ). 

NEW HAVEN, CT 

A $2.50-for-all admission charge was ii 

troduced at the Cine Quad, with on-goir 

advertising copy that says, "Don't Sit Home- 

See A Movie!" 

BANTAM, CT 

The Bantam Cinema hosted the region, 

premiere of independent Creycat Films' ri 

lease, "Thousand Pieces of Cold," who; 

screenplay was written by Anne Makepeaci 

a frequent patron at the local theatre back i 

the years when it was locally known as Cii 

ema IV. The Makepeace family has Connec 

icut ties dating back to the 1 740s. 

SOUTHERN 

NEWS 

NEW ORLEANS, LA 

Car No. 453, the streetcar made famous fc 

Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named D( 

sire", will be renovated and returned to se 

vice in the French Quarter of the cit\ 

according to Regional Transit Authority. Th 

streetcar, which dates from 1906, had bt 

come a tourist attraction at the Old U.S. Min 

also located in the French Quarter. 

George J. Steiner, jr., a veteran New O 

leans freelance producer and productio 

manager, has been named director of th 

Louisiana Office of Film and Video by newl 

elected Lieutenant Governor Melind 

Schwegmann. Steiner produced a 1971 do( 

umentary about New Orleans called "Quee 

City of the South." He also worked at WRN( 

and WCKW radio stations as well as on sex 

eral local TV shows. 

According to figures released by the Lou 

siana Office of Film and Video, 1 1 motio 

pictures were shot wholly or partly in th

ite, 

Q 

709 

pumping roughly $66 million into the 

al economy. The most recent and nole- 

Drthy film lensed here was Oliver Stone's 

K." In addition there is Mark Frost's "Storyle," 

to be released by Twentieth Century 

IX, and currently )ohn Sayles is preparing to 

m an as yet untitled film in southwest Lou- 

NOXVILLE, TN 

Regal Cinemas has announced several procts 

currently under development. 

The Nippers Corner Cinema 10 in south 

ashville, Tenn. atthecorner of Old Hickory 

vd. and Edmondson Pike will feature 1800 

ats in a free-standing 26,000 square foot 

)mplex. Opening is set for early July. 

The Agusta Village Cinema 8 has just 

jened in west Agusta, Ga., adjacent to Interate 

520 (across from the Agusta Mall) and 

atures 2000 seals In a free-standing 27,000 

|uare foot complex. 

Also, in late lune. Regal will open the 

amilton Place Cinema 10-1 7 on an out lot 

the Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, 

nn. The new 26,000 square foot complex 

II feature 1,600 seats and will act as An 

(tension to the Hamilton Place 9 located 

Regal'sSearstown Mall Cinema 10, located 

Titusville, has been expanded from a 

ênplex. Its expansion is part of Regal's 

igoing strategy to further strengthen its 

thin the mall. This expansion will effeci/ely 

make this the largest concentration of 

reens in one location in the state of Tenn. 

potion 

in existing markets. 

The Huntington Valley Cinema 1 4, located 

The Marketplace Center in Huntington Val- 

/ in Philadelphia, Pa., will feature 3,000 

;ats in a free-standing 45,000 square foot 

Dmplex. The cinema is being designed with 

5,000 sqaure foot neon enhanced lobby 

ong with a specialty cafe featuring fresh 

aked muffins and cookies, fuit juices, sparing 

waters, pizza, ice cream and frozen 

ogurt. Auditorium sizes will range from just 

nder 200 to 600 seats. Upon opening in 

lid-November, the Huntingdon Valley Cinma 

14 will become Philadelphia's largest 

leatre complex. 

Each of these Regal theatre complexes will 

ature wall to wall screens, stereo surround 

3und in each auditorium, video arcades, 

omputerized ticketing stations featuring adance 

ticket sales, plush seating with cupolder 

armrests and large concession stands 

!aturing nachos, hot dogs, soft drinks and 

andy. Each location will be operated as a first 

un venue with the exception of the Nippers 

lorner Cinema 10, which will be operated as 

discount house. Regal Theatres currently is 

anked as the 1 7th largest theatre operator in 

he country with 229 screens at 32 locations 

n seven slates. 

Valentine building in downtown Toledo, one 

of the last downtown film houses to shutter 

two decades ago. The inilal phase, said to cost 

approximately $3,400,000, will convert the 

four-story city-owned building into low cost 

apartments. The second phase, an estimated 

$ 1 2,000,000 project, will convert the auditorium 

into a performing arts center. Backers 

hope to attract state funding and reopen the 

theatre on itscentennial, December 25, 1 995. 

MILWAUKEE, Wl 

Marcus Theatres, headquartered in this 

city, presented Lawrence Kasdan's "Grand 

Canyon" with captions for deaf and hard-ofhearing 

audiences in March at its theatres in 

Oak Creek, Oshgosh and Madison. The presentation 

had the support of TRIPOD, Twentieth 

Century Fox (the film's distributor), 

Cinetyp, Inc. and the Galludet University 

Alumni Association, Wisconsin chapter. Half 

of the proceeds from the showings are slated 

to go to TRIPOD, a national nonprofit organization 

that offers information and support to 

families with deaf children. This presentation 

was Marcus Theatres' second showing of a 

major first-run film with captions for the deaf 

and hearing-impaired in Wisconsin. The first 

film to be shown in this format was "Dances 

With Wolves." 

DRIVE-IN THEATERS 

ARE OPEN! 

Are You Ready For This Season? 

Get replacement speakers, junction boxes and a full line of 

Drive-ln -In equipment from SPF~ SPECO. Parts are available for all 

makes of speakers and junction boxes. 

/ je 

, 

•«.' 

( 

N. 6th Street-Kansas City. KS 66101 

(913)321-3978 

Response No. 39 

PRESENTING THE FANTASTIC 4 

XR171 

ANTISTATIC 

nonyellowing 

pearlescenl surface 

MIDWEST NEWS 

rOLEDO, OH 

Construction began in March on the fi 

)hase of the rebirth of the 100 year old Loev

4 

WESTERN NEWS 

LOS ANGELES, CA 

Audiences at AMC Theatres throughout the 

country have been receiving an environmental 

pat on the back since the past holiday 

Communities to build a new 20-screen multiplex 

here. Set to open in late 1 993, the AMC 

season in the form of a two-minute PSA on 

Calabasas 20 will be the largest AMC theatre 

behalf of the Earth Communications Office 

facility in the country, with the most screens 

Advertising Advisory Alliance (ECO/AAA). 

under one roof of any theatre west of the 

The creative and production efforts behind 

Mississippi River. The 60,000 square foot 

the PSA were donated by advertising agency 

entertainment complex is situated in a new 

BBDO Los Angeles, which also created an 

community shopping center and will have 

award-winning campaign for Earth Day 

more than 4,000 seats. It is expected to attract 

1 990. All prints were donated by Deluxe Labs 

more than 1 .5 million patrons annually. Construction 

is scheduled to begin in spring, 

on film supplied by Kodak. The project was 

also made possible by a grant from the Heinz 

1993. 

charitable Trust in the name of the late Senator 

John Heinz. 

For those patrons of AMC, the following 

excerpt from the ECO PSA might sound familiar. 

../.asf year, by recycling paper, you saved 

600 million trees. ..Twenty-two percent of 

you carpooled, keeping millions ol tons of 

pollutants out of the air... You recycled fifty 

percent of all the aluminum cans produced, 

saving energy and land. ..Keep at it. You're 

making a difference... 

The Earth Communications Office (ECO) is 

a non-profit, non-partisan communications 

industry organization for the environment 

with board members including Ron Howard, 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Glenn Close and 

Kirstie Alley, among others. The newly 

formed ECO/AAA is composed of executives 

from major Los Angeles advertising agencies 

and organization who have joined with ECO 

to help create a greater consciousness of the 

environment. 

The Motion Picture & Television Fund recently 

opened the Samuel Coldwyn Foundation 

Children's Center in West Los Angeles as 

a way to provide a safe environment for children 

of entertainment industry parents. The 

Center accomodates up to 76 children, ages 

six weeks through six years, in a facility that 

enhances the educational experience as well 

as provides a comforting and nurturing environment. 

The Center also features extended 

hours, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to further assist 

working parents. The $4.5 million state-ofthe-art 

child care center was built and donated 

to the Fund by the Samuel Coldwyn 

Foundation. The Center is 

supported by tuition, 

fundraising and a consortium of entertainment 

companies. 

LA VERNE, CA 

As reported in the March issue of the 

Greater L.A. Metro Newsreel, after a long 

delay caused by a lawsuit, Edwards Theatres 

has now begun construction on a multiplex 

in La Verne; groundbreaking ceremonies 

were held in February and the theatre is expected 

to open this fall. The theatre circuit as 

well as the city of La Verne were sued by a 

local pharmacist who contended that the theatre 

was too large and that the environmental 

report for the project was inadequate: however, 

the suit was rejected by Los Angeles 

Superior Court last December. 

CALABASAS, CA 

AMC Theatres has signed with Continental 

INTERNATIONAL! 

NEWS 

PARIS, FRANCE 

MIDEM (The International Music Industr 

Market), held this past January at Cannes 

closed with a 

record-breaking participatio 

figure of over 8,360. There were 350 stand; 

1,121 exhibiting companies and in tota 

2,179 companies registered from 63 coun 

tries—a figure well up on the 54 that wer 

expected. Journalists numbering 726 from 3 

countries were also present. The 10 mos 

represented countries were: France, th^ 

United Kingdom, the United States, Get 

many, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgiun- 

Switzerland and Japan. New territories repre 

sented were the Bahamas, Cibralter, Luxem 

burg, Morocco, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, thi 

United Arab Emirates as well as the newl 

recognized republics of Croatia, Serbia am 

Slovenia. 

FESTIVAL and EVENT CALENDAR 

Apr. 3-5 "Console-ing Passions": TV, Video, & Fern., Iowa City (319-335-0579) 

Apr. 7-8 United Theatre Owners/Oklahoma 1405-843-1158) 

Apr. 9-23 AFI Film Festival, Los Angeles 1213-856-7707) 

Apr. 9-23 

L.A. International Film Festival, Los Angeles 

Apr. 13-16 

National Assn. of Broadcasters, Las Vegas iJ02-429-5335) 

Apr. 19-24 MIP/TV, Cannes, France i2l 2-689-4220) 

Apr. 23-30 

U.S.A. Film Festival, Dallas, Texas 

Apr. 23-May 7 S.F. International Film Festival, San Francisco (415-567-4641) 

Apr. 24-May 3 Houston Int. Film Festival (25th), Houston, Texas (713-965-9955) 

Apr. 

Cleveland International Film Festival, Ohio 

Apr. 

New York International Home Video Market, New York 

Apr. 

European Environmental Film Festival, Paris 

Apr. 

Rivertown (Mpls./St. Paul) International Film Festival, Minn. 

Apr. Filmfest, D.C., Washington, D.C. (202-727-2396) 

May 3-6 National Cable TV Assn., Dallas, Texas (202-775-3690) 

May 6-17 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, Penn. (215-592-8708) 

May 7-18 Cannes International Film Festival, France i2 12-832-8860) 

May 26-30 

International Television Assn., Seattle, Wash. 

