Chapter 5
"LET'S SHOW A MOVIE"
If I had to pick a favorite place in the Bradley it would have to have been the projection booth. After all, that's where the magic was made.
In its day the Bradley had the finest sound and projection systems in town. For the presentation of "The Robe" stereo amplifiers had been installed along with stereo sound readers to pick up the soundtrack which ran separate from the film. The old sound readers were still in place when we started our restoration project but were no longer operational. The old tube type RCA amps had stood dark and cold for almost six years until I turned on the breakers and flipped on the power switch. I wasn't sure what to expect as the amplifier came to life. There was a humming sound as two large vacuum tubes began to illuminate with an erie blue glow. From behind their grill in the equipment rack they looked like the eyes of some caged dark beast just waiting for me to make one false move. Next the exciter lamps in the projector's soundheads came to light. Indicator lamps lit up and meter needles swung into position and a slight hiss came from the speaker. I felt like Doctor Frankenstein as he was attempting to bring his monster to life as I made my way to the number two projector. I placed my finger between the exciter lamp and the photocell to interrupt the light beam. I listened for a thump from the speaker as the beam was broken but heard nothing. Several times I wiggled my finger through the light beam but there was no sound to be heard.
For several days I worked with the sound but I could not get it working. I could connect my turntable to the amp and play music but I could get nothing from the projectors. We had advertised that we would be showing "Singing in the Rain" on April 30th and with that date less than two weeks away the sound problem was really beginning to worry me. I could call a sound engineer from Atlanta but that would cost a lot of money. I was sure I would figure something out.
On the 22nd I was working in the theater when John Suhr dropped by.
"Well John", I said, "The popcorn machine works, the projectors work, I've fixed the hole in the screen, and the amps work but I can't get any sound from the projectors."
"Why not just run 16mm films?"
 "You can't get enough light on the screen and when you blow that itty bitty frame up 20 feet tall the picture is too grainy. Besides, I've already ordered "Singing in the Rain" and it's 35MM."
"Why don't you get John Smallshaf to borrow a xenon 16mm from the collage?"
"John dropped out. He said he doesn't want to be involved anymore. He's letting us make payments on the projectors until we pay for them," I explained. "But you know, the library has a couple of xenon lamp projectors."
"Why don't we give it a try?" John suggested. "How about an Abbott and Costello movie? I could make up an ad for the paper and let's see how many people show."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Why don't we try to get Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," I said remembering my experience in the booth.
We borrowed two the two projectors from the library and set them up in the booth. For 16mm they put a nice bright light on the screen and the picture didn't look bad. John designed a nice ad and even had it blown up poster size for the 1-sheet case at the front of the theater.
Two days later, on the 24th, we ran a 7:20 and 9:20 show. The popcorn machine worked well and we had a good turn out. By the end of the night we had made $475.00, almost enough to pay our electric bill. I was very pleased by how smoothly everything had run and was very encouraged by the turn out. Angie and my mother ran the concession while I ran the projectors and other volunteers sold tickets and attended to other duties. ( The Bradley never made enough money to pay salaries but many people gave up evenings and weekends to help breathe life back into this grand old lady. I am forever in their debt.)
When the print of "Singing in the Rain" arrived I still had no sound on the 35MM projectors. I had finally come to the conclusion that it was useless to continue trying. I made a trip to Radio Shack where I purchased two photo transistors for 89 cents each. I pulled the photo tubes from the sound heads and looked for a way to mount the transistors. The hole left by the tube was much larger than the transistor so I looked for something to hold it in place. In my plumbing kit I found a faucet washer that the transistor fit in snugly. Then the washer with the transistor fit perfectly in the phototube hole like it had been made for it. I soldered a cable to the leads and plugged the whole affair into Tom Chadwick's mixer amp. Again I turned on the exciter lamps and flipped my finger through the light beam. Thump, thump, thump, came a sound from behind the screen each time my finger broke the beam. For less than two dollars I had sound. I grabbed reel one of the movie and threaded it into the projector, struck the arc, and rolled the film. Suddenly the screen was filled with life and the auditorium filled with music. Everything had come together with only two days to spare. It was my dream come true.
