Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1946)

PETER D. BROWN Vice-president and general manager of General Theatre Supply Company, who has been appointed president of the company, succeeding Frank H. Kershaw. Kershaw Resigns, Brown ls Prexy (Continued from Page 1) tions Ltd., and has now been placed in charge of that company. Jack Fitzgibbons returned to the company recently after having served with the American Army in the South Pacific, where he was wounded and awarded several decorations, Jules Wolfe, who has been actively associated with both these companies, has been elected vicepresident of General Theatre Supply Company. 16 Mm. News to Be In Full Color Planet News, the 16 mm. newsreel coverage of current events, will be shot in color in the future, according to Dick Lewis, Planet’s short subjects editor, The operation will. begin early this year. General Films distributes the product in Canada. The Kodachrome reels will include spot news and human interest items as well as sports, scientific marvels, oddities, pageants, disasters, activities of prominent persons and comedy bits. Professional cameramen stationed at key cities throughout the United States and Canada will become an integral part of the Planet News coverage system, the company using the discharged Signal Corps veterans and returning men with service motion picture unit experience. All Planet’s first-run narrow gauge features, cartoons, travelogs and short subjects are now being filmed in Kodachrome. Canadian FILM WEEKLY Why Not Victory Dinner Here? (Continued from Page 1) Finance Committee. Don Henshaw, a member of the committee who has acted as adviser during the shooting of several war loan shorts, was chairman. In the absence of John J. Fitzgibbons, national chairman of the motion picture section of the National War Finance Committee and chairman of the Motion Picture War Services Committee, Henshaw represented the Canadian film and theatre industry. The film, Pearson told the gathering, had “as much power as any single agency to heal the wounds of war and knit together the pieces of a shattered world.” More than 600 people from Hollywood and New York had helped Canada’s war effort. According to the ambassador, 50 stars had toured Canada during eight Victory Loan drives, 19 appeared in short subjects and 37 made radio transcriptions. While Canadian film men, who worked hard during the war and provided more gratis help than any other industry, are glad to join in the general tribute to the motion picture industry, many feel that a Canadian celebration by Canadians who participated in the domestic effort is decidedly in order. A dinner could be held in the capital of each of Canada’s six distribution areas, with the Provincial chairman of the Motion Picture War Services Committee presiding. Stressing the value of these films to Canada, Pearson declared: “If it had been necessary to us to buy such films on a cominercial basis, the work would, I am told, ‘have been valued at about three million dollars. By the same token, if we had to meet the regular fees of the hundreds of people who have come to Canada from both New York and Hollywood to make personal appearances and to give radio broadcasts in connection with our campaigns, the amount required would have been in the neighborhood of five million dollars. “Personally, I am more impressed by the spirit behind these figures than by the figures themselves. That spirit underlines the mutual aid I have talked about. You have helped us as if we were your own people.” Enlarging on the spirit of couperation developed between Canada and the USA and their other ullies, Pearson said that at one stage in the Italian campaign the Canadian Corps was in the middle of the line, joining British and US formations on either side of it. In many a foray over Europe young Canadians flew American planes as members of British squadrons. “We have a common heritage in democratic ideals,” the ambassador said. ‘‘We have a common language, common social customs, and in general a common culture. “We give you musicians, writers, actors. We give them to you freely, but we don’t really lose them. We get them back, glorified and glamorized, because your radio, your newspapers and periodicals, your films permeate to practically every corner of Canada. We know all about the Rose Bowls and Pat Hurley. With us it is a case of ‘Escape you never.’ “No better illustration of the general and constant commerce between our two countries can be found than that provided by your own domestic market. There is no quota for American films shown in Canada. Every theatre in Canada shows them and the documentaries of our own fovernment-sponsored National Film Board are widely shown in your country.” The plaques which Pearson presented to E. J. Mannix. vicepresident of the War Activities Committee, and Kenneth Thomson, chairman of the Hollywood Victory Committee, bore the great seal of Canada and the coats-of-arms of the nine provinces. They were made of Canadian maple used for the outer skin of Mosquito bombers. The dinner was novel even for Hollywood and consisted mostly of typically Canadian foods of the non-rationed variety, shipped from the Dominion by private citizens. They included east coast oysters mignonette, soupe au pois Quebecois, fillet of Nova Scotia sole with lobster sauce, olivette potatoes persilles, Manitoba buffalo steak and Britis Columbia sherbet. { Among the screen stars who attended were Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Canadian-born Walter Pidgeon, Greer Garson, Jack Carson, Charles Ruggles, James Cagney and Mrs. Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Gene Kelly, Adolphe Menjou, Alan Mowbray, Vivian Blane, Margaret O’Brien, Jeanne Crain, Sonny Tufts, Claire Trevor, Linda Darnell, Gail Patrick, Shirley Temple, Herbert Marshall, Edward Arnold, Dick Powell, Alexander Knox of London, Ontario, Faye Marlow, Cary Grant, Jimmy McHugh and numerous others, January 2, 1946 High Honors to Spyros Skouras (Continued from Page 1) bestowed upon him by Greece upon the recommendation of Minister of Foreign Affairs John Soflanopoulos in recognition of his services as an American citizen-to the land of his birth. Canadians of Greek origin who were prominent in relief work for that country under the leadership of Mr. Skouras are George Ganetakos, president of United Amusements, Montreal, and B. C. Salamis, well-known Quebec exhibitor. Barlier in the week the Fox chief, through R. G. DeVoe, commanding general of MHalloran General Hospital, was awarded the Second Service Command “Certificate of Commendation” for “all you have done to make the road to recovery easier for the soldier-patients of this com > mand. At the annual Christmas party given by Mr. Skouras for the employees of the company 1,500 stood as Tom Conners, vice-president in charge of distribution, presented him with a star sapphire ring and a book containing the signatures of all in “grateful recognition of his honest and humane services to his associates and fellow employees.” Industry Takes Over OWI Newsreel A privately financed United Newsreel has superseded the US government’s subsidized wartime newsreel for foreign countries. Papers have been filed in Albany for the incorporation of United Newsreel Company Inc., with Eric Johnston as president. This was done after the decision of the heads of the five existing newsreel companies to cooperate in supplanting the government set-up with industry’s own undertaking. All five American reels supply negatives of their current releases to the United Newsreel Company. From this wealth of material a full reel is selected, cut, titled and edited to attract maximum attention abroad. Skilled translators prepare commentaries for recording on foreign language sound tracks. Current plans include sound tracks in Chinese, Hungarian, Bulgarian. Turkish, Greek and Romanian. Choquette Buys Ninth House Leo Choquette has acquired the 300-seat Alhambra Theatre, at Ste. Agathe des Monts, Quebec, from L. Pare. Choquette’s circuit comprises nine theatres.