[Amended 12-5-1983; 5-19-2008 by Ord. No. 25.42.08]
No person, persons or combination of persons
having charge or control of any building or vacant lot in the City
of Albany, or any part thereof, either as owner, lessee, agent or
otherwise, shall use or allow any other person or persons to use such
building, or any part thereof, or any such vacant lot as a theater
for the giving of any motion picture, concert, theatrical or musical
entertainment, unless a license therefor is first duly obtained in
the manner hereinafter specified under a penalty of $125 for each
and every performance or entertainment had, and for each and every
day the same is so rented or used without such license, to be recovered
in the name of the City of Albany from the proprietor, lessee or managing
agent of such theater.
[Added 12-5-1988; amended 11-25-2002 by Ord. No.
42.112.02; 5-19-2008 by Ord. No. 25.42.08]
Licenses shall expire on the 31st day of December
succeeding the issuance thereof. The fee for a theater license shall
be $210.
An moneys collected for fees, as above provided,
shall be immediately, after their receipt as aforesaid, paid to the
City Treasurer.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
The City Clerk may, in his discretion, after
notice to the owner or lessee, suspend or revoke the license of any
theater where any show, play or exhibition is given or is advertised
to be given, which, in his opinion, is of a lewd or immoral nature.
The City Clerk may, upon like notice, revoke such license when such
place so licensed, is in his opinion, and after a report of the Chief
of the Fire Department to that effect, unsafe for the public gathering
therein.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
An exit of every theater shall be marked with
the word EXIT in large letters over the same and shall be so constructed
as to be easily opened by the audience in case of fire.
Every theater shall be so piped that the gas
can be shut off separately from the stage, auditorium and lobbies,
without interfering one with the other.
There shall be such automatic sprinklers, or
other equivalent devices, in every theater as in the opinion of the
Chief of the Fire Department may be needed.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
There shall be in every place of public amusement
such amount of standpipes, hose and fire extinguishers, as the Chief
of the Fire Department from time to time may determine to be necessary.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
No portable seats shall be placed in the aisles
or passageways of any theater.
A.
It is hereby made the duty of the owner of every lot
or parcel of ground upon which, or any part of which, a building is
located which is used in whole or in part as a place where theatrical
or scenic or musical performances or exhibits or recitals or entertainments
of any kind, including dancing, are given to the public, but not including
places used exclusively for the sale of liquor or food, to prepare
and file with the Department of Buildings of the City of Albany a
detailed and exact plan of the cellar and each story of said building
with full and accurate measurements of all parts thereof, and with
designations of all such parts thereof as are used for chairs or other
chattel or obstruction of any kind whatsoever to the free passage
over the floors thereof, designating the floor surface and space and
height occupied by each and every one thereof and also a specification
of all fixtures, articles and things, of any kind or nature whatsoever,
used in said building, with a view to the prevention or extinguishment
of fire, including all doors, skylights and coverings or enclosures
or openings, and the manner in which the same are applied or attached
to said building, the dimensions thereof and the character of material
used therein, and each and every one of the fixtures, fastenings,
locks, bolts or other appliances or mechanisms used in closing or
opening the same, and holding the same when closed or open, in such
wise as fully and completely to exhibit the area, floor space, height
of stories and the contents of said building in all respects, and
to verify the same by affidavit to said specifications and plans to
each severally attached.
B.
Such plans and specifications must be filed in the
Building Department of the City of Albany within 60 days after the
passage of this article, unless plans and specifications shall have
heretofore been filed with the Building Department of the City of
Albany; in such case, the owner, lessee, manager or agent of said
property shall not be required to file such plans and specifications,
but shall file plans and specifications showing any alterations or
additions made to said building since the filing of said plans and
specifications.
C.
Plans and specifications now on file in the office
of the Building Department of the City of Albany may, with the permission
of the Commissioner of Buildings, be withdrawn and amended and, when
so amended, filed as herein provided.
D.
In case of failure to file such plans and specifications
as herein provided it shall be unlawful for the owner, lessee, manager
or agent of said property to permit any exhibition or recital of any
kind whatsoever to take place in said building until said plans and
specifications shall be verified and filed as aforesaid.
E.
Any violation of the foregoing provisions shall be
punishable by a fine of not less than $125 and not to exceed $190.
[Amended 5-19-2008 by Ord. No. 25.42.08]
A.
It shall be unlawful for any owner or lessee or manager
or agent of any property used for any or either or all of the purposes
above specified to permit any change therein which shall alter the
building itself or the contents thereof, as set forth in the plans
and specifications above required, in any wise whatsoever, except
for necessary repair and restoration. It shall be unlawful for any
such owner, lessee or manager to modify in kind, quality or quantity
in any respect whatsoever the building itself or the contents thereof
as set forth in such plans and specifications until he shall have
obtained the written consent of the Chief of the Fire Department of
the City of Albany, endorsed upon both the plans and the specifications,
with a statement in detail of each and every such change or modification,
and the approval of the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings
of said City shall be likewise endorsed upon such plans and specifications.
B.
Any violation of the foregoing provision as to change
or modification in said building which shall be authorized or shall
be suffered or permitted by the owner thereof, or shall be made, authorized
or permitted by any owner or lessee or manager or agent or by any
person in charge of said building, or by any other person whatsoever,
shall be punishable by a fine of not less than $125 nor more than
$190.