Friday the 30th we popped the warmer full of popcorn. RC Cola had loaned me a pre-mix fountain dispenser and I had bought a dozen tanks of soft drinks. The candy counter had been filled to capacity and we were ready for the crowd. If Abbott and Costello had done so well, Gene Kelley ought to pack 'em in the isles I thought. We opened the doors at 7:00 but there was no one at the box office. By 7:30 only 35 people had shown up. 35 people for a 1330 seat auditorium. I was undaunted. I was sure Saturday night would bring out the big crowd. Saturday saw 13 people who spent $9.00 in the concession. Angie suggested that maybe we had better stick to stage shows. That only served to make me angry.
"People love these old movies. They'll come, you'll see," I shot back. "We've got a Humphrey Bogart movie next week. Bogie always packs 'em in."
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The evening of May 7th had arrived and we were all abuzz about the Dave Gardener recording concert. John Suhr spent the afternoon setting up recording equipment while I popped corn. Before Brother Dave came on we were going to have a talent show and the stage was filled with people rehearsing their acts. Again I was disappointed that there were less than a hundred people in attendance. The talent show went as well as could be expected with a lady doing a comedy monolog winning first place. After the talent portion Brother Dave strolled onto the stage in grand style. He launched into one of his comic routines, performed a drum solo, and promptly walked off the stage. |
"Come back Dave!" came shouts from the audience.
"Oh no. Don't do this to us Dave," I mumbled to myself as I raced from the balcony where I had been watching the show.
When I reached the lobby I was immediately surrounded by angry patrons.
"Is that all we get for five bucks?" said one man.
"If you'll excuse me I'll try and find out what happened," I said.
"I want my money back!" shouted another man.
"You can have your money back if you want it but please let me through so I can find out what's going on," I pleaded.
Before I could get to the stage Ed Joiner had whisked Brother Dave from the theater and they had driven away. John said that Dave had felt sick and couldn't go on.
"Well why didn't someone make an announcement to the audience? I've got a lobby full of people wanting their money back, money we need to pay the rent," I scolded.
I was angry. Not with John but with Ed Joiner. Because of him I did have to give a few refunds but most people were understanding and told me to keep the money.
The next morning I heard that Ed, Dave, and several others were seen at a local steak house after they left the theater. I don't know if Brother Dave ever performed anywhere after his Bradley performance. I never heard of any. He died some months later so it's quite possible that the Bradley fiasco was his swan song.
 The movies would pack them in, I was sure. May 7th & 8th we ran "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" to an audience of 35 people. We tried a Sunday show with "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and sold 39 tickets. The Marx Brothers' "Day at the Races" saw 38 patrons. "Doctor Zhivago" packed them in with 47 admissions and "The Sea Hawk" saw a record 57 patrons. Things were not looking good. We were not even making back the cost of the film rental. There was another problem too. It was now summer and the first air conditioned building in Columbus had no air conditioning.
I worked the night shift at Columbus Photo. I would leave work just as the eastern sky was beginning to get light and head for the theater. At the theater I would open all of the exit doors downstairs and in the balcony. I would then go the basement where I would turn on the huge air conditioning blower fan and open a vent that would draw air from outside. All of this was to draw in some of the cool morning air. It was the only way to cool the building. Just as the sun peeked over the horizon I would close the doors and turn off the fan and hope the building would still be cool in the evening.
Even though we had no air conditioning the power bills were almost as much as the rent. When I asked the power company why our bill was so high they said that it was because we had a potential meter. We were being charged for the power we could potentially use. After hearing that I wondered if I could charge my potential customers. Between the power bill and the rent we were going broke fast.
On May the 28th WVOC sponsored another live remote from the theater. WPNX and WDAK radio stations pitched in and we raised about fourteen hundred dollars.
