Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 22, 1954)

MAY, 22, 1954 THE CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST PAGE THREE Ray Presents 1 ep ALL the forty years that I have been writing editorials and Ray Presents, this was the first time that a Ray Presents made me sick. It was Sunday evening, and I had just finished Ray Presents, when I began to feel peculiar. As if by magic, there were the dear members of my family in my room, there was the doctor with the face of an owl, something gleaming sharp and steely in his hand. Before I could protest, Bingo, I had had it. I could hear singing, “Give me some men, who are stout-hearted men, who will fight for the land they adore” and then the song changed to, “On the Road to Mandalay, where the flying fishes play,” and the next thing I knew, I was Minnehaha, wrapped in blankets and carried away to an Oxygen Tent. HIS ALL happened ten days ago, and I am alive to tell the tale. You should see the bit of a pencil my family Jeft me to write with, I believe this is intentional, but they don’t know, that ideas are more important than pencils. _ My nurse gave me quite a laugh. She told me, that she and her husband had gone to see ‘Mildred Pierce,” and that they have one daughter, fifteen, who had a miserable time all the next day, because they thought that they might be spoiling her, as Mildred Pierce did her daughter, Everything that she wanted to do, they said “No.” I have been keeping in touch with the news, and note, that the Drive-Ins are having a cold time. Hope it warms up soon. I have been watching developments in the Equipment field, and note that in spite of how Mr. Spyros Skouras, President of 20th Century-Fox feels about the importance of Stereophonic Sound in conjunction with CinemaScope, his company will release CinemaScope pictures with varying appliances of Sound. For any theatre which can afford the Stereophonic Sound with CinemaScope, the increase in entertainment value is most noticeable. ARAMOUNT is talking about VistaVision, and others are talking also, but we must remember what an intensive saturation job everyone, connected with Fox, has done on CinemaScope and Stereophonic Sound; that the public took over where Fox left off, and that this trademark is well implanted. Out of it all, Motion Pictures has created a new-born interest, and people talk about pictures today, not lethargically, but in a tone of enjoyment. You can depend on it, that there is something worthwhile about VistaVision, or Mr. Barney Balaban, the President of Paramount Pictures, and the other executive officers of the company would not be talking so much about it, and giving demonstrations. It so happens, that Paramount has the strongest lineup of product, which it has had in years, a varied program of production with plenty of entertainment values. WISH, that I could attend the VistaVision demonstration, because any new asset to our business, which is really, the miracle-business of a Century, is a most exciting experience. I cannot but recall how hard we cried about Television, the latter which was and is by no means, less than a compeUtive giant, and no laughing matter, but along came the 3-D tremors, over which we began to get a gleam-in-the-eye and then came the big parade about CinemaScope, followed by 4 parade of different processes, and the Television giant, not On our doorstep, but right in our home, became a stale topic of conversation. There is life in the air of our Industry, and it is up to us to capitalize on its power. If we think the public is not as movie-struck as ever, listen to this one. I RECEIVED a card from Mr. Barney Balaban which told me, that he would be coming to visit me at Mount Sinai Hospital, and my nurse said, “Oh, that is the big movie producer, I’m going out to buy a new uniform, and I will come in with a glass of water and trip on the rug, and he will take a look at me, and perhaps give me a part in a picture. They are always having dumb nurses in pictures.” You can imagine how excited I am about the expected visit. You will recall, that last year, when we had the judging of The Showmanship Campaign, we had around three hundred to examine, and it was decided to have _ a mid-year judging, in order to give adequate time to the judges, to examine the campaigns, My congratulations to the winners—First Prize, Paul Turnbull; Second Prize, Arthur Cauley; Third Prize, Nick Langston; Honorable Mention, Bill Burke. E ALL KNOW how vital to the box-office are the special campaigns which exhibitors introduce, some times aided by the distributor’s Exploitation man, in selling the pictures to the Public. I am firmly convinced, that the difference, with a campaign or without, is a difference in hundreds of dollars at the box-office. Our First Semi-Annual Contest is now over, the winners have been announced, and I can state with gratification, that our Semi-Annual Contest will now become a regular feature of our Annual Digest Showmanship Contest. The highlights of the Showmanship campaigns submitted by the four prize winners deserve special mention and I know of no better way of doing this than to allow each winner to speak for himself as outlined in their submissions to the contest. Paul Turnbull, Granada Theatre, Hamilton, who took First Prize with his campaign on Paramount's “War of the Worlds,” divided his campaign into Advance and Current Exploitation. Here is his outline. “Breast badges were worn by all Usherettes; Doormen; Candy Bar Attendants, and Cashiers — three weeks in advance of playdate. s SPECIAL lobby display case was used with model planes, anti-aircraft vehicles and guns; tanks; soldiers; jet planes; green moss, (used as grass); white sand, all promoted free of charge from Riley’s Hobby Shop, with “War of the Worlds” background and cut-out of space ships on both sides. The whole display was lighted by fluorescent light and this was placed two weeks in advance of our playdate, “A six sheet was pasted on the lobby floor two weeks in advance of playdate. This caused much comment as most patrons were scared to walk over top of the six sheet. “Advance stories of inter-planetary space travel and navigation and science-fiction news; advance atomic experiments, were arranged to be featured in the ‘Out of the Notebook’ column of the editorial page of the Hamilton News, as advance interest in science-fiction stories. ? . O huge 8 foot square pictorial displays were secured to the top of our theatre marquee, to which was attached, one foot in front of the top of the displays, two cutout models of space ships. The port holes were cut out and (Continued on Page 6) a Ae Se ee ee ee