Let's say you're in the middle of a movie. It's dark. It's crowded. You have to pee.
Your only option is to shuffle sideways in front of a dozen people, once on the way to the bathroom and again on your way back.
If only there were a better way!
Well, Massachusetts inventor Louis Duprey has one.
In 1923, Duprey filed a patent called "Theater Seating Equipment," a kind of lift mechanism that raises or lowers individual seats from a loading compartment underneath the theater.
For the guests who need to make an exit, they can simply lower their seats into the compartment. Nobody gets disturbed.
Here are Duprey's original drawings for the contraption.
The empty room on the top is the actual theater. The drawing shows the chairs before they've been lifted into position.
Duprey also cared about personal convenience, too.
As he wrote in the original patent, "Further objects are to enhance the personal comfort of patrons, to avoid any obstruction to the view at any time, and to provide a convenient clothes-rack."
His original vision was to install a hook on the bottom of each seat, so that patrons would have a place to hang their hats and coats during the performance.
Here's another view of the lift mechanism.
Each person, when they wanted to leave the theater, would turn a knob on their chair. They'd descend through a trapdoor to the floor below. When they returned, they simply entered through the same trap door, sliding smoothly back into place.
Given the rise of luxury seating in movie theaters (and the sheer mechanics of installing all those lifts), Duprey's designs will probably go another 90 years unnoticed.
Which is a shame, because we really want to ride one.
