Connecticut § 53-199 - Theaters and moving picture shows; seating capacity; standing room.

§ 53-199. Theaters and moving picture shows; seating capacity; standing room.

Sec. 53-199. Theaters and moving picture shows; seating capacity; standing room. No person owning, managing or conducting any place where any moving picture or theatrical production is exhibited shall sell any admission ticket or charge or receive any admission fee or collect or receive any valuable thing from any person after the seating capacity of such place has been exhausted, unless, at the time of such sale, charge, receipt or collection, the person making such sale, charge or collection or receiving such admission fee or valuable thing distinctly announces to the person making such purchase, or from whom such charge or collection is made or fee or valuable thing received, that standing room only is available. The state police shall, in order to ensure safety and health, limit the number of persons that may occupy standing room in each place where any moving picture or theatrical production is exhibited, and shall require the person owning, managing or conducting such place to display conspicuously, at each entrance thereto, a placard upon which shall be plainly printed such standing room capacity. Any person who violates any provision of this section or any order of the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection made pursuant thereto limiting the number of persons that may occupy standing room in a theater where any moving picture or theatrical production is exhibited, or who fails to display conspicuously, at the entrance thereto, a placard on which shall be plainly printed such standing room capacity, shall be fined not more than two hundred fifty dollars.

(1949 Rev., S. 8528; P.A. 77-614, S. 486, 587, 610; P.A. 78-303, S. 85, 136; P.A. 11-51, S. 134; P.A. 12-80, S. 48.)

History: P.A. 77-614 made state police department a division within the department of public safety, effective January 1, 1979, but language was not changed to reflect the fact under discretionary codification powers granted by P.A. 78-303; pursuant to P.A. 11-51, “Commissioner of Public Safety” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 12-80 replaced penalty of a fine of not more than $50 or imprisonment of not more than 30 days or both with a fine of not more than $250 and made a technical change.

See chapter 531 re moving pictures.

Superior Court held to have no original jurisdiction of violation in city of New Haven. 97 C. 600.