mannequin that dropped out of the ceiling to recreate the hanging of Nathan Hale. Escalating rent costs forced its closure in 1989. By 1981, Trans-Lux's theater holdings were reduced to 28 screens, concentrated in the Northeast, particularly Connecticut. By the mid-1990s, the theater division invested in building new theaters in the western US, bringing the company's total to 65 screens. In 2000, the firm opened its own Los Angeles-based film booking office. Television By 1950, television had become America's most popular form of entertainment. In 1940, there were only 3,785 television sets in the US, with stations in only five cities. Two decades later, nine out of ten homes had at least one set. Trans-Lux soon began developing specialized rear-projection equipment for television studios, greatly expanded its engineering capacity and started supplying the studios with "Teleprocess" screens and projectors. When closed circuit television (CCTV) appeared in the late 1940s, Trans-Lux adapted that technology for viewing stock market information and formed an electronics division to develop and sell CCTV systems in 1959. They also developed a television program syndication service, and in association with Adventure Cartoon Productions produced the popular animated children's series: Felix the Cat and The Mighty Hercules. The expanded business required Trans-Lux to move from its Brooklyn headquarters to a larger, five-story building in Long Island City. They also produced Mack and Myer for Hire at the Hempstead Studios in Long Island City. In 1967, they commissioned Titra Studios, a New York City recording company that provided English translations for foreign movies, to "Americanize" the new Japanese animated series, Speed Racer, for domestic television. Trans-Lux retained the series until 1969, when it sold off its animated television holdings in order to concentrate on manufacturing illuminated stock market tickers. Trans-Lux's film catalog was purchased by independent distributor Alan Gleitsman, whose Alan Enterprises continued to syndicate Speed Racer to independent TV stations throughout the 1970s. That same year the company moved its headquarters again, this time relocating to Norwalk, Connecticut. As for the Trans-Lux library, Gleitsman left the syndication business in 1986 and sold his assets to a colorization company called Color Systems Technology, which in turn sold the library (which includes the Alan Enterprises/Trans-Lux library, the rights to Speed Racer, and the Adventure Cartoon Productions series) to Broadway Video in 1989 due to bankruptcy. Stock quotes and signage In 1940, Trans-Lux purchased a patent for a remote-control signaling system