Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1938)

Fourteen Vancouver Independents Form Booking and Buying Club Vancouver, B. C. — Independent exhibitors here have applied for a charter for "The Independent Booking and Buying Club,” and have already notified the film exchanges that an accredited representative will call upon them in the near future to discuss booking. There are now 14 exhibitor members — representing about 50 per cent of the independent houses in the Vancouver district — with A. Gray burn as secretary, and it is Toronto — A feature of the annual eastern managers’ convention of Famous Players Canadian Corp. at the King Edward Hotel was the distinction bestowed on the originals of the company by the formation of a “20-Year Club” for those who have been associated with the Canadian circuit for two decades or longer. Heading the list, of course, is N. L. Nathanson, whose foresight begat the establishment of the Regent Theatre as the first de luxe unit of the chain, this house being opened in Toronto back in 1917 when it was the sensation of the entertainment world. Mr. Nathanson is now president of a company which owns or controls more than 200 theatres across the Dominion, and has a controlling interest in three large film exchanges as well as being a figure of importance in the film industry in Great Britain, where he has been spending the past two months. Robson From Australia Foremost among the original employes is Clarence Robson, eastern supervisor of Theatres with jurisdiction from Ontario to the Atlantic coast. It was Robson who, after being identified with the amusement business in Australia, became the manager of the Regent in Toronto as well as the Strand Theatre on Yonge St. which had previously been Shea’s vaudeville house. The next expansion was the Garden Theatre on College St., where Jack A. Laver was installed as manager. Laver is now the manager of the Bloor Theatre here. A further step was the reconstruction of the Alhambra Theatre, Bloor and Bathurst Sts., where J. A. Lawrie was installed, the latter now being with a film exchange. An early personage of note in the Nathanson organization was Charles A. Dentelbeck who was the first operator at the Strand and Regent. Charlie is the perennial president of the Toronto Operators’ Union and is known far and wide as the director of projection in the executive headoffice of Famous Players where he utilizes his knowledge of all projection developments. In the mechanical di assumed that he will be the contact man. He was formerly manager of the Broadway Theatre for Famous Players, also of the Lonsdale, Bob Scott’s North Vancouver theatre. The theatres now represented in the club are: The Oak, Colonial, Olympia, Marpole, Rio, Dunbar , Edison, Metro, Fraser, Beacon, Nova, Cambie, Hollywood and the Music Box. vision there is also another oldtimer in William Dineen, who was chief electrician of the Regent when it opened in 1917. Ben Cronk, for years the manager of the art display department of the chain, has also grown up with the organization and has record of more permanent theatre fronts and lobby displays than any other man in the business in Canada. Harold Hitchinson, manager of the Capitol Theatre, Guelph, Ont., for a number of years, is in the charmed circle of original employes and has been in charge of theatres all through. He has been manager of the Parkdale and the Belsize, Toronto, and the Capitol in Halifax, to mention a few. Jack Arthur From Scotland Then there is Jack Arthur who came to Canada from Scotland with a fiddle under his arm and a mere hope of success in the new land. The immigrant eventually was smiled upon by Dame Fortune when he secured the appointment of conductor of the 40-piece orchestra which was one of the extravagant features of the de luxe Regent. This symphonic band rendered handsome overtures and thrilled with their accompanying music while dapper Jack Arthur also organized the ballet numbers on the stage and the atmospheric prologues which were the rage of the day. Associated with him were Leon Leonidoff and Florence Rogge who were destined to become big names at the Roxy Theatre, New York. Jack Arthur’s graduates went to Major Bowes at the New York Capitol, to Detroit and other big American theatre centers. Arthur became director of music for the whole chain in Canada when wide expansion took place and organized stage spectacles appropriate to the current picture theme or to the season. When sound films displaced the orchestras. Jack Arthur became a theatre manager and is now in charge of the ace house here, the Uptown. He has a job for life with Mr. Nathanson, it has often been said, because he turned down a $25,000-a-year contract with the Cosmopolitan Theatre in New York to stick with the Canadian circuit. Ned Sparks Visits Montreal — In St. Thomas, Ontario, for a week’s visit before leaving for Hollywood to take a role in Eddie Cantor’s new picture, soon to go into production, Ned Sparks, the motion-picture comedian, announced that he hopes to spend at least one day hunting woodchucks in South Yarmouth with Premier M. H. Hepburn. The Premier and Sparks have had an annual rendezvous in the woodchuck country for several years past. Sparks is a crack shot. He hunted woodchucks south of the city of St. Thomas as a boy. A Special Exhibit At F-P Convention Toronto — For the first time during the holding of an annual convention of theatre managers in eastern Canada of Famous Players Canadian Corp., a special exhibit, entitled “Show of Showmanship,” was on view for the benefit of the delegates. Occupying a large room on the 17th floor of the King Edward Hotel here and also necessitating the use of much of the wide hallways, the exhibit was pointed out to the theatre managers as providing “Examples of ticket-selling campaigns containing suggestions which will aid you in selling the coming product.” One section of the exhibit was given over to a display of the golden and silken banners, placards and easel signs setting forth the “Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment” campaign and telling the public about the $250,000 quiz contest prizes. In another section, were big colored posters publicizing “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “I Am the Law,” “Marie Antoinette,” and “Breaking the Ice.” All of the producing companies had large posters and banners drawing attention to their production programs. General Theatre Supply Co. had a number of timely exhibits on display, these including, in addition to samples of theatre chairs and apparatus, poster-screens which drew attention to the aids offered the motion picture exhibition business by air-conditioning, comfortable seats, and latest-type projection equipment. An outstanding feature of this company’s display, which had been set up under the supervision of R. K. Burko, its general manager, was a complete assembly of the new E-7 Simplex motion picture projection equipment, using the Peerless Magnarc lamp. To many of the theatre men one of the most attractive exhibits was that which contained examples, giving every detail, of exploitation campaigns for various feature pictures put on by theatre managers in all parts of Canada, as well as examples of exploitation work by a number of theatres in the United States. The foregoing exploitation campaign data included also exhibits of press campaigns for feature films brought from India, New Zealand and Australia. Twenty -Year Club Members 88 BOXOFFICE :: September 3, 1938