May 27-29 MultiMedia Expo, New York, N.Y. (212-226-4141) 

May 28-30 

American Film and Video Festival, Chicago, III. 

May 31-|une 3 NAC Snack Bar U./Expo '92, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Hi 2-2.16-3858) 

May 30-June 2 

Consumer Electronics Show/Summer, Chicago, III. 

May 

Seattle International Film Festival, Wash. 

May Troia International Film Festival, Portugal ( 

i5U>5-44l23) 

June 4-July 29 New Hampshire Film Festival, Keene, N.H. (603-358-2269 

June 5-1 

Florida Film Festival at Orlando (407-644-563 1) 

June 6—21 Melbourne Film Festival, Australia (3-663-1395) 

June 8-13 Int. Electronic Cinema Festival, Tokyo (212-258-6363) 

June 16-21 Int. Video and TV Festival, Montbeliard, France (33-81-30-90-30) 

lune 20-22 ShowBiz Expo West, Los Angeles Con. Ctr., L.A. (213-668-181 1) 

|une 22-26 

Knowledege Ind. Video Expo Chicago, Chicago, III. 

June 29-July 2 Cinema Expo International, Brussels, Belgium (212-265-6548) 

June 

Yokohama French Film Festival, Yokohama, Japan 

June 

Munich Film Festival, Germany 

June Sydney Film Festival, Australia (.'-660- )844) 

June 

Midnight Sun Film Festival, Helsinki 

June AFI/European Community Film Festival, Los Angeles 1(213-856-7707) 

40 BOXOIFKK

E MAMBO KINGS 

Reviews 

rriiii^ Anncmd Assanli'. Antonio Bamkras. Cathy Moriarty and 

sclika Detmers. 

Cited hy Arne Glimcher. Screenplay by Cynthia Cidre. based 

c novel "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" by Oscar 

los. Produced by Anion Milchan and Arne Glimcher 

Warner Bros, release. Drama, rated R. Running time: 104 min. 

d: Dolby A. Projection: Flat. Screening date: 2/IS/92. 

le trick to seeing "The Mambo Kings" is trying to understand 

this loose and baggy monster is all about. A spirited melange 

ama, music and romance, the film is al.so a confusion of cross 

slopping to nirt with one genre hardly long enough to make 

iinent before whooshing on to another. Hanging by the 

.d of Armand Assante's riveting performance, "The Mambo 

blows into town and blows nylil out a;jain without ever 

ng down roots. But it's scJiiclnc L'iuiu;.:h lo shake things up 

s through and it's got more heart and perhaps more earnestthaii 

many other fihiis to be seen this year. Add to this the sultry 

of great mambo music and the film comes up a winner, 

dapied from 0.scar Hijuelos" Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. "The 

ibo Kings" follows the lives of two Cuban brothers. Cesar 

nand Assante ) and the younger Nestor ( Antonio Banderas ). who 

e to New York in the midst of the mambo craze of the 1950s 

ng to make their fortunes composing as well as performing their 

brand of mambo. Unfonunately, their lives become complii 

not only by the emotional baggage they've brought with them 

Cuba but also by the politics of making it in the big time, 

rst of all there is. natch, the "woman" problem. Soon after the 

hers arrive. Cesar meets Lanna Lake (Cathy Moriarty). the 

ictive cigarette girl who works at the famed Palladium where the 

first make their mark. After falling into bed Cesar and Lanna 

in love—or at least it seems so since Lanna hangs around 

ughout the rest of the fdm while all the time pushed into the 

cground. The female trouble here really belongs to Nestor. He's 

his one true love, Maria, back in Cuba and never gets her out of 

em. even though he soon meets and marries another woman 

ed Delores (Manischka Detmers). And then there are those few 

ting moments when Cesar also seems attracted to Delores, but 

many other potential plots lines in the film, this idea dies out 

ker than the audience can bat an eyelash, 

oupled with all this female trouble is the difficult time Cesar and 

tor have making it as musicians in New York. They can make it 

f they sell their souls to the mafiosa-godfather of the mambo 

le (Roscoe Lee Browne), and while Nestor wants to give in to 

pressure, Cesar remains staunch in his desire to stay clean. But 

when you think this conflict is the film's major focus, much like 

arothers' relationships with women, it too goes off track and falls 

he wayside. 

So the major problem with "The M.uuho Kings" is that it can't 

decide w hat it's about, fension mounts— time and again — yet poops 

out before any resolution, before any issue gets defined. Are the 

brothers in over their heads in the fast-track world of New York'.' 

Are they lovers of music, lovers of women, or what? They are all 

these things yet at the same time none of the above. First-time 

director Andy Glimcher is a lover of artful compositions in the film's 

mise-en-scenes and also a lover of pounding, infectious mambo 

beats—two features 

that help override "The Mambo King's" otherwise 

amateurish sensibility. The film is a mambo mish-mash with a 

heart of gold and a pulse that's gloriously infectious. (It's also about 

time Armand As.sante got hold of a film and a character large enough 

into which he can finally pour his talented soul). More than likely, 

audiences will fall heads over heels in love with this film without 

ever knowing why. 

Rated R for language, sexual situations and some violence. - 

Marilyn Moss 

SHADOWS AND FOG 

Starring Woody Allen. Mia harrow and John Malkovich. 

Written and directed by Woody Allen. Produced hy Rohcil 

Greenhnt. 

An Orion Pictures release. Comedy, rated PG- 1 3. Running time: 

85 min. Sound: Dolby SR. Projection: Flat. Screening date: 3/2/92. 

In recent years. Woody Allen has struggled to blend the kind of 

razor-sharp, fall-down-funny humor that made him famous with an 

increasing interest in intense, personal dramas. In "Crimes and 

Misdemeanors," for instance, he combined two stories—one a 

"Manhattan"-style romantic comedy, the other a philosophical 

melodrama—to create one of his most rewarding films. "Shadows 

and Fog." Allen's latest film, also employs both comedic and dramatic 

elements, but the results are neither particularly funny nor 

particularly profound. The movie's not half-bad—it's intriguing, 

amusing and beautifully composed—but it does feel half-hearted; 

Allen seems unwilling to commit to either the inherent humor in the 

material or to answering the questions he raises. 

Indeed, the weak link in "Shadows and Fog" is in the area where 

Allen usually excels most—the writing. Based on the one-act play 

"Death" from his mid-seventies bestseller "Without Feathers." 

"Shadows and Fog" is built around the vaguely Kafkaesque story of 

Kleinman (Allen), who is awakened in the middle of the night and 

presided into service by a vigilante group that is hunting a strangler. 

Uncertain of his part in their plan, he wanders about the foggy cits 

in fear, running into a variety of strange characters. One of the people 

he meets is Irmy, a beautiful sword swallower (Mia Farrow) who. 

fed up with her clown boyfriend (John Malkovich ). has left the circus 

Review Index 

Edward II R-31 

Falling From Grace R-32 

1st International Festival of Short Films R-35 

Great Mouse Detective, The R-34 

I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore R-31 

Lovers R-34 

Mambo Kings, The R-28 

Medicine Man R-30 

Memoirs of an Invisible Man R-29 

Midnight Clear, A R-33 

Paper Mask R-34 

Radio Flyer R-31 

Shadows and Fog R-28 

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot R-30 

35 Up R-32 

Toto Le Heros R-33 

Wayne's World R-29 

R-28 BovoKKK I

— 

and ended up spending the night in a brothel. 

There is the seed of an old-style Allen farce here; he could have 

done to Kafka what he did to Dostoyevsky in "Love and Death." But 

the humor is tentative: Allen occasionally lets loose with brilliant 

one-liners, but they seem to spring out of him against his will, the 

snappy retorts of an inveterate class clown. The story involving 

Farrow, on the other hand, has the whimsical flavor of her previous 

showcases in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Alice," but without 

the emotional resonance; unlike the characters in those earlier films. 

Irmy doesn't develop in any significant way. 

"Shadows and Fog" does have the distinction of having perhaps 

the most prestigious supporting cast this side of "JFK"—including 

Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin, Malkovich, John Cusack, 

Madonna. Julie Kavner, Kate Nelligan, Fred Gwynne, Donald Pleasance 

and Wallace Shawn—but Allen doesn't have any idea what to 

do with this abundance of riches. By now it's become a cliche that 

when asked in interviews what director they'd most like to work 

with, actors answer Martin Scorsese or Allen; Allen must have been 

jotting down names of the ones who chose him. But, as in his 

previous film "Alice," the stars 

are more distracting than useful, 

particularly in the case of Foster, who seems incongruously miscast 

as a giggly prostitute. 

Like all 

of Allen's comedies, "Shadows and Fog" does have its 

unforgettable moments—a barroom exchange between Malkovich 

and Cusack comes quickly to mind—and there are several gags 

Chase is Nick Halloway, a slick but shallow Wall Street sto' 

analyst who is rendered invisible by a freak accident. He is th' 

pursued by a devious CIA agent-hit man (an oily Sam Neill) w 

will stop at nothing to exploit his misfortune. Desperate. Nick tut 

for help to Alice (Hannah), a beautiful young documentary I 

ker whom he has just met. Naturally, the two fall in love, and togetl 

they team up to outsmart the CIA. 

Chase's comedic strengths seem to work at cross-purposes w 

the script, by Robert Collector & Dana Olsen and William Goldmi 

The writers have fashioned an old-fashioned Hitchcockian thrill 

and Chase, as he did previously with "Fletch," turns it intc 

showcase for his ample wisecracking talents. Had Chase's o' 

company not produced the film, Kevin Kline or Tom Hanks woi 

have been a better Nick; unlike Chase, they can be funny withe 

smirking their way through a role. Nor does Hannah fit the mold 

a documentarian who was a lawyer before becoming disillusion 

with the rat-race: 

she doesn't project the kind of intelligence 

which the other characters seem to be giving her credit. 

Director John Carpenter does his best to create a suspense 

atmosphere, but Chase's humor has the effect of dissipating I 

involving Allen the actor that he pulls off with uncanny timing. The 

cinematography by Carlo Di Palma and the production design by 

Santo Loquasto are stunning, and Allen's choice of Kurt Weill's 

music lends the film just the right note of eeriness. Indeed, in terms 

of atmosphere, "Shadows and Fog" brings to mind another recent 

disappointment, 

Steven Soderbergh's "Kafka." Like "Kafka," it 

sometimes seems to be little more than an exercise in expressionistic 

visual stylings. But though it lacks the zing of his best work, 

"Shadows and Fog" does have the benefit of Allen's wit to redeem 

it—and that is no small thing. 

Rated PG-13 for adult language. 

JejfSchwuger 

MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN 

Suin-int; Chevy Chase. Darxl Huimah aiul Sam Neill. 

Directed by John CaipeiUei: Screenplay hy Robert Collector & 

Dana Olsen and William Goldman; based on the novel by H. F. Saint. 

Produced by Bruce Bodner and Dan Kolsrud. 

A Warner Bros, release. Comedy-thriller, rated PG-13. Running 

time: 99 min. Sound: Dolby A. Projection: Flat. Screening date: 

2/24/92. 

