Evening star., 1952-03-11

Of thousands who will have to ws
Everybody, it seems, is makir
musical and the historic reopen
July 81. 1948, on the segregation
issue. Griffith Stadium might
handle the crowd which has de-
signs on first-night seats. The
National Theater will not, and
thereby hangs the threat of al
great communicative headache.
AS Of this March II, the theater
Is not in business. which Is to say.
organized for business.
It will not be ready for business
for several weeks. The one posi-
tive date on its calendar Is that
the box Office will open for busi-
ness on the morning Of April 81,
three weeks in advance of the
first attraction.
The mail order date?
It has not been set, and this is
a considerable worry to the man.
agement which is not prepared to
deal with mail-order ticket de-
mand. It's most eloquent bit Of
advice to- potential customers is
ito watch the newspapers for the
advertisements which will an
nounce this date in advance"
For what 1t Is worth, the con-
vention Of the theater is that mail
orders usually are received two
weeks prior to the opening of the
box-ottlce sale, which would putt
the date in the Nationals case
around April z.
The National MANAGEMENT is
not putting it there, however. It
will not even specify April z as a
target date. It could be, but the
management is wary. There is
an overwhelming volume of detail
still to be handled and it does not
want to invite another dilemma
before it disposes of existing ones.
y \ X \ i
The actual conversion, or re-
conversion, Of the theater to a
legitimate house, operating on
non-segregation policy under the
new lessees, Richard Aldrich and
Richard Myers. is not much of a
problem.
At the time it was opened as a
motion-picture theater in the I
fall OF 1948, it was announced t
that the change back to legitimate
attractions could be made within 1
"a hours. This, Of course, re- l.
ferred to the physical plant, K
which was in no way changed so
far as stage and dressing room ,
facilities were concerned. h
The alterations which were :
made apply to the front Of the /,
house, the installation of a COM :
plete air cooling system, complete :
redecoration Of the lobbieS, rede- :
sign Of the entrance, and the in ;
stallation of flreproof projection ,
booth.
In appearance, it will be a I.
quite different theater. ,
The redesign Of the front of the .
house was not aimed at turning .
1t into movie palace. It was in
tended rather to dress up, with :
carpeting, murals and new color
schemes, an area whose stark
simplicity was deemed too stark
for the new competitive function.
After more than three years, 6
there is a need for renovation of |
the theater which will be made
complete before the opening S
Ironically. there will be small need 4
for much more than this. The Il
normal wear anticipated failed to {
materialize. in that, except for a {
couple of films, RED Shoes" and I
Devil in the Flesh" the Ma
tional never attracted moviegoers {
in a number that might fray its
new decorations. II
X II y X IL
A glance at the front of the {
house today intimates the change {
in policy which will begin to be
official with the formal signing ,
Of the Aldrich and Myers lease !
next Friday. -. ,
Gone already are the posters :
which advertised the Nationals ,
current film attraction usually al I,
re-release or a second or third I
run motion picture. The house Is I
officially dark" and will remain
so until "Call Me Madam" Elk
street in front Of the theater has {
gone back to its old quiet dignity,
q prelude to the moderate posters 3
which will begin to anticipate the
reopening sometime early in April.
r + X
The big residual advantage Of
the theater's adventure in what :
cynics have called its "illegiti-
macy" is its modern. highly efi-
cient air-cooling system. This fea-
ture, discussed for 10 years before