Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 13, 1948)

Page 10 Toronto Tic Tax Nixed By Board (Continued from Page 1) A suggestion that a local amusement tax be imposed, in addition to the provincial one, was discussed and dropped after being opposed by Mayor McCallum. Chief critic of Queen’s Park, which had picked up the 20 per cent amusement tax when it was dropped by Ottawa, was Mayor McCallum. He and other members of the board felt that the government, which justified its unpopular act of continuing the tax by earmarking it for hospitals, had not kept faith. City hospital deficits amount to $800,000. “This is a lot of money,” the mayor said, “and our payments to hospitals were held up last spring because we knew the provincial government intended to take over the amusement tax for hospital aid purposes.” The government had suggested that it might take care of deficits if they were spread over a five-year period. “The government said _ the amusement tax was to aid hospitals,” Controller Balfour stated. Elimination of deficits was as much part of that aim as the construction of hospitals. A conference was arranged with the Honorable Leslie M. Frost, provincial treasurer. Rodeo Star Signed For Mono Westerns Scott R. Dunlap, executive assistant to Steve Broidy, president of Monogram, announced the signing of Whip Wilson to a long-term contract calling for six westerns a year. Wilson, 29 years old and six feet-two inches tall, comes from Texas where he established himself throughout the southwest as one of the outstanding rodeo stars. In addition, he possesses a fine baritone voice. Robert Taylor Cast Robert Taylor will star with Elizabeth Taylor in MGM’s ‘The Conspirator,” which will be filmed in England with all the rest of the cast being British. Victor Saville will direct. MPTAO Adds Five To Membership Five new theatres have been added to the membership list of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario. The five are B. J. Walker's Beaver Theatre in Minden; 20th Century’s Rex in Mimico; Gordon Munro’s Empire in Madoc; M. P. Dalseg’s Mayfair in Sioux Lookout; and Odeon’s Roxy in Owen Sound. Canadian FILM WEEKLY ‘Mickey’ Contest Winner at CNE One of the many prizes in the contest that helped Eagle Lion (Hollywood) Films’ production, “Mickey,” play a threeweek engagement in its day-and-date first run at the Nortown and Victoria Theatres in Toronto was an all-expense-paid tour of the Canadian National Exhibition. Shown in the above photograph at the Lions Club luncheon at) the CNE are, left to right, George (Wagner, president of the Runnymede Lions Club; Barbara Heath, winner of the contest and the twenty-odd prizes; George Till, her date; and Joe Crysdale, emcee of CKEY’s Club 580, which featured the contest for two weeks. Div Mars. Month In Warner Drive Ben Kalmenson, Warner Brothers’ general sales manager, has set the month of October as Division Managers’ Month in the company’s current sales drive which began in May and lasts through November 13. The division managers to be honored with the drive month are: Roy Haines, western division sales manager; Jules Lapidus, eastern and Canadian division sales manager; and Norman Ayers, southern division sales manager. Cash prizes totalling $35,000 will be awarded the winners in the drive. Among the company’s top features distributed during the drive period are “Silver River,” starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan; Michael Curtiz’ “Romance on the High Seas,” Technicolor musical, starring Jack Carson, Doris Day, Janis Paige and Don DeFore; “Key Largo,’ starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall; “Life With Father,”’ Technicolor production starring Irene Dunne and William Powell; “Two Guys From Texas,” Technicolor musical, starring Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson; Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” Technicolor drama starring James Stewart; “Smart Girls Don’t Talk,” starring Virginia Mayo and Bruce Bennett; and “Johnny Belinda,” starring Jane Wyman and Lew Ayres. UA Contest Gets Prize Publicity Record breaking business resulted from a public contest run by United Artists in connection with the engagement of “So This Is New York” at the Biltmore Theatre, Toronto. The campaign was staged by Al Perly, manager of the Biltmore, and Bert Wilkes, publicity representative for UA, who, along with Charles Chaplin, UA Canadian manager, acted as judges. Winner of the contest, which was featured for ten days on the Jerry Burke show on radio station CKEY, was a widow living in Toronto. She will take her 14-year-old son on the three-day all-expense-paid trip to New York. The presentation of the plane tickets and reservations was made on the stage. Picture opened to record business and shattered every mark for the initial week, outdrawing the phenomenal “The Mating of Millie,” which stayed 14 weeks at the house. An extended run Seems certain for “So This Is New York’ also. Story broke on the front page of the Toronto Daily Star, which used a three-column cut and a byline by Jack Karr, the paper’s movie columnist and critic. He will accompany the winner to New York. Canadian Press put the story on the wire and made arrangements to have the visit covered in New York by AP, ——— October 13, 1948 Thomas Armat,81, Passes In Wash. (Continued from Page 1) ences, his vital role in motion picture history became known to many for the first time. Because he lived quietly others were under the impression that he had faded out of the mortal scene years ago. Actually his position in the background was self-imposed from the first, for he allowed his invention to be marketed as Edison’s Vitascope because it was considered that the sale would be increased. When Edison’s Kinetoscope, a peep-show device into which a single spectator peered, was demonstrated in 1894 it inspired a race for the invention of screen projection, through which many could enjoy movies at one time. It has been claimed by both English and French historians that the race was won by countrymen of theirs. It has been definitely established that the Lumiere Brothers showed films on a screen in a Paris cafe in 1895. Louis Lumiere, who worked with his brother Auguste, died earlier this year, as did their first cameraman, Francis Doublier. The first commercial use of the Edison-Armat projector took place in Koster & Bial’s Music Hall, New York, on April 23, 1896, and Armat was in the booth. This projector coupled with Eastman’s invention of a suitable film and Edison’s contributions, soon inspired _ the business enterprise which led to the motion picture industry of this continent. The motion picture industries of other continents owe much to the enterprise of the American one. Armat, born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was a successful real estate agent who had received mechanical and electrical training. In 1893 he became interested in the movies when a friend asked him _ to _ invest $2,500 for the opening of several Kinetoscope parlors in Atlanta. He offered his machine to the firm which acted as agents for the Kinetoscope and its partners were skeptical, pointing out that Edison had as yet failed to create a practical screen projector. So Armat, at his own expense, demonstrated his for Edison, who immediately dropped his own and combined its patents with those of his new associate. They were involved in litigation in 1922, during which Edison gave the credit to Armat. Option Picked Up. Columbia executives, impres*ed with John Derek’s performance as Nick Romano, the young hoodlum for whom Humphrey Bogart acts as defense attorney in “Knock On Any Door,” have picked up his option.