Slight as a "Saturday Night Live" skit and transparent as its title 

character, "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" is nevertheless a fairly 

enjoyable, if wholly predictable, comedic-thriller in the "Foul Play" 

or "Silver Streak" mold. The lightweight ca.st, including leads Chevy 

Cha.se and Daryl Hannah, doesn't give the film the sort of depth that 

stronger actors might supply, but they are consistently appealing and 

likable. The result is a film that's always pleasant, but never much 

tension. The visual effects (which include the disembodied li 

character inhaling from a cigarette, blowing a bubble with buhl 

gum and even vomiting) are, for the most part, effective, but thi 

too, distract from the story. The result is neither fish nor fowl, neitl 

a full-blown thriller nor a wholehearted satire of the genre; Carpen 

would do well to keep to the former, while Chase would do bet 

sticking with the latter. 

Rated PG- 1 ?i for Vmeuage.—JeffSchnager 

WAYNE'S WORLD 

Starring Mike Myers. Dana Car\'ey, Rob Lowe. Brian Do 

Murray and Lara Flynn Boyle. 

Directed hy Penelope Spheeris. Screenplay by Mike Myers, Be 

nie Turner and Terry Turner, based on characters hy Mike Mye 

Produced hy Lome Michaels. 

A Paramount Pictures release. Comedy, rated PG- 13. Runm 

time: 93 min. Sound: Dolby SR. Projection: Flat. Screening da 

2/12/92. 

Evolving yet and also deviating from those five-minute segme 

on "Saturday Night Live," "Wayne's World" is a head-on. he; 

bangin' feast of blatant ignorance. And a helluva lot of fun. 

Reprising their popular TV roles from SNL. Mike Myers (Wayi 

and his sidekick, Dana Carvey (Garth), have now made a success 

transition to film. Their delightfully obtuse characters notwithstat 

ing, "Wayne's World" clicks because of its quick, gag-filled scri 

Despite a storyline that could be termed banal, this goofy, met 

dude fantasy succeeds by its 

sheer lack of reverence—for itself 

anything else. Although predictable— in the story, our heroes' pc 

ular, baseinent-filmed public access show is bought out by smarn 

exploitation guru producer (Rob Lowe)—it's filled with an abi 

dance of Wayne and Garth-isms as the normal conflicts between 

and business ensue. Much like their monosyllabic alter-egos, E 

April, 1992 R-29

— 

— 

Wayne and Garth are big-hearted geeks, offering a brand 

-ophy more timely (and more humorous) than any fihii 

of late (Lawrence Kasdan. take note). 

ilthough the gag-riddled film rarely comprises a solid unit, 

ctor Penelope Spheeris races on. delivering wheelbarrows full 

ophoinoric humor. Highlights favored by the audience were the 

>tic 

duo's whistled rendition of the "Star Trek" theme; coining 

1. "schwing," as in "Claudia (mega-model) Schiffer is totally 

ealicious, schwing;" and the screams of "We're not worthy," as 

two are entertained by the Coop himself while backstage at 

;e Cooper concert. 

he fact that Wayne and Garth have become folk heroes in the 

25 demographic arena is. to say the least, a wacky comment on 

erican society. But history has shown that during times of 

isition. audiences look to be entertained. And this is fine, mindentertainment. 

Or maybe we all secretly want to be like Wayne 

Garth. Not! But collectively, we are laughing. Is that: at them, 

vith them? 

ated PG- 13 for minor nudity and sexual allusions. 

rence 

EDICINE MAN 

ins; '>

interest. Of course, this aspect of the plot (such as it 

— 

— 

is) only really 

seems to exist so that meddlesome mom can get funher involved in 

her little boy 

" s affairs. Like "Twins,"" also produced by Ivan Reitman, 

'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" is high concept all the way. Still 

and all, things could have turned out worse. For even though it's a 

one-joke movie, at least the filmmakers had the good sense to let Sly 

play straight-man to Getty's frequently funny mischief-maker. Be 

thankful for small favors. 

Rated PG-1 3 for language and violence. 

RADIO FLYER 

Alan Karp 

Starring Lorraine Bracco. John Heard, Elijah Wood. Joseph 

Mazzello and Adam Baldwin. 

Directed by Richard Donner. Screenplay by David Mickey Evans. 

Produced by Lauren Slmler-Donner. 

A Columbia Pictures release. Drama, rated PG- 1 3. Running time: 

I20min. Sound: Dolby A. Projection: Scope. Screening date: 3/2/92. 

"Radio Flyer" is an almost perfectly realized drama that turns sour 

right at its conclusion. It"s easy to see that screenwriter David 

Mickey Evans has his heart in two places at once, and he almost pulls 

it off. The successful mixture of fantasy and harsh reality in this tale 

of two young brothers carries the film throughout most of its two 

hours; yet just as the story ends, it takes off for fantasy land so quickly 

that it leaves any possible resolution of its dramatic effects somewhere 

in the dust. Watching "Radio Flyer" is not unlike spending 

two hours eating a superb meal only to find a fly caught in the ice 

cream you get for desert. 

Nevertheless, this story of two young brothers whose sense of the 

imaginary is heightened in an effort to escape their abusive step-father 

is easily an important film that lacks any smack of self-importance. 

It's also intelligent without forfeiting any of its sensitivity and 

good humor in being so smart. The brothers, Mike (Elijah Wood) 

and Bobby (Joseph Mazzello), conjure up all sorts of boyhood 

fantasies after they move with their mother (Lorraine Bracco) to 

Novato, California during the mid-1960s. When she then meets and 

marries a no good lug, the young brothers know that their lives will 

never be the same. Unfortunately, they're right; not too long after 

this, the beer-drinking bum begins taking out his hostility on Bobby, 

beating him silly whenever the mood strikes. 

Instead of telling their mother about the abuse going on behind 

her back (you can't help but wonder how she couldn't know), the 

{wo brothers form an even stronger bond and Mike makes a pact with 

himself to take care of his younger sibling. 

"Radio Flyer"" is a daring film, not only in its intelligence but also 

in that it 

approaches the tragedy of child abuse without collapsing 

into a movie with a message. Ultimately, it's not the film's subject 

that becomes problematic but instead the filmmakers" seeming 

forgetfulness that a story so rooted in realism can't make a sudden 

departure for fantasy without losing its believability. When the two 

brothers finally realize their dream of flight at story's end, the film 

unfortunately takes off with them into an imaginary world that can't 

hold a candle to the real one left behind. Yet in spite of this rude 

disparity in its fabric, "Radio Flyer" is a film all audiences ; 

experience. It's a rare bird that flies astray only once. 

Rated PG- 1 

EDWARD II 

3 for scenes suggesting child abuse. — Marilyr 

Slurring Steve Waddinglon. Kevin Collins. Andrew Tien] 

Lynch and Tilda Swinton. 

Directed by Derek Jarman. Screenplay by Derek Jarman, Steph 

McBride and Ken Butler. Based on the play by Christopher Mc 

.Jo 

lowe. Produced by Steve Clark-Hill and Antony Root. 

A Fine Line Features release. Drama, rated R. Running time: 

min. Screening date: 3/6/92. 

Consider "Edward 11" a moment of dementia that escaped out ir 

the air waves. Supposedly based on Christopher Marlowe's clas; 

play, this "Edward IF" will convince anyone who's read the play ir 

believing that he or she never actually did. Concocting more 

ideological statement than a film, Jarman takes the tragic Edwa 

and turns him into the leading man in an almost (and unintende 

comic review of homosexual politics in the modern world. 

It seems that Jarman"s first order of business in "Edward I 

make his characters as reprehensible as possible. There isn't a o 

who is sympathetic, much less interesting. But. then again, this 

not a film as much as a political piece on homoerotics that challeng 

its audience to pay attention. "Edward H" seems more a exercise 

daring its 

audience to look at it. 

It is the year 1307, and Edward (Steven Waddington) is crown 

King of England after his father's death. Soon after, the new ki 

summons his friend and lover. Piers Gaveston (Andrew Tieman) 

England. While Edward showers Gaveston with gifts, titles a 

devotion, he neglects both his wife. Queen Isabella (Tilda Swintoi 

and his responsibilities to the throne. Like all tragic heroes, th« 

Edward's fall from power is swift, brutal and ultimately lethal. 

Yet to discern this much of a storyline in "Edward II" is a hel 

task. Jarman does as much as he can to undercut and trivialize a 

notion of traditional narrative. Instead he plunges into the erotics 

homosexuality by attacking his audience w ith visual absurdities a 

stream of consciousness renderings of the past and present as th 

occur in both the mind of Edward and his director. 

Reeking with self-importance and suffering froin an acute (alb 

repressed) hatred of women, "Edward II" likewise challenges 

audience to stay in the theatre long enough to witness Edwarc 

tragic end. For any who do remain in their seats, this will be mt 

the result of morbid curiosity than enchantment. 

I 

Rated R for sexual situations and violence. 

Marilyn Moss 

DON'T BUY KISSES ANYMORE 

Starring Jason Alexander. Mia Peeples. Lainic Kazan. L 

Jacobi and Eileen Brennan. 

Directed by Robert Marcarelli. Screenplay by Jonnie Lindsi 

Produced by Mitchel Matovich. 

A Skouras Pictures release. Comedy-drama, rated PG. Runni 

time: 112 min. Screening dale: 2/15/92. 

April, 1992 R-31

1 

hurt 

— 

— 

Don't Buy Kisses Anymore" lakes what looks to be an oalinary 

story and makes something speeial of it. You can't get much 

e everyday than the tale of Bernie Fishbine, an overweight 

ish shoe store owner in Philadelphia who falls in love with a 

te Italian- American graduate student named Theresa (Mia Pee- 

). Yet director Robert Marcarelli and screenwriter Jonnie 

Isell manage to make a fresh start of such familiarity. They 

se their story with the kind of comedic turns and dramatic truths 

audiences can't help but gobble up. 

ernie, who's in his early 30s and lives with his neurotic mother, 

ih (Lainie Kazan), and slightly off-kilter grandfather (Lou 

)bi), is the kind of guy you see riding on the bus everyday and 

;r really notice. Neither does Theresa notice him—not at first. 

is. Yet little by little Bernie finds his way into Theresa's life; 

the more he does the more his own life changes. He meets her 

le bus stop (it's a calculated move, of course) and brings her a 

k that he guarantees will help her with her job as a collections 

k at a neighborhood furniture store. He also begins eating dinner 

he Italian restaurant owned by Theresa's uncle— principally 

ause that's where she sings and plays piano most nights. So. 

vly but surely, Bernie and Theresa become good friends. She 

s him to the gym where she works out and Bernie even manages 

led some of those extra pounds he's been carrying around. He 

stops buying those chocolate kisses he loves so much at the 

candy store (hence the film's title), 

oon enough Bernie falls in love with Theresa. She returns his 

lis gradually, but little does he know that she's also using him 

he subject of her term paper, aptly titled "The Psychological 

ly of an Obese Male." And by the time Theresa realizes that she 

s Bernie. it's too late; he's found out about her term paper and 

and angry that he never wants to see her again, 

here is little mystery to the way this love story will end. Yet what 

:es "I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore" so special is the attention 

been given to its characters. They're anything but cardboard 

entirely believable. As Bernie. Jason Alexander (a Tony winner 

idway as well as the endearing neurotic. George, on TV's 

infeld") gets his first good shot at a mass movie audience here 

he carries it 

off with pathos and humor. Bernie is the perennial 

rweight Jewish male who's got a lot to give the right woman yet 

in the movies at least, doesn't often get that chance. It's not 

rely believable that Theresa would ultimately fall for him, howr. 

and this is the film's only real drawback. The problem with 

pies—she's simply not very convincing as Theresa. To say the 

he doesn't look ordinary and for sure doesn't look very Italian, 

et "I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore " more than makes up for this 

bleni. Jason Alexander is a commanding screen presence, and 

Kazan and Lou Jacobi are hilariously delicious as Bernie's 

ily who, alone, could have carried this film. When these two team 

97and gel together with Alexander—the fun really begins, 

ated PG for warmth and humor, Marilyn Moss 

>UP 

'nulnced and directed hy Michael Apled. 

