Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 9, 1954)

WOULDN’T IT BE better for our national dignity if the thanks-for-cooperation intro on features made in Canada by USA producers were directed to a department of government rather than “the Canadian government’? That’s what’s done across the line . . . The space vacated by MGM in the Film Exchange Building when its own headquarters are constructed will be divided between Empire-Universal and IFD. IFD will get the sixth floor and basement and Emp-U the street floor . . . Rube Bolstad was biographed in The Financial Post... Portland Mason, the James Masons’ moppet, is first-named after Fred Allen’s frau. Mason is up at the so-called Stratford Shakespearean Festival, where he will appear in Oedipus Rex. You know something? I have a feeling that the Stratford success is a greater accomplishment in the field of promotion than it is as theatre. Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for it. I’m all for anything that gives work to actors . . . Js Canada developing a handout culture, with John Barleycorn one of its chief patrons? _ , Alex Barris, Globe and Mail film critic, is now fishing in varied waters for news. His column is now called Casting About With Barris. Why not Trolling Around the Town? . . . Subtitled version of Tit-Coq, Fridolin’s Quebec-made film, just about ready in English . .. Dale Robertson, Fox star, was in town for a couple of days with Lee Brooks, Toronto broker, who got him his start in Hollywood. Robertson, as right as he’s handsome, hit it off immediately with everyone. LIBERTY MAG’S VERSION of the Bloor Street bit