Canadian Film Digest (Jun 1973)

Page 10 — June 1973 The Canadian Film Digest World Premiere for A Doll’s House in Toronto On May 3ist the North American premiere of Hillard Elkins’ Paramount release A Doll’s House was held in Toronto. Among the guests at the post-screening party were, with producer Hillard Elkins (left), actor Jerry Orbach and actress Jane Alexander. : 8 Fox marketing seminar to unveil summer product Jim Cullen, National Director of Advertising and Promotion, from the head office of 20th Century-Fox, stepped up to the lecturn, and he was smiling a very wide smile. Fox, he said, has now retired all of its astronomical debt, and is financing current production out of cash flow. Few, if any, major film companies could say the same. It was this current production that Cullen was in Toronto to talk about. A day-long seminar on Fox summer product was held at the University theatre. Invited were managers and executives from the major chains of exhibitors, and helping Cullen out were Nico Jacebellis from the East Coast advertising office in New York, and the producers of one of the Fox attractions, the made-in-Canada feature The Neptune Factor. Executive producer David Perlmutter and producer Sandy Howard spoke to the gathering briefly. The morning session was followed by a lunch at the Hyatt Hotel. The room was covered with posters announced Fox summer product, a line-up Cullen described as box office orientated, and backed up with a major marketing plan set in motion from head office. Cullen’s presentation at the theatre was a combination of verbal description, slides outlining marketing plans and material, and film runnings of movie and TV trailers. He began with the re-release of Sound of, Music. The film has been out of circulation for five years now, but the image of Julie Andrews and the music have never left the public mind. So the campaign centres on these two facets of the picture. Of course it helps when you have a multi-million dollar winner: when the first release took place RCA records had a different cover than the film logo. Since then the album has become the biggest seller in history; nine million copies have been sold, and more were crossing the counters when the re-release occurred. So now RCA features the movie logo on the cover. Children from the movie, now nine years older, are touring for the film and discussing their lives since making it. The next film was the Canadian-made The Neptune Factor: An Undersea Odyssey. The movie will have three large premieres in Canada: In Ottawa on June 27, with Ben Gazzara attending; in Montreal on the 28th, as a benefit; and in Toronto on the 29th to inaugurate the new Imperial theatre complex. Cullen stressed the star values inherent in the movie, its adventure genre, and announced a world premiere May 17 in 90 Florida theatres. Tie-ups with Rolex watches and Healthways Equipment, makers of Scuba gear, were arranged. Stars were to tour nationally, and a featurette on the making of the film was to be shown on TV. Producer Sandy Howard spoke to the gathering, and explained that he did not consider Neptune a Canadian movie, but a movie made for the world market. Executive producer David Perlmutter of Toronto said he felt that everyone involved with the film was working hard to sell it, and hoped the people present would expend as much effort to make it a winner. An almost-obituary came next. Battle for the Planets of the Apes was announced as the last ape adventure, but at the same time Cullen explained that it would not be the last showing: programs consisting of all the Ape films to be run in one night were available. The Last American Hero is about a young man who finds his niche through the world of stock car racing. It stars Jeff Bridges. As part of the marketing’ study done by Fox, it was discovered that one of the continent’s most enthusiastic areas for this sport is in Southern Ontario. The Legend of Hell House, the last feature produced by the late James Nicolson, concerns a house possessed by evil, and is better than average horror fare, said Cullen. And finally he talked about one movie Fox has very high hopes for: The Emperor of the North Pole. Starring Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin, and set in the Pacific northwest, it concerns a battle between a railroad guard and a hobo for the supreme ruler of the rail route. A problem in the title, in that audiences would not immediately understand it, was acknowledged by Cullen, but this had occurred before, as in Sounder or MASH, and he expected the proper campaign procedures to erase that problem. Myers, Bellevue’s Herb Mathers, Famous Players’ Les Mitchell, Quadrant’s David Perlmutter, Fox’s Vic Beattie, Fox's Jim Cullen, Odeon’s Chris Salmon, Producer Sandy Howard, Twinex's Jack Bernstein, Famous Players’ Bill Robinson. 