Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 20, 1943)

Pago 6 Many Mourners at Rites for Robson (Continued from Page 1) and theatrical agencies attended the funeral as well as many friends, business associates and members of the family. He died Tuesday at his summer home, “Robsonys,” Maskinonge Park, at Keswick, in his Gist year. Rev. J. A. Miller, United Church minister, officiated at the service which was held at the chapel of McDougall and Brown, Danforth avenue. Principal mourners were: Mrs. Ethel Wiley Robson; a daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius T. Spencer, and a sister-in-law, Mrs. Myra Robson of Fort William. Pallbearers were friends and business associates of Mr. Robson’s: G. H. Beeston, treasurer of the Empire Universal Films Ltd.; T, J. Bragg, president of General Theatre Investment Co. Ltd.; Paul L. Nathanson, president of Odeon Theatres of Canada Ltd.; N. §S. Robertson, director of Famous Players Canada Corp. Ltd.; Mayor Beverley Robson of Guelph, a cousin, and George Stroud, manager of the Palace Theatre, Hamilton. Warners Buy Up Foreign Theatres Warner Brothers are Ieading all American major studios in their purchases of foreign theatre holdings. In England, Ireland and Scotland, Warners own the second largest theatre chain. Houses have been acquired in Cairo, throughout Switzerland, and the company is preparing to purchase properties in North Africa. With three houses in Mexico City, the company is starting a chain in Mexico and has purchased many Peruvian properties. SEAT REPAIRS * Send us your torn seats to be re-upholstered with genuine Leathereloth Seats returned same day as received. * CANADIAN THEATRE CHAIR CO. 277 Victoria St., Toronto, Ont. Canadian FILM WEEKLY n The % OZ QUARE An Historic Boner There ought to be, right next to the Hall of Fame, a Hall of Ill-Fame. There are those who gave great things to the world and they deserve to be remembered. And there are those who brought tragedy. The latter, as a iesson to future generations, ought not be forgotten. Both the noble and the vile made history. Then there ought to be a special building for bad guessers whose prophecies were historic flops. The letters and journals of several generations past can reveal many 2 supposed savant who didn’t think that the auto was here to stay and dismissed the airplane as an interesting but impracticable experiment. Whom shall the Motion Picture Industry select from among those here and gone to occupy its pedestal in the Hall of Bad Guessers? The sucker seers of other years are still chilled by the icy gales of sardonic laughter that sweep the earth and are heard in Heaven. Among the nominees will certainly be William C. deMille, a ranking playwright at the time the film business was beginning to crawl. His brother, Cecil B., has atoned somewhat in the eyes of movie men for William C.’s lack of cinematic sagacity. She Called the Turn Not many years before William C. deMille went out on the long limb a lively little girl played on the pavement of a Toronto street almost in the shadows of the City Hall tower. Time and talent was to make her name and fame known in every corner of the world. The love of millions provided the impetus that began the forward march of the motion picture. The bright little girl had become an actress of promise at the age of sixteen. The leaders of the stage promised her the world but she was attracted by a new medium that won general ridicule. She was faced with a tremendous personal decision. Her choice made history. Of this girl William C. deMille, In a letter dated July 25th, 1911, wrote to David Belasco: “Oh, by the way, you remember that little girl, Mary Pickford, who played Betty in ‘The Warrens of Virginia?’ I met her again a few weeks ago and the poor kid is actually thinking of taking up moving pictures seriously. She says she can make a fairly good living at it, but it does seem a shame. After all, she can’t be more than seventeen and I remember what faith you had in her future; that appealing personality of hers would go a long way in the theatre and now she’s throwing her whole career in the ash-can and burying herself in a cheap form of amusement which hasn’t a single point I can see to recommend it. There never will be any real money in those galloping tintypes and certainly no one can expect them to develop into anything which could, by the wildest stretch of the Imagination, be called art. “I pleaded with her not to waste her professional life and the opportunity the stage gives her to be known to thousands of people, but she’s rather a stubborn little thing for such a youngster and says she knows what she’s doing. “I suppose we'll have to say goodby to little Mary Pickford. She’ll never be heard of again, and I feel terribly sorry for her.” It Made Mark Wonder The inspiration for this column came from Mark Larkin, who travels ahead of Charles c'rancis Coe, an old friend of Mary’s. A living legend over all the world and still the First Lady of Hollywood, 2 million hamlets would be proud to identify themselves with Mary Pickford. Yet in Toronto, where she was born, nothing exists to honor her but the love of the people. This year her birthplace on University Avenue was torn down, after years of neglect and so the major symbol of her connection with the Queen City disappeared. In Toronto’s ornate City Hall there are paintings of civic notables but none of Mary. Mark Larkin, sentimentalist that he is, acquired two mementoes of Mary’s Canadian history—bricks salvaged from the house on University Avenue in which she first saw Nght in the world that was to know her as one of its brightest ornaments. They have been sent to the Motion Picture Section of the Los Angeles Museum, where can be found the only set of the famed Pickford curls. ‘Corvette K-22 In Two-City (Continued from Page 1) of the special showings, whit attended by notables mm political and military life in cases. The film opened its runs the next day, simultar with the Uptown, Toronto, | ing in all key centres of minion will begin in the r a days. ae The Ottawa end of the pre was under the patronage 6 Governor-General and HH. Princess Alice and a nay of honor was present to them. ae Randolph Scott, star of the and Kate Smith were p see Vice-Admiral Perey ~ give Richard Rosson, the 4 tor, a decoration in behal the Navy League of Canada. Smith was in Oftawa $ broadcast that week. ian The Associated Screen WN was on hand to record the © affair, picturing the large crows high-ranking naval officers — 4 outstanding citizens who took p in the proceedings. ve USA Firms Aid Army Theatricals A number of American contrac ing firm have arranged to Edmonton Little Theatre p f a three-night variety show, pr ceeds of which will be turned ¢ to the group’s building fund. Th firm will finance the additic ms stagings of the show for member of the armed forces in service huts Altzev, Russ Film R Locates at Toronto — Leonid Altzev, representativ Canada of the Soviet inem: Committee, has arrived in To ronto, where he will take up” residence, _ Altzev is a director of children’s films, which in Russia are show in special theatres to which adw are admitted only when aceon panied by a child. a His purpose is to study ne types of film Canadians like and how they react to current R films. He will try to further So viet-Canadian friendship by send: ing our films to Russia and imx porting films about that country. was Ba We Will Rent or Be Leade Your Theatre I} Price J4 Right WRITE TO BOX 17 Canadian Film Weekly EE ICME IETS