Originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal, Wednesday, July 2, 1947
Milk Bar Is Feature Of Lyn, $250,000, 997-Seat Theater
By BETTY FRENCH, Theater Editor
ONE OF the most modern theaters in the country will open in Akron Friday night.
That is the newly-build Lyn theater, on E. Waterloo rd. at Brown st.
It is one of the first–perhaps the first– movie houses in the country to be equipped with a milk bar.
The milk bar will be used to serve ice cream and fountain drinks to customers after the show and between features. It can accommodate 100 persona, at tables for four and a long counter with 25 stools.
The bar is located on the mezzanine, which has two large windows from which customers can watch the screen while getting their refreshments. The film sound track will be carried to the mezzanine by means of loud speakers.
But the walls are sound-proofed so that no noise from the milk bar can be carried to the auditorium.
ANOTHER new feature of the Lyn is its staggered rows, so that no seat is directly behind another seat. Also the seats are set far apart, with wide spaces between rows.
And the auditorium floor is sloped so that the screen easily can be seen from any seat, and no one can block anyone else’s view.
The theater is so well insulated that it was cool yesterday even with the air conditioning system turned off.
It has sound-proof walls and ceilings, a sound-proof booth with the most modern projection equipment, an automatic gas heating and air conditioning apparatus.
And it has a huge parking space larger than an entire city block.
THE MOST remarkable part of the gleaming new, $250,000, 997 seat theater is that it was well planned, designed and contracted by its owner-manager, Guy A. Spayne. He was employed by the Vaughn Machinery Co. for eight years and the Adamson United Co. for a year and a half.
All this time he was making and revising plans for his own theater. In January, 1946, ground was broken for the Lyn.
SPAYNE planned the decorating scheme for the theater, and, bought furnishings to fit his plan.
He could not find wall-covering in the colors he wanted, so he bought eggshell-colored velours and dyed it rose for the auditorium walls and gold and green for the foyer.
The auditorium seats are dark rose-red plus and the carpet is rose-red patterned in bige leaves.
The stage curtains are gold and rose, with an eggshell draw curtain over the screen.
The milk bar walls are green and the chairs and benches are gold leatheret. The lobby walls are dark blue, patterned with leaves, and blue mirrors are spaced along the walls.
The exterior of the theater is cream-colored brick, with a curved front of beige and dark, “Rembrandt blue” Carrara glass.