Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 21, 1945)

Page 2 February 21, 1945 Canadian FILM WEEKLY , Ask Amendment Court Ends B&L, Offer Television Of 12.05s Ban (Continued from Page 1) ator was made aware that his interests were being judged — an amazing situation. The proposed by-law came before City Council for approval and won negative votes from two of the city’s four controllers and three of its aldermen. Mayor Robert Saunders was vehemently opposed to midnight shows, denouncing them as a hazard to juvenile delinquency before a Massey Hall mecting of the clergymen’s committee of the Health League. Theatre men, knowing that the law forbids admission of juveniles to theatres, are puzzled at the vigor with which Mayor Saunders has pursued the matter and feel irked that he should have s2en fit to associate midnight shows with the battle against VD—which is what newspaper reports of the meeting indicate. This, it is felt, was a thoughtless action. Under Paragraph 1 of the proposed by-law theatres will be forced to close each day of the week except Saturday at 11.45 p.m. and shall remain closed until at least 8 a.m. No suggestion has been made that this should apply to any other amusements and poolrooms, sporting events and dancehalls are not affected. Why theatres, which require less policing than any other form of professional amusement, should attract such emphatic interest is not explained. The fact is that theatre men believe that they have received shabby treatment from the first. It is quite possible that the Board of Police Commissioners and Mayor Saunders, a member of it, will realize that their hastiness was unfair and allow an amendment to the present proposal. The Toronto Evening Telegram sought opinion on the possible ban and learned from one exhibitor that ‘‘We feel the midnight shows to be a necessity. Each Sunday we have the same midnight trade and know that a good many of our patrons are war workers and musicians, whose work with bands leaves them no other time, and the like. We never see them during the week.” “IT see no harm in running a midnight show,” another told the reporter. “There are people who can't go any other time, and the fact that about 25 theatres in Toronto are well-patronized at midnight shows seems to prove there is a definite need for them. It is not right to suspect that everyone found on the streets is a criminal. That is the inference I draw from the magistrate’s Mason Deal (Continued from Page 1) a result of the finding the control of the New Glasgow Theatres passes to the company of which Mayor Sobey of Stellarton is the controlling head. The principles associated with Mayor Sobey are Bertram Godden, Dr. C. Miller, Thomas Foster, H. B. McCulloch, M.P., and other smaller shareholders. Mason, who was the largest individual shareholder, had agreed to sell his control to B&L Theatres, Saint John, N.B. The company opposed and upon this the lawsuit was established. The result may be that four theatres, Roseland and Academy in New Glasgow, and the Stellarten and Westville houses may be put under a common management. As yet, however, no decision in that respect has been arrived at. Mason, who for so long managed the New Glasgow houses will no doubt retire from the theatre business. He is over eighty years of age. Apart from his entertaining, he found time to serve as Mayor of the town for several years. Heyman Heads JA in Kingston, Ontario The 1945 officers of Local Union 528, IATSE, Kingston, Ontario, are Lawrence Heyman, president; George Clapp, vicepresident; Arthur Sweet, secretary-treasurer; Rodrick Davey, business agent; and William Richardson, sergeant-at-arms. statement. The reason he offers for this action seems very flimsy. Labor would be affected by the banning of midnight shows. Twenty-five theatres operating put a lot of money in unionized workers’ pockets.” (The ‘“‘magistrate’s statement” referred to above is that of Magistrate Browne, who said that six days of shows were enough and that young people shouldn’t be out late.) Those members of the City Council who voted against the ban were mainly associated with the labor movement. The Workers Educational Association has sponsored midnight shows for war workers in the past. By Subscription (Continued from Page 1) receive the television program, was fully endorsed by Arthur Levey, president of Scophony Corporation of America in which a 50 per cent stock interest is held by Paramount Pictures Inc. and 20th Century Fox via corporate entities. Levey last fall revealed that Scophony was surveying the possibility of creating a ‘‘box-office” for television and considers this method as providing an additional source of revenue for major film distributors. Levey stated that subscription radio, utilizing the exclusive Scophony “scrambling”’ device registered at the U.S. Patent Office, is the invention of Dr. A. H. Rosenthal, eminent physicist, and director of research for Scophony and would enable the television broadcaster to accurately gauge the size of his audience. “Scophony believes subscription radio probably will prove a substantial factor in solving television’s economic problem,” said Levey, “and we are contemplating supplying subscribers with the latest improved model of the Scophony home television receiver successfully demonstrated in London in 1939 and which actually shows a picture 24” x 20” in size comparable to 16 mm home motion pictures, upon payment of a small installation charge, plus a weekly inclusive fee of $2.25, which would enable subscribers to amortize the cost of the set in about two years. “The Scophony subscription television plan envisages an audience of at least 1,000,000 within a few years after post-war and at fifty cents a week, a subscriber fee of $500,000 or an annual revenue of $26,000,000 for the program service alone.’ Referring to the motion picture industry, Mr. Levey said—‘Barney Balaban and Paul Raibourn of Paramount, instinctively realizing that television will be the mass entertainment of the future and therefore have a profound effect upon all show business, purchased a substantial interest in Scophony Corporation of America and its patented Supersonic and Skiatron Television Systems as an insurance policy for the stockholders of Paramount Pictures. Vol 10, No. 8 Feb. 21, 1945 HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor Address all communications—The Managing Editor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. Published by Film Publications of Canada Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Phone ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. Entered as Second Class Matter. Printed by Eveready Printers Limited, 78 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontario. No Tax Action Taken Yet (Continued from Page 1) government, Mitchell F. Hepburn, now leader of the Opposition. However, they didn’t get a declaration of intention or nonintention either. Since the meeting the Toronto & District Labor Council, which several weeks ago presented Mr. Frost with a resolution of protest in behalf of the 90,000 workers it represents, has continued to organize against the possibility of the tax. Last week the Council reiterated its stand, suggesting that any tax be not applied to admissions of less than 50 cents. This limit was given in a resolution to its parent body, the Ontario Federation of Labor, asking that the latter body forward its views to the authorities. The reasons for the exhibitors’ objections, as presented to Mr. Frost, were: 1. The program on which the government was elected was to improve the lot of the citizen in the lower income bracket. The great majority of those attending motion pictures are people living in that bracket, and motion pictures are the most popular form of family entertainment and the proposed tax would be an added burden on these people. 2. This type of tax has always been considered strictly a nuiSance tax in the eyes of the public and its collection cumbersome and unpopular. A similar tax, previously in force, was abolished in 1937 for these reasons, 3. The Trade Union organizations quickly made known their opposition when this tax was first rumored. The vast body of small town workers and farmers have no existent organized means of making a similar protest. Nevertheless there are strong indications that they would also voice serious opposition to such a tax because it is they who can least afford an increase in the price of admission to their favorite theatres and will strongly resent being forced to pay it. Members of the delegation which met with Mr. Frost are Mayor Fred O. Graham, who is interested in the Rio, Essex, Roxy, Kingsville and Haro, Harrow; Mayor Floyd Rumford, Kineto, Forest; EB. S. Meehan, Academy, Lindsay; and Stuart Fleming, Lincoln, St. Catharines. The Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario is continu ing its interest in tax developments,