Willis and Shirley Johnson The HPS-4000 sound system at the 1928 Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, Illinois is dedicated to its owners, my friends Willis and Shirley Johnson. When Willis first telephoned me for help with the sound at the Tivoli back in 1982, neither of us could have predicted that this would be the beginning of a relationship that would last until today. The sound at the theatre was extremely poor and the consultants he had been working with were only making it worse. After reading my articles in BOXOFFICE magazine, Willis called to see if I might have better ideas. I immediately went to Chicago where he met my plane. We then began what would be a long and enlightening struggle to tame the theatre’s lively acoustics and install the best possible sound. I say enlightening because once we did the initial acoustic treatment and sound system installation, it took us several years to refine the sound system and the acoustics to the level they are today. This was no small achievement. Once when an executive from a film company came to hear the theatre, he remarked that he was certain that his sound engineers would have walked into that room and bravely stated that good sound in the theatre “would not work.” He further went on to say that the sound was so good that 35 MM films played there with simple stereo optical soundtracks sounded better than his company’s 70 MM films with magnetic soundtracks. Another film producer came to the Tivoli to help promote the opening there of his film STAR TREK 4. Upon hearing the sound of his film at the Tivoli, Ralph Winter said what so many producers have said when listining to an HPS-4000 sound system, that he was hearing things he’d never heard before, in any other theatre or studio. Willis and his wife Shirley have taken a great deal of pride in all their theatres, but the Tivoli is a very special place. Now beautifully restored and one of the nations first sub run theatres (if not the first) to be equipped with digital projection, the Tivoli stands as a monument to their dedication to their theatres and their customers. I am proud to dedicate the Tivoli’s HPS-4000 sound system to Willis and Shirley. For more information click here: http://www.classiccinemas.com/about/ To read about the history of the Tivoli Theatre, click here. To read more about the Tivoli Theatre, click here. John Allen