In June I thought that it was about time we had a grand opening. Our grand opening feature would be "Casablanca". We set about promoting the film in grand style. The newspaper donated a quarter page ad and we encouraged everyone to come dressed in their best Bogie costume. There would be ceremonies on the stage and there would be a ribbon cutting at the entrance by the mayor and special guest.
Since the operation of the Bradley was being done as a fund raiser to raise funds to buy the building, we had operated under a fund-raising permit issued by the police department. On June 18th I was busily cleaning the concession, where our permit was displayed, and getting it ready for the evenings festivities when Doyle Wright approached the counter. Doyle had been my supervisor at WRBL Radio and was also my neighbor. I was delighted to see him.
"Doyle, I'm glad you stopped by," I said shaking his hand.
"I'm afraid this isn't a personal visit," he returned. You know I work with the business license department and I can't let you open up tonight without a business license."
I suddenly felt betrayed and worst of all betrayed by a friend.
"What do you mean?" I asked pointing to the permit on the wall. "I've got permission from the police department."
"You can't use that any more. You see, you advertised this as a grand opening and that changes everything."
"How much for a license?" I asked.
"It'll be around $400.00."
"Four hundred dollars!" I shouted. "We don't have four hundred dollars. And what time does the business license office close?"
"Thirty minutes," said Doyle looking at his watch.
"In other words, I've got thirty minutes to come up with four hundred dollars and make it to the business license office," I grumbled.
"I'm sorry," Doyle said. "I wish this had come to my attention earlier but we can't let you open without a license. I hope you understand this is nothing personal."
I told Doyle that I understood and he left. I wondered how this had just come to his attention. After all, we had only been advertising our grand opening for a month. I immediately got Mayor Jackson on the phone. He was also to be part of the program that night. I told him that we didn't have the money or the time to come and fill out all of the paperwork necessary to get a license by 5:00. I also reminded him that the news media would be there and they would wonder why we had been shut down. He asked if we would be able to purchase the license first thing Monday morning. I said that we would and he said to go ahead as planned.
In preparation for the grand opening I had been shooting movies of many of our fund raising events. I had an old 35MM news reel camera and four 100 foot rolls of slide film. I had shot and processed the first 300 feet of our efforts and was saving the last roll for the grand opening. That evening I loaded the last roll and began shooting the evenings events. After the roll was exhausted one of our volunteers ran it to Columbus Photo where my supervisor was waiting ready to process it.
The doorman was supposed to hold the crowd in front of the theater for the ribbon cutting ceremony but by the time I finished with the film camera everyone was already inside. I moved the ceremony to the stage where we cut a piece of film in place of a ribbon. After a few remarks the lights dimmed and the Warner Brothers logo flashed onto the screen. As the film ran I checked with the cashier and found that we had sold 151 tickets and received 33 passes. That was a new record for us.
As the projectionist I had hired for the evening changed over to the last reel I began to get a bit nervous. The last roll of film had not come back from the lab. After waiting at the box office for a few minutes the volunteer arrived with the film. I ran to the booth in time to see Bogart shoot lieutenant Strausser. I was splicing the last roll of film to the other three as Claude Raines told his men to round up the usual suspects. As Bogart told Lauren Bacall "We'll always have Paris" we ran the film to the idle projector. As Rick and Louie walk into the mist I raced across the balcony and down stairs. The audience was applauding the screen as I made my way to the stage. Everyone sat quietly as I thanked them for their support of the Bradley Theater. I told them that a lot of hard work had gone into making the theater work. With that the lights once again dimmed and our film rolled. First was a shot of the first WVOC remote from the median in front of the theater. There were shots of the news conference and the cleanup. There was a scene from the first Brother Dave concert. Then came scenes of the ticket booth and the lobby shot only 90 minutes before. In less than four minutes the film was over. There was a round of applause and everyone left.
