The Daily Times from Mamaroneck, New York • 35

Gannett Newspapers Thursday, September 3S9983C Welcome: At last, a visitors liked the new muraL Another a tour guide disliked the Gray Line booth. But most of those getting a first look liked what they saw. And among them was anothr er tour guide, Hardy Phippen. -There was -a real need for some sort of centralized place," he said. And this area has always been the vital center.

And it's nice to have it near TKTS, because its the major tourist draw. Across from TKTS and next to aid's. What could be better? The Times Square. Visitors Center is open from 8 am. to 8 fLm.

daily. 3 (which in the 80s was named a landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission). Most of the money came from the licensees the booth operators who paid a capital fee and will now pay a monthly operating fee Dykstra, who's been, president of the. BID for seven years, has more dreams, which she will leave with her successor, Brendan They include traveling exhibitions, a radio and TV studio, and a new movie screen. for showing old-time newsreels.

There were a few complaints Monday night One woman dis with white (not gold) teeth. Noble though it was, the experiment flopped, and in 1929, the Embassy went mainstream. It became the first movie theater to show only newsreels, which it continued to do right up to the 1950s. It then showed first-run movies. But at only 588 seats, it was too small to follow the trend of multiplexing.

This worked out well for Gretchen Dykstra: It was almost too good to be true that this space was here, waiting for this to hap- ppn." The Times Square BID spent $1.1 milium renovating the space trast to the aluminum and neon. Its contributions include the ornate dome, rondel lighting fixtures, floral reliefk, three chandeliers and two Arcadian canvas murals. It was the Embassy Theatre, HedgnaH by Thomas Lamb and built in 1925. It was run by MGM as a high-sodety movie house: It charged 10 times the going ticket rate an unheard-of $220. It was also the first movie house staffed by just women, as decreed by its manager, Gloria Gould Bishop.

She hired women between the ages of 17 and 21, under 5-foot-4, screen used to be is a new muTal called Curtain Call, by Jessica Daryl Winer. It portrays years of theater with 200 stars, from Tallulah Bankhead in The Little Foxes, to Mary Martin in Peter Pfcn." -1 Facing the mural are 21 theater seats for the weary, behind the seats are the brochure racks, for energetic. And at the 'center of all is the huge, green, round information booth, staffed with "multilingual tourist counselors." As impressive as any attraction, though, is the backdrop: the old theater. It provides built-in con Fine Furniture Carpet (3 since 1891 Thursday, Sept. 3 Monday, Sept.

14 (a. I. rriyers will close at 6:00 PM, Labor Day, Monday, Sept.7) Imported hand-knotted Oriental rugs. Attend our Oriental rug show during a. I.

myers Labor Day Sale. Mission-style bed finished in burnished oil. Many matching pieces available in various finishes. Casual styling L-shaped modular work stationhome office. Available in natural cherry and other finishes.

W.W A i Top grain leather sola, chair and matching ottoman with railhead trim. Continued from page 1 The last lobby stop is the booth of CityStore (a shop once known downtown tf City Books). It sells 001081 city souvenirs, from city-seal champagne flutes to the elusive Department of Sanitation neckties. -Next, youre in the main room the former auditorium which has taken on the look of an upscale food court It is ringed with red booths, meant to suggest opera booths, topped with' red and blue neon signs on aluminum trusses. Following the ring, you first hit Hotalings News where you can pick up your copy of The Tampa Tribune or Barbados Weekend Nation.

After that, you can stop at me of the Fleet Bank ATMs, to prepare you for your visit to the Broadway Ticket A That booth, run by tlie League of American Theatres and Producers, sells foil-price tickets as opposed to the half-price ones at TKTS, across the. street It also has show brochures and will have a TV monitor that beams snippets of the biggest Broadway hits. Across the way, the MTA dispenses MetroCards and maps, along with souvenirs like bus banks and engineer caps. Next door, a booth labeled Sightseeing offers alternate routes, with information and tickets for Gray Line and Circle Line tours. Aext to that is a booth labeled Panasonic.

Thats the home of the eternal ball drop. Its furnished with nightclub tables cluttered with hats, noisemakers and champagne. You dont get to sit at the tables, but you get to look at three screens. Two of them show a 12-minute history of Times Square narrated, naturally enough, by Dick Clark. Meanwhile, the middle one shows a computerized Times Square, which gradually starts to darken as day turns to night Hey, whaddaya know! Claris exclaims.

Its New Years Eve! IH see you outside for the countdown! Computer people replace computer cars. The people shout out the numbers. The ball drops. Its not the same. But at least you can get out alive.

At the front of the room are the six terminals, sponsored by Ya-. hoo! At all of them you can surf the Internet free. And at one, you can smile at an EarthCam and put yourself on a picture postcard, which you can then e-mail to a wired friend. -At the rear where the movie Tales: Urban legends bad for business Continued from page 1C urban legends seem to be some-thing a friend of a friend saw cm Oprah. For example, Liz Claiborne was targeted in the early 90s when it was widely claimed she said during an interview with- Oprah that she didnt like black women to wear her clothes.

Oprah herself finally went cm the air to set the record straight, saying not only had it not happened, but Liz had never been on the show; No matter. The same rumor was revived last year, this time with Tommy Hilfiger as the culprit The Hilfiger rumor mutated even more, with one version saying he didnt want African Ameri-1 cans to wear his clothes and another insisting it was Asians. The rumormongers are apparently un-: aware that Hilfiger regularly uses black models in his ads and that the chairman of. Hilfiger's company is Asian American. Many folklorists believe that urban legends aimed at companies are a weird consumer backlash, where instead of fighting compa-, nies with feet, consumers settle for fiction, says folklorist Dundes.

Patricia Turner, a folklorist who has focused on African-Amer-ionn urban legends, found that rumors of Ku Klux Klan ownership of various companies escalated after the companies introduced new, higher-priced prod-" She theorizes that its easier for consumers to justify not buying a product by citing a rumor rather than saying, The price is too high. An example from her book, I Heard Througi the Grapevine," centers on Churchs fried chicken, which for a while fended off ru-mbrs orKKK ownership but also had to deal with the more fentas-7 tic rumor that its chicken had a special ingredient that would ster-N like black men, Turner tracked the KKK.own-1 ership rumor for almost a decade, and determined it had no basis in 7 fect: -Vf However, she concluded that. "when the price and risk of a product is perceived by customers to outweigh its usefulness, consumers may be more likely to buy 7- into a 100 the it Neo-classical style dining room with buried walnut inlays; saber-legged chairs. Queen-size Louis Philippe sleigh bed. Matching accessories available.

3 pc home entertainment center available in various finishes. Centerpiece: 47 24 12' 66 14 RL LL 22 12 21 12 63 12 107 curved ultra-plush leather sofa with railhead trim. Roll-arm sofa with high kick-pleat skirt 89 39 12 36 Plush chaise lounge for maximum comfort and relaxation. 50 off any 44 Stanley student desk. 40 off all other Stanley Available in cherry, maple and oak.

i I I I I Bring in this coupon between Sept 3rd and Sept 7th and receive an additional I 10 off I BASH1AH jTiasqnly. Vinyl recliner featuring massager, heat telephone connection, drink holder, TV remote magazine All Sealy and Stems Foster on sale. Free set up and removal included. Store Hours: 12-5pm Mon. Tues7; Fri Satt 7 v.V? VISA 173 No.

Highland Ave. (Rte.9) Ossining, NY i (914) 941-1408 iitd price, pha Mncty chirp. 90 Days Free Financing (See store for details) Ask about our Complimentary Interior Design Service. Not Responsible for Typographical Errors..