Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 21, 1949)

September 21, 1949 PUBLIC, press and_e radio beefs at the showing of ad films are growing in theatres and it is no secret that circuits and others are worried about them. Ontario exhibs’ association can’t see them at all. EDITORIAL in the Toronto Globe & Mail remarks that it can see no valid reason why the grandstand show at the CNE cannot be a Canadian effort. It claims that most patrons were highly impressed by the production numbers, which were staged with Canadian talent by ‘eon Leonidoff, who for several years lived in Toronto. The editorial goes on to say that with a guarantee of half the grandstand revenue, which would amount to Over $150,000; with plenty of time for preparation; and with a producer of Leonidoff’s stature, it is possible to create a suitable show that’ “might surprise the doubters, Mr. Elwood Hughes included.’”’ Hughes is general manager of the CNE. SECOND anniversary of its opening was celebrated recently by the 404-seat Norgan Theatre, the only one in Palmerston, Ontario. The Norgan was built by George W. Norgan, a former resident of Palmerston, and given to his home town. It is operated by Foto-Nite and one of the stipulations made by Norgan was that the admission charge for children at matinees was to be no higher than five cents. A 20-STORY television centre, costing $9,000,000, will be built in the heart of Manhattan, between 5Sist and 52nd Streets. Designed especially for video, the structure will be just north of New York’s theatre section. COUNCIL of Ormstown, Que., after hearing large delegations, has decided to hold a vote of the people to decide on the request that Sunday moving picture shows be permitted. J. Faubert, who made the request, wants toe build in Ormstown but does not think operation will be profitable unless Sunday performances are allowed and will not start until that is assured. EFFECTIVENESS of trade paper advertising was praised by Andy W. Smith, Jr., 20th Century-Fox sales v-p, in aiding the company’s four-month sales drive get under way with a record number of bookings for the first week. “I believe,’ he said, “this is the first time that tradepaper advertising has been so effectively used to disseminate among exhibitors useful information and booking data. Experience has taught me that the quickest and most effective way of contacting exhibitors is through the tradepaper columns.” Canadian FILM WEEKLY — Short Throws — BRITAIN’S first Variety Club gave a show known as Midnight Matinee to benefit the National Playing Fields Association. Show world biggies attended the first meeting recently. DAVE COPLAN, who used to manage UA in Canada and Britain, and associates have purchased International Film Renters in London and acquired the Film Classics franchise. He’ll be general manager, while Major Andrew Holt will be chairman and Sir Sidney Clift will serve in some capacity. SOAP OPERAS keep the divorce rate down, A. D. Dunton, head of the CBC, told the Royal Commission. He claimed a competent psychiatrist was the authority for the statement. TORONTO Board of Control recently recommended to City Council that it ask the Ontario Government for a larger share of the amusement tax for hospital purposes, inasmuch as Toronto contributes the greater share of the amusement tax. The recommendation coincided with an appeal by the Ontario Hospitals Association for a larger grant from the government, or the city, or both, to meet the increased costs of caring for indigent patients, to which the hospitals claim they lose approximately $5 per patient per day. MARY PICKFORD will attempt a comeback this Fall with a network radio show advising women listeners on the pursuit of happiness. The Toronto-born star of the silent screen, who is partners with Charles Chaplin in United Artists, may later appear on television. DECONCENTRATION, within 18 months, of the Reich-owned film monopoly, UFA, has been ordered by the British and USA occupational authorities in Germany. Move was made “to foster a sound and*democratic and privately owned motion-picture industry in Germany, so as to preclude excessive concentrations of economic power.” INCREASE of $54,003 in the amusement tax collected in Alberta in the three months ended June 8rd, 1949, over the same period in 1948, was reported in the interim statement of the provincial treasury. Higher revenue was ascribed by the report to raised admission charges and greater attendance. An over-all cash surplus of $5,230,042, $2,945,183 more than in 1948, was shown in the statement. QUITE A STORY in the Vancouver Sun by Clyde Gilmour about Hector Quagliotti-Romano, 74-year-old owner and operator of the Colonial, his since 1914. “Quag” got into the game in 1911 when his brother Larry opened the Romano in what had been an old building and hired him as manager. SUDBURY Daily Star suggests that “the Porcupine Chamber of Commerce give careful thought to proposed co-operation with a Hollywood film company” for the making of a picture on highgrading. It feels that it “has been a little hasty in offering assistance to immortalize crime.” WB wants to shoot much of the film in Timmins and Niagara Falls. SUZANNE CLOUTIER, attractive daughter of Edmond Cloutier, Canada’s King’s Printer, will be Orson Welles’ leading lady in Desdemona, which he is producing in Italy. She had appeared in one Hollywood film, then gone to France where she had made several French films. CANADIAN Finance Minister Douglas Abbott talked straight to the USA at the recent dollar conference which he participated in with the American Secretary of the Treasury, John W. Snyder, and Sir Stafford Cripps. He believed, he said, that conditions require adjustment of USA tariff and economic policies. It is heard unofficially that the Canadian motion picture industry’s position with regard to remittance of dollars to the USAwill come up again shortly at a conference in Ottawa of Eric Johnston of the MPAA, J. J. Fitzgibbons of the Canadian industry, Abbott and the Hon. C. D. Howe, Minister of Trade and Commerce. The Canadian Co-operation Project was undertaken 18 months ago as an alternative to freezing of remittances. It was to increase tourist dollars via USA screens. WASHINGTON despatch states that about $25 million of USA blocked dollars in Britain had been spent one way or another by American film compan ies out of an estimated $50 mil lion. ODEON Theatre, Toronto, which opened with pomp and plush a year ago, celebrated its anniversary with a party featuring Olsen & Johnston, cowboys, midgets, etc. A large birthday cake was cut, with replicas delivered to columnists, Page 13 ERNIE WARREN Named Ottawa city supervisor for 20th Century Theatres by M. L. Axler, theatre operations chief. RECORD booking has been set for J. Arthur Rank’s Frederic March starrer, Christopher Columbus, which will open simultaneously in 26 USA cities on the October 14th national holiday, Columbus Day. This is the first time that such a mass premiere has ever been set for any film from Great Britain. BRENT KELLY, 25, Canadian army veteran and in the film industry for 12 years, is the new manager of the Odeon-Fraser Theatre in Vancouver, which reopened recently after extensive alterations. MARQUEES of most theatres on Yonge Street in Toronto will have to be removed to allow for placing of soldier beams to support the roadway and sidewalks while the rapid transit system is built under the street. First theatre marquee and sign to be dismantled was Loew’s. “ASSAULT and battery seems to have become Hollywood's trademark,” the Toronto Saturday Night quotes a British film critic as saying and adds that of six current films discussed by the critic, three were full of violence and killing, one was “a film dedicated to brutality,” the fifth was a light romantic drama that contained a torture chamber and the last one ended with an elaborately-prepared suicide. The article goes on to theorize that so much mayhem on the screen may well result in violence in real life. TEN THOUSAND persons are employed by the Egyptian movie industry, which started in 1928 ' with A Kiss in the Desert, a poor imitation of Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik, made by what later became Egypt's first official film company ~~ Condor Films. = : : ; ; : Oty