Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 22, 1949)

Page 6 CMA PONDERS TV (Continued from Page 1) meeting of the Canadian Manufacturers Association at St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, NB, _ recently. His prediction followed the suggestion that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation grant TV licenses to present applicants from Montreal, Toronto and Western Ontario, while at the same time devote its own resources to centres from which no applications had come, such as Vancouver, Halifax and Winnipeg. Finlayson was one of seven speakers from Canada and the United States who described television as a great new industrial giant which will virtually revolutionize Canadian life socially and economically. It would, they said, have a greater effect on our economy than anything since the introduction of the motor car—from a standpoint of jobs, wages, working conditions and living standards. Within a few years Canada will require 250,000 sets annually at a cost of between $50 and $75 millions, and this would bear on the metal and lumber business in a tremendous way, stated F. R. Deakins of RCA Victor, Montreal. Sad days are ahead for Hollywood if it doesn’t move fast in the TV field, George E. Sterling, a commissioner of the USA Federal Communications Commission, told those present. “It will become a Whistle stop at the end of a coaxial cable’ unless it holds its own, he predicted. TV was outdistancing movies in public interest and he felt that erstwhile patrons would rather get their entertainment at home. At its present rate of growth in the USA television “will be one of the country’s ten largest industries in the next four or five years,” he claimed. Key to the CBC’s careful approach to TV was given by A. D. Dunton, chairman of the Board of Governors of that government body, who said that “A medium as important as télevision has to be thought of in national terms.” American programs would be used ‘‘because of the way commercial arithmetic has to work” and these would share our TV screens “with Canadian talent expressing Canadian ideas.” Others who spoke were J. H. Rowlatt, Cosar-Canada, Ltd., Halifax; and A. B. Hunt, Northern Electric Co., Ltd, Montreal. Chairman L. L. Anthes of Toronto said that it was the most important CMA convention he had attended in 40 years. Gail Russell Pacted Gail Russell has signed a new seven-year contract with Paramount, Canadian FILM WEEKLY hss i oy U ie" In the Land of Babble On Fred Robin has succeeded Art Lefevbre, resigned as manager of the Odeon, Rouyn .. . Jock Davison, manager of the Odeon, St. Thomas, was banged up a bit in a recent auto accident . . . Radio is developing its equivalent of the woman who trips on the theatre stairs and wants to sue. A Toronto woman wants $5,000 from the CBC for tripping over a wire while walking toward her seat for a broadcast . .. The Forum, formerly the Hudson, will become tne Mount Pleasant and the King’s Playhouse is now the Avon. The Lionel Axler stag was real fun, with me acting as roastmaster and putting everybody on the pan... Loyd Mills, former 20th Century supervisor and later a Buffalo theatre pilot, is now manager of the Scoop Theatre, Louisville, which became an art cinema a while back .. . Gaumont-Kalee didn’t move to the Odeon Building, as stated here, but its Bestec-Sciex division did... Harry Popkin, ex-Toronto lad who is now a California theatre tycoon, may make Roving Diplomat for Paramount. See. where the boys in Hollywood gave Mono’s Steve Broidy a party on the 25th anni of his entry into this business —— to which we add our congrats . . . Steambout ’Round the Bend and David Harum were double-billed in an LA theatre as the first Will Rogers’ pix to be released in ten years. In NY Universal is testing public reaction to W. C. Fields’ My Little Chickadee and The Bank Dick. How about some Rogers and Fields films for Canada? ... ‘The Naked and the Dead,’ the war novel, is banned in this country. Canadian Motion Picture Productions, which made Sins of the Fathers, has had the theme of its new feature okayed by Joe Breen of the MPAA Hollywood office. Incidentally, control of the company is now in the hands of Gordon Fairley, who has had previous industry interests and is now head of Hotel Holdings, Ltd. This makes him an important figure in the action of CMPP against Maynard Films to outlaw the distribution agreement through which the latter company is handling Sins of the Fathers. That picture has had its USA test runs but is still on the censor’s shelf in Ontario. Jack Karr reports that Quebec Productions’ Paul L’Anglais, following the success of A Man and His Sins, will make another French-language film . . . From Hollywood Jack Hirshberg reports in the Montreal Standard that Lionel Shapiro, who recently took a kick at the Cinema City in Maclean’s (that’s a magazine), has sold Universal a story for about $50,000. His book provided the basic story for Paramount’s The Sealed Verdict . . . Someone celebrated Winnipeg’s 75th anniversary by stealing Joe Bermac’s car, which contained his packed bags. Had to send to Toronto for another suit. In Maclean’s recently one James Dugan took a cheap and mean whack at “gossip” columnists, particularly Walter Winchell and Leonard Lyons. For that magazine it amounts to a sneak punch, for neither columnist’s work is well-known to Canadians. Both provide clean, honest entertainment for millions of USA readers and both are among this continent’s bes} defenders of democracy. It is an unbalanced account by a gossip sneering at his journalistic betters and I am surprised that Maclean’s allowed its columns to be used in such an unfair way. I suppose it is that magazine’s thanks to Winchell for devoting his whole column several years ago to singing the praises of this country in the 175-or-so newspapers which print him. There’s new blood in the theatre business these days. One man explained his entry by telling of his old business, that of a running a hotel. Tough lumberjacks used to take a notion to break up the beverage room after a spell of sopping up suds. The boss knocked the notion out of their noggins with one punch. One day he delivered that one punch but the other guy got off the floor. “I knew right there that the time to get into some other business was here,” he said. He picked the movie business, June 22, 1949 LAMPORT VS. (NE (Continued from Page 1) dian production just wouldn’t draw caused Controller Allan Lamport to demand that he be discharged, while Canadian talent agency representatives also disputed the position of the CNE manager. Lamport challenged Hughes on | his statement that “a Canadian show produized by a Canadian is not what the public wants.” He says that a Canadian show, produced by Canadians and based on Canadian entertainers, is just what the public does want. The Controller, who has been criticizing Hughes and the CNE since the last show, announced his intention of forming an organization representing Canadian talent in all fields. Meetings have been held in the Controller’s office and the organization, when Official, will forward a brief to the CNE executive. The controversy caused the first open meeting in the history of the CNE to be called and it listened to the directors, the city controllers, Controller Lamport and Hughes. Col. K. R. Marshall, CNE president, accused Lamport of trying to sabotage the fair. In the end Hughes was sustained. Hec McCallum of Mart Kenney Enterprises, a national booking agency, Len Headley, radio executive and chairman of the Crippled Children’s benefit show, and Rai Purdy, Toronto producer, have disagreed completely with Hughes’ stand and claim that a show could be produced by Canadians featuring Canadian talent, with the possible exception of a name headliner. Purdy, who was one of those responsible for producing the Canadian Army Show, cited Wayne & Schuster, Mildred Morey and Doug Romaine as outstanding entertainers who might leave this country if they didn’t get a break. “l’m beginning to believe it’s a hardship to be born a Canadian,’ Purdy said, “especially if you are born an_ entertainer. Canadian talent receives no encouragement. Where else can Canadian talent find an outlet in Canada if it’s shvt out of productions such as the CNE show?” Cromwell To Direct John Cromwell will direct Warners’ The Big Cage. Cowan And Hanson To Great Britain James Cowan, publicity and advertising chief of the J. Arthur Rank Organization of Canada, and O. R. Hanson, head of Monogram-Allied Artists, are both in England for conferences. An important story may be released when their visit is concluded,