Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Nov 26, 1955)

PAGE TWO — “pyezey ec ne a a a Rl ar thn te ese aay ae at ae a rage leet mad Ou the Seam PPP PPO trol of Odeon, and prior to the entry of the Rank interests. In 1944, J. Arthur Rank acquired a SO percent interest in Odeon Theatres of Canada from Paul Nathanson, and the following year, Haskell Masters resigned from Odeon, with a year still to go on his contract agreement. No successor to Masters was named, but Clare Appel was appointed Eastern Division Manager, and Frank Fisher, Western Division Manager. Less than a year later, Paul Nathanson resigned as President of Odeon Theatres of Canada, being succeeded by Hon. J. Earl Lawson, and Dave Griesdorf resigned as B. C. District Manager to head PRC of Canada, later becoming President and General Manager of IFD, Dave stayed in distribution until 1949, when he rejoined Odeon, this time as General Manager with a five year contract. In the interim, the Odeon circuit had been expanding, with several new theatres opened, including the Odeon Cariton, and Odeon Hyland in Toronto. lt was under the direction of Dave Griesdorf that Odeon first acquired some 20th Century-Fox product, three pictures in 1950, and an Official split of the product in August of 1951. In the meantime, Hon. J. Earl Lawson passed away, and had been succeeded in the Odeon presidency, by Leonard W. Brockington. A number of other internal changes in the Odeon Canadian set-up took place, with various representatives of the English company joining the Toronto head office in different capacities. In 1954, Dave Griesdorf’s contract as General Manager was up for renewal or conclusion, and as early as the summer of 1953, the rumours started flying—“Dave did not want to renew;” “Odeon only wanted to renew for one year;” “Dave wanted a huge hike in salary;” “Odeon wanted to cancel the bonus clause.” And so it went on, week after week, with no official news given out to the trade or general press, by either Odeon or Dave Griesdorf, and the rumourmongers had a field day. Apparently it was settled finally, for the end of 1954 came and went, and Dave Griesdorf remained as Odeon General Manager, but the rumours continued, culminating in the official announcement of last week. As at this writing, the announcement as to Dave’s successor at Odeon, has not been released; unofficially, we know, but we still e ~-<=(Continued from Page 1) will not disrespect a confidence. If the official announcement is made before we publish, we will make room for it, as we did last week, and if it is the man we have been advised of, we will discuss him in our column next week. Needless to say, he is a well-respected member of our Industry, and should do a fine job for Odeon. As for Dave Griesdorf, we are sorry to see him leave Odeon. Just a couple of weeks ago, when reports were out that he had secured “Guys and Dolls” from M-G-M for Odeon, and the rumours suggested that “Oklahoma” was also all tied up with an Odeon label on it, the wise boys were all saying, “Dave’s really in the groove up at Odeon now”, etc. We don’t know what Dave's future plans are, but we do know him well enough to know that he would never have accepted the office of Chief Barker of Tent No. 28, Variety Club, if he were leaving Toronto. We’ve heard rumours, plenty of them, but we'll wait until Dave is ready to make his own annouacement, and our guess is that it will be within a week or two. In the meantime, we want to associate ourselves with Dave’s many friends in the Industry who are wishing him the very best for the future, and add our congratulations for a job well done, at Odeon Theatres of Canada. FOX PROMOTIONS (Continued from Page 1) branch managerships and the appointment of a Toronto salesman. Twenty-six year old Gordon Walker Lightstone, a salesman at Vic Beattie’s Toronto branch, last week assumed managerial charge of the Vancouver exchange. A native of Toronto, Gordon joined the company in early 1952. He graduated from Upper Canada College in 1949, A year later, in March 1950, he associated himself with the Toronto branch of Columbia Pictures. One month short of two years later, he resigned to join the bookership at Fox’s Toronto office. Only four months later, on June 16, 1952, he was promoted to salesman. In the Maritimes, Dawson Exley will assume managerial charge of the Saint John branch next month on the retirement of Reg March, who has been Fox’s Saint John manager since September 11, 1922. Dawson Exley, 41 is another Torontonian, married and the father of three children. For 12 years he was associated with Odeon Theatres (Canada), Ltd., as a booker. On Oct. 5, 1953, he affiliated himself with what he says “is the most progressive distributing organization in Canada.” Peter Myers employed him as a salesman at the Toronto branch. On July 11, 1955 he was transferred to St. John where Branch Manager Reg March took him under his wing, GORDON LIGHTSTONE JR. training him to become his successor. Mr. Myers also announced that Robert L. Stern had been appointed salesman in the Toronto branch effective on November 21. Bob Stern’s previous selling experience was in Montreal. At the sales meeting of company domestic and Canadian division managers in Chicago merchandising plans for “The Rains of Ranchipur” and “The Lieutenant Wore Skirts” were formulated. The two CinemaScope productions have been scheduled for release in December and January respectively with “The Rains of Ranchipur” slotted for important Christmas-New Year holiday engagements, The assembled sales executives attended sessions of the Allied Theatre Owners Convention at which a major speech was delivered by company president Spyros P. Skouras on important new advances in CinemaScopije. The sales chiefs were present at a special demonstration at the Oriental Theatre, of excerpts from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel”, multi-million-dollar musical currently being produced in the company’s new 55 mm _ CinemaScope progress and which was exhibited in a reduced 35 mm. version. NOVEMBER 26, 1955 The new look was achieved through the development of a 55mm. negative which Darryl F. Zanuck, studio vice president, says has “four times the information area” of standard 35-mm._ negatives. The new negative will be used exclusively in the future with the pictorial information to be reduced onto 35-mm, prints for general theatrical distribution. Zanuck claimed an improvement of at least 50 per cent over any DAWSON EXLEY thing heretofore seen in CinemaScope. He referred to sharpness of focus, photographic area, sense of audience participation and improvement in depth. It was announced to the convention by Skouras that 20th-Fox, in order to make the advantages of the 55 mm. photographic process available to the largest number of theatres, had decided to abandon its plan of roadshowing “Carousel” in 55 mm. in favor of the film’s release in a 35 mm. version reduced from the 55 mm. negative. He said, the decision will apply only to this one picture. The 20th-Fox head made it clear that this action does not mean the company will not resort to 55 mm. roadshowngs of some future pictures. Tax On Benefit Show Vancouver: Ted Ross, Mayer Enterprises, who headed up the committee for the West-End Fire Fund (there were four lives lost) last week critized the British Columbia government for taxing receipts on a Sunday show in aid of the distressed families. The show held at the Bay theatre raised a total of $800 through a silver collection. Provincial authorities want to collect their 15 per cent. or ten cents per person from the collection.