I Samuel Coldwyn Company release. Documentary, not rated, 

ming time: 127 min. Screening date: 1/30/92. 

\n old Jesuit saying, "Give me a child until he is seven and I will 

iw you the man," was the inspiration behind the series of docu- 

[ntaries that now gives us "35 Up." And between them, "7 Up," 

Plus 7," "Twenty One," "28 Up" and now "35 Up" they present 

•markable portrait of English society over the last three decades. 

the last 

28 years, the documentaries have followed a socially 

,ied group of Britons through their lives at .seven year intervals, 

d while the films ha\e had as much success refuting the Jesuit 

xim as they have affirming it, 

iscinating study of England's still 

they have unquestionably offered 

rigid class system. 

Pake Andrew and John for example, upper crust sorts who, even 

seven-year-old students at an exclusive prep school, spoke like 

mbers of the House of Lords, Now at age 35, they "re both lawyers, 

ding lives of privilege with homes in the city and weekend places 

the country, Symon and Paul, on the other hand, were both 

identsof a children's home in London in "7 Up," and by 35 neither 

has risen above his station in life: Synion has worked in the tree/er 

room of a sausage company for more than 14 years, and Paul, who 

lives in Australia, has seen his own contracting business fail and now 

works as a sub-contractor. Certainly these men are the ones wc 

expected to spring from the seven-year-olds. 

Most of the women, however, haven't turned out as expected, 

Suzy, another child of privilege, who seemed least cut out to be a 

w lie and mother (at seven, she wanted a nanny to look after her 

children; at 

21, she chain-smoked and seemed angry at men), has 

lurncd into the ideal family woman and is married to a businessman 

named Rupert, But Jackie, Lynn and Sue, all of whom seemed to 

have little ambition other than to he w i\ es and mothers, are now all 

divorced mothers. 

For anyone who saw "28 Up, " 

the most astonishing figure «us 

Neil, who at seven had wanted to be an astronaut. At 2 1 , he said he 

w anted to be someone important, perhaps a politician. At 28. he v. as 

homeless, living on .social security, and .seemed badly shaken up b\ 

life. He had dropped out of college after failing to win a place at 

Oxford, and his life seemed to have collapsed; he was shown talking 

to the camera by a Scottish lake, bobbing his head up and down and 

often making little sense. In "35 Up," his situation has improved 

somewhat: he has a place to live and is working as a performer in a 

theater on a small island. Still, he is unrecognizable as the buoyant 

would-be astronaut of "7 Up." 

Director Michael Apted (best known to American audiences for 

such films as "Gorillas in the Mist" and "Coal Miner's Daughter "i, 

who was a researcher on "7 Up" and director on all the subsequent 

films, does a masterful job of cutting together footage from the tour 

previous films with new material. Although the film feels a little 

long, and though the accents are at times difficult for American ears, 

the overall impact of "35 Up" is powerful. It's a documentary that 

anyone interested in the process of human growth and the strains of 

a class society won't want to miss. 

Not rated; suitable for all audiences, 

JcffSchwager 

FALLING FROM GRACE 

Starring John Mellencamp. Mariel Hemingway, Kay Len: and 

Claude Akins. 

Directed h\ John Mellencamp. Written b\ Larr\ McMurtn. Produced 

bx Harrx Sandler. 

A Coliiiiihui Fuiurcs rclca.w. Drama, rated PG- 13. Running time: 

lOUmiii. .Sound: Dolhy A. Projection: Flat. Screening date: 2/2.W2. 

When rock stars cross over into moviemaking, the result is usuallv 

the kind of vanity project that makes all but the most de\oted 

sycophants wince. Remember Prince's directorial debut. "Under the 

Cherry Moon"? How about Paul McCartney's bow as a writcr-si.ir, 

"Give My Regards to Broad Street"? Given precedents like those, 

one has to give John Mellencamp credit: "Falling From Grace." his 

debut as an actor-director, is far from an embarrassment. It's a 

low-key, melancholy melodrama that 

steers clear of the obvious 

(although Mellencamp plays a singer, he doesn't even singon-camera) 

and that features a few nice moments and several fine perfor 

manccs. including Mellencamp's, Maybe no one's going to mistake 

Mellencamp for Orson Welles, but then no one's going to mistake 

R-32 BOXOFFK K

— 

him for the Purple One either. 

Perhaps the smartest thing Mellencamp did with "Falling From 

Grace" was to convince his friend Larry McMurtry to write the 

screenplay. McMurtry. the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who 

wrote "The Last Picture Show" and "Terms of Endearment." has a 

knack for creating interesting characters; they're not necessarily 

likable, but they're always recognizably human. And though they 

may not always understand themselves and their own less-than-rational 

behavior, McMurtry makes a point of making sure we understand 

them. 

The central character in "Falling From Grace" is Bud Parks 

(Mellencamp), a country singer who returns to the small Indiana 

town where he was raised to celebrate his grandfather's 80th birthday. 

But once he gets there, he finds it 

career and the serenity of his 

difficult to leave; tired of his 

marriage to a pretty California girl 

(Mariel Hemingway), he settles back in at home and proceeds to stir 

up his own life and the lives of everyone around him. That's about 

it 

for plot: the relationships between Bud and his wife. Bud and his 

ex-girlfriend (Kay Lenz)—who's inarried his brother and is having 

an affair with his father—and Bud and his father (Claude Akins) 

make up the action of the film. 

Which leads to the central weakness of "Falling From Grace": the 

downside of having had McMurtry write the screenplay is his 

laconic, literary pacing. In his novels, the wit and seeming-effortlessness 

of his language compensate for the often sedate motion of 

his stories. But on film, one needs either to reign in his wayward 

impulses, as James Brooks did with "Tenr.s of Endearment," or find 

a visual style that makes up for the missing poetry of his narrative, 

as Peter Bogdanovich did with "The Last Picture Show." 

Mellencamp isn't up to either task, and as a result the film tends to 

wander away from its emotional center. 

Still, there are many fine, telling scenes, and Hemingway, Lenz 

and the rest of the cast make up a strong ensemble. Mellencamp 

acquits himself nicely as an actor, and, as a director, he shows a fine 

eye for the details of rural life. In the end, the point of the movie may 

be that you can't go home again, but Mellencamp's achievement, 

though certainly on a small scale, seems to prove otherwise. 

Rated PG-13 for language and adult situations. JeffSchwager 

an old man confined to a nursing home who blames the eniptine 

of his life on his (probably delusional) memory of being switched 

birth with his more privileged neighbor Alfred (played at varioi 

ages by Peter Bohike, Didier Ferney and Hugo Harrison). Obse 

sively in love with his long-dead sister Alice (Sandrine Blanckj 

Thomas (orToto as he called himself in his youth) simultaneous 

dreams of his own blighted past and the revenge he will one day tal 

on Alfred. 

Not much of a story perhaps, but under Van Dormael's assure 

supervision what emerges is pure magic, a delightful combinatio 

of Renoir's humanism (in the loving attention lavished on charactt 

detail) and the delirious structural complexities of middle-peric 

Fellini. Luminous scenes of nostalgia and romance abound, wit 

Thomas' darkly magical childhood and his lost romance with ih 

beautiful Evelyne (Mireille Perrier) offered up with an almost mi 

sical lightness of touch. Remarkably, "Toto the Hero" is the 34 ye; 

old Van Dormael's first feature film. In it's own way, this superbl 

acted and beautifully crafted work ranks among the very best debui 

in contemporary cinema. 

Rated PG-13 for adult sexual situations and implied violence.- 

Ru\ Greene 

TOTO LE HEROS (TOTO THE 

HERO) 

Siciniiit; Michel Bouquet. Mireille Perrier and Jo De Backer. 

Written and directed by Jaco Van Donnael. Produced by Pierre 

Drouol and Danny Ceys. 

A Triton Pictures release. Comedy-drama, rated PG- 1.1 Running 

Time: 90 min. Screening date: 2/20/92. 

Over the last decade or so, French cinema has become increasingly 

synonymous with the sort of commercial formulaics more 

usually associated with Hollywood, rather than the less conventional 

stylistics and subject matter discriminating American moviegoers 

have sought for in European films since before the mid-sixties 

heyday of Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. It's no coincidence 

that the American remake rights to recent French exports like 

the slick noir action melodrama "La Femme Nikita" or the many 

slapstick comedies of the French John Hughes and Coline ("Three 

Men and a Cradle") Seireau have been snapped up by Hollywood 

studios to be redone in English with American stars. Aside from the 

language barrier, little separates these films from equally commercial 

American mass entertainment, a fact Hollywood producers 

recognize with glee but which often elicits groans from an art house 

circuit hungry for movies that offer something more than escapism. 

Happily, Jaco Van Dormael's "Toto le Heros" ("Toto the Hero ") 

represents the kind of quirky personal filmmaking all but banished 

from the American cinema these days, and which is in increasingly 

short supply in Europe as well. Using a complex, multi-tiered 

structure that blends memory and fantasy into the 

present tense. 

"Toto" tells the blackly comedic story of Thomas (Michel Bouquet), 

A MIDNIGHT CLEAR 

.Starring Ethan Hanke. Arye Gros.s and Kevin Dillon. 

Adapted and directed by Keith Gordon, from the novel "A Mic 

night Clear" hv William Wharton. Produced bv Dale Pollock an 

William Borden. 

An Inter .Star release, rated R. Running Time: 107 min. Screenin 

dale: 1/22/92. 

If films could earn merit badges, "A Midnight Clear" would surel 

garner more than it's share. Based on the novel by William Whartoi 

it 

has a literary pedigree, a certifiably Big Theme, solid directioi 

several excellent performances, and sincerity to spare. 

But good intentions do not necessarily a good film make. Thoug 

adapter-director Keith ( "The Chocolate War" ) Gordon' s earnestnes 

is apparent in every frame, his commitment to his material fails t 

communicate more than a few fitful moments of dratnatic intensity 

Set in Europe during WWII, "A Midnight Clear" tells the story c 

a half dozen U.S. soldiers who stumble on an equal number c 

peaceable German combatants in the war's closing days. Convince 

that the Germans wish to surrender to them and fearful of thei 

ambitious commander's reaction, the squad, under the leadership c 

Sergeant Will "Won't" Knott (Ethan Hawke), devises a plan that wii 

have the added benefit of earning shell-shocked private "Mother 

Wilkins (Gary Sinise) an honorable discharge by setting him up a 

the heroic captor of the enemy soldiers. 

