Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Dec 15, 1956)

DECEMBER 15, 1956 MULTIPLE RUNS (Continued from Page 1) Oakwood and the Century will remain with their respective circuits. The nine-theatre combination incorporates slightly over 9,000 seats, with the two largest being the Oakwood, 1,393, and the Century 1,354. Twinex’s Downtown, flagship of the 20th Century circuit, has a seating capacity of 1,059, and is situated at Yonge and Dundas, just half a block from the Imperial. In the past, Twinex have operated the Downtown, Glendale, Scarboro, State and Westwood as a five-theatre first-run combo, while the Midtown and the Odeon-Parkdale have been combined with the Bayview and during the past season, the drive-ins, for a secondrun block. It is understood that under the arrangements made between Famous Players and Twinex, product which previously went to the Midtown, etc., under contract for second run, will now be available to Famous Players secondrun, giving them considerable more product strength for their Shows-ofthe-Week, which have proven sucn a tremendous success in the F-P suburbans. For those unfamiliar with the theatre scene in Toronto, considerable confusion might be occasioned by the reference to the OdeonParkdale, as a Twinex house. This theatre is a 752-seat suburban house, formerly owned by Joe Garbarino, and operated for many years as an independent theatre; it was known as the Odeon, long before the Odeon Circuit was formed in. Canada by the’ late Neck. Nathanson, whose son, Paul Nathanson, later sold out to the Odeon Circuit of England and J. Arthur Rank. When the Odeon Circuit built their flagship, the 2,300-seat Odeon-Toronto, or Odeon-Carlton as it has variously been known, an attempt was made to buy out the name of Odeon from Joe Garbarino, so as to avoid any confusion. But Joe wouldn’t sell, and the little theatre on Queen St. W. still retains the Odeon label, although it is now referred to as the OdeonParkdale, to avoid confusion with the other Odeon theatres now in operation in Toronto. With Shea’s Theatre now definitely set to close some time in January, and with “The Ten Commandments” having taken a virtual lease on the University, and the Tivoli tied up indefinitely with “Oklahoma!”, and with the ToddAO version of “Around the World in 80 Days” scheduled to follow at the Tivoli, the Toronto first-run —— “pIeesT pattern is finally shaping up as follows: Famous Players will have the Imperial Theatre as their key first run house, with the HollywoodPalace Runnymede three theatre block substituting for Shea’s. The Eglinton, currently playing the moveover of “War and Peace” alone, will tie-up with Taylor’s Towne Cinema next week-end, for Allied Artists’ “Friendly Persuasion’, but no definite plans for the Eglinton booking arrangement have been announced after the Gary Cooper picture, which is expected to run several weeks. The third outlet for first-run product in which Famous Players are affiliated is the 9-theatre group referred to at the beginning of this report, and, of course they have the cperation of the University and the Tivoli. Odeon Theatres have the OdeonToronto and the Odeon-Fairlawn as a combo, frequently joined by the Odeon-Danforth, Odeon-Humber and the Colony. Their second outlet for first-run product is a combination of the Odeon-Hyland and the Odeon-Christie. Loew’s use Loew’s Downtown and the Uptown as a combination for the biggest pictures, while splitting the two theatres up for less important films. One other downtown theatre, Ben Okun’s Biltmore provides an outlet for a number of first-run action pictures. While the nine-theatre combination first-run outlet may provide a print problem for the distributors, if the set-up proves itself grosswise, the distributors will be happy enough to juggle their prints in order to arrange the bookings. Prints can always be brought in from other branches to take care of the first-run in Toronto, and then shipped back immediately after. This is already being done with Famous Players’ Shows-of-theWeek, which have played at as many as eight F-P suburban houses day-and-date. With the loss of the Palace and Runnymede for the Shows-of-theWeek, it is likely that these two theatres will be replaced by B & F’s Prince of Wales and Beaver, with the possible addition of the same circuit’s Donlands, if prints are available. This would