Canadian Film Weekly (May 26, 1948)

Keith Vs. Proctor for Movies A letter from Ernest Ouimet, who is an important figure in the early history of the Canadian motion picture industry, reveals that he is recuperating from an operation in Montreal and will be back working on third dimension soon, Ernest tells me that he heard through Ed Auger, long ago an associate of his and now with RCA in New Jersey, of the death of Francis Doublier at 68 years of age. Doublier had been connected with Auguste and Louis Lumiere in Lyons, France, when they showed the first moving pictures on a screen. I have a picture of the brothers given me by Ouimet. Recently I was reading “Fifty Years in Theatrical Management,” the autobiography of M. B. Leavitt from 1859 to 1909, which was issued in New York in 1912, and came across a very interesting story about the battle of theatre titans for the new means of entertainment. It involved J. Austin Fynes, an Official of the Keith circuit, and Keith and Proctor, the leading rivals in the vaudeville field. Wrote Leavitt: “In 1895 the Lumieres, photographers of Lyons, the most skillfull photographers the world has yet known, had perfected motion photography, and a dozen little boulevard stores in Paris were showing them to amazed audiences, Fynes tells me he read in the London Era of the Lumieres’ invention. Proctor said he heard of it at the same time. There was an ocean race to get the goods. Proctor sent Harry Brunnell across and Brunnell wandered afar to Berlin on the wrong trail. Keith, then abroad on a pleasure trip, received the correct tip from Fynes. The result was that the Union Square, in July, 1895, was able to give the first American exhibition of moving pictures.” This seems to indicate that the New York showing of April 23, 1896, which took place in Koster & Bial’s Music Hall through Edison’s Kinetoscope and is described in histories as the first showing of moving pictures in a regular theatre, was really the second of that kind. And while I am writing about movie history, I wouid like to bring up again the fact that there are no archives of historic Canadian films, as there are across the line for American films. There were many factual reels made years ago, among them CPR scenics, the great Ottawa fire, Tom Longboat’s notable victories in marathon running, Frenchy Belanger winning the world’s flyweight championship and so on. Some of these films date back as far as the year 1900 and there are probably some made earlier. Some effort should be made to bring them into our national archives for the use of future historians, just as the written history of the Canadian motion picture industry should be on the Shelves of reference libraries throughout the land. It is hard to believe but the moving picture industry, one of Canada’s greatest, is a mystery to anyone who seeks to learn anything about its past. It is as though it was a fraudulent art practised by Gypsies who moved On quickly and left as little trace as possible. Here is a real institutional task for the Canadian Picture Pioneers, the Dominion Archives and the native theatre and mo tion picture industry. % Just Filler Observanda: Buck Weaver was telling me about a minister asking his congregation to be generous with its donations. “You can’t take your gold with you,” he said, ‘“‘and if some of you could, it would melt” ... I’m always intrigued by the student flirtations that go on daily on the.steps of the Reference Library, a gathering place ... Scribbled on a bookmark: “This is where I fell asleep” . . . The glass plate on the old Queen’s Wharf Lighthouse at Fleet Street, which marks the place where General Zebulon Pike was killed during the American invasion in the War of 1812, was smashed by a vandal a couple of years ago and never fixed. Canadian FILM WEEKLY On May 26, 1948 Typochondria SQUARE At Loose Ends The Things They Say: While chatting with Nat Taylor the other day I used this sentence: “I had a knock-’em-down, drag. ’em-out battle with him over the telephone.” I then realized that ‘ the telephone would have to be a much larger and different type of instrument to make that possible. Nat chuckled and recalled how he had fallen into a similar error by answering an enquiry about the course of a deal with these words: ‘We shook hands on it over the phone.” Apparently Goldwyn hasn’t a patent on that type of verbalism. Tom Daley often falls into Irishisms,. Describing fog to me, he said: “It’s caused by the warmth of the air and the coolth of the ground.” And I did a mental doubletake recently a few blocks after I passed a young couple probably engaged in some boy-girl bandying. A loose end of their conversation got caught in my ear and didn’t bother me for a couple of blocks. Then suddenly it became clear and I laughed. The girl had said to the boy: “Oh sure, call me any Sunday in the middle of the week.’’ Another remark by a lady in the lobby of the Royal Alexandra at intermission that interested me: “I knew you were here. I didn’t see you but I noticed your handwave.” Recent Variety Club guests: Phil Spitalny, Evelyn and her violin, and Bert Lahr ... Bill Covert was one of those on Monty Hall’s CHUM open forum on Sunday movies and Bill, IATSE chief in Canada, said no... Ernie and Mrs. Moule in Atlantic City ... Thanks to Illinois Ed Zorn for those kind words about our recent scribbling, and to SRO’s Steve Mamula for his service On the Marks-Weiner SRO story. More Odds and Ends: I am always upset when I open a book and find the margins scribbled on . . . Comment about the return of premiums: “The movie p2ople never seem to give you dishes until you have nothing to put on them” ... Overheard: “He touches your heart even when he is cutting it out” ... Hither children must be bigger now or the TTC doesn’t need money. One child under 53% inches is allowed to ride free on Sunday if accompanied by an adult. The rule used to be 51 inches...If you pass my house and see a red-and-blue cloth tied to our porch railing, it’s there because my mom put it there. A couple of weeks ago a man and his small daughter passed by. The man was carrying her coat on his arm and the hood fell to the ground unknown to him. Mom, who at 74 can’t move very fast, went to the street and picked it up but the loser was out of earshot and soon out of sight. So every day she ties it to the railing and every night she takes it in. Maybe he’ll pass by again one of these days and see it, she hopes. So You Think It’s a Cinch, Eh? Bernard DeVoto, a famous writer, had this to say about his trade in a recent issue of Harper’s: “In every other calling there are men who hope that their children will follow in their footsteps. In some professions and more sciences there are many. In medicine, I believe, they may even be a majority. But there was never yet a writer that hoped his son or daughter would be a writer.” Maybe now you'll believe it’s one of the toughest ways in the world to make a living. Things of the Moment: National Booking takes 16 mm. seriously enough. It books several small-gauge situations... They say that the sale of fan magazines is down 40 per cent . Joe Meyers is now special representative in Ontario for SRO... Syd Goldstone is operating a small theatre in Los Angeles and another. in Long Beach in partnership with Irwin Steinhart... Eary note: “He’s a vice-president in charge of vice-presidents” . Trick of Memory: There’s a corner downtown which I have passed about once a week for years. One day last week I felt thirsty about a block from it and recalled that a drinking fountain was there. I soon saw that it was missing and asked a policeman about it. It hadn’t been there for five years, he told me. Why do so many things of yesterday remain clearer.in memory than so many everyday things?