Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 9, 1944)

August 9, 1944 Joe Marks Passes, Was Show Vet (Continued from Page 1) the Marks moving picture theatre in that city, which is operated by 20th Century Theatres. The Marks Brothers came from Christie’s Lake ,near Perth, Ont., where their father, who came out from Ireland, pioneered over 100 years ago. Despite their many years on the road, the sons of the family maintained their link with the family seat, spending the Summer seasons at Christie's Lake and eventually retiring there and at Perth. While all of the seven Marks brothers were in the show business at one time or another, but five of them made it their life career, namely Robert, Joseph, Tom, Ernie and Alex, all of whom toured the country for many years with their own stock companies. John and McIntyre Marks only occasionally went on the road. There were two sisters, Olivia and Nellie. In their home locality, the entire family was known for its wit, music and song, long before the individual members and their stock companies enlivened the theatre life of Canada. Friends and associates all over the country will also long remember them for their generosity and warm heartedness, while in the history of the theatre the brothers endowed their name with integrity and honesty. Nathanson, Masters In New York Paul Nathanson and Haskell Masters are in New York for a couple days on business. There's plenty doing around Odeon Theatres and Empire-Universal these days. "Alaska'’ Preem Various theatres in Alaska have been contacted by Monogram Pictures representatives with a view to staging the world premiere of the recently completed “Alaska’”’ in the frozen north. Britain Has New Angle on Crashers Britain has found a new way of discouraging youthful theatre gate crashers. Instead of putting the kids out of the theatre they are now haled before a magistrate and fined for failing to pay the amusement tax. First such case was successfully prosecuted by the Leicester Square Theatre, London, recently. Taking advantage of the blackouts, the juveniles have been sneaking in through the exit doors. Canadian FILM WEEKLY /On The Square » with Hye Bossin Lines and Outlines You'd have a pile if you had a buck for every rumored change in Canadian exchange circles, And there will be some important ones ... Roy Castleman, a Montreal lad who spent a number of years across the line, will be United Artists’ promotion representative here .. . Mae Bloom, sister of Dewey, passed away in Hamilton recently ... Movie men, often accused to handing out corn, got some given them by Ed Wells, CMPPDA secretary, who raises the stuff. Ed had Child’s roast thirty cobs ... At the St. Louis convention of the IATSE the band played “O Canada” in tribute to the Dominion delegates when the proceedings were opened . . . In “Two Girls and a Sailor” Ben Blue and Jimmy Durante exchange the following dialect: Durante: “I’m an executive.” Blue: “You're a dope.” Durante: “One can be both!” ... Daye Snider tells about the time he could see from the projection booth at the Orpheum, Toronto, that street car passengers were looking at the theatre and laughing. He went down for a look. The marquee read; “40,000 Horsemen and They All Kissed the Bride ... “That's a horse on me,” used to be a favorite hoisting crack but it became literal in the case of Jack Goldhar, UA’s Detroit division manager, who is one of the local Goldhar theatre clan. The horse he was riding . The husband of Betty Graham, cashier at the Queen’s, Hespeler, L/Cpl. Harry Graham, was killed in action in Italy. fell on him... * e Cupids Extraordinary Jack Purvis and Lloyd Gurr, managers respectively of the Tivoli and Century, Hamilton, Ontario, handled a special job for Cupid locally. The Century played “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” but had no stage for the units of Disney’s models that came to town so Purvis lent his. In the second unit was Antoinette Chevonne, pretty dwarf measuring four foot two inches, on whom Disney based Sleepy. The boys booked the unit for an appearance at HMCS Star, naval establishment, and there Tony met a sailor named Eddie Baker. Love, They’re going to be married. Purvis and Gurr, the old matchmakers, are tickled. * The Lead Sheet Ben Smith popped in for a hello last week. He’s a brother of Abe Smith, Regal’s St. John man and is out of Albany, NY, from which place he adventures forth for PRC and the New York State Exhibitor, trade sheet. He brought regards to the Square from George Jeffery of UA, brother of Canadian UA’s Bert . . . Another drop-in was outsize Morris Steinberg, musical director for InterState Theatres of Texas, Bob O’Donnell’s 180-theatre chain . . . Post-war theatre race may lead to the revival of the adage, “If you can’t buy out, buy in” . . . Senator Bouchard, whose revelations caused such a stir, owns a theatre in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec » One-line limn of Virginia O’Brien: The Melancholy Dame . . Some filmites were talking about how to punish the Nazis. One named a certain distrib exec and said, “Make them work for him as salesmen” ... Saw Tom Rutherfurd’s dollar and a half (with tax) “Hamlet” at Ernie Rawley’s last stand of the living drama, the Royal Alexandra. Sparse production and somewhat off the Elizabethan path trod by Geilgud and Evans but the drama critics did raves. Demonstrates the difference between the reviewing of films and stage drama. The flesh inspectors go all out regardless but the film checkers seem inclined to find something good In each poor film and something bad in each good one. Not a bad approach ... In England film vaults are called “dumps”. « Releasing i lumited R % PRC DELIVERS Fields MINSTREL MAN Benny DELINQUENT DAUGHTERS June Carlson Fifi D’orsay LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE Lionel Atwill Jean Parker WATER FRONT John Carradine J. Carrol Naish SEVEN DOORS | TO DEATH Chick Chandler June Clyde CONTENDER Buster Crabbe Arline Judge MACHINE GUN MAMA Armida El Brendell You Can Rely On PRC Producers Releasing Corporation LIMITED Executive Offices: 277 Victoria St, Toronto, 2, Ont.