Boxoffice (Jul 7, 1951)

MARITIMES Theatre owners here have protested that a local theatre license costs the highest in Canada and have asked the city authorities for relief. They ask that the license fee be based on the business done instead of the current system of assessing a theatre property at a certain figure, always tops, and then adding 50 per cent. They contend this method discriminates against the theatre and does not prevail for other businesses. It is felt this is an opportune time to reduce the license levies, with boxoffice conditions on the unfavorable side. Owners in the city are Famous Players, operating the Paramount and Capitol; A. I. Garson, the Strand; Franklin & Herschorn, the Mayfair; Knights of Columbus, the Empire, leased to Demerson & Vassis; the Regent, north end, owned by Franklin é Herschorn, and the Community, west end, owned by the city and leased to Walter R. Golding. The Gaiety at Fairville, an immediate suburb, is an O’Rourke & Sprague holding. English pictures continue to get frost-bitten at Newfoundland boxoffices. Even the most heavily advertised productions fail to warm up the public. Many exhibitors refuse to handle the English films on any terms. Singularly, Newfoundland was known as “the ancient colony” of England and was governed directly from London for many years. St. BALLANTYNE ©)5)) and get 2 ® TOP QUALITY EQUIPMENT ' @ TROUBLE-FREE SERVICE © LOW MAINTENANCE COST Ballantyne drive-in sound and projection equipment is buile for longer, steadier use... built to stand up under any operating conditions... built for service, NOT for constant servicing, Look ahead! Your best buy 1s always Ballantyne. Ck any theatre ounet VROYALZ MAST COMPLETE DRIVE-IN EQUIPMENT J. M. Rice & Company 202 Canada Building Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Complete Theatre Equipment & Supplies 42 John’s and other centers on the island are looked on as typically English and the residents of the island are practically all of British Isles origin or ancestry. About the close of World War ITI the English films could draw fairly well all over Newfoundland but the demand has weakened yearly ever since. Double bills for midweek with both pictures aimed at the family trade are being stressed at the Russell, Glace Bay. Recently, there was a triple bill for two days at this Weiner é& Green house ... Booked for three days at the Vogue, Sydney, “‘The Great Caruso” was extended to a full week, with ten minutes running time for shorts ... ‘'The House That Joey Built” could be the title of not only a picture but a studio, Provincial Premier Joey Smallwood of Newfoundland is reported faorable to having the province back a film production venture if Gregory Peck stars in the first film. Peck measures up as the political Joey’s film favorite. But wrestling with the fog is a bane to Newfoundland’s pictureproducing yearning, When Joe Franklin went to a meeting with the local transit commission to protest with Main street merchants against rerouting of buses of the north end elsewhere than on Main street, he was amazed to find the chairman of the commission favored taking the buses off the main stem, whereas all the merchants and the Regent Theatre owner felt strongly that all north end buses should use Main street and help business along that chief artery of the north end. Apparently, the chairman wanted to make it a through Street. When a theatre operator in St. John’s, Nfld., made somewhat of a survey among his patrons on their screen favorites, he was surprised to learn that Champion, Gene Autry’s feed-destroyer, came a very close third to such humans as Bing Crosby and Betty Grable .. . Frankie Sinatra’s impending divorce and projected matrimonial hookup with Ava Gardner are claimed to have caused a slump in sales of his records through the Maritimes, particularly on Newfoundland, and also in inquiries among theatre patrons for pictures he is in ... There’s talk of a summer season outdoor theatre being established in central New Brunswick within ten miles of Fredericton on the St. John river road. Cowboy actor Sunset Carson was fined $25 and court costs in a Halifax court after pleading guilty to a charge of having firearms in his possession without a license. Carson, who hails from Phoenix, was shooting objects out of the mouth of his wife when a bullet went through a metal backstop and into a piano. The owner of the piano lodged a complaint with the Mounties and police picked up Carson as he drove into Halifax from Glen Margaret, a suburb. Carson has been making a tour of theatres and night clubs in the maritimes. On ‘Show of Week’ Bill TORONTO—"Call Me Mister” was presented as “the show of the week” at six key theatres here of the Famous Players’ chain, these being the Alhambra, Beach, College, Parkdale, Runnymede and St. Clair. Veteran Character Actor Signed George E. Stone, veteran character actor, has been signed for RKO’s “A Girl in Every Port.” OTTAWA anager Verne Marriott of the Britannia Drive-In here is said to be doing considerably better business than last season... Manager Fern Marleau has made improvements at the Cornwall Drive-In, with resultant increase at the wicket .. . Because local children are out of schools, a continuous policy from 1 p. m. has been adopted by Manager Bill Curley at the 20th Century Nelson. The theatre previously had matinees on Saturdays and holidays. Wild West week was featured at the Imperial for the six days starting July 2. The program included “Stagecoach Kid” and “Deadline.” An added stage attraction was a western singing duet at night ... The nickel-mining center of Sudbury has another theatre in the Plaza, 520-seater, by Northern Empire Theatres. This makes six theatres and a drive-in for the community. Three are units of 20th Century Theatres, the Century, Park and Regent. Famous Players operates the Capitol in Sudbury. In recognition of his approaching marriage, Arthur Knapp, projectionist at the Winchester at nearby Winchester, was given a toaster and a water set by the theatre staff. Phyllis MacDonald and Mrs. Bert Hodgson made the presentation . . . Casey Swedlove of the Linden had a Saturday night stage show, the Clarence Borts talent parade, as an added attraction to ‘Chain Lighting” and “Buccaneer’s Girl’ ... For the first anniversary of the Auto-Sky Drive-In, Manager John Holt offered several specials, including free hats for children and five cartoons, in addition to the two features ... Leo Lazar has been introduced as the manager of the Peterboro Drive-In, following the departure of Gerald Dillon to run the ozoner at Chatham. The Winchester in the nearby town of Winchester was conducting a newspaper advertising stunt in the publication of three names as “guests of the week,” chosen at random. Those named were entitled to two guest tickets ... Barbara Ann Scott, Ottawa’s figure skating champion, went to London for her starring role in “Rose Marie on Ice” in connection with the Festival of Britain. It had been announced that she would appear in a Mountie picture which was scheduled to get under way by now with Max King as producer. WINNIPEG rnest Diamond has resigned as manager at the Beacon and has returned as manager of the Bijou, first run Main street action house. Nick Blanchard returned to his old position as manager of the Fox. For the interim, the Beacon position remains unfilled, but is under the watchful eye of supervisor Harry Hurwitz of Manitoba Theatres. MGM Manager A. G. Levy is on holiday . . . Mark Trester has returned from a trip out west ... Rocky Zaitsow, son of exhibitor Jack Zaitsow, is visiting from San Francisco . . . Other visitors to Filmrow were Ernie Bierwirth, Swan River; Garnet Wright, Keewatin; Joe Buschau, Plumas; George Mallard, Steinbach; Jock Emslie, Edinberg; J. Friesen, Altona, and Bill Gladys, Arborg. BOXOFFICE :: July 7, 1951 oO ua