Canadian Film Weekly (May 28, 1947)

In the City of the Angels i! Nate, ~ Variety Journey Journal At the Union Station the USA Customs man opined that m name was familiar, then remembered having read me or x somewhere but was no less diligent in his inspection. This mild surprise followed one caused by the fact that a not-unpretty miss, by no means a Powerful Katrinka, wheeled my trunk in —a femme baggage smasher. I ran into Murray Little and relatives bidding bye-bye to bro.-in-law Lou Appleby and frau. I next discovered that Columbia’s Lou was famed beyond my knowledge, for the name of my car was Rosenfeld. On having a few nightcaps with the Applebys it came to my notice that their car bore a name that was either cute or clinical—Spuzzum. In Chicago I stopped off for a day but it took from morning until 4 p.m. to get into a showerless room at the Stevens. While waiting I wandered’into the vast Chicago Theatre:to see Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Rochester and Marjorie Reynolds in person. They didn’t do much, their very presence being enough to satisfy the customers. The last time I saw Benny in person ~ was on the stage of Shea’s Hipp, from which he was driven by a peashooter in the hands of a drunk. The first time was when he was No. 2 or No. 3 on the bill of the Shea’s Vic and working alone. I recall him pointing to the musicians in the pit and saying: ‘There are the only guys in the world who wear brown shoes with tuxedos.” The Variety International and the John Harris pulled out of the Chi station loaded with barkers from many cities and in Kansas City we picked up the Memphis train. The USA barkers brought their own refreshments, mainly Canadian rye of lesser quality. During the trip the air was filled with trade talk, gin rummy conversation and outcries, Saturday night. jokes and so on. Our train was escorted by New York’s Lou Schuster of the Santa Fe, a grand fellow who was Chick Lewis’ nominee to see that everything went well. And it did. It was a grand trip all the way. Looking out of the windows you could tell that it was spring everywhere because we passed over or beside so much water and no one was in or on it. Railroad travel, from a visual point, is best when you are out of the cities or towns, for all you see of them is their rear. Scenically the most interesting part of the trip was New Mexico—oppressive deserts, dried lake beds, near hills and far mountains, ruined adobe houses, great chasms, gorges and valleys looking as though they had been torn out violently by Nature’s hands, and, near the railroad tracks, rusty tin cans and empty whiskey bottles. The trains arrived in the Sante Fe LA station together, or as my porter put it, ‘side by each.’’ There Hollywood barkers, newsreel men, girls handing out oranges and Mexican singers and dancers greeted us. ; Three busses bearing banners reading “Monogram pee Variety Barkers” were waiting to deliver us to our Ns = ? looked twice when my bus advertised Grant’s Tomb, ek te away in New York, and soon discovered that they eae = vies 5th Ave. busses purchased ‘for the. making of Mono's J pened On Fifth Avenue.” My hotel was so far from the Ambassador a Fe oe that I began to think that the driver was really se vg the Grant’s Tomb. I travelled about five miles alone—excep oe driver. As we moved or stopped at traffic lights, ae nee x at of other regular busses or cars looked at the banner, See a driver, then at the bus, then at me, its lone occupant, laughed. At one stop a lad with me. Fame at last, I thought, and Was he from? I asked. “It’s jus Photography school,’ he explained. Ne. Saar Thus, in solitary splendor and to the ae ae aectiiation: guests of the Rossmore Manor Hotel, I arrived at my ® tographed wspaper camera pho Ore Ba argliywveod! What paper t an assignment from my a ee Poet re Canadian FILM WEEKLY Page 5 Canada Made Quite a Hit Maple Leaves in the Hollywoods The maples were by no means lost among the giant redwoods of California, as you would easily learn if you were a paper-reading Angeleno. Canada broke on the front pages of three local dailies and caused others, their interest provoked, to trail your’ truly for copy. The exuberant Syd Taube, now an LA resident, informed the boys in the press room that No. 28 was the only tent in the British Empire. Jim Luntzel of Hollywood Publicity Associates, looking for color, suggested some character shots and sent to the wardrobe department of one of the studios for something characteristically Canadian. The messenger returned with a Mountie red-coat uniform and the kilted togs of one of our Scottish regiments. The photogs were startled into. laying down their drinks and getting off the Ambassador’s best beds and chairs. ~ At their insistence Paul Maynard and Gordon Lightstone and I tried on the toggery but our failure to observe girth control in the past defeated our intentions. The bulb boys were depressed and were about to return-to the free drinks when in walked Nat Taylor and Harry Mandell. We gave Nat a fast line and had him in the uniform before he knew what was going on. Billie Hunt, a lovely model, donned the kilts and the parade started for the registration desk, where the boys shot their heads off. Three papers ran the pictures and others which heard about them asked for more shots the next day but Taylor ruled against retakes and new stills. But it gave the boys an idea and they went after Mexican and Cuban shots along the same line. Seeing the pictures in the paper, Steve Broidy of Monogram immediately wired Nat offering to star him in “Taylor of the Mounties” and asking about salary terms. * * . ® The Two Ed Zorns For a long time I have been wondering who the USA Ed Zorn was, his name cropping up in the trade papers from across the border and causing confusion with Famous Players’ Ed. On the train I got talking with a member of the Chi delegation and — what d’ya know? — he turned out to be the other Ed * Zorn, prexy of the Dlinois Independents and a charter member of the Motion Picture Foundation. But I was really surprised when I learned that he was attached to the Toronto and Calgary branches of Paramount in the days of George Weeks — over 20 years ago. He asked about the Bishop boys, Ron McClelland, Charlie Mavety and many others . . . The host tent, No. 25, maintains grand clubrooms in the Ambassador Hotel. Its officials sure rigged up a grand schedule of entertainment, with passes to the leading theatres, a tour of the radio centres, etc. Gene Autry entertained the barkers at lunch in the Ambassador one day and Paramount the next. Charlie Skouras, chief barker of No. 25, arranged a studio tour and lunch at a beach ' club and Steve Broidy and the Mono crowd threw a grand party for barkers and wives at Harl Carroll’s ... As this is written the business sessions are about to start and deadline pressure may prevent me from reporting on everything as it occurred ... Nat Taylor, Harry Mandell and Harry Allen had a busy time meeting with Screen Guild officials, talking with Bryan Foy at Eagle-Lion and getting together with representatives of their various interests . . . Audrey and Gordon Light“ stone got here early, he having a date with Charlie Reagan and the Paramount men for business talks, % % * More Next Week I'll tell you more about the Hollywood doings of the Variety lads and hosts next week. I presume you want to know more about the hospitality of Gene Autry, Steve Broidy and Jack Warner,