What with war being hell and all. the boys' brief respite from th 

business of maiming and killing takes an extremely predictabi 

tragic turn, but not before a .series of "heart warming" encounters wit 

the Germans, during which the two sides get to build snowmer 

exchange Christmas gifts, and throw snowballs at each other. A fin 

young cast does its best to divert attention from the fact that "/ 

April. 1992 

R-.V1

, ignelte 

— 

— 

— 

ighl Clear" is not so much a story as it is an episodic anuilgan 

of worthwhile sentiments, thinly dramatized— hut lo no 

th little more than shopworn humanistic cliches to fuel its 

atic engine. "A Midnight Clear" runs out of gas pretty quickls 

ilni counts on our admiration without necessarily figuring out 

o hold our interest. Ironically, the film's one offbeat elenicni— 

t's squad is comprised of all genius-level I.Q's—serves almost 

icel out the natural goodwill engendered by Gordon's heart-onleeve-humanisin. 

since Wharton and Gordon seem to imply at 

level that the waste of war is made even more tragic when its 

ns could' ve gotten into Mensa. By that reasoning, Vietnam was 

rica's only just war. since the best and brightest got to sit out 

nnflici on the strength of their college exemptions, 

d R for language, violence and sexual situations. Ray 

PAPER MASK 

Siarrinf; Amanda Donohoe and Paul McGann. 

Produced and directed by Chri.Ktopher Morahan. Screenplav by 

John Collee. 

A Castle Hill release. Thriller, rated R Riinnini; lime: /W.i min. 

Screening date: 1/8/92. 

"Paper Mask" would seem pretty implausible were it 

not for the 

headlines we've read about bogus medical practitioners such as the 

Long Island. NY. nurse who murdered his patients in an attempt to 

be seen as an "angel of mercy" rescuing them at the last minute. .Add 

this ominous thriller by British director-producer Christopher 

Morahan to the other recent releases that chill us w ith the paranoi.i 

that the experts upon whom v\e must rely may not be the lrustwortli\ 

souls we hope they are. 

E GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE 

fi rlw voici'.s ofVuuriU Frier. Bainc luiiluwi. Veil Bclliii. 

line Polkitschek. Candy Candida. Eve Brenner. Alan Yoiaii; and 

j.vrt Manchester. 

'cled by John Miisker. Ron Clement.'!. Dave Michener and 

Mattinsan. Screenplay by Eve Tilii.s and Paul Galdone. based 

novel 'Basil of Baker Street. 

Wah Disney Pictures re-release. Animation, rated G. Runnini^ 

80 min. Screening date: 2/15/92. 

re-relea,se of the 1986 animation feature, "The Great Mouse 

ctive" is 

an affable, if not ambitious, bit of entertainment that 

IS to have been created primarily for younger children and that 

> the crossover appeal of other Disney animated features, 

sely based on "Basil of Baker Street." it mirrors a Sherlock 

starring a rodcnt-si/ed Holmes and Watson emug 

their full-size counterparts. 

iheir evil nemesis is 

the awful Professor Ratigan (\oiced u ith 

ô by Vincent Price), a nasty ole rat who controls the world from 

p inches above ground. The slight 

sleuths are called into the 

ure when a famous toy maker is mousenapped by Ratigan's 

chmen and forced to create a mon.ster. 

currying through the dank netherworld of Ratigan's lair, the mice 

aw clues with Holinesian aplomb, often aided with rides by the 

Holmes' dog. Toby. Of course, the detectives prevail and 

rything is wrapped up nicely—Holmes would see to nothing less 

perfection. Unfortunately. Disney has, and "The Great Mouse 

^ 

ective" is little more than a full-length Saturday morning cartoon, 

fit with some very nice Disney-style animation. 

V'ithout crossover appeal, many of the allusions to the fictional 

Ith will be lost to the minds of yet uneducated tots. The film also 

;s the whimsy and tongue-in-cheek humor which sets good 

nation above the perfunctory. Yet "The Great Mouse Detective." 

1 its briskly paced story, resplendent with loads of cute mousies. 

ompelling enough to hold some very young attention spans. 

;ated G for kids of all ages. Mari Florence 

Paul McGann. who may be remembered for his role in "Withnail 

and I." plays a malcontent porter who seizes the opportunity to 

assume the identity of a physician who has died in a car crash. He 

audaciously gets a job as an emergency room doctor, though he 

hasn't the foggiest notion of medical procedure. 

A nurse ( Ainanda Donohoe) doesn't think this is abnormal—she's 

accustomed to medical incompetence—and she shows him the 

ropes. She also shows him a good time, and their romantic entanglement 

leads to the death of a patient. The bogus "doctor" is too driven 

by ambition to feel any remorse for the patient or for subsequentK 

murdering a former buddy who threatens to reveal his true identity. 

What's scary is that the porter can get away with his pretense and 

that we find ourselves half hoping he will. The bogus "doctor" is no 

psychotic killer with malicious intent—he's just your average bloke 

concerned, like most of us, with getting ahead. 

Christopher Morahan prescribes a good dose of black humor laced 

with romance, which makes this fast-paced film easy to watch. So 

what if he brushes over incongruity and fatuous coincidence? The 

hospital scenes seem real enough, with hospital patients receiving 

the same care as airline luggage. Yet many of the hospital procedures 

are difficult to stomach, and the realism makes this film too macabre 

for general audiences. 

Amanda Donohoe proves to be a fascinating leading lady with her 

statuesque yet sensitive persona, and she's an interesting match m 

the 

more delicate, understated acting of Paul McGann. Also, the 

supporting cast offers colorful characterizations, such as 

Barbara 

Leigh-Hunt as the "doctor's" first victim and Tom Wilkinson and 

Frederick Treves as the deceived hospital administrators. 

Rated R for nudity, sex and gore. Karen Kreps 

LOVERS 

Starring Victoria Abril. Jorge Sanzand Moribel Verdu. 

Directed by Vicente Aranda. Screenplay by Alvaro Del Amo. 

Carlos Perez Merinero and Vicente Aranda. Produced by Pedro 

Costa Miiste. 

An Aries Film release. Drama, not rated. In Spanish with English 

subtitles. Rioming time: 103 min. Screening date: 1/23/92. 

"Lovers" is a gripping drama based on a tme story of duplicii\. 

sexual obsession and murder that occurred in Spain some 40 years 

ago. Vincente Aranda directs some of the most erotic sex scenes in 

the leiiilimate cinema, but these are eventually overshadowed by a 

R-34 BoxoKH

— 

' 

brooding, tragic romance. 

Victoria Abril (most recently seen here in Almodovar's "High 

Heels") won a Golden Bear for her role as the mistress in the film's 

love triangle. Solid as her performance is. it is not her most brilliant 

nor does it make any use of her comic talent. Yet Abril does steam 

up the screen. She plays Luisa, a sophisticated grifter who easily 

corrupts a young ex-soldier who rents a room from her. She is so 

lascivious that Paco (Jorge Sanz) immediately loses interest in his 

REVIEW DIGEST 

Story type key: (Ac) Action: (Ad) Adventure: (An) Animated: ((. 

Comedy: (D) Drama: (DM) Drama with Music: (Doc) Documentai 

(F) Fantasy: (H) Horror: (M) Musical: (My) Mystery: (SI 

Science Fiction: (Sus) Suspense: (Th) Thriller: (W) Western. 

hard-working, devoted fiancee. Trini. The country maid's virginal 

kisses don't compare to Luisa's sexual sophistication. And when 

Luisa's associates rough her up over a debt, Paco schemes to kill 

II 

Trini for her hard-earned savings. 

Maribel Verdu, as the wronged sweetheart, is even more powerful 

than Abril. Incredibly innocent and sweet, she goes to battle over her 

undeserving man, summoning the courage to sacrifice her precious 

PG-13 (Par) 

5 OH «^ >< S 

> taos J z 3 

virginity in a feeble attempt to compete with her rival. 

Aranda proves to have not only a sensitive approach to melodrama, 

but also a sharp sense of humor—as demonstrated in scenes 

G(BV) 1-92 5 5 5 

with Trini's employer and when she takes Paco to the provinces to 

meet her overly affectionate old mother. 

Aside from sloppy English subtitles, the production is beautifully 

realized w ith art direction by Joseph Rosell and heart-rending music 

by Jose Nieto. 

Not rated, "Lovers" has shocking, explicit sexual activity that's 

more artful than pornographic. Karen Kreps 

THE 1st INTERNATIONAL 

FESTIVAL OF SHORT FILMS 

Produced by JeJfHamblin. Sean Reilly and Shane Peterson. 

An FoSF/Andalusian Pictures Ltd. release. Comedy-drama documenlarv, 

not rated. Running time: 103 mins. Screening date: 

1/29/92. 

Only masochists or those who never went to film school (but 

always wondered what the experience was like) will enjoy the short 

subjects compiled in "The 1 st International Festival of Short Films," 

a decidedly lackluster collection of nine mostly juvenile mini-movies 

with an average running time of approximately twelve minutes 

apiece. With two notable and deliciously weird exceptions (Dean 

Parisot's bizarre "Tom Goes to the Bar" and Don McGlashan and 

Inner Circle PGI3 (Col) 2 3 4 3 2 

Harry Sinclar's "The Lounge Bar"), these films represent approximations 

of mainstream movie shallowness without the compensating 

virtues of mainstream technical prowess—making for a tedious 

viewing experience. 

Kuffs PG-13 (U) 

Four of the nine are overdone farces, peopled by cliche characters 

in one-note situations. Wendell Moriss' "An Urban Tragedy" finds 

a domineering wife and her snivelling husband simultaneously 

trying to exterminate a cockroach and — yawn—each other. Gregor 

Nicholas' "Rushes" is a sort of cut-rate Almodovar sex comedy shot 

with the leering, wide angle lens compositions of an Alaska Airlines 

TV commercial. And both "Safari Holiday" and "Happy Birthday 

Bobby Dietz" offer unfunny, cliche-driven coming-of-age sex comedies 

constructed with the primitive simplicity of a Keystone Kops 

farce, minus the gags. 

Of the remaining five titles, the aforementioned "The Lounge 

Bar" utilizes a complex flashback-flashforward structure to create a 

palpable atmosphere of bemused mystery around three "strangers" 

who meet in a New Zealand bar, while Dean Parisot's hilarious 

ensemble piece "Tom Goes to the Bar" demonstrates the ways in 

which a disciplined short film can be driven by tone rather than by 

plot. Roger Teich and John Starr's "Stealing Altitude" deserves an 

Life is Sweet NR(Oct) 

Mambo Kings R (WE 

Medicine Man PG-13 (BV) 

2 12 2 2 

3-92 3 4 4 3 5 3 

1-92 4 4 4 3 4 4 

2-92 5 5 3 3 5 

Naked Lunch R (Fox) 

Prince of Tides R (Col) 12-91 4 5 5 

honorable mention for offering a fascinating glimpse (but alas, no 

more) of a rare breed of urban daredevil—those who risk their lives 

to parachute illegally from Los Angeles skyscrapers. 

