Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 17, 1945)

Page 18 was like a dream fulfilled. Since she had been a tiny child, she had spoken a Shakespearean and classic language, she had talked of English people, the English countryside and -all the great classics which England had produced. Now she saw this historical English background for the first time. Because of her theatrical association she was well received and returned to Canada triumphant, bringing back about fifty British moving pictures, among which was “The Better ’Ole’, a pronounced Canadian success. “The Better ’Ole” was a screen adaptation of Bruce Bairnfather’s beloved cartoons of World War I. ats was only a beginning. A contract with British International Pictures (Export) Limited brought “Keep Your Seats Please” and introduced George Formby for the first time to Canadian audiences. A franchise covered a selection of twenty British pictures yearly, for a period of five years, but someone else in Canada was anxious to secure these pictures and George Formby; and sc Ray, after winning a legal battle, gave up this franchise, but continued with her British Film Interests, forming Alliance Films Ltd. and securing a franchise from an American company which had secured both American and British rights on British pictures. Mrs. Smith still believes in the excellence of British pictures, “They have all been stage players before screen players,’ she explains, “they have Canadian FILM WEEKLY Ray and Jay= Smith Family (Continued from Page 14) learned diction and have stage presence, also, a wonderful sense of characterization.” On one of her periodical visits to England, Ray Lewis met some one with a matching love of beauty and poetry and a consuming respect of the theatre. He was the late Joshua Smith, R.B.A., English portrait painter. and he adored Pauline Frederick and Doris Keane, the latter of whom he painted in her famous characterization, in “Romance.” So tiny Ray Lewis not only snared a good British picture, but a famous husband, and brought him triumphantly back to Toronto. “The English have no equal for generous hospitality,” said Ray Lewis laughingly, “but you can imagine the black looks I received from Joshua’s girl friends for taking unto myself one of the most eligible bachelors and persuading him to leave England for Canada.” R. SMITH maintained a studio ‘in England as well as in Canada. Among his portraits was one of “Fighting Bob’—"Kitchener’—painted during the last war, Lord Byng of Vimy, and the late John Buchan, Governor-General of Canada, as Lord Tweedsmuir. Hanging today in Mrs. Smith’s office, is a life-size charcoal portrait of Anna Neagle as she played the title role in “Queen Victoria.” While Joshua Smith painted, Mrs. Smith continued to write and to promote. A hit on the English screen was her ‘London Melody” which came to Canada with Anne Neagle as star, titled, “Look Out For Love.” Acquiring The Digest in 1915, she saw that it was regularly edited and published. It will this year celebrate its Thirtieth Anniversary of publication, being one of the oldest of the film magazines. Then on a fiying trip to New York, a son, James Lewis Smith, broke up the holiday by arriving a few weeks earlier than expected. “But I got my American citizenship out of it” is James’ cheerful comment today. Jim Smith claims he teethed on a tin can holding a roll of film. Though it was his mother’s fondest wish that he become an artist, “I couldn’t even draw a straight line. Besides I didn’t want the kind of business where I had to wait for people to come to me,” explains Smith. His first intention, however, was to study law. One of his happiest memories was the importance of having a handful of passes to distribute to his small friends at Upper Canada College every Saturday afternoon. “Mother used to take us all to lunch and then one of the biggest thrills of my life was leading a string of boys into the Uptown Theatre while Teddy Gee, who has been doorman for 25 years, gravely saluted us.” Incidentally, James’ older son, Ray Lewis Smith, named for his grandmother, is enjoying the same privilege today, also at Upper Canada. In his last year at Upper Canada, Jim developed severe bronchial pneumonia and was sent to the West Coast for a year. There, while his mother thought he was broadening his education, he accepted his theatrical inheritance by getting a job with Fox Westco Theatres. He did publicity work for them and when he returned to Canada all hopes for study of law were dead. He joined his mother on the Digest, for which he had been writing movie reviews. When war broke out he returned to the States to enlist, but was refused because of his bronchial history. A month before the war, in 1939, he and his mother finished building the Pylon Theatre on College Street, Toronto, they also acquired the Avenue Theatre on Eglinton. It was not always a peaceful management, during their early days of operation, they both admit. Jim is intensely practical with the streamlined mind of the modern young business man, but his mother has remained faithful to her talent for poetry and drama, “Mother just didn’t understand a thing about the mechanics of running a theatre,’ says Jim. “When she saw her personal friends standing in line in front of the theatre, she wanted me to get them into the theatre, past everybody else lined up. Why, she fired me twice in one week, but I would not stay fired,” he says. “Mother can sell herself on anything she makes up her mind about and to other people too, but not to me,” he boasts. Mrs. Smith admits this is true. But she counters with, ‘Well, anyhow, I don't build on boxoffice profits of the future, I never expect success until I have it in my hand, but young Mr. you do.” October 17, 1945 MES: Smith readily agrees that She has failed in her judgment, even after her son’s warning. “I just cannot resist an artistic picture,” she says. “One of the best examples was Walter Huston in ‘Abraham Lincoln’.” Mrs. Smith thinks it is a wonderful picture and she tried to force it on the Canadian public, even though it had failed in the States. It failed here too. That did not stop Mrs. Smith from bringing in, only a few months ago, ‘Adventure in Music,” the first film concert produced, with Jose Iturbi and five internationally famous concert stars, which has been most favorable received, despite her son’s doubts. “J can’t get over the feeling that it is in the screen’s power to educate the public to something better, when I know that the public want entertainment, principally,” she admits. However, she has lined up the world rights on the _ second showing of four David Selznick hits, filmed after the manner she likes, and which she is certain marks the return of public taste to the romantic era. “People are tired of destruction, they are swinging back to the intangible truths of the spirit, a release from the machine and Scientific age. They are anxious to preserve that something which cannot be destroyed — music and poetry.” With this vision Mrs. Smith is going to continue to bring to Canada more good pictures, American, British, French, Spanish, etc. ‘The screen speaks a universal and international language,” she argues, and she will bring to Canada, as well, the odd artistic picture, which oftimes fools the wisest show-man, by turning out to be a “sleeper,” in movie picture vernacular, an unexpected boxoffice hit. VOCALITE SCREENS Five times more sound permeability. One-third more light. Vocalite Sound Screen is the result of a series of intensive and costly experiments which have resulted in the production of the finest sound screen made. Flexible plastic coated, flameproof. PERGINS COMPANY LIMITED WY VICTORIA STREET 2027 BLEURY STREST TORONTO MONTREAL