2s A ee photo: L_ Bishop Held at the Toronto Dominion Centre, it featured a cocktail party followed by the film itself in the T-D Cinema — the proceeds of ticket sales went to cerebral palsy — followed by a party on the observation floor of the T-D centre, fifty-five storeys high. Invited guests included the provincial finance minister, the Mayor of Toronto, assorted other VIP’s, actors, actresses, etc. On hand for the premiere were Elkins himself and Anthony Hopkins, who plays Torvald in the screen adaptation of the Ibsen play. Elkins produced the pic, Patrick Garland directed, and the cast also includes Ralph Richardson, Anna Massey, and Dame Edith Evans. Elkins made the full press rounds and was the gracious host on the premiere evening. The whole shebang was organized by freelance publicist Linda Shapiro. It was an opportunity for a little business for Elkins too. A board meeting was held of his new, Toronto-based entertainment and investment consortium. His purchase of Film House was ratified Anthony Hopkins, who appears as Claire Bloom’s co-star in A Doll’s House, was the last to leave the party. and other company plans were approved by shareholders. Elkins left Toronto a pleased man. He returned to London and wife Claire Bloom, who was still playing A Doll’s House on stage. : Plaque honoring Mary Pickford erected on Toronto Birth site She was born Gladys Smith 79 years ago in a frame house on Toronto’s University Avenue. On May 27, 1973 an historic plaque was unveiled near that spot, but the name on it read Mary Pickford. America’s Sweetheart, now 79 and remaining at Pickfair in Hollywood, was represented by her husband of thirty-six years, Buddy Rogers. He said that “in her heart, Mary is still a Canadian.’’ She sent a message which Rogers read, stating that she remembered the crisp winters, the tobaggoning on University Avenue, and that she was happy that her birth place is now the site of a Children’s Hospital. Present at the ceremony were Dr. Matthew _Dymond, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Ontario Science Centre, which houses the Ontario Film Institute; a representative of the Mayor of Toronto; The minister of Colleges and Universities for Ontario, Jack McNie; M.P. Peter Stollery and M.P.P. Margaret Campbell, in whose ridings the plaque lies; Gerald Pratley, Director of the Ontario Film Institute; Wm. Cranston, Chairman of the historic sites board; and James Cochrane, J.D. Sneddon, Kenneth Rowe of the Hospital for Sick Children. : The movement for a symbol of recognition had been going on for some time. A suggestion that the Hospital be named after her, another suggestion that a statue be erected, and even the question of whether to erect a plaque in honour of a living person came up. The plaque was decided upon, especially after the success of a Pickford retrospective at the Stratford Film Festival last summer. Mary Pickford first stepped on a stage in Toronto at age five, and her mother then took her family to New York. By 1907 she was a success on Broadway, and, with the help of Lillian Gish and D.W. Griffith, she became the first star known by name. As Pratley described her career to the audience at the unveiling, the immensity of her achievements — not only stardom but the founding of United Artists and over fifty films in which she appeared — became evident against a background of humble beginnings. Rogers confessed that when he visited Toronto in 1931, he went to where her house still stood. It was derelict and he took six bricks back to her. In the evening a special shawing of the 1925 film My Best Girl was presented at the Ontario Film Theatre. It starred Pickford and Rogers. | Va . ~s = MARY PICKFORD Bern tn 1893 in a house which stood near this sit Marie Smith appeared on ' Her theatrical career took her to she adopted the name Mary Pickford © Gindys stage In Toronto ‘at the age A tive Broadway in IGO7 where The actress's carliest Biscuits, was released by the Biograph and children's » Sweetheart. She “a major film production } feature -length_films including company soon established herself as the Her golden ¢curis “America’s Hearts Adrift. Yorn For the last-named film, she received the | {O20 Academy Award as the year's best actress Kronen to te Atiatgpes! ak Mame Sue Bees > fa ba] he) Ze yo ae Far’ . “ye § : Le — * Ome at yas Se 8; Buddy Rogers stands beside the historical plaque erected to honour his wife, Mary Pick ford, at her birthplace in Toronto. 4