Though Andalusian Pictures is to be commended for offering a 

much needed alternative outlet for short-subject filmmakers, in this 

instance the alternative hardly differs from the norm on any basis 

other than length. It's a novelty that wears off quickly, leaving the 

viewer hoping for better things from next year's collection. 

Unrated, but with enough violence, language and sexual explicitness 

to merit parental caution. 

Ray Greene.

June 29 - July 2, 1992 

Brussels, Belgium 

A CONVENTION 

FOR THE 

MOTION PICTURE 

THEATRE INDUSTRY 

I n t e r 11 a t i o u a I 

—SEMINARS 

—TRADE SHOW 

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AT KINEPOLIS 

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

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TEL: 212-246-6460 

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ytmmmatâmtmm 

THE NUMBERS PAGE 

Top Twenty Boxoffice Performers

€NT€RTniNM€NT DRTR, INC.'S 

consT TO consT BOXOFFICC SUMMRRV 

IZ/OP 10 NfiTIONfiL ReL€nS€S i«*sno %chq

; 

^.€GIONnLRnNKINGS 

Dallas €xchange 

C 

Wayne's World 

Luseîeno grossers ronksd by screen overogs) 

UUeetiend 

Totol % Chg Totol Boxoffics 

02/21 •02/23 Totol Through • 02/23 Ds

. Saturday 

) 

TEASERS. 

hese are films that have gone 

)to production but are not yet 

?f lor release: estimated seajns 

ol release are listed in ital- 

:s. The dates in parentheses 

idicate the issue ot BoxorncF in 

'hich the film was profiled in 

te Hollywood Report column, 

the title has changed since the 

Im went into production, the 

ifiinjl title is also listed in panlhc^cs. 

lerican Heart (D) 

ff Bridges, Edward Furlong, 

lir: Martin Bell (11/91) fall 

Buena Vista 

ddin (Anim) 

ir: lohn Musker, Ron Clemits 

("The Little Mermaid"). 

jmmer 

)se to Eden (D) 

lelanie Griffith. Dir: Sidney 

umet. (11/91) fall 

ised Away (CD) 

ob Hoskins, Blair Brown. 

!/92) winter 

ter Act (C) 

v'hoopi Goldberg, Maggie 

mith. (3/92) fall 

icago Loop (D) 

imes Spader, Theresa Russell, 

lir: Nicolas Roeg. (7/91) fall 

Columbia 

am Stol

BOXOFFICE 

JANUARY 

FEBRUARY 

MARCH 

Buena Vista 

(818)567-5030 

The Hand Thai Rocks the Cradle Thr. R 105 

Medicine Man, D. PG 13, 105 mm, Dolby A, 

Scope Sean Conncrv 2/7 

Blame II On ttie Bellbny, C, PG-13. 78 mm, 

Dolby A, Flat Dudley Moore 2728 

The Greal Mouse Deleclive. Anim, G. 80 

Columbia 

(310)280-8000 

(212)751-4400 

Under Suspicion, D, R, 100 mm, Dolby A. 

Scope Liam Neeson 2/7 (Ltd), 2^8 (Wide) 

Radio Flyer, D, R, 120 mm, Dolby A, Scope 

Dir Richard Donner 2/21 

Falling From Grace, 0, PG-13, 99 min, Dolby 

A.Rat. 

iVIGIVI-Pathe 

(310)444-1500 

Once Upon a Crime. C PG, 94 mm, Dolby A 

Rat John Candy Dir Eugene Levy 3/6 

The Cutting Edge. D. PG, 101 min, Dolby A, 

Rat 3/27 

Miramax/ 

Prestige 

(212)941-3800 

Delicatessen, C, 95 mm, Dolby A, Flat 3/29 

Mediterraneo, C, 95 mm. Mono, 1 66 3/22 

(NY), 3/27 (LA) 

American Dream, Doc, NR. 98 mm, Dolby A, 

Rat Dir: Barbara Kopple. 3/18 (NY), 3/20 (LA) 

New Line 

(212)239-8880 

(310)854-5811 

1 Eagles III Ac Louis Gossett J 

Dolby SR Flat 3;'6 

Where Angels Fear to Tread, D (Fine Line) 

Roadside Prophets, R, D (Fine Line) 

Orion 

(310)282-0550 

(212)980-1117 

1, 100 mm, Dolby SR, Flat 

f Sutherland 3/13 

jgC, PG-13. 80 min, Dolby 

Paramount 

(213)956-5000 

(212)333-4600 

Wayne'sWorld,C, PG-13, 93 r 

Flat. Dana Carvey, Mike Myers I 

Spheeris 2/14 

Samuel 

Goldwyn 

(310)552-2255 

TriStar 

(310)280-8000 

20tli Century 

Fox 

(310)277-2211 

This is My Life, C. PG-13, 105 min. Dolby f 

Flat, Julie Kavner, Samantha Mathis, Dir: No 

Ephron 2/21 (Ltd) 

Back in the U.S.S.R., D, R, 87 min Frank 

Whaley 2/7 (ltd) 

While Men Can'lJump, C, R Wesley Snipes, 

Woody Harrelson 3/27 

My Cousin Vinny, C, R, 199 mm, Dolby A. 

Rat Joe Peso 3/13 

Universal 

(818)777-1000 

(212)759-7500 

PG-13, Dolby A, Flat Sylvestor Stallone 2/21 

Warner Bros. 

(818)954-6000 

The Mamfao Kings CO, R, 101 min. Dolby A. 

Flat 2/28 (Ltdl 

Final Analysis, Thr, R, 122 min, Dolby A, Flal 

Richard Gere, Kim Basmger 2/7 

Memoirs of an Invisible Man, C, PG-13 99 

mm, Dolby A, Rat Ctievy Chase 2/28

, 

Colin 

n 

n 

BOXOFFICE Independent Feature Chart APRIL 1992 

Aries 

(212)246-0528 

Lovers, D. 3/27 

Cannon 

(213) 966-5640 

Terminal Bliss, R, 93 min. Luke 

Perry. 3/6 

Coyote Releasing 

(213) 966-3700 

The Children, D. Ben Kingsley, 

Kim Novak. 

Greycat 

(702) 737-5258 

Dingo, D. 108 min. Miles 

Friels 

Hemdale 

(213) 966-3700 

Bed and Breakfast, D, PC-13, 

96 min. Roger Moore, Talia 

Shire, Colleen Dewhurst. 3/27 

Cold Heaven, Thr, R. Theresa 

Russell, Talia Shire. Dir: 

Nicolas Roeg. 3/27. 

Highway to Hell, 94 min. R. 

Chad Lowe. 3/13. 

I R S 

(818)505-0555 

Shakes the Clown, C. 86 min. 

R. Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie 

Brown. 3/1 i 

InterStar 

(913)338-3880 

A Midnight Clear, D, R, 107 

min. Ethan Hawke, Kevin Dillon. 

Dir; Keith Cordon. 3/27 

Kino 

(212) 629-6880 

Beauty and the Beast, (reissue, 

1946), D, 90 min. Dir: lean 

Cocleau. 

The Daughters of the Dust, D, 

1 1 3 m i . 

Kit Parker Films 

(408) 649-5573 

Monty Python and the Holy 

Grail, (rciisue. 1974), C, R, 89 

The Battle of Algiers, (reissue, 

1965), D, NR, 123 min. 

Once Upon a Time in America, 

(reissue, 1984), D, R, 227 min. 

MK2 

(212) 956-7969 

Alberto Express, C, 90 min. 

leanne Moreau. 

Orion Classics 

(212)956-3800 

Raise the Red Lantern, D, 126 

min. PG. Dir: Zhang Yimou. 

3/13 

Sony Classics 

(212) 702-6695 

Howard'sEnd, D, PG, 140 min. 

Dir: James Ivory. Anthony Hopkins, 

Vanessa Redgrave 

Tara Releasing 

(415)454-5838 

My Father is Coming, D, 85 

mm, AnnieSpinkle. .V19(L.A.) 

Trimark 

(310)399-8877 

Final Approach, D, R, 100 min. 

James B. Sikking, Hector 

Elizondo. 3/13 

Triton 

(310)275-7779 

Toto the Hero, D, 90 min. 

Michel Bouquet. 

The Lunatic, C, R, 93 min. Paul 

Campbell. 

Triumph 

(212) 702-6165 

Ruby, D, 3/27. Danny Aiello, 

Sheriiyn Fenn. Dir: John Mackenzie. 

Troma 

(212) 757-4555 

Sgt. Kabuklman N.Y.P.D. 

Dead Dudes in the House, Hor. 

Wizards of the Demon Sword, 

Fan. 

Aries 

Docteur Petiot, D. Michel 

Serrault. 

Waiting, D. Deborra-Lee Furness. 

Cannon 

Fifty-Fifty, Thr. Peter Weller. 

Dir: Charles Martin Smith. 

Rescue Me. PC- 1 3 , 9 5 m i . Stephen 

Dorff. 

Castle Hill 

(212) 888-0080 

The Giant of Thunder Mountain, 

D, PG, 100 min. Richard 

Kiel, lack Flam. 4/1 7 

Othello (reissue). D. Orson 

Welles. 

Three Weeks in Jerusalem. D. 

Faye Dunaway. 

A Fine Romance. D. Dir: Gene 

Saks. 

Coyote Releasing 

Breakfast of Aliens, C. Vic Dunlop. 

The Legend of Wolf Mountain, 

Fam. Mickey Rooney, Bo Hopkins. 

4/3. 

Expanded Entertainment 

(310)473-6701 

Fourth Animation Celebration, 

G, 88 mm. 

Hemdale 

Beautiful Dreamers, D, PG-1 3, 

108 min. Rip Torn. 4/17 

I.R.S. 

Gas Food Lodging, 101 min. 

Brooke Adams,1one Skye. 

Rubin and Ed, C. Howard 

Hesseman. 

Kino 

Life on a String, Chinese, 107 

min. 

Pictures From a Revolution, 

Doc, 92 min. 

MK2 

Raspad, Russian Doc-Drama, 

103 min. 

October Films 

(818) 783-3200 

Adam's Rib, Russian C, NR, 77 

min. 4/24 

Skouras 

(213)467-3000 

Hunting, Thr. John Savage. 

Highway 61 

, 

D. Dir: Bruce Mc- 

Donald. 4/10 

Streamline 

(310)657-8559 

Neo-Tokyo, Anim, 100 min. 

Tara Releasing 

steal America, D, 82 min. 4/3 

(N.Y.), 5/22 (L.A.) 

Trimark 

The Favour, the Watch and the 

Very Big Fish, C, R, 86 min. Bob 

Hoskins, Jeff Goldblum. 4/10 

Triton 

The Hairdresser's Husband, D, 

93 min. Jean Rochefort. 

