Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 14, 1954)

April 14, 1954 28% UK Dating To UK Pictures The British Board of Trade recently issued the film exhibitors’ quota returns for the 1952-53 quota year, under the Cinematograph Films Act of 1948, which provides that every motion picture theatre in the United Kingdom, with certain exceptions, must show a prescribed proportion of British films. For the period, which ended September 30, 1953, the statutory quotas were 30 per cent for first features and 25 per cent for supporting films. Theatres are exempt from quota provisions if their average net boxoffice receipts do not exceed £100 ($280) per week. The report shows that British first-feature films accounted for 28 per cent of the screen time of all first-feature films shown in British theatres during 1952-53, while other British films accounted for 26 per cent of screen time for supporting programs. This compares with 1951-52 quota figures of 27 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. Of 4,640 theatres making returns, 414 were,.exempt from quota obligations or operated for only part of the year. Of the other 4,226, a total of 884 exhibitors or 21 per cent failed to achieve the prescribed first-feature quota, compared with 1,042 Out: of -4.183.: or, 25. per cent, in the quota year 1951-52. A total of 1,626 exhibitors failed to achieve their prescribed quota for supporting program films, against 1,901 in the previous quota year. The average quotas achieved by the three major circuits in the United Kingdom (Odeon, Gaumont-British and Associated British Cinemas) were 34 per cent for firstfeature films and 31.5 per cent for second features. This compares with 32.5 per cent and 29.5 per cent, respectively, for the quota year 1951-52. This information was prepared by Nathan D. Golden, director, Scientific, Motion Picture and Photographic Products Division, from a report submitted by the USA Embassy in London. Three Contracts Let During February Three theatre building and alteration contracts were awarded in Canada during February and these were worth $155,000, it was disclosed by Maclean Building Reports Division of Hugh C. MacLean Publications Limited in a recent issue. Of the three, one for $80,000 was in Quebec, one for $45,000 was in Saskatchewan and the third, valued at $30,000, was in Manitoba. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY SQUARE LAST WEEK I NOTED the existence of an inactive UK-film quota regulation in Ontario’s The Theatres Act, 1953—but who needs it? Recently the Hyland, Christie, Hollywood, University, Eglinton, International Cinema and the Towne Cinema were offering first-run showings of six English pix at the same time .. . Alex Barris, Toronto Globe & Mail movie editor, will head Hollywoodward for a two-week May stay. Have fun, son... That MPTV feature being shot in Montreal is about Gouzenko and three Montreal actors are in it—George Bloomfield, Bob Goodier and Alfred Miller. Like the recent Drew Pearson interview of Gouzenko for TV, the Montreal effort will be shown on our movie screens ... Art Arthur, an Ivan Tors’ associate exec producer in Hollywood, was in Washington arranging government co-operation for a film and detoured his return trip via Toronto to say hello to friends and family . . . Heart Award of the Toronto Variety tent will be announced and presented at the April 27 meeting . . . Chronicle Kicker: In New Liberty Gordon Sinclair pans the overuse of Roman numerals: “On movies we can. understand it. Producers don’t want you to know when the film was first released but, being required to record the date, they go in for Romans as camouflage” ... Les Barker, a Canadian vaudeville cartoonist, is regularly referred*to in print as “the creator of Bugs Bunny.” GEORGE H. DORAN, the founder of Doubleday-Doran, is living in retirement here . . . Temperance group’s counter via a sign to a juice firm’s come-on to snobbish swiggers: ““Today’s Man of Distinction is tomorrow’s Man of Extinction” . Call me an Old Cornball, but I’m among the many that thoroughly enjoy Cliff McKay’s CBC-TV stint, Aylmer Holiday Ranch. That reminds me that I’ve often wondered why CBC-TV has passed up Trump Davidson’s Dixielanders, after chancing on a fine format in which Elwood Glover did the intro playing a disc jockey. After one wonderful program as a fill-in it was all forgotten . .. In a recent column in the NY Journal-American Louis Sobol wrote about Gilbert Miller, producer son of actor Henry Miller, as “one helluva guy.” Henry Miller, an English lad who helped lay the bricks for the rebuilding of Toronto’s long-gone Grand Opera House, our leading temple of Thespis in the golden age of the living theatre, became a player on its boards in 1880 at 19. C. W. Couldock, a fine old actor with whom he appeared at the Grand, recommended him to Daniel Frohman, the producer at Booth’s Theatre, New York. He rose to great eminence. One of these days I'll write the story of the Grand. Did the research some years ago but haven’t had time since to do the article . Warners feature, Them, “will make your blood curdle and run cold,” wrote King Features’ Alice Hughes . . . George Herman is now business manager of ACRTA. AN INJUSTICE WORTHY of enquiry in the House of Commons was the curtailment to one hour in Ottawa of the recent Rodgers & Hammerstein TV program sponsored by General’ Foods. F. E. Lennard, MP asked why and Dr. J. J. McCann, Minister of National Revenue, the CBC’s cabinet officer, explained that a prior commitment for a French-language program had brought about the terrible suffering that results from not being able to hear the works of R & H. I shiver when I think that it might have happened to me. This certainly was a catastrophe worthy of the consideration of our Parliament . . . “/s there a country in the world where more good food is spoiled by more bad cooks than in ‘this Canada of ours?’ °—The Montreal Star . . . Again re UK films in Ontario: Do you know that the censorship fees for them are half those charged USA and other films? . . . Kid Stuff: Niece Vicki Arthur in Hollywood got chicken pox and she had to be smeared with colored ointment from head to foot. So pappy and mammy got her a feather bonnet and told her she was an Indian on the warpath. Thereafter, until she got better, everyone entering her room had to give an Indian war whoop, including the doctor . . . Sage-like rabbi was told that one of his disciples had left home and would arrive for a visit in three hours instead of the usual three days because the railroad had come to his town. “So what’s his hurry,” was the rabbi’s comment. 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