£2,000,000 PLANT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 538, 15 December 1928, Page 6 (Supplement)

£2,000,000 PLANT

VAST STUDIO FOR FOX MOVIETONE COMPLETEITIN 90 DAYS Astoundingly and unb«li eV ablv_ like a mirage in the rose from the cactus-grownw..!'’* land of Fox Hills, Los A?n.T 51e ' less than 90 days, a J n modern walled fa.rvlanS .il y Fox-Movietone City. d ~ the 'TUIIS colossal undertaking, senting an invcsunent of jj ■> , wiU bo the future home of Fox-Mov?.' tone productions. The Idea Md e ' for this stupendous task were c££ S ceived and executed by William i? n ” president of the Fox Film CorpimJion “A miracle city,” they are in Los Angeles—those who have it growing day by day and night h" night Others, better tmoruu-d * <£' tlare the enterprise, unparalleled in motion picture history, i s a nonir. tation of the faith and couraje fc»uui and v ljsioa of one man Willing FOX. To him the called cuy dream come true. y 1S & For more than three years this m Justification of motion pictures S sound, spent money prodigiouslv i„ financing Movietone research work ill experimentation—perfecting details £ successful has this undertaking lie is enabled to giv© to Uie wotld to day this truly marvellous new iv" Movietone City—a permanent hom' tor the making of Fox talking pictS“s —a city unique among the production centres of the world. action A MIRACLE CITY Statistics become romance when an plied to this dream come true Th" city itself covers forty acres’ lying across the southern end of the Hills studio, ten miles west of Hornwood. The valuation of the laid u iliiou 000. The great 14ft wal? fur round in g the city and the -5 building within are valued at £600.000, and the electrical equipment is estimated *7 £BOO.OOO. Total, £2.000.000. 1 On July 28 of this year the site of the.future home of Movietone was iust California acreage covered with car tus and sunburned grass. Exactly 90 days later—the miracle. The group of 25 buildings is de signed to endure to the end of time They were constructed of imperishable concrete. Four of them are 212 feet long by 165 feet wide. The walls are 4o feet in height. In each of the four buildings are two sound-proof stage* making eight in all, each with its own equipment, apparatus rooms, test laboratories and projection rooms. WORLD’S LARGEST ORGAN On the second floor of Stage One is the largest Wurlitzer organ ever constructed. It was built especially for Fox Movietone. Its equipment includes every appliance and effect that can possibly be used in the making of sound pictures. And it has its own special pump room. The administration building is a structure 210 feet long by 60 feet wide, and is topped by a decorative tower 75 feet in height, destined to be another colourful landmark silhouetted against the southland sky. MAKES OWN WEATHER It is not the slightest exaggeration to say the Fox-Movietone air-con-ditioning plant will manufacture its own weather. Its equipment ensures ideal weather conditions on any stage at any time, irrespective of outside weather. It also provides for any desired amount of humidity—a vital factor in air-conditioning. No matter how few, or how many, powerful incandescent lights are being used on a stage—no matter how many people are crowded into a given space —the air conditions will be ideal. At the extreme back portion of the walled city, outside the square of stages, are two 100-foot towers. One is the cooling tower for the air-con-ditioning system, and the other is the gravity tower, the baso of the automatic sprinkler system which prevails. Many laller buildings are located without the realm of the square. They are strung along the southern and western borders of the city, each serving its specific purpose. There is a recital hall fully equipped for auditions; a test laboratory, fitted with the finest of modern equipment and a building for the film cutters in which they will work under ideal conditions HUGE POWER PLANT The huge generators which supply electric power to the entire city are housed in a building 75 by 40 feet, where all other electric equipment, including battery storage, will be kept. The enormous transformers are in a building by themselves. Then there is a master projection room, a wardrobe building and one for the properties that measure 125 feet by 35 feet. The dressing rooms are located in a two-storey building 216 feet long and 50 feet deep. The garage is 100 feet by 40 feet. The carpenter shop, paint shop and lumber yard are in one large building, equipped with a construction platform. A musical library building, a film storage vault jn which 2,000,000 feet of film may be kept safely, and a fullyequipped hospital with physician and surgeon in attendance, are all a part of this Movietone city. Other buildings are the studio homes of the studio police and fire departments. Every drive-way and every walk is of concrete. One might say U *} ot only walled, but a paved city, and for this paving alone, including surface drainage, made necessary by the work, the Fox Film Corporation paid £50,000. MANY ArtTiSTIC TOUCHES All of this concrete, however, does not mean there are no flowers and foliage. Ample provision has been made for ever-blooming gardens, flowering shrubs, stately palms aiid restful greenswards. In fact, Movietone city is already a floral beauty spot. Tlow was all this accomplished in 90 days? More ronince. A “City or Bound.” Men at work —300 of them sometimes 350—t0 a shift, working day and night. There was not a minutes cessation of work—Sundays, holidays work. To avoid the slightest delay, shifts over-lapped by half an hour. Swarming like bees over the ground, below the surface, on the high walls i s lofty towers, came the men. One shift on the job at seven in the morning another at three in the afternoon, and another at eleven at night. The home-going shifts quit at seven-thirty, three-thirty and eleven -thirty. TUAL MOTION A carpenter, for instance, knocking off work, did not drop his hammer. lie handed it to the man at his shoulder, who finished driving the nail. An electrician took his pliers off a length o wire only when the pliers of his reliei ** lamped upon it. A truck driver sill ped out of the driver’s seat an dropped off the truck on the opposi sich to let another man take 1 wheel. Not a lost 'second. MIGHT GIRDLE WORLD In addition to this, the electrical stallations have used miles and - of conduit, cables and wire; en ? u ;Lo perhaps, to stretch nearly around 1 world. This, then, is the Fox-Movietone City, built by Fox Film Corporation to l * nish entertainment. happiness a pleasure to Uie entire world in . languages—binding the peopled J civilisation in a closer communion thought —a city dedicated to the and woman, the girl and boy of * nations.