Triumph 

Brenda Starr, D, PG. Brooke 

Shields. 4/24 

Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of 

Blue, D, R. Tom Skerritt. Dir: 

Zaiman King. 4/24 

r^^ 

Aries 

Halfauine, D, 98 min. 

Cannon 

No Place to Hide, D. Kris 

Kristofferson. 

Cinevision 

(212) 947-4373 

Pepi, Luci, Bom, NR, 90 mir 

Carmen Maura. Dir; Pedro Al 

modovar. 

Greycat 

The Bachelor, D, 105 mir 

Keith Carradine. 

Ghosts of the Civil Dead, D, 9 

min. NR. Nick Cave. 

Hemdale 

Little Nemo, animated. 5/22. 

Outback, Adv. left Fahey. 5/2: 

I.R.S. 

One False Move, Thr, R. Bi 

Paxton. 

InterStar 

Split Second, R. Rutger Haue 

Kim Cattrall. 5/1 


Dirty Harry Festival (Five fej 

tures) 

The Music Man, (reissue, 1962 

Mus, G, 1 51 min. 

70mm Festival (Five features) 

Urgh! A Music War, Mus., F 

124 min. 

Roxie Releasing 

(415)431-3611 

The Good Woman of Bangkol 

D, 82 min. 

Frida Kahio: A Ribbon Aroun 

a Bomb, Doc, 67 min. 

Trimark 

The Silk Road, D, Jap. PG-1 3 

Troma 

The Good, the Bad, and th 

Subhumanoid. Brick Bronsky. 

ITIITTg 

Cannon 

Midnight Ride, Ac. Mark Harr 

ill, Michael Dudikoff, Robe. 

Mitchum.6/12 

Greycat 

Singapore Sling, D, 1 15 

B/W. NR. Dir: Nike 

Nikolaides. 


Cousin, Cousine, (reissu 

1975), C, R, 95 min. 

Color Purple, The, (reissui 

1985), D, Ft- 13, 156 mir 

Man Who Fell to Earth, Thi 

(reissue, 1976), D, R, 140i 

My Fair Lady, (reissue, 1964 

Mus, G, 170 min. 

MK2 

For Sasha, D. Fr. 6/5

1 0.000.00 

I, 

Grand 

Cleveland, 

3565 

Top 

attn 

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10 envelopes or smaller for your replies 

LP WANTED 

NAMIC GROWING CIRCUIT has opportunities 

liable for experienced multiplex managers and 

iistant managers in the southern and eastern areas 

the country. Individuals must be self starters and 

»ess ttie leadership qualities needed to thrive within 

aggressively expanding circuit. Salary commensu- 

3 with experience plus concession commission and 

lefits available. Replies held in strictest confidence. 

3ume and references to Boxoffice Response 

4698. 

NAGERS and assistant managers for multiplex 

atres in Illinois, 

fîchigan and Indiana. We offer cornpay 

and benefits 

All submissions will be held in 

ifdence Send resume, salary requirements and refnces 

to Goodrich Quality Theatres. Inc 29th 

. 

S.E Rapids. Ml 49512: attn Wm. T. 

. 

Ma nnis 

iGRESSIVE EAST COAST theatre circuit seeks 

jerienced multiplex managers and assistant man- 

lid 

Competitive pay. benefits and opportunities for 

advancement Send resume and salary history to 

THEATRES. PC Box 1499. Reading. PA 

lEATRE MANAGER-lf you can bring the WON- 

R. JOY. MYSTERY and SPLENDOR of the movies 

the public through personal leadership and the 

embly of an outstanding staff. NTC. a leader in 

libition. has an opportunity for you. A high volume 

rthern Ohio multiplex could be yours to manage, 

lase send your resume, salary requirements to: 

erations Manager, National Theatre Corp 26315 

, 

jokpark Rd , Ohio 44070. 

lEATRE MANAGERS WANTED: Growing West 

ast circuit looking for talented, self-motivated 

latre managers with potential for city and division 

liponsibility Relocation required Confidential Reond 

to Boxoffice Response Number 4697 

PATRON TRAY. Fits into cupholder armrest Cy 

Young, Inc Phone 1-800-729-2610 Call for free sample 

COMPLETE CONCESSION EQUIPMENT. Cretors 

model DI32FP popcorn machine with automatic oil 

pump, popcorn warmer, butter server, flake ice maker, 

counter, glass display case, cash register. Like new. 

Phone (505) 479-2001 New Mexico. 

FACTORY FRESH fully warrantied bulb sale Proudly 

made in US ORC XM 2000 H VC. $525 00 XM 

3000 H/VC. $650 00, We ship anywhere in the world 

Other sizes available at special prices Write, wire or 

call Cinema Equipment Inc . 

9372 N.W 13th Street. 

Miami. FL. USA. Phone (305) 594-0570. Telefax 

(305) 592-6970 

COMPLETE THEATRE EQUIPMENT: (New. Used oi 

Rebuilt) Century SA. R3. RCA 9030. 1040. 1050 Platters: 

3 and 5 Tier. Xenon Systems 1000-4000 Watt. 

Sound Systems mono and stereo, automations, ticket 

machines, curtain motors, electric rewinds, lenses, 

parts and many more items in stock COMMERCIAL 

large screen video projectors Plenty of used chairs 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND INSTALLATION 

AVAILABLE DOLBY CERTIFIED Call Bill Younger 

Cinema Equipment Inc.. 9372 N W 13 Street. Miami. 

Florida 33172 (305) 594-0570 Fax (305) 592- 

6970 

BURLAP WALL COVERING DRAPES: $2 05 per 

yard, flame retardant. Quantity discounts. Nurse & Co 

. 

Millburv Rd.. Oxford. MA 01540 (508) 832-4295 

NOW MICRO-FM stereo radio sound systems FOR 

THE HEARING IMPAIRED Meets FCC part 15 Call or 

write Audio Visual Systems, 320 St. Louis Ave.. Woonsocket. 

Rl 02895. Phone (401) 767-2080. (401) 

769-2710. Fax (401) 767-2081 

DRIVE-IN electric heaters ( over 1 50 ) . 

speakers ( over 

400), junction boxes and misc parts, all in good to 

new condition Original cost over $8,000: will sell 

ENTIRE Lot for $800, Call Fred Schoenfeld at (804) 

484-7948 

TELEPHONE ANSWERING EQUIPMENT. All major 

brands of reliable, heavy-duty tape announcers and 

digital 

announcers are available at discounted prices 

Please call Jim at Answering Machine Specialty. 

(800) 222-7773- 

WESTAR factory fresh xenon bulbs proven by field 

test, full warranty. 1000W $362. 1600W $375. 

2000W $450, 2500W $475, 3000W $547. 4000W 

$985. Volume discounts Exports welcome International 

Cinema. 6750 NE 4th Ct.. Miami. FL 33138 

Phone (305) 756-0699. Fax (305) 758-2036. 

EQUIPMENT WANTED 

OLD TUBE-TYPE equipment such as amps, speakers, 

drivers, horns, etc from Western Electric. Westrex. 

Langevin. Jensen. Altec, JBL. Tannoy, Mcintosh, Marantz, 

etc. Call Audio City at ( 8 1 8) 70 1 -5633. or write 

to Audio City. P O. Box 802. Northridge, CA 91328- 

0802 

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: We will purchase Century 

protectors or soundheads, new or old, complete or 

incomplete, for cash Also interested in XL and SH- 

1000 Call (502) 499-0050. Fax (502) 499-0052. 

Hadden Theatre Supply Co . Louis 

GOOD, WORKING PLATTER, smooth running black 

XL. Magnarc lamps that have Xenon lamp conversions 

in 

them, and Grainger Welder Power Supply conversions 

or other DC welder powered conversions for 

Xenon lamps No fancy prices, please PO Box 381. 

Council. Idaho 836 12 

WANT TO BUY good, clean, used proiection equipment 

Any Century or Simplex XL Need 50 machines 

immediately! We can come to you Call (609) 786- 

1709 or (215) ( 

THEATRE FOR SALE 

Newly remodeled, 250 seats Small, picturesque 

community one hour from Sun Valley. Idaho Includes 

2,500 sq ft 1940's decor snack bar soda fountain. 

Excellent potential Wnte: P O Box 9. Mackay, Idaho 

83251, Phone (208) 588-3083, 

THEATRES WANTED 

THEATRES WANTED in California. Arizona and other 

western states Must be open and operating, making a 

profit and have at least two years financial statements 

available. First run or sub-run Victor Sotomayor. 650 

Trestle Glen Road. Oakland CA 94610 Phone (510) 

763-9198 

THEATRES wanted for purchase by principal. West — 

Northwest — Southwest Cash purchaser Also appraisal/valuation 

for partnerships, inheritance and tax 

purposes. Call (916) 542-9454 

itt Amusement Co. of Washington is in need of a 

V good multi-plex managers who are well acquainted 

h projection & concession merchandising. If you 

luld like to live and work in the beautiful Northwest, 

nd your resume and salary history to: Sam Plitt c/o 

tt Amusement Co., P.O. Box 2339, Oak Harbor, WA 

277. 

3UIPMENT FOR SALE 

DRELCO 35mm platter system ST-200. $1500.00. 

') Cinemeccanica lamphouses (Zenith X4000). 

10000 each (283) 10" black Wagner letters. 

iSOOO 35mm 70mm film splicers $150 00 Call 

105) 751-1277 

VER 1,000 AMERICAN theatre seats, same color 

Also projectors, rectifiers, ticket malines 

Call (205) 943-1280 or (205) 968-6957. 

DR SALE— Antique Bausch & Lomb 3x4 Baloptican 

c slide projector Model C. Best offer, (717) 648- 

;74 after 2pm 

losing out all equipment. Christie H-20 / rectifier / 

Jib, Eprad 2000W lamp /rectifier /bulb Christie H- 

3 /rectifier bulb Chnstie R3-ESH. Simplex SH-1000. 

jrbons. good lens, motors, sound systems, automajn. 

speakers, new and used parts. Call (615) 684- 

746 for list 

EW 5000 HOUR 130V 1 1S14 bulbs with industrial 

jven support filament Clear and standard colors, plus 

nk. purple, fuschia Quantity OEM and distributor 

ice levels 40 AMP chase controllers. 2x2 chase 

lannel cans, sockets, belt lighting, neo-neon. dimers. 

chase lighting relays. Catalog 800-248-0076 

SPARE PARTS for Westar. Westrex. Century. Simplex. 

Kalee. Cinemeccanica. Hortson, Kinotone/ Philips, 

Prevost, B&H, Bauer Specials - ALL NEW: Sound 

slit lins .47 mil $241 00. 53 mil $172,00. Anamorphic 

lens $425,00. Bodine sync motor kits 1 or 3 phase, 

slow start kits, 50/60 cycle. Century. Westar. Simplex 

XL & Four Star. Five Star. Century molded gears, intermittent 

repairs & exchanges, dealer prices, catalog? 

and pricelists International Cinema Equipment Co This 

is the real thing PH: (305) 756-0699. FAX (305) 

758-2036 

DI.'AN computerized ticketing machines — complete 

systems up to 8 plex Reconditioned Includes boxoffice 

issuer. Movie Master drive, manager's station, 

monitor, keyboard. & printer, with warranty, while they 

last. $5750 00, Set for 50 or 60 HZ International Cinema, 

PH: (305) 756-0699. FAX (305) 758-2036 

GOOD USED SEATING - Irwin Citations from 

$25.00. American Stellars from $20 00. Massey Loungers 

$25 00. Massey rockers from $30,00. Wakefield 

rockers from $20.00. Massey Polaris from $15.00. 

