The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (Aug 1, 1941)

August Ist; 1941 John P. Pitner Dies in Crash _John Paul Pitner, 60, wellknown theatre manager of New Westminster, B.C., died in the Royal Columbia Hospital on Sunday, July 20, after being injured in a head-on automobile collision. Mr. Pitner, who for the past eight years managed the Columbia Theatre, had been in the theatre business for the past 30 years. He was born in Greencastle, Indiana. © In 1911 he was’ an operator at the old City Theatre, Victoria, one of the first movie houses in that city. Later he managed the Capitol. For a short time in 1932 he was manager of the Kitsilano Theatre in Vancouver. The Bulldog Lets Go -The, British government no longer retains its Paramount holdings. It was a comparatively large stock holder up to a year ago. Then Paramount bought back $600,000 of the company’s first preferred stock, reducing the government’s share. The matter came up when it was apparent that no Paramount stock was involved as collateral in the new $425,000,000 loan to Britain from the United States. Bans Iceland Reels President Roosevelt is firm in his decision to keep reporters, radio broadcasters and newsreel cameramen from _ reporting Iceland activities. Right now the American troops are adjusting themselves to their new duties and the President feels that reporting the scene would not be a judicious move. He promised that the ban would be lifted as soon as possible. “New Super GARDINER Projector” With Barrel rear shutter Has no equal for fine projection and long life. As low as $9.00 weekly. GET OUR PRICES AND YOU WILL SURELY BUY FROM US “YOU CAN GUESS THE REASON” bs F YOURM™M . bein’ -TGE LESY kh. : eine sh ACIEC 1th AN: ae coliurnt WEAK SUCLLIES a * WE 207 OR MORE SLECLL SE LOR Zé YEA = a ASK ITs ELAM s WACKKCWS UE: DOMINION THEATRE ¢o 347 DAVIE ST WANCOUVER B.C. The Exhibitor Picture Pickups By TAP KEYES Hollywood Memories The sharp-eyed guard at the private entrance of the studio had looked me over jas though I were an opium smuggler and he a Customs officer. Motion picture studios are harder to crash than the payoff of a crooked politician. Then the guard spotted Art Arthur and waved us inside. Art is the scenarist from Toronto whose “Tight Shoes” just won the Hollywood Reporter poll as the best ‘General Feature” of July. The latest film whose screen credits he shares is Fox’s ‘Sun Valley Serenade,’’ Sonja Henie’s new song-and-skate sagia. So now Arthur and J stood facing! the largest small building in the world. This two-storey Tudor edifice faces Berlin’s Unter den Linden and stretches from London’s Piccadilly Circus to Madrid’s Castelnuova. That’s what the street signs read. Yet this was Movietone City, which covers an area of 225 acres. But this is Hollywood. Anything can happen in Hollywood. * Eg og * ok Studios are strange private worlds. Because the images they exist, to create are reflections of life, they are at once vast and “compact. Their research departments stock the habits and man ners of Mankind through the ages. So what’s so surprising about the world’s greatest thoroughfares being just a few feet apart here? This is the Writer’s Building. Its occupants represent the heart of this amazing industry. They create the characters, motives and fates of the silvery folk who flit for a short while across the screens of the world. Then disappear forever into cans. Hollywood is the Utopia of the writer—the lavish ground floor below the ivory tower or comfortless garret of literary tradition. Writers find their greatest financial appreciation here. Versatility and graftsmanship are supreme. The writer is expected to fall in with the latest subject cycle, be it child fantasy or racketeéring. The incompetent soon finds himself in the warm but dreary world outside the gates. Cleverness at a certain theme will chain you to it until public demand dies out. An artistic soul iand freedom of expression are worth only what they, assay at the cubicle in front of the theatre. On the building one reads: “A Play Ought to be the Image of Human Nature for the Delight and Instruction of Mankind.” That still holds good, even if the emphasis is on “Delight” rather than “Instruction.” * * ** * * I had caught up with Arthur on a slow day. After lunch in the comissary amid soldiers, prospectors, pinates, etc. we took to strolling through the studio’s ghost towns. We passed a building used in the making of “In Old Chicago.”’ I was surprised to find it constructed of real bricks. “No,” said Mr. Arthur. “Yes,” I insisted. Mr. Arthur wears glasses. I don’t. We bet. I lost. The “brick” surface was a pattern. ' Soon we came to some actors kiHing time between takes of Arthur’s opus for the Ritz Brothers, “Kentucky Moonshine.” One was rehearsing a tippling hillbilly. “Who is he?” I asked. “John Carradine,” replied Art. “Impossible,” said I. “Absolutely,” said Arthur. We bet again. I lost again. You just can’t be a wise guy in Hollywood. * * * * * Returning, we pounded along a cobblestone roadway in an old French village. ‘‘Amazing,”’ I said charily, “how real these fake stones seem.” Mr. Arthur laughed scornfully. ‘They are real,” said he. ‘No,’ I said stubbornly. There were but two things to do—duel or bet. We bet. This time I had him. The cobblestones were phoney, having been designed on a bed of concrete. _ Then Arthur went to where he had parked his car. An angry studio policeman was waiting for him. “You know what a fire can mean around here,” he boiled. “Have you mo more ‘sense than to park in front of a hydrant for hours?” “I thought,” replied Mr. Arthur sheepishly, “that it was a prop. ” You just can’t be a wise guy in Hollywood. Or did I say that before? Page 5 Television Makes Rapid Strides Television is gaining as rapidly as radio did, if not more so, in its early stage. Already 40,000 persons are looking and listening nightly over from 4,500 to 5,000 receiving sets. The National Broadcasting Company is leading the field in popu larizing the mew entertainment. . Arrangements are being made for fight broadcasts. From 450 to 600— of the receiving sets are in public places. Movie people are watching the developments anxiously and there is no doubt that some arrangements have been made to meet the competition when it looks threatening. Fox Schedules Season's Output Twentieth-Century Fox will release about 52 pictures next season, announces Herman Wobber, general manager of distribution. The new short subject program was also revealed. These will be 26 one-reelers made up of the following series: “Magic Carpet of Movietone,” “Adventures of a Cameraman,” Ed Thorgerson’s “Sports-reel” and “The World Today.” The rest will consist of 26 Terrytoons. The advertising budget for the coming season has been greatly expanded, according to Charles E. McCarthy. The figure will reach nearly $2,000,000. TR. 1287