[Amended 5-19-2008 by Ord. No. 25.42.08]
[Amended 12-5-1983]
In each theater an approved fire-rated curtain
shall be placed, of such texture and construction, and to be operated
in such manner, as shall be approved by the Fire Chief, and such curtain
shall be next to the auditorium and, immediately before the ordinary
curtain shall be raised for the first time for each performance, shall
be lowered so as to completely separate the stage from the auditorium
and raised again in the presence of the audience.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
Over or at the side of, and immediately adjacent
to, each exit, whether for ordinary use or emergency, including approaches
to fire escapes, in each theater there shall be placed and maintained
during each performance an electric light independent in its source
of supply from every other light in the place, except the other exit
lights, which shall be covered or protected by a red glass globe of
not less than five inches in diameter, on which there shall be distinctly
imprinted in white or black letters, each letter not less than 1 1/2
inches in height, the word EXIT wherever such exit exists, and the
words FIRE ESCAPE wherever such fire escape exit exists, and shall,
during each and every performance of any kind whatsoever in said building
where the public shall attend, be maintained lighted during the whole
period of such performance and until the public shall have left the
building.
A.
All doors and windows made into doors in such buildings
where the public may have exit in case of fire shall be opened outwards,
and all doors except those leading to fire escapes shall be opened
for the public to pass through at each performance.
B.
Each single door, and each set of double doors, which
may be used as a place of entrance or exit, whether for ordinary use
or for an emergency, shall be unfastened when closed during a performance,
except that each single door may be held in place by a hook and eye
placed not to exceed five feet above the floor, so arranged that the
weight of the door will not rest upon it, and the double doors by
a piece of cast iron or brass not to exceed 1/4 inch in thickness
or two inches in breadth without any head or enlargement at the ends
thereof, which will enable a pressure from the inside to cause it
readily to give way, resting in sockets and extending across the middle
of the inside of the doors not to exceed five feet above the floor.
Such piece of cast iron or brass shall not be permanently fastened
except to one door, and the socket in which it shall rest shall be
placed not more than one inch from the outside end of the piece of
cast iron resting in it, and there shall be no lock or other bolt,
or bar or other method of fastening such doors, except that one door
in each series of doors in the main or principal entrance to the theater,
and not elsewhere, may have at the top and bottom of one of the doors
bolts not to exceed 1/2 inch in thickness and width and a lock and
key, but these doors on which there shall be bolts and a lock and
key must, at every performance, be the doors at which the public is
admitted and at which tickets are taken. But outside double doors
exceeding seven feet in breadth shall be allowed one bolt on the left
half which may be used when no audience is in the building.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
A.
It shall be the duty of the owner, manager, lessee
or agent of any such theater to see that the foregoing provisions
of this article are executed and observed, and a failure so to do
in any particular shall be punishable, except where the penalty is
hereinabove specifically mentioned, by a fine of not less than $125
and not to exceed $625.
[Amended 5-19-2008 by Ord. No. 25.42.08]
B.
It shall be the duty of every owner, lessee, manager
or agent of any theater to cause to be printed in clear legible type
not smaller than small pica and with double leading, on one side of
the paper, this article, and to have the same properly framed and
enclosed with glass, and place a copy thereof, thus framed, in three
of the most conspicuous places within each theater near the outer
entrance thereof, where the same can be easily read, and to there
keep and maintain the same.
C.
The word "owner," as above used, shall comprehend
every person who in whole or in part shall hold a legal title or shall
have the possession or control or management or supervision, whether
by property right or by requirement of law, of any of the buildings
above enumerated, whether it is an individual or individuals, or a
body corporate or a voluntary association.
[Amended 12-5-1983]
A.
It shall be the duty of the Fire Chief to see that
the provisions of this article are complied with. For that purpose,
he shall cause such inspection to be made from time to time of the
theaters in the City as in his judgment the public interests may require.
Schedules shall be prepared of all appliances for the extinguishment
or prevention of fires, and of all exits from the building, and the
Chief shall designate as often as he deems necessary one or more members
of the Fire Department of the City to inspect the theaters and furnish
him or them with such schedule. The person designated to inspect a
theater shall make an examination of all such appliances and of each
exit and shall report that he found the same in proper working order
or otherwise, and that the requirements of this article, a copy of
which shall be printed upon such schedule, have or have not been complied
with. He shall specify on a blank to be prepared each matter as to
which he is required to report by indicating affirmatively or negatively
the compliance or noncompliance in the theater inspected by him therewith.
These reports shall be preserved in the office of the Fire Chief.
B.
Interference with any inspector while in the discharge
of his duties shall be grounds for revocation of the license.
C.
The Commissioner of Buildings may at any time serve
a written or printed notice upon the owner, lessee or manager of any
of said buildings, directing any act or thing to be done or provided
in or about said buildings and the several appliances therewith connected,
such as halls, doors, stairs, windows, seats, aisles, fire walls,
fire, electrical and ventilating apparatus and fire escapes, as he
may deem necessary. Said Commissioners shall prescribe and enforce
a fire drill in each theater, laying down rules for the same, which
shall be personally served upon the manager or his representative
in charge.