American Bodiform from $12 00. Pushbacks $10 00 

We export. We buy good used seats International Cinema. 

6750 NE 4th Ct.. Miami. FL 33138. Phone (305) 

756-0699. FAX (305) 758-2036. 

NEW LENS-Super Sankor—Satisfaction guaranteed 

Call us lor a cost-plus quote MELCHER ENTER- 

PRISES 1-800-423-5020. in Wisconsin (414) 442- 

5020 

CUPHOLDER ARMREST 'state of the art' Cy Young 

cupholder. Call 1-800-729-2610 for FREE SAMPLE- 

THEATRE SEATING 

THEATRE SEATS FOR SALE: Approx 600 Haywood 

Wakefeld seats. Self risers. Extra clean. Thick 

backs with extra seat covers. $25.00 each. Call (405) 

842-0122 or (405) 948-7467. 

SEAT BACK COVERS: Most fabrics in slock. Cy 

Young, Inc Call 1-800-729-2610 to match fabric. 

550 AMERICAN SEATING CHAIRS ready for rehab 

Cy Young Industries. Inc 913-780-1776 

ON-SITE RE-UPHOLSTERY, While Theatre 

" 

Sleeps fabrics, molded cushions and "State of 

" 

Art Cy Young Cup Holder Armrest Cy Young 

Industnes. Inc 1-800-729-2610 

ALL AMERICAN SEATING" by the EXPERTS! Used 

seats of quality Various makes, American Bodiform 

and Stellars from $12 50 to $32 50 Irwins from 

$12 50 to $30 00 Heywood & Massey rockers from 

$25 00 Full rebuilding available New Hussey chairs 

from $70 00 All types theatre proiection and sound 

equipment New and used We ship and install all 

makes Try us' We sell no Junk' TANKERSLEY 

ENTERPRISES BOX 36009 DENVER. CO 80236 

Phone 303-980-8265 

CUSTOM MADE SEAT and back covers Many FR 

fabrics & vmyls to choose from. Call (617) 923-1910. 

or write: Winco. 9 Boyd St.. Watertown. MA 02172. 

(continued over) 

April. 1W2 57

P.O. 

1 

Clearing House 

THEATRES FOR LEASE 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA movie theatre for lease in 

LA suburb in Chatsworth, San Fernando Valley. 

Upper middle class area in large 12 acre shopping 

center with 840 parking spaces Now 820 seals and 

can be easily converted to tnple screens. Phone (213) 

275-5939 

THEATRE REMODELING 

FOR TWINNING THEATRES call or v»rite Friddel Construction. 

Inc , 402 Green River Drive, Montgomery. TX 

77358 (409) 588-2667 

Ad Index 

Alpro Acoustics 20 

Ashly Audio, Inc 4 

Audio Rents. Inc 22 

Automatickel 32 

Brejtfus Business Environments 22 

Cinema Supply Co., Inc 58 

Crest Sales USA 58 

Dolby Laboratories 7 

Hadden Theatre Supply Co 24 

Hurley Screen 32 

International Cinema Equipment 17 

J,K, International, Inc ; 

JBL Professional (I 

Kintek Inc ( 

LucasArts/THX/TAP i] 

Marble Co,, The 

j 

Massa Sound 

j 

National Ticket Co j. 

Phonic Ear 

Smart Theatre Systems 

Soundfold International 2 

SPECO 4 

Strong International 

Technikote Corp 4 

Ultra-Stereo Labs. Inc 

Young, Cy 17, 3' 

j 

C 

WE CAN MULTIPLEX your theatre, make it look fantastic, 

and your profits v»ill soar No one does it for less 

Muliplex Construction Corp Call (708) 293-1401 

DRIVE-IN CONSTRUCTION 

SCREEN TOWERS INTERNATIONAL New, Used, 

Transplanted, Complete Tower Service Box 399— 

Rogers, TX 76569, 1-800-642-3591 

DRIVE-IN SCREEN TOWERS Since 1945 Selby Products, 

Inc , 

659-6631 

Box 267. Richfield, Ohio 44286 (216) 

MARQUEES, SIGNS 

LEASE OR PURCHASE PLANS: Replacement Marquee 

letters shipped immediately 

BUX-MONT Electrical 

Advertising Systems, Horsham, PA, 19044 Call 

(215) 675-1040 

GET OUT 

OF THE 

00 

Open your eyes and see just how many subjects are 

covered in the new edition of the Consumer Information 

Catalog, Its free just for the asking and so are nearly 

half of the 200 federal publications described inside. 

Booklets on subjects like financial and career planning; 

eating right, exercising, and staying healthy; housing 

and child care; federal benefit programs. Just about 

everything you would need to know. Write today 

Consumer Information Center 

Department TD, Pueblo, Colorado 81009 

us General Services Adminislralion 

MARQUEE: Repossessed eight by twenty feet Will 

insert customized theatre over marquee frames. Interior 

high output lighting. Sale or lease, very reasonable 

Also. 5' X 33'6" extruded bronze aluminum interior 

lighted sign for theatre name Bux-Mont Electrical 

Advertising Leasing Phone (215) 675-1040, Fax 

(215) 675-4443, 

SERVICES 

PREVIOUSLY OWNED equipment available: National 

Cinema Supply can provide your equipment needs. We 

will also liquidate your surplus theatre and concession 

equipment We have clean Automatickel model 

MGEM-3 in stocki Contact Gene Krull, (913) 492- 

0966, National Cinema Supply. 8220 Nieman Road, 

Lenexa, KS66214 

BACKGROUND MUSIC: WHY PAY MULTIPLE 

LICENSING FEES? Theatre background music from 

PROFESSIONAL AUDIO SERVICES requires only one 

fee High quality tapes, various artists Contemporary 

and Easy Listening formats Call (912) 233-1402 

MOTION PICTURE THEATRE CONSULTANT SER- 

VICES All aspects from construction to equipment 

installation to operation Anywhere in the USA or overseas 

LUNAMAR THEATRE MANAGEMENT, INC PC 

Box 1344, Winter Park, FL 32790 Phone (407) 678- 

6049, FAX (407) 678-862 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Would you buy a computer from a ticket printer? 

NO? 

Then why buy tickets from your computer suppHer??? 

Nobodv knows tickets like we dn. No matter wliat the system. PACER. THEATRON. 

IN-TOUCH. AUTOMATICKET. CATS, or DI-AN, we can supply the tickets that will 

work for you. 

DISCOUNT COUPON BOOKS. ROLL TICKETS of all sizes and AUTOMATICKET 

equipment also available. 

ELIMINATE THE MIDDLE MAN! GO DIRECT TO NATIONAL TICKET COMPANY 

National 

PO BOX 547, TICKET AVENUE, SHAMOKIN. PA 1 7872 

PHONE (717)648-6803 

TOLL FREE FAX: 1 800-326 9320 


CREST SALES USA—MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT 

Complete Sales — Service 

AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR FOR MANY MANUFACTURERS 

Ed Cernosek 

1900 South Central Expressway frfAl 

Dallas, TX 75215 

LlTiJ 

Response No, 47 

Roy Lisenbe 

214-565-7894 

WANTED: MOVIE POSTERS, lobbies, stills, etc. Will 

buy any sized collection. The Paper Chase, 4073 La 

Vista Road, Tucker. GA 30084, Phone 1-800-433- 

0025 

WANT to buy movie posters, lobbies, Bruce Webster. 

426 N,W, 20th. Oklahoma City, OK. 73103, (405) 

524-6251 

1200+ POSTERS FOR SALE! Covering 1983-1991 

Many excellent condition, rest in good Many banners, 

lew standees available Selling m bulk to highest bidder 

Call (319) 556-3199 Monday. Tuesday after 

6 00 pm CST 

complete line of . . . 

Concession, Snack Bar and Janitorial Supplies 

plus Projection and theatre equipment also parts 

For The Best In Service. . .Give Us a Call 

CIXKMA Sl'PPI.V (X)MFAXV. INC. 

P.O. BOX 148, MILLhRSBURG, PA. 17061 

TELEPHONE; (717) 692-4744 


58 BOXOKKUK

Vlake A Sound Investment 

The DLS6 Digital LaserSound' System installs quickly. No additional equipment needed. 

Totally Uncompressed. 

Totally Reliable. 

Totally CD Quality. 

A SMPTE time codefrom thefilm print 

automatically synchronizes the digital 

audio sound with the film's image. The 

DLS6 encoded print also contains the 

log track, which means a 

single print inventory is all that is 

required. 

Totally awesome. Digital audio sound for the motion picture 

industry finally arrives in a dependable package featuring six 

standard channels of 16 bit-44.1 Khz sound. No more compromises. 

No more failures. 

This is a system that works. The DLS6 system is immune to 

the many hazards of a film-based system because the sound 

is taken from the motion picture pnnt (where it is most 

susceptible to damage and distortion) and encoded on one 

side of a 12" laser disc with up to 3 hours capacity. 

Totally Affordable. Compare the DLS6 System with 

others. Ours is simple. ..compatible with ALL SVA processors. 

Less complicated. Less expensive. And that is 

music to everyone's ears. 

: 1992 - Cinema I 1992 strong International, 

Response No 51

For superior matching 

| 

, 

i 

This Season's Hottest Sequel. 

Cinema Sound. 

Every sequel has a successful 

predecessor, andJBL Cinema 

Sound Systems are no exceptK 

For years, they have been 

a box office smash, and our 

newest loudspeaker systems 

are destined to get two thumb: 

up from the toughest critics of all... 

the movie going public. 

i 

| 

Behind The Scml 

^ 

various screen sizes an! 

exhibition areas, JBL 

Cinema Sound System; 

provide a choice of sin 

or dual direct radiator 1 

frequency designs. Wit 

premiere components 

our patented titanium 

diaphragm compressio 

drivers. Vented Gap 

Cooling (VGC) lowfrequen 

loudspeakers and exclusi\e 

Bi-Radiar horns, your toughi 

system requirements can easily be met. 

Plus, to help you save time and money, we've significantly 

reduced installation costs by partially pre-assembling the syste: 

Behind the Scene. 

As good as any cinema loudspeaker might be, you can't stand 

behind the product if the manufacturer won't stand behind 

you 100%. That's why specifying JBL Cinema Sound Systems 

marks the beginning of a true long-term parmership. You're 

never without immediate and complete technical support. Anc 

the inventory you need to make your biggest order happen 

in the shortest possible time is in the warehouse and ready to 

ship. Today 

Like you, we know that "cinema sound magic" is really the res 

of very hard work. That's why we put so much effort into mak 

JBL Cinema Sound Systems the number one sequel of the seas 

JBL Professional 

8500 Balboa Boulevard, Northridge, CA 91329 

H A Harman International Company

Boxoffice-April.1992

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