With our new business license we were prepared to show an Elvis Presley double feature. I figured "Jail House Rock" and "That's the Way It Is" would bring 'um running. After a three day run and 64 admissions later, I had figured wrong. July 2nd & 3rd saw 41 people attend "To Have And Have Not". Surely the wide screen epic "Ben Hur" would bring out the religious crowd. It did, all 53 of them.
 Angie was about ready to throw me and the Bradley out the window. She tried to reason with me but what good is reason to a dreamer. She tried to show me that we had made money on our live entertainment and we were losing money on the films. I wouldn't hear of it. She pointed out that we were losing money in the concession by only charging 50 cents for all items. All my life I had heard that a theater makes its money from the concession because most of the box office goes to the distributor. How well I knew how much money was going to the distributor but I wasn't to be shaken. My mind was made up. My concession prices would be the same as they were years ago.
"Can you live on the same salary they made in 1940?" she asked.
"That's not the point," I snapped. "I want to see this theater operating the way it did years ago."
I was on a sinking ship and everyone could see it going down but me. ("Perhaps it is madness....".)
I knew that "Gone With The Wind" would be my key to success. That would bring the crowds back downtown. The film would run July 23rd through the 25th. WVOC was running ads on the hour and we had taken out a large ad in the paper. We advertised anyone coming to the theater in costume would be admitted free and there would also be a costume contest during the intermission.
Friday evening arrived and I had popped a small amount of corn. I was no longer popping an entire bin full. I had bought four tanks of RC Cola and a tank of root beer. I thought that would be enough to get us through the weekend. When I looked to the box office from the concession I saw that a line had formed. A few minutes later it was 7:00 and time to open up. Within a couple of minutes there were about fifty people at the concession. The popcorn sold out almost at once. Before we could get the kettle heated up again the first tank of RC ran out. By 7:15 we had gone through two tanks of RC and were on the third. By showtime the fourth tank was draining low and corn was being sold as fast as it was being popped and people were still pouring through the doors.
We were only a few minutes into the first reel when the call came that we were out of RC and the other flavors were running low. We had also popped almost an entire 50 pound bag of popcorn. Angie had already gone to the grocery store and bought a dozen two liter bottles of RC and several more bags of ice. I made the next trip where I bought all the RC the store had and several 2 pound bags of popcorn. We were now ready for intermission.
Halfway through the film Scarlett vows that she will "never be hungry again." The score swells and the picture fades to black. As the auditorium lights rose, I made my way to the stage. I took the microphone and asked for those in costume to come to the stage. Two girls in hoopskirts made their way awkwardly onto the narrow apron and stood in front of the curtain. Then a young black girl, barefoot and wearing an old fashioned dress with her head wrapped in a scarf, took her place next to the other girls. Each in turn I asked each girl her name and asked her where she went to school. Then I came to Marie, the black girl.
"And what's your name?" I asked.
"My name is Marie James and Mr. John, I don't know Nuthin' 'bout birthin' babies," she said in her best Prissy accent.
The audience went wild! Everyone in the theater came to their feet in wild applause. The ovation lasted a good two minutes and was so enthusiastic that people came in from the lobby to see what was going on. When the audience regained its composure it was time for the judging. I had the girls turn and face the curtain. As I walked past the girls I would raise my hand and the volume of the applause would determine the winner. I stepped behind the first girl and she received a nice round of applause and it was the same with the second. Lastly I stepped behind Marie and again the audience went wild. Marie won the $25.00 first prize.
GWTW had actually made enough money to pay another month's rent. I was very encouraged. I was sure that all of the people that had seen the Bradley would be back. It was just a matter of getting them off top-dead-center. I was sure that "Key Largo" would bring in the next crowd. After all, there was a popular song on the radio based on the movie. The next Friday I was ready for the crowds of people, all 35 of them.
