Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 29, 1944)

November 29, 1944 Form Three New MPTAO Branches Three new associations of theatre managers were founded recently, all branches of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario. Chairman of the Sudbury Theatre Managers Association is John Kurk, Regent, Jim Dodsworth, Capitol, is acting vicechairman and V. Marriot, Grand, secretary. Sault Ste. Marie Theatre Managers Association is headed by W. Chilton, Princess. Al Hartschorn, Algoma, is vice-chairman and W. McGeachie, Orpheum, secretary. Executives of the North Bay Theatre Managers Association are: Chairman, Jack Nelson, manager of the Capitol Theatre; vice-chairman, Lorne Moore, manager of the Melrose Theatre; secretary, D. H. Patterson, manager of the Royal Theatre, all of North Bay. At the meetings those present discussed proposed new safety regulations likely to be introduced in Ontario as a result of the findings of a provincial commission of inquiry, the regulations being designed to cover all buildings used for public gatherings of any kind. Syd B. Taube, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario, addressed the meetings and joined in the conferences with fire chiefs and safety officials. Taube paid tribute to the fire chiefs across Canada for their persistent work in endeavoring to keep the latest in fire prevent'on modes, fire prevention drills, and other matters connected with safety measures before theatre managers, those in charge of other public buildings and all persons who could assist in fire prevention in any way. Congratulations Jimmy Stevenson of Western Theatres, Winnipeg, last week became proud father of a boy. Sarak Gets Queen The Queen Theatre, Toronto, was purchased last week by L. Sarak from A. Wolgeruch. It’s a 462 seat house. Rogell, Art Arthur Story Scheduled Republic’s most expensive film to date will be “Heads It’s Love,’ the original story being by Art Arthur and Al Rogell. The latter, suspended since his refusal to handle “Brazil,” returns to the lot to direct. Authority for the statement that it's a big budget production is Herb Yates, prexy. Virginia Bruce and five top players will work in the film. Canadian FILM WEEKLY ~~ o> @QiczURE bi, ICUS That Fellow Skuce Not so long ago I watched Lou Skuee’s crayon characterizations take form on a theatre screen while a Toronto audience responded handsomely to their entertainment value and gasped at his ingenuity. He was someone new, this man who sat in the dark and drew on an ordinary slide which was magnified almost endlessly. Yet a generation ago Lou Skuce, his drawings and his trademark, Lou’s Goose, were tangled up in the daily conversation of this city. At the peak of his iocal fame he quit here for New York. Some years ago he returned to Toronto for family reasons and though busier than ever on the stage and at the drawing board, he seems never to have recaptured his former prominence among us. Lou, you may remember, was the feature of several industry Christmas parties. He’s the somewhat round fellow with a smooth grey crown of hair and almost professorial dignity. Film Journal Art Skuce came to my mind recently while I was admiring the fine art work that is usual to our film trade journals. Such famed craftsmen as Petty, Vargas, Herschfield, Verde and Hoff help illustrate the ads for the latest films. Each has an individual style. Skuce's work is just as distinctive in its way. It’s human, cheerful and friendly and it seems to me that the only reason it doesn’t turn up along with the others is that he is away from easy contact. A Victory Loan cartoon of his on one of our recent front pages drew much comment and a request from out of town that we lend the plate to a newspaper. Our Christmas cover will be done by Skuce. A Good Story Skuce, when he left Toronto years ago, worked on the nowgone New York Graphic of the Terrific Twenties, for which he drew ‘‘Asparagus Tips.” Winchell was starting out then and since they stayed in the same off Broadway hotel, both often went to work together. Guests in the same establishment and his close chums were Gene Conrad, the writer, and Reg Smith, linotyper on the New York Times. One day they were disturbed by a great noise nearby which, upon investigation, proved to be the birth pains of the Roxy. The boys adopted it as their own. Each day they spent a while watching it grow and after it was finished they often wandered through it admiringly. A number of years passed by and Lou returned to Toronto The bad days had come along and he shared them with the rest of us. Then things took that war-inspired turn and one day Skuce, doing his act before the Exhibition grandstand, was seen by the great showman, George Hamid, who snapped him up and kept him busy. One wire from Hamid nearly knocked him over. It ordered him to play an engagement at the Roxy, New York. So Skuce, at last, returned to Broadway. There he got his greatest thrill by standing in the street and looking at his name in lights on his favorite theatre. Then he sent for his wife and they visited all the places he had haunted in those other years—-the Automat and so on The Projector The little machine on which Skuce draws the colored pictures that are magnified and projected was invented by him about 35 years ago. He built a model of it and Art Kairns, now a projectionist at the Uptown but then with Perkins Electric, constructed a larger machine on the instructions of Harry Coleman, the manager. Lou used it for a while, then put it away and forgot it. One day, during the depressive period mentioned earlier, he was puttering around the attic and found it again. He figured he would take another chance on it and got Harry Coleman, now of Coleman Electric, to build him a new one. The act was an immediate hit and Skuce has been busy ever since. Too bad that Lou isn’t in the film business, for he would make a great Flashback. Many years ago he worked for Winsor McKay usually referred to as the inventor of the animated cartoon. He worked with Disney too, He has many an interesting tale to tell Page ii BOB MYERS The National Film Board has announced the appointment of Robert E. Myers as Director of Theatre Distribution. His assumption of nhew duties follows a year of service in the Royal Canadian Navy, which has released him to the NFB. Myers will direct and coordinate theatre distribution at home and abroad, at the same time retaining contact with the RCN in handling the growing supply of films. He was formerly a booker at the head office of Famous Players. TITA's Contribution USA Army Emergency Relief fund has reached $7,000,000 with the aid of part of the receipts of “This is the Army.” Canadian funds benefitted from the showing of the film on this side. Church Calls NFB Films ‘Harmful’ Resolutions adopted at a meeting of the Ottawa presbytery of the United Church of Canada National Film soard for displaying criticized the “disgusting drinking scenes” in some of its pictures and asked that the board delete all drinking scenes from its films or label them some way so that prospective users of the films would know which contained “objectionable” It was felt that drinking scenes in films were more “dangerous than out-and-out liquor advertising because they imply respectability concerning something that the Church branded positively harmful,” the resolution said. scenes Theatre men, unable to remember such scenes in any Film Board footage, were puzzled by this criticism. It is .felt the attack was misdirected.