Canadian Film Weekly (May 10, 1944)

PROF. HAGUE At Seventeen AIG & HAIG, those interH national inspirers of good cheer and quick friendships, are just a couple of funeral-faced reformers alongside of another inseparable twain known as Hague & Cronk—cClair and Ben to you who have shared their robust laughter, sharp wit and deep humanity down through the years. Both these Pioneers are living histories of the Canadian motion picture industry. Hold! On second thought, that is libel. Most his tories are dry, dull and without humor. Not Claw ana ten, They still have plenty of gas even if their engines and chassis aren’t what they used to be. Belonging to a business which “sells” youthful personalities and ideas, they have gone native in that they reflect that aspect of it, being open to the newest physical and mental developments of modern times. They are young men, old style. You have but to see them together, when the sun is sifting through the window in the late afternoon and the pressure of work has been reduced, to realize what a half-century of friendship means. That relaxed period is the time for recollection. One looks at the other and some halfforgotten incident of yesteryear begins climbing over the wall of Time—an incident which has probably long since become home town and industry lore and legend. As the face of the rememberer lights up, a curious, expectant look captures the countenance of the other. There’s a story coming. When the story is told the ether denies, corrects or refuses to confirm it—because it’s about him. And said denials, corrections and refusals being punctuated by affectionate insults in phrases as pungent as an old pipe. Then there are those periods of silent conversation that only the oldest of friends experience, Each looks at the other without saying a word. What follows here is part of the story of two men whose births were practically day-anddate with Mr. Edison’s Kinetoscope, a story which each thought would be about the other. Each publicly and privately tried to slant the writer’s pen in the direction of the other. But having been comrades since school days, either could no more separate himself from the other in recoljection than he could in life. If one gets more space here than the other, it is because that other won the duel. Let’s start with Clair Hague, which is how Ben Cronk wants it. And this means the revelation of an old secret. Hague’s Picture Pioneers’ biography begins in 1904. The purpose of that later date is to hide what went on in his life earlier. Why? Because that period is one of the most interesting and talked-about in Canadian entertainment history and has long since bored its main character. What went on before 19047 Be patient and stick around, You'll find out. meeting the ankle-to-throat dress requirements of the 1390s. One day Ben was having some trouble with a mathematical problem and the teacher offered to work it out in his pupil’s notebook. Before the frightened artist could find an excuse the teacher opened the notebook and came upon Ben’s harem. His eyes pop ped but he gegaid nothing. Ben waited in vain for the axe—or rather the strap—to fall there and then. He was a wise man, that teacher. Later he told Ben to tell the art room to give him any material he wanted for home and school use, In gratitude Ben got a photograph of the teacher and made a portrait from it. The teacher was tickled and a writeup in the local paper followed. Ben's dad was pleased and encouraged him. Not long after the Brantford Minstrels held their annual show and young Cronk did some fast sketching on the stage. Masters Hague and Cronk, each having proof of his ability to entertain, decided on professional Also that Brant careers. i OW, everyone wants to know, *did they get into the business? Like all boys of their age, they were exhibitionists with ju venile devotion to romantic means of expression, fame and livelihood. Hague had become enchanted with those magazine ads that promised mystic powers via correspondence at so much per lesson. Before long he had four beautifully-engraved diplomas which certified to his powers of hypnotism and mind reading. They even licensed him to teach. With youthful confidence, pride and hastiness he did not examine his ability too closely. Not that it mattered, for he soon found that hypnotizing people and convincing them that they were hypnotized amounted to the same thing from a showman’s standpoint. And Ben Cronk? He never took an art lesson in his life, his natural talent sufficing then as now. He could scribble before he eould crawl As he grew older the scribbling took on better order but It never stopped. Most of his youthful jinks took that form. His ability was soon recognized in school and he was usually called on to draw maps and illustrations on the blackboard. But while the rest of the class pondered assorted subjects Ben filled his note book with drawings of the pin-up girls of those days—full figure and not always ford was too small to hold them. So they founded their own company, Hague was seventeen and Cronk fifteen years old. |] ET us here turn to movie tech4 nique and fade in on a street scene in Paris, Ontario, one of a number of hamlets surrounding the key city of Brantford. The camera trucks down a typical main thoroughfare and stops before a long herald tacked up in front of the town auditorium. There are a few curious people reading it and this is the public intelligence being passed on to them: EMPIRE HYPNOTIC AND VAUDEVILLE COMPANY Prof. Hague Great American Boy Hypnotist The Peer of All Hypnotists. Places his subjects in a cata~ leptic anathesia and compels them to do funny and unbelieyable acts at his command, A subject will be put te sleep in a store window at 12.30 on day of show and awakened on the stage at opening of show at night. SEE The breaking of a 200 Ib. stone on the chest of Gordon Macauley cataleptic subject by a member ef the audience with a siedge hammer, CLAIR HAGUE Today See the stone on display at Post Office. See Prof. Hague’s sensational mind reading act. Prof. Hague will drive through the town blindfolded to the Post Office at noon and locate the missing letter and key. Ben Cronk CANADA'S WONDER BOY CARTOONIST In a funny monologue while sketching the profiles of prominent people in a space of time that staggers belief and baffles comprehension. Beautiful Magic Lantern Pictures of the Holy Land COLORED PICTURES WITH SONGS Scenery and Stage Effects by BEN CRONK Four Instrument Orchestra —God Save the Queen— Tonight at 8.30 Admission 25c, Children 1l0c COME ONE COME ALL The herald also listed several other performers hired by Hague and Cronk. The boys soon realized what a believing world we live in. Hague had his hair curled up in the back to meet the publi conception of what a _ native Svengali should look like. The perpetual problem of all stage professors, a clean stiff shirt front every day for the dress suit, didn’t bother Hague. Ben trimmed one out of cardboard, drew some studs on it and that was that. V THILE the Empire company was enlivening life in West ern Ontario Sarios hamlets, its impreslustily across the expressing their devilish (Centinued on Page 10) strode scene,