Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 21, 1943)

Page 6 Releasing &, tea The Reigning Star Robert Donat Count of Monte Cristo with Elisa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sydney Blackmer and Ray mond Walburn in Alexander Dumas’ immortal story * ROBERT DONAT The Ghost Goes West Screen play by Robert E. Sherwood Produced by Sir Alexander Korda * ROBERT DONAT and Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon, Elsa Lanchester and Binnie Barnes in Private Life of Henry VIil Directed by Sir Alexander Korda * CURRENT AND TIMELY HITS Secrets of a Coed Night for Crime Baby Face Morgan Tomorrow We Live * Producers Releasing Corporation LIMITED Executive Offices: 277 Victoria &t., Toronto, 2, Ont. Canadian FILM WEEKLY So Ushering Is An Easy Job? By MILTON KAHN (Kum-C, Toronto) OTHING sounds simpler or easier than being an usher in a theatre. Of course it is easy, nothing to do but usher people to their seats. Only two out of every twenty sit in the seats you show them; it usually takes a few trips up and down the aisle before the average person decides where he wants to sit. People never take the usher’s word that there are seats only at the front. They always look themselves; that means a few minutes walking up and down the aisle before they finally go down to the front seats. There are many different kinds of people who come into a show in the course of a week. I will describe a few of the patrons. At 6.30 the first show starts. Elderly people are usually the first patrons. They attend at the same time, twice weekly, and sit in the same seats. One old fellow has been coming twice a week for the last twenty years. When he leaves he tells me it was a splendid show, whether it was good or bad. One of the best patrons has been in to see the same show three times this week. On the first night I seated him in the centre where every seat around him was taken. In a few minutes he was all alone because he fell asleep and stayed asleep until the end of the show. Six young girls can be very irritating when they come chattering in at eight-thirty wanting six seats beside some good-looking boys in the back of the theatre. When they hear that this is impossible they go off into a babble that sounds like six stations scrambled on one radio. After they finally decide to sit at the front they let everyone know that they have arrived. They laugh and talk, disturbing the people around them, and never keep quiet. The good-natured fellow who comes into the lobby because he can not remain seated for more than twenty minutes, will tell a few jokes, step on the shoes you had polished so brightly and, to top everything, he'll ask if you are enjoying a picture you have only seen six times before. There’s always one humorous guy who thinks the public came to listen to his gags gratis rather than Jack Benny's at a hundred thousand per. The “Dogpatchers” (the recognized sport in Dogpatch is ‘woo pitching”) come in every night. One;night I ushered a young lady into a seat in the centre. She went in to take it. When she got there she found there was room enough to sit down but the seat was partly occupied by a girl who was hanging on to her boyfriend. Probably frightened by the bloodcurdling Andy Hardy picture we were showing that night. Every Tuesday and Thursday night two elderly ladies come in together at the same time. They leave at the same time but they never sit together. One sits at the front, the other at the back. And there you have just a few of the types of patrons who make ushering a hazardous profession. "Thousand Days’ Gets USA Distribution For the first time, the U.S. Office of War Information has accepted a Canadian-produced motion picture for general release in the United States. It is a two-reel short “The Thousand Days” produced by Associated Screen Studios of Montreal. “The Thousand Days” is a dramatic review of Canada’s first three years at war—an historic thousand days since September, 1939. Ask New House in N. Waterford, N.S. Asking that a second theatre be opened in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Local 12 of the United Mine Workers appointed committees to wait on the town council, the Co-operative Society and others with a view to determining the possibility. New Waterford has a number of co-operative enterprises and a move is on foot to establish a new theatre on that basis. At present the Majestic Theatre, operated by Fred Gregor, provides the town with motion pictures. The Majestic, a 500-seater running six days a week, serves the population of 8,000. The view was taken that New Waterford was large enough to support two theatres, that competition provided would bring about better programs, and that one theatre was not sufficient to meet the demands of the moviegoers in this community. It also contended that other towns, much smaller than New Waterford supported two theatres, and that in the respect to providing this class of amusement, New Waterford was asserted to have not been in the least bit progressive, Permission is being sought from the town council as the first step. A permit to build from the Department of Munitions and Supply is also necessary. April 21, 1943 (Ont. MPP’s Pan Crime Pictures Motion pictures passed by the Ontario Board of Censors for public consumption were strongly criticized in the Ontario Legislature during passage of treasury department estimates, including the motion pictures censor board. “The character of pictures is leading to training our youth in use of firearms,’ George S. Henry, Conservative, an ex-premier, declared. ‘Often we see pictures setting out use of firearms. It’s 2 definite responsibility of the Board of Control. We sit back helplessly and say there is no juvenile delinquency while children view these pictures. No one can call them educational. There are drinking scenes with men and women reeling around in such a way it is training the boys and girls to make light of all these things.” Premier Conant said the problem is a difficult one. He had discussed it with social service leaders but the pictures come from across the line. “There’s a lot of trash and downright filth in some pictures,” Mr. Conant declared. “So long as we depend on outside sources, I don’t think we can control these pictures with headquarters in Hollywood.” The House was thrown into an uproar when Wm. Duckworth, Conservative, declared: ‘In every picture there’s some _ distress. Somebody is always in trouble. You never see any one agreeing. Some fellow is shooting the other fellow. They never agree on policy.” To RCAF Frank Kavanaugh, 20th Century Theatres Art Department, who left this week to join the ROAF. sr