make a nine theatre second-run combo, comprising the Alhambra, Beach, Beaver, Capitol, College, Don lands, Parkdale, Prince of Wales and St. Clair. This combination would give out a total of 9,746 seats, some 730 more than the nine-theatre first-run combination. Variety Committee Chairmen Named Toronto: Dan Krendel, Ist Assistant Chief Barker for Variety Club Tent No. 28, has been named by Chief Barker Nat Taylor as Chairman of the important FundRaising Committee for the Toronto club for 1957. Chet Friedman, recently-elected Property Master of the Tent, who did such a terrific job last year as Chairman of the Souvenir Program Committee for the annual baseball game, will again head that committee next year, in addition to serving as publicity director for the Club. Other committee chairmen named by Taylor include 2nd Assistant Chief Barker Jack Fitzgibbons, Liaison with Variety Village; Jimmy Nairn, Public Relations; Rube Bolstad, Finance; Len Bishop, House; Myer Axler, Production and Entertainment; Johnny Kurk, Out-of-Town Fund-Raising; Al Troyer, Movies for Shut-Ins; Ben Granatstein, Sick & Welfare and Village Visits; Phil Stone, Ceremonial Barker, with Larry Mann as the alternate; Ben Halter, Press Clipping Library; Clare Appel, Liaison, Women’s Committee; Joe Bermack, Telephone; Ralph Dale, Membership. Heart Fund Trustees are Dave Griesdorf, Harry Mandell, Billy Summerville, J. J. Fitzgibbons, Sr., Conny Smythe and Jack Kent Cooke. NFB’s “The Pony” To Be Telecast On Xmas Montreal: The National Film Board announced last week that its film, “The Pony”, will be telecast on the trans-Canada network of the CBC on Christmas Day from 5.30 to 6.000 p.m. The film is a story of two children on a Saskatchewan farm and their keen desire to have a pony. It culminates with the children receiving the pony as a Christmas gift. It is a. subject for the whole family. Canadian Actor To Star In Brit. Film Toronto: Arthur Masse, Canadian actor son of Rev. and Mrs. E, A. Masse, has been signed to a five-year contract with MGM British Studios and Ealing Films Limited and will shortly travel to England for the making of a feature dealing with the Dunkirk evacuation in the Second World War. He has appeared in one J. Arthur Rank picture, “High Tide at Noon”. His father is pastor of the French Baptist Church in Ottawa. PAGE FIVE Art Milligan Heads IATSE Local 173 Toronto: At the annual election of officers for Local 173, Toronto Motion Picture Projectionists’ Union, a complete new slate was elected, with Art Milligan of the Imperial, succeeding Jimmy Sturgess of Shea’s as President. Lou Lodge, of the Casino Theatre, succeeded Pat Travers as_ business agent for the Local. New vice-president is Sam Wells of the Uptown, new secretarytreasurer is George Jones of the Tivoli, and new recording secretary is Graydon Hulse of the Hyland. Other members of the Board include Roy Wilson, Biltmore; Bill Hills, Plaza; Dave Siegel, Casino; and Gus Demery, Uptown. Board of Trustees include Jack Harris, Rio; Hilliard Gray, Allenby; and Bill McCaul, Broadway. Sergeantat-arms is Russ Sturgess, Biltmore, Weston, with George Robinson, Imperial, as the tyler. CHUM Promotion Plug For “River Plate” Toronto: Odeon Theatres, Kresge’s and CHUM-1050, have united on a promotion for the upcoming JARO film, “The Battle of the River Plate”. Phil Stone of CHUM-1050 is currently broadcasting his 2.00 to 4.00 p.m. daily “Main Street, Toronto” program from a window of Kresge’s, Carlton and Yonge. Customers making purchases at the various Kresge counters during Stone’s stay are given a letter from the word “Kresge’s” at each counter, and when they have completed that name, turn it in for a free guest ticket to see “The Battle of the River Plate.” A young lady dressed as a Santa Clause elf is stationed at the Kresge toy counter to give out the free guest tickets. Ty Power Heads Cast Hollywood: Tyrone Power has been signed by Arthur Hornblow, Jr. to head the all-star cast of “Witness for the Prosecution’,, the Agatha Christie stage hit which will be produced by Hornblow and Edward Small in association with Tyrone Power and Ted Richmond’s Copa Productions, Inc., for United Artists release. The film will be directed by Billy Wilder and shot for the most part in Hollywood, although camera crews have been shooting interiors and exteriors in and around London for the past few months.