Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 15, 1942)

July 15th, 1942 Hamilton 12.05s | Are Court Issue (Continued from Page 1) } hearing of a motion for an order to quash the by-law, made in behalf of Leslie Gregory by Herbert Freshman, was postponed for one week to allow Hamilton theatre owners and the Police Commission to reopen discussions of the matter. Gregory, who operates’ the Windsor, Royal and York theatres, contended that the police commissioners have not the necessary authority to pass such a by-law or any measure purporting to regulate public morals or enforce Sunday observance. He pointed out further that the by-law would prevent munitions workers from having entertainment, a suggestion ignored previously by the commissioners. Hamilton’s chief of police, Thomas Albert Brown, gave in an affidavit filed his reason for recommending passing of the by-law. This was the receipt of complaints from his officers that in the locality near the theatres there was, while the crowd was waiting on Sunday night for them to open and early Monday morning, considerable boisterous conduct, shouting and swearing. Some arrests had to be made. Theatres around which such rowdyism is centred could be locked up till Monday morning, claimed Mr. Gregory. The by-law provides that all theatres, music halls and other places of amusement, shall remain closed from 45 minutes past 11 o’clock on Saturday afternoon to 8 o’clock forenoon of the next following Monday. It is provided, however, that when a Monday is a statutory holiday, the theatres may open at five minutes past 12 on the morning of such Monday. An exception was made to the holding of affairs by patriotic, fraternal and well recognized societies. First Lady Booker Miss Gertrude Tyber, fetching secretary of H. J. Allen and Harry Kauffman of Producers Releasing Corporation, has become Canada’s first lady booker. She shelved the dictation to fill the shoes of Billy Allen, PRC booker, who has become an army camp projectionist. WANTED An experienced Projectionist. Apply to Delaney’s Theatre, Gananoque, Ont., stating experience, salary expected and reference if necessary. SS Canadian FILM WEEKLY Finders Keepers? One thing about the movies—they’ve always tried to make the folks feel at home in the theatre, constantly inviting everyone to relax and be entertained. In cities big movie houses are casual gathering places and in small towns, as in urban districts, they come closer to being a common parlor. The years of beseeching the public to come and be comfortable has often shown humorous and unusual results. Many patrons have accepted the requests literally. Many a manager has been a steward and his men valets of a kind. These days many defence workers, their chances of seeing a show being fewer because of unusual hours, head for the washrooms and do their final slicking up in them before viewing the picture. Then there are the fellows who buy a new shirt and change. But at least they take the old ones with them. And often some paper towels to ease the situation at home. And that’s something when you come to consider the number of people who change suspenders, sox and stockings right in their seats and leave the discarded stuff on the floor. The champion leaver, of course, was the girl who abandoned her baby, with a note attached, in the Vanity Theatre, Windsor, a while back. Make Yourself at Home When it comes to comfort in theatres, the shoe shedders are in the majority. They create a recurring and unsolved mystery. When a manager finds an odd shoe he naturally wonders how the ex-wearer got home. Nobody knows. Few call back. The practice of kicking off the kicks is so accepted by patron and management that any idea of it causing serious complications is the last thing you would think of. You—but not a man named Samuel G. Staff of New York. He sees in it a threat to defence and he wrote a letter to PM, the New York Daily, to say so. PM headed his letter, “Keep Shirts and Shoes On!” Wrote Mr. Staff: “T’d like to enlist your aid in organizing a campaign to deter people from taking their shoes off in public places. Shoes strewn over the floor of a theater, for example, are a public menace, particularly in an emergency such as an air raid or fire. A person with his shoes off cannot possibly respond to directions in an emergency quickly or alertly. “Recently in one of theaters researchers counted 180 pairs of shoes on the floor. And, surprisingly enough, although we’ve always associated women with aching feet, more than men, nearly half the shoes on the floor were men’s. “Tt doesn’t seem to make sense for people to be instructed on how to act in an air-raid emergency in a public place, and then find themselves dangerously impeded by a pair of ownerless shoes.” Maybe the folks will soon be checking their shoes at the boxoffice! Hidden Stars A unique aspect of the business is that there are certain stars who never play the downtown de luxe houses but sneak in before the plush public in Screen Snapshots or a similar type of subject. Gene Autry, for instance. Autry, cowboy singer, draws more fan mail than any, it’s said, and his records outsell Crosby’s more than twice. He’s dynamite in the small town. Any day you can see Autry’s feature getting all the ad play, with an added feature starring Garbo or some such runner-up. Judy Canova is another who is just moving into the vision of cinema cathedral patrons. In Toronto, until recently, Canova was confined to several small houses. Now her pictures are getting wider booking and this has brought unusual results. One manager tells me that when he played his first Canova picture he could judge from the street car transfers on the lobby floor that the patrons came from all over the city to satisfy their curiosity about Canova. Players such as Autry and Canova are worth a try. Page 3 20th Fox, RKO Shift Execs Following the election of Ned E. Depinet as head of RKO, Andy Smith, Jr., resigned his post as general sales manager to join 20th Century-Fox as eastern division sales manager. Smith was at one time eastern division sales manager for Warners and later administered the same territory for RKO, where he rose to the position just resigned by him. Before joining RKO he was sales manager for United Artists. He followed George Schaefer to RKO from UA and left with him. Smith took over from William C. Gehring, familiar among Canadian film men as a former branch manager for both Montreal and Toronto for Fox, who visited Toronto last week. Gehring is now western division sales manager, a position left open by the promotion of William Kupper as executive assistant to Tom Connors. Fox also moved William Sussman, who was southern division sales manager, to home office for special assignments. The southern division has been split up between Smith in the east and Gehring in the west. N. Peter Rathvon, president of RKO, has succeeded Schaefer as chairman of the board of the company’s newsreel subsidiary and Fredric Ullman, Jr., vice-president since 1941, fills Schaefer’s shoes as president. Ullman was replaced by Walton C. Ament, general manager of the newsreel. There are reports that Jules Levey, originally from ‘Toronto, former general sales manager for RKO, would return to his old post, replacing Smith. These reports, however, have been discounted by many, who point out that Levey has been highly successful as a producer. He has turned out five films for Mayfair Productions, all of them having been released through Universal. New Models New Priees Cc. T. R, Sound Equipment PERIGNS COMPANY LIMITED VICTORIA STREET 2027 BLEURY STREET MONTREAL