Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 28, 1945)

® N November 28, 1945 Notes Babe Coval is still resting after that period in Trinidad without a visit home and I got my first gander of him at the reception for Lieut.-Col. Miller. Did a double take for Babe dropped 42 pounds and has defied recognition by some of his best friends. . . . The lads had a good time meeting Lieut.-Col. Miller, head of army film matters, with Gurston Allen doing the honors. They liked him ... Harvey Hunt, if you wondered, is still with Odeon and not FPCC, as stated in our cutlines of the Jules Levey party. Our mental gears slipped on that one .. . Maple Leafs, having blown so many games, got quite a horselaugh from Imperial audiences watching them in the swell Columbia short, ‘Puck Chasers.” For film folk the shots of young Bobby Dale, Ralph’s boy,. were the big thing. * %« bd That Mildred Pierce teaser campaign about what she did is causing such stuff as this by the wags: “Don’t Kiss and Tell what Mildred Pierce did in The House on 92nd Street.’”’ So the Hollywocd Review says. We'll probably develop our own versions when is opens around here... Syd Taube is moving around the country with his novelty jewelry line. Busy guy, the stuff attracting too many orders for immediate delivery . . . Sam Newfield will direct Pigmeat Alamo Markham in his third picture for the Toddy company. You read right. Pigmeat is a colcred lad, Toddy specializing in all-Negro features for all-Negro theatres. The Andrews Sisters have him under contract . . . Johnny Wayne’s droll introductions ta the numbers on Music For Canadians, Sunday evening Tip Top Tailors radio show, are an attraction in themselves. Johnny scribbles and Frank Willis delivers them. May Set Up Film — Library in Mnt'l A central film library may be formed in Montreal with support of the city, it has been announced. Organization of a Film Council to further the use of documentary movies may also be undertaken by the Film Preview Committee of the local NFB branch. Function of the council would be to publish a general film catalogue, improve the distribution situation, organize an efficient projectionist service, and study techniques of film presentation. It would also organize film preview and discussion groups. "Walk in the Sun’ “A Walk in the Sun,” starring Dana Andrews, will be distributed by 20th-Fox. Canadian FILM WEEKLY “Canadian Film Weekly Presents...” I recently finished the biography of Jack Arthur for our Christmas number, now in preparation, and it’s quite a story— Mr. Arthur’s, not mine. I tried to take my best shot at it, not only because his is one of the most interesting personal histories in Canadian show business, but because he is one of my favorite persons. Knockers waste their weapons when they aim at Arthur. The thing I and many others have always liked about Jack is the fact that he would always go to the front for a fellow who hadn’t proved himself as yet, betting any part of a great reputation that he was right. He would either use you himself or speak up for you. He wouldn't dilly-dally or shilly-shally and that characteristic of his contributed many leading lights to the theatres of this continent. He has a fine instinct for the right thing as it concerns others. Years ago Sammy Sales was the comedian of a radio variety show produced by Arthur for the CBC and I was the script writer. We were thrashing around for a name that would suit the character played by Sammy. After many rejections Sammy asked “How about ‘Salzberg’?” Jack seized on it. “That's it!” he cried. “Perfect — it’s in.” Sammy laughed. “It’s my real name,” he said. As for errors of judgment as they affected himself, Arthur, in my opinion, made a monumental one, for even in making mistakes he went first-class. He was the king of live entertainment in Canada and this King Arthur still reigns. Not he but his realm abdicated. But that’s all part of the story you'll read later — if you bother. He was often referred to as “The Canadian Ziegfeld,”’ although he was more like the late Roxy. But because of that description and certain twists his career took, I was going to call the story “This Ziggy Zagged” or ‘The Ziggy Who Zagged.” It didn’t suit, being out of character with his career, which had more class than that title. I even played around with “Make Mine Scotch.” It was Tom Daley who suggested the title, which is “Jack Arthur Presents . . .”, a famed phrase in Famous Players advertising of other years. To tell the truth, I don’t think I did a story worthy of the person and the material but I tried what I think is my best shot. You never can tell. There are a number of photcs chockful of flavor that we are reproducing and you'll get a real kick out of those. That’s for sure. Incidentally — here comes the pitch — we were late in getting under way with preparations for the Christmas number and will really appreciate it if you get your personal and business copy for greetings in now. If you’ve tossed our printed request, mailed to you recently with prices and sizes, into the waste basket and are suddenly conscience-stricken, don’t worry. Send your copy in on wrapping paper, an old envelope or the directions you got with that hair restorer you bought recently. Some of the lads we've heard from so far are Walter Helm, Bill Cupples, Bob Brown, Al Perly, Len Bishop, Syd Karlen, Steve McManus, Tom Mascaro, Tommy Marsden, Ike Sourkes, Gordon Lightstone, Myer Hershorn, the Hon. L. M. Frost, Les Plottel, Joe Franklin, Johnny Poole and Sam and Ben Ulster. They're good company. ‘* * Ahead of Schedule Thought I was blotto ahead of schedule when I wandered into Associated Theatres the other day and saw Harry Painter with a gay paper hat on and a horn ready to blow. I was afraid I had beat “The Lost Weekend” by a month. Turned out Harry was looking at his line of novelties, noisemakers, balloons and stuff for New Year’s Eve shows, being all ready to demonstrate the atmosphere establishers—but without the moist support that usually goes with it. Earliest Xmas party in the trade may be that of Odeon, reported as slated for December 13. \ x Page 7 Captain Hates Sea? In “By-Line Backgrounds,” a series running in the shopping magazine, Gossip!, Margaret Aitken, Evening Telegram columnist, writes that Roly Young, Globe and Mail film critic, “dislikes the silver screen, loves the legitimate theatre, wanted to be an opera singer, studied to be a lawyer and paradoxically became a movie columnist.” After various adventures in show business “He arrived in Toronto, rich in experience but poor in worldly goods. He joined the Daily Star as an obituary writer and a weekly theatrical columnist. From there he went to the old Mail and Empire to write a daily column about the films — which bored him more times than not.” Just one kind of obit after another. % % ¥ Mike Romanoff is going great guns in Hollywood, I see by the trade papers. He’s the Brooklyn phoney who poses as a czarist prince. In Hollywood hard work, talent and honesty bring their reward and so Mike, a prize mooch, is getting rich as a restaurant owner. Maybe he’ll write his story under the title of “Memoirs of a Fumblebum” and end the class strugle ... Morris Appleby, more than five years in the CASF and RCAF, is back in the biz as manager of the Avalon, Toronto . . . Ben Geldsaler, stuck for accommodation in NY, was doubled in the UA suite at the Warwick with a nice guy who turned out to be Mack Millar, Hollywood’s ace of space (newspaper) ... Staff Sgt. Lou Spector, up from Ottawa to work on “The True Glory,” did a topnotch job of publicity and promotion on the Eisenhower opus. s due out soon. RKO Profit up For First 39 Weeks Net profit of $3,941,830 has been announced by RKO Corporation and its subsidiary companies for the 39-week’ period ending September 29, 1945, after all charges were deducted. This represents an increase of $306,967 over the corresponding period in 1944 when the net profit was $3,634,863. , Masters to Chicago For 2-Day Meeting Haskell Masters, Warners’ Canadian district manager, is scheduled to attend a two-day meeting of the company’s district managers and home office ‘ sales executives in Chicago, November 29th and 30th. Ben Kalmehson, general sales , manager, will preside.