Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 16, 1949)

February 16, 1949 Canadian FILM WEEKLY Page 3 Wells, Brown To May Okay Television Schwalberg Now ‘In Some Places’ (Continued from Page 1) Maynard Films (Continued from Page 1) by Canadian Motion Picture Productions. It was produced by Larry Cromien and stars Austin Willis and Joy Lafleur. In making public the new connection of Brown and Wells Paul Maynard, president, said that the company would have five more Independent films to offer shortly. Wells, who resigned as executive director of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Associaticn effective March 1st, has the position of special representative. He is well known and popular with Canadian exhibitors, having been with the CMPDA for 14 years, and will be welcomed wherever he shows up on the theatre scene. His headquarters will be the Toronto office. Brown, originally from Toronto, resigned as Paramount manager for upstate New York recently, after being with that company for 18 years. He will work from the company’s New York office as American representative. The office is at 400 Madison Avenue. There are threats of a lawsuit on the film, officers of Canadian Motion Productions having recently participated in an examination for discovery. No Pix Restrictions Unrestricted importation of American films is being permitted by the Israeli Government until June 30th, 1949, at which time negotiations will be reopened. USP's 'The Children’ Robert Blees has been assigned to write the script for United States Pictures’ ‘The Children,” which Warners will release. Rosselini-Bergman Film To Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn will handle Roberto Rosselini’s forthcoming Italian film starring Ingrid Bergman in all English-speaking countries, according to an agreement entered into by the trio and Ilya E. Lopert recently. Goldwyn will help finance the picture but will have no direct Say in the production. Rosselini will direct and will produce it in conjunction with Lopert. Rosselini, who directed such hits as “Paisan” and “Open City,” has agreed to come to Hollywood to direct a film for Goldwyn later on. While RKO distributes all Goldwyn films, the film has not been committed to any company yet. by the government to a proposal to set up television immediately in some places, under such conditions as will not determine what the permanent and longrange policy will necessarily have to De.”’ He was not referring to the USA broadcasts which can be received by Canadians, he said in reply to a question by Drew. “However, that does not prevent the operation of a publicly owned broadcasting system in Canada,”’ he elaborated. “I do not think that we shall ever have to come to the point where we shall have a curtain through which information from outside cannot penetrate. I do not think that is a situation that is desired by any of us here. Many of us welcome the waves that come from the United States radio broadcasters, but at times we prefer to listen to what is being broadcast from our own publicly owned system. The same shculd be true of television.” Earlier in his address the Prime Minister took up the statement of Drew, made several days before, that ‘private’ interests were being arbitrarily prevented from providing television in this country without any cost to the public exchequer.” Television, St. Laurent stated, ‘is a matter which must necessarily develop into a monopolistic enterprise” because of the limited number of frequencies allocated to Canada. If private interests ‘venture the capital re William Macdonald Joins Crawley Films William A. Macdonald, for the past five years a senior producer with the National Film Board, recently joined Crawley Films Limited of Ottawa as director of sponsored film distribution. Previous to accepting his new position he had made a tour of 43 of the 48 states in the USA studying the field of the department which he now heads. Prior to joining the NFB he was active in advertising and sales promotion in Western Canada and later held the post of travel promotion director for the BC Government. Vol. 14, No. 7 -HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor quired” they will need these frequencies and their investment “will have created for them a vested interest therein.” He then quoted the Hon. R. B. Bennett when the latter introduced his bill on radio broadcasting in 1932. Canadian radio broadcasting, the then Prime Minister had said, must be “free from foreign interference or influence” and that ‘“‘the system we can most profitably employ is one which, in operation and control, responds most directly to the popular will and the national need.” The establishment of the Royal Commission would not prevent members or committees from discussing television during the session, St. Laurent told Gordon Graydon, who asked such a question. Later in the day M. J. Coldwell, CCF leader, asked and received the assurance of St. Laurant that the Royal Commission will be given an absolutely free hand, and would not be asked to have regard for government or CBC opinion in arriving at its judgments. UK Parliament OKs National Th'tre Bill Without one dissenting vote, British Parliament recently passed a bill agreeing to spend £1,000,000 ($4,000,000) for a national theatre to be built in London. To be devoted to legitimate drama, the theatre will enable devotees to see the works of such playwrights as Shakespeare and Shaw for as low as_ sixpence (10c) a seat. "Red Shoes' First Drive-in Roadshow “The Red Shoes,” J. Arthur Rank’s Technicolor film being distributed in Canada by EagleLion, will be the first film ever to be exhibited at a drive-in at roadshow prices. The novel booking has been set for March 24th to 27th at the Drive-in Theatre, Daytona Beach, Florida, with the scale being $2.40, $1.80 and $1.20: for the different car spaces. There will be one performance each night. Feb. 16, 1949 Address all communications — The Managing Editor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada Entered as Second Class Matter. Published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Phone ADelgide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. Para Sales Head (Continued from Page 1) movie industry as a traveling auditor for Vitagraph in 1925 and became vice president of Warner Brothers Pictures Distributing Corporation in 1942. He left Warners in 1944 to become general sales manager for International Pictures, Inc., and when that company was merged with Universal in 1946 he joined the newly organized Eagle Lion Films, Inc., as vice president and general sales manager. From there he went to Paramount. Reagan, who may enter exhibition, received the warm praise of Balaban for his contributions to Paramount in the past. The latter spoke of their warm personal friendship and offered the best wishes of he and his associates. The entire industry career of Reagan has been in association with Paramount, which he joined in 1920 as a salesman in Cincinnati. In 1922 he was named branch manager in Indianapolis, subsequently becoming district manager, Western division manager and assistant general sales manager. In 1944 he was elected to the post from which he has resigned. Balaban took the occasion of Schwalberg’s appointment to make the following further statement: “Although the dictates of realism must continue to control our pclicies during this period of adjustment, we are now emerging into a new and healthier phase of our company’s growth. The production department of our company is stronger today than it has ever been, not only along sounder economic lines but in its ability to produce better entertainment for the public. “The current releasing schedule of our company tells an eloquent story about what we have been able to achieve. This schedule, loaded with top boxoffice values, represents the finest aggregation of product in Paramount’s history. We now face the future with unbounded confidence in the merit of our product and its enthusiastic reception by the public.” Harry Rapf, MGM, Dies In Los Angeles Harry Rapf, MGM production executive, died recently in Los Angeles. He was 68 years old. Producer of dozens of screen hits, Rapf first gained prominence for his productions of films starring the late Marie Dressler, including ‘Min and Bill” and “Tugboat Annie,”