During the last show I dashed from the booth to the mezzanine to get a sip of water. To my surprise no water came from the fountain. I went into the men's room and tried a faucet on the sink. Still no water. I dashed back to the balcony and wondered why the water was off when I noticed the picture flickering on the screen. I ran into the booth where I heard the arc lamp squealing. I checked the lamp cooling waterline and found no water coming from it either. Something was very wrong. The lamps had to have water to cool the jaws that held the carbons in place. The jaws held silver contacts which supplied power to the carbons and without water the contacts had melted. The contacts were now welding themselves to the carbons. I grabbed the manual carbon feed knob and turned it as hard as I could breaking the carbons free of the melting silver. As I attempted to steady the light and keep the picture on the screen, a volunteer dashed into the booth and shouted that there was a flood in the parking lot. I ran onto the fire escape and discovered that the Bradley's water main had burst spilling thousands of gallons of water into the street.
Fortunately for the few customers this happened during the last reel and the film and the picture went on uninterrupted. Unfortunately, the contacts in the lamps were ruined. Replacements had not been manufactured in years and were no longer available. Although I was able to make some repairs to the contacts, they never worked properly again.
The next day we broke up the concrete over the pipe and found a six inch long split in the line. The old pipe was so corroded that a patch was not possible. The only choice was to replace the entire line from the street to the theater. That would mean breaking through over eighty feet of four inch concrete. I went and rented the tools we would need and that afternoon, in the hot August sun, we began to break up concrete.
By Friday afternoon on the 13th the water works had sent a truck to connect our new pipe to the water meter. It had been a week of the hardest work I had ever done. They had ran into several problems and it was almost opening time before the water was turned on. When the main valve was finally opened there was a roar in the pipes as the new line brought in a greater pressure than the pipes had held in years. Leaks sprung up in the concession and in the restrooms. So much water spilled onto the men's room floor that a chunk of plaster fell from the balcony ceiling onto the seats below.
The feature was "The Ten Commandments" and during each reel, I would run downstairs where I had about 18 minutes at a time to work on a problem. One by one I stopped the leaks and had most of the plumbing working by the end of the show. In hind site I probably should have cancelled the show and turned away the 12 customers.
We ran "The Ten Commandments" for seven days to see how a week long run would do. One week and 71 customers later even I was beginning to lose faith. I wondered why people were not coming to the Bradley. We, along with the Springer, were offering the finest entertainment in town so what was the problem? I put this question to as many people as I could each day. The biggest reason seemed to be that people were afraid to come downtown after dark. I didn't understand that way of thinking. I had never had a problem downtown. My brother in law had his car broken into twice at a shopping mall. My sister had her purse snatched by someone driving past her in a car as she walked from the mall to her car. She attempted to hold onto her purse and was dragged across the lot. She only let go when a passenger in the car shouted to the driver to "run her over". Though the crime had moved to the suburbs, it was downtown that many people feared.
During this time WRBL-TV ran the 3-D movie "Gorilla At Large". They ran a big campaign with several stores who provided 3-D glasses. Unfortunately, television doesn't lend itself very well to the 3-D process and a lot of people were disappointed. However, it gave me an idea. After a four day showing of "The Sound of Music" to a total of 68 patrons, I booked a 3-D double feature. For August 26th through the 28th we ran the "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "It Came From Outer Space". My ad read, "Disappointed with TV 3-D? Then bring your 3-D glasses to the Bradley theater this weekend." By the time the weekend was over we had sold 219 adult tickets, 82 children's tickets, and received 30 passes for a total of 331 patrons. Another record crowd.
We also tried a few daytime kiddie shows. I had contacted Show Biz Pizza and asked for their help with these shows. Ed Skoda was the public relations director and he brought a costumed character to pass out gifts to the kids. Ed liked the theater project and wanted to help. He offered to host a "Save the Bradley" carnival in front of the pizza restaurant. I was pleased and gave him my ok to hold the event.
Chapter 6 BURT REYNOLDS: "HELP SAVE THE BRADLEY" by John Gilbert, Columbus, Ga.
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John Gilbert > Save The Bradley 5