Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 27, 1947)

ee Page 6 Canadian FILM WEEKLY Anecdotes The Way We Are JOE PERLOVE, the Toronto Daily Star sports scribe and selector, loves the heaving horsehides and knows more about their chances of winning than ordinary folks like you and me. He makes his selections for the guidance of readers of the noon edition, then goes to the track to report the nags in action. One day recently a visiting relative kept Joe company all day and wagered along with him race for race. They had seven losers. Later the friend checked Perlove’s paper selections and found that he had picked four winners. SPEAKING OF HOOFBEATS and moneyaches, there was the time I worked close to the betting wickets at a local track and was in a position to study the large wagers of owners and other insiders. Every day I lost my earnings and more betting the same nags they did. Then one day I saw a leading owner of horses wager $100 on a certain horse in a race in which he owned the favorite. Here he was betting on another horse in the same race to beat his own and that was good enough for me! It was the last day of the meet and a chance to get my money back so I laid it in. The horse he bet lost and the horse he owned won. You figure them out, I can’t. CURLEY POSEN, Allied booker, is an orchestra drummer. These days, with his family still in Toledo because of the housing shortage, he accepts an occasional engagement, since he has little to do in the evenings. Recently he played in the orchestra which accompanied a show in Massey Hall. The patrons beside him asked him to play quietly but the leader shouted and signalled for him to play louder. After a couple of hours of that sort of thing Curly met the patrons’ protests by distributing aspirin tablets. ART ARTHUR, whose next credit will be on the DonlevyRobert Cummings starrer, “Heaven Only Knows,” met an old acquaintance in New York, whom he called “George” all through lunch. Afterwards he was appalled by the realization that his name was Bill. So he wrote him this note: “Dear George: Hello Bill. Art.” I GOT A SNICKER out of an incident related to me by . Art Arthur about his wife, the former Jessica Pepper. Their home in Coldwater Canyon, Beverly Hills, is furnished in Colonial style and full of desirable bric-a-brac. Jessica, exceedingly good-natured, is occasionally irked by Arthur—as what wife isn’t by what husband? Pepper cools off by breaking a dish. One day she raised a dish to break and, as it reached hrow level, saw the maker’s imprint and suddenly realized its value. She suspended her anger, found a cheaper one, renewed her anger and broke the dish. Women! A FRIEND OF MINE repeated a story he heard Irving Berlin tell at an inter-racial conference and luncheon. When the stage version of “This Is the Army” played Belfast a man came backstage to visit Berlin -and introduced himself as a fellow-Jew. After considerable conversation Berlin asked if there was much anti-Semitism in Ireland and what was the state of the so-called Jewish problem. “Hardly any,’ was the answer. “The only problem we Jews have is to stop the Protestants and Catholics from killing each other.” A CERTAIN EXECUTIVE has a failing for dressing down his staff by introducing his recrimination to the panned one as a heart-to-heart talk. Another exec wanted to see him. “You can’t,” explained his secretary. “He’s having another one of his heart-to-heart attacks.” THE RETURN OF BARLEYCORN, JNO., in fancier form brought another aspect of that unwritten-but-figured bookkeeping item called “Stealage” by the realistic. This is a part of all business operations involving the handling of cash, say the cynical. Thus, when one boniface fired his best waiter and was asked why, he answered, “He’s too smart for me. He’s the only one I haven’t been able to catch stealing.” With his mentality it never occurred to him that the man might be honest. / On The August 27, 1947 Stuffing SQUARE Observanda Honey Dew signs advertise for girls to do, among other things, bussing. According to Webster’s, bussing is kissing— colloquially .. . Bert Brown is a pappy, his first being a lad... Movie features, which before the war averaged seven to eight reels, now average from eight to nine. Exhibitors don’t want them that long and neither do the patrons. Hollywood talks about cutting expenses so why not return to the old size?. .. The other hot afternoon I was a few feet from the curb when the light changed. In front of me was a motorcycle cop, who snarled “Come on!” impatiently, then roared past. That ill-mannered, childish outbreak proves that there are policemen who. ought to have a lecture on manners and responsibility to the public. Such men should not be given authority without some indication that they understand what it means. They cheapen their uniforms... Hat Taylor, now RKO Detroit branch manager and formerly of Montreal, stopped off for greetings hereabouts, he being headed for the country to visit his family. . . You can read too fast. A fur merchant, perhaps to add to his technical library, asked for a book he thought was advertised as ‘“‘The Price of Foxes.” He meant ‘The Prince of Foxes’ by Samuel Shellabarger. . . Mr. and Mrs. Sam Korman of Rouyn just added another to Canada’s male population—their initial contribution to that department of vital statistics. . * * * Niagara Variety Golf Benefit Those big-hearted boys from the Niagara Peninsula will prove that sentiment can also bloom in the fruit belt when an outstanding international golf match will take place at the St. Catharines Golf Club on September 21st in aid of Variety Village and its tenant-to-be, 40 crippled children. On that day Phil Farley of Toronto nd Rex Stimers of CKTB, Niagara Falls, will take on the talking Buffalonians, Jim Wells of WBEN and Ralph Hubell of WGR, two sports spielers who have many Canadian listeners. Draw prizes will be worth $100, with a special prize of O. B. Joyful’s best stock, worth $48 to a lucky guy. Tickets are 50 cents and will entitle holders to clubhouse and parking privileges. Vern Hudson, Capitol, Niagara Falls, is treasurer and Joe Cardwell secretary. John Allen, Wannie Tyers, Sid Burton and Dewey McCourt are handling tickets in their areas. So if you get a book of raffle tickets in the mail, you’ll know what they are—and what for. * * The Lights of Freedom The Exhibition lights, seen from a distance so that the eyes can survey the whole, brighten the spirit as they shine for the first time since the war. There is something promising about them, something that stirs memories of more placid days and the hope of return to them. May they never dim again for the same reasons. .. The Fairlawn debut for the Pioneers’ benevolent fund was a real success. Ray Lewis, Oscar Hanson and O. J. Silverthorne addressed the audience. . . Ike Sourkes was in town looking for space to open an office here for his service. . . It wasn’t so long ago that the huge sum of 50 cents was presented to some youngsters for kid’s day at the Ex. . . Hollywood Variety’s headline on the British film crisis: “Hands Across the Sea Pick Hollywood’s Pocket.” In an editorial headed “Another Boston Tea Party” it says: “What they want is a plush cushion for British product. Probably Mr. Attlee already has made his plan known to the British Dominion leaders too. That would mean that British product would have the green light in these areas over all other alien pictures, which naturally means the American films.” Am curious to know what stand the British trade papers will take—if any. Hollywood, it is predicted, will raise the price of films in other markets to make up the loss of the British one.