Canadian Film Weekly (May 6, 1942)

ex Page 2 Vol. 8, No. 19 __. Address all communications to—The Managing Editor, ~-Canadian Film Weekly, 21 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. . Published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., 5th Floor, 21 Dundas Square, Toronto, Ont., Canada. Phone ADelaide 4310. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. War, Movies, and the Press The American press has always paid more frequent tribute to the place of the motion picture in the daily lives of the people than the Canadian. Editorials praising the cinema are far from uncommon. Even before the USA entered the war newspapers there were not slow in saying often that an evening at the movies was good protection against the strain of the times. The goodwill ad, printed by the paper as its own idea and at its own cost, which advised the reader to take in a movie for any nnmber of good reasons, is nothing new in metropolitan dailies. Canada, which preceded the USA into the war by several years, has relied greatly on its own motion picture industry since the outbreak for war effort, camp entertainment, messages to the people via the screen, explanatory shorts, taxation and morale-building entertainment. But those bouquets on the editorial pages have been comparatively few. As an example of the American press attitude, read this editorial from the Chicago Herald-Examiner. It is called “Entertainment is a Wartime Tonic”: President Roosevelt spoke a simple fact when he told Baseball Commissioner Landis that public entertainment is necessary to the winning of the war. The diversion people find at theatres, motion picture houses, ballrooms, cafes, bowling alleys, sports events is an antidote for anxiety, and anxiety is one of the great destroyers of mental and spiritual well-being. This has been well demonstrated in England under the bombs of German raiders. People deprived of entertainment fell victims to mental depression and ingrown worry. They lost efficiency and health. Their value diminished as producers for war and as members of the great civilian mass of supporters and sustainers and backers of the fighting forces. The British, therefore, have doggedly and successfully striven to keep their theatres functioning and to keep motion picture theatres open. During bombing raids they have been obliged to confine their shows to the daylight hours, but they have kept them open. They have stubbornly and courageously continued the making of motion pictures also, notwithstanding frequent interruptions because of being bombed out of their studios. When the bombers depart, they clean up the wreckage and resume production. : The English have not done these things just to show their courage or their contempt for the enemy, but because they regard entertainment as a PRACTICAL WARTIME NECESSITY. Our own situation in Chicago is far less trying, in regard to actual immediate danger to ourselves, than that of the British, but entertainment is nevertheless a wartime necessity here, as would be quickly demonstrated if we were deprived of it. How long could we endure it, without losing our equanimity and our hopeful outlook, if we were deprived of any place to go for diversion evening after evening and had nothing to do but sit at home listening to the ominous groaning of the radio broadcasters? We are all under special strains, and will be until the war is won. Most of us are working harder than we worked before war _ May 6th, 1942 Nolio NOs. eee a “HIYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor _HYE, BOSSIN, Mange ET a : Canadian FILM WEEKLY < Thirteen Houses Off AF of M Ban (Continued from Page 1) Capitol, Montreal, Que. Little, Ottawa, Ont. Granada, St. Catharines, Ont. Capitol, Saskatoon, Sask. Daylight, Saskatoon, Sask. Beacon, Winnipeg, Man. Garrick, Winnipeg, Man. Rialto, Winnipeg, Man. AF of M musicians will now be permitted to cross IATSE picket lines, it is presumed. The IATSE controls projectionists and stagehands and under the agreement each organization has supported the other’s strikes actively. On a number of occasions in the past the IATSE, striking in some situations, particularly in Montreal, has given the musicians the right to work just the same. The agreement was ordered cancelled by James C. Petrillo, head of the AF of M. Both bodies have been negotiating for 18 months ‘without a satisfactory decision. came, we suffer the normal and piercing anxieties of people whose kin and friends are under the enemy’s fire and whose country, with all the freedoms that have made it glorious, lies under a menace that can be lifted only by the destruction of its enemies. The world, in short, is full of extremely harsh realities. Day by day we face them and do our utmost to hasten the day when they will vanish. But in the meantime we must have occasional relief from them, which means ESCAPE from them into some form of entertainment that draws the mind away from grimness and relaxes tension and quickens the blood with laughter. Every kind of diversion that does that for us gives us mental health and physical health and fresh good cheer, and is therefore good medicine for a time of trial. If YOU have been worrying too deeply and too continuously about the war, you could do no better than prescribe such medicine for yourself. The Chicago Herald-American daily presents the most complete calendar of amusements of any newspaper in America. Turn to the amusement pages now, select the motion picture, stage show, cafe or ballroom you think you would most enjoy, and GO. It will do you good, and make you better able to do good for America. ee eee ee eee ——_-_——-. eee May 6th, 1942 Myers, Allied, In Toronto Abram F. Myers, general counsel of the Allied State Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors, o of the two leading Independe organizations in the United States, was in Toronto last week. Mr. Myers’ purpose was to gather some information on the effect of the price freezing regulations as far as the motion picture industry is concerned. The Allied’s legal chief was in Toronto on the same day the Senate passed freezing regulations for the USA, which seem largely patterned on Canada’s structure. Leon Henderson had a series of talks with Donald Gordon, who controls the Canadian scheme. Mr. Myers consulted with Lieut.Col. John A. Cooper of _ the MPDA; James Stewart, head of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board; and R. C. McMullen, director of the Theatre and Film Section. He was assured that price control was working very well in the Canadian motion picture industry and that this was due entirely to the outstanding co-operation of every branch of the business. The American film man was the most recent of several important USA film executives to come to Canada for a personal checkup. Before him Sidney Schreiber, Qi Hays Office solicitor, came down for a quick study. Myers reported his conclusions to Allied’s directors at a Chicago meeting. USA freezing regulations are probably more than a month away as far as the application of them goes. The measure must be approved by Congress before it becomes law. The motion picture industry there will be affected in a smaller measure than in Canada. It is known that salaries and admissions will be frozen but it is doubtful if the industry will be subjected to as many ramifications as in Canada. British Pick 'Dawn' The British Filmgoer’s Association has voted Paramount’s “Hold Back the Dawn” as the “Finest film of 1941’’ and Charles Boyer’s acting in the same picture as the “Finest performance by a male actor,” according to word received by the studio from London. Complete Theatre Equipment and Supplies COLEMAN ELECTRIC CO. 258 VICTORIA ST., Toronto, Ont.