Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 9, 1948)

June 9, 1948 Observanda Odds and Ends Betty DiGiota, booker at International’s Toronto branch, was recently married to Mack Bartlett and the staff presented her with a set of lamps ... Films are being booked here for television use in October . . . Richard Hume Cronyn, brother of Hume Cronyn, passed away in London, Ontario, their home town ... Bing Crosby was one of the first donors to the building fund of the new Catholic church in Purcell’s Cove, NS... Quebec Productions will make Ted Allen’s story, “Last Night,” as its next and Paul L’Anglais hopes to get Michael Redgrave for it . . There is a story around that Wayne & Schuster, the RCA Victor Canadian radio stars, are scripting a story in which they will act for Quebec Productions ... One of the great figures of the theatre of yesterday and today is gone with the passing of Dame May Whitty at 82. She was a link between the golden age of the stage and its modern successor in) popularity, the motion picture. The races are here and they remind me of Bill McCraw’s remarks at the Variety convention after his visit to Tropical Park. “Half those horses were pulling ploughs around Atlanta last week,” he said. “I met a fellow who gave me loser after loser but I’m sticking with him because he’s the cleverest talking man I ever met”... I enjoyed N. Peter Rathvon’s assurance to RKO employees after Howard Hughes bought in. “Mr. Hughes has no hungry army of relatives looking for your jobs, nor substitutes waiting to step into RKO management,” he told them ... Thanks to Perry Wright, now Emp-U Vancouver manager, for a copy of those very funny comments about Toronto street cars by Pierre Berton, as quoted by Jack Scott in his “Our Town” Vancouver newspaper column. Glad to see the art of exploitation being revived. Neil Main, for Odeon’s Regent in Sturgeon Falls, has been promoting a program weekly with a lucky number, while Bob Maynard of the Palace, Hamilton, did feature work on Eagle-Lion’s Royal Wedding short, promoting floral displays in the lobby and a florists’ co-op ad in the Hamilton Spectator. Also Dick Wareing of the Trent, Trenton, had his Odeon Movie Club present a Sunday evening show for the fund of the Trenton Memorial Hospital, and it was appreciated by press and public. Dick has been here a year, he having come from London, where he was with Associated British Cinemas... Dan A. Boyle was elected, a councillor in Macleod, Alta. No theatre man, come to think of it, has ever been mayor of Toronto. Understand there is a dispute of a spite fence nature between Abe Garson and Joe Franklin over the space on one side of the new Vogue Theatre in Halifax. The Vogue, part of the Franklin-Herschorn circuit, is under the management of Peter Herschorn, who is also secretary-treasurer of the company. The theatre has been described as among the Dominion’s loveliest by industry men who attended its distinguished opening and Halifax newspapers greeted it with much space in their columns. It has a stage curtain of fibre glass, the largest plastic screen in the Maritimes and a soda fountain and lunch bar among its attractions. Hastern friends of Joe Franklin and his associates will wish them well in this venture. Ontario censor board has moved to its New quarters in Leaside and the phone is MAyfair 8811 . . . Doug Rosen was reading out the pledge cards at the Variety meeting when Paul Johnston stepped up to the mike and gave him another—which turned out to be his own. Put Doug in a spot but he wriggled out... Sam Wacker pledged $1,000 for tickets, part of which was donated, then pledged more to obtain an autographed baseball__and kicked in an additional amount to get his hands on the hockey stick autographed by the hockey Leafs... Ted Reeve of the Tely was remarking how the Prince George had changed since the days of the riotous lacrosse team banquets. “The Smith Brothers didn’t have to change this place,” cracked Perlove. “Reeve and his mob would have changed it for them,” Wa A Wy, “wills WS SDOSIWN ee Canadian FILM WEEKLY nthe SQUARE Good Work JARO at the Trade Fair Canadian officialdom—at least, some branches of it—is showing signs of an up-to-the-minute viewpoint and helping weaken the description of Canada today as resembling the USA of 1900. Right now you would hardly believe what there is to be seen at the CNE grounds. The-International Trade Fair, for which the Department of Trade and Commerce induced a grant of $225,000, is being held there and 1,500 exhibitors, 500 of them from Canada, are showing goods for 10,000 buyers from all parts of the world. ; One look at the Trade Fair and you realize what a tremendous accomplishment it is from a presentation standpoint—and what it will mean to Canada in spreading the fact that we are in many ways second to no nation on earth. A wonderful job has been done in transforming the Coliseum into the Trade Fair’s headquarters. It is as thoroughly modern as anything you ever saw, with not even a hint of its usual tanbark character. And if you’re in show business, the International Clubrooms will just about knock you out. It is a theatre cocktail lounge of great size, with a complete stage at one end, and Toronto could use one in its daily life. On the stage every day is presented a fashion show and a theatrical presentation, worked into one production. Everything about it from personnel to theme is thoroughly Canadian. For this Canadian show business, in this case represented by the J. Arthur Rank Organization, can be thanked. It is proof that the know-how of live musical drama has a high standard in this country, even though there is ordinarily limited opportunity to use it. Jimmy Cowan and his department of the J. Arthur Rank Organization of Canada have really accomplished something here but most cf the credit belongs to Sydney Banks, who probably has more all-round talent from writing to production than any young man in these parts. He produced and directed the magnificent show, in which so many diverse theatrical arts are blended to perfection. Eddie Harris took time off from his task as head man of Gaumont-Kalee to create the stage lighting, while the stage curtains and appliances came from different Odeon theatres in the province. Singers from Toronto join with members of the Winnipeg Ballet in presenting “Tha Gallant Greenhorn,” story of a ghost town in the Rocky Mountain foothills. A skiing party discovers it and rekindles its spirit as it was in 1900. Then they leave and the town goes back to sleep. The excellenti music, composed by Morris Surdin, is played by a large orchestra under Horace Lapp. The choreography is by Gwyneth Lloyd. Right after the first show Surdin was signed by Jello of the USA to handle the music for its radio show when the present contract ends. There is a thrill to be had from this animated Canadiana, since most of our entertainment is of American and other character. It’s good to be able to experience Canadian feelings in other arts beside the inanimate one of Literature. I’m glad that Canadian show business shares in the success of the Trade Fair. Tale of an Inside Way The Pre-Confederation settlers in the Canadas were a resourceful lot, as I learned while reading an old book, ‘Humours of ’37,” by Robina and Kathleen M. Lizars, issued in 1897. An example: “One toper, impecunious and resourceful, provided himself with a keg partitioned down the centre, each side seeming tight; one contained water only. He would arrive at the general store with the water side half-full, get the whiskey side filled, and then say payment would be made on his next visit. If prompt payment were demanded he would wax indignant, ‘Well, if you won't trust me, take your old whiskey.’ Out would come the water cork and the water would gurgle into the whiskey barrel; the owner, showing outraged virtue, would then march home with the whiskey side comfortably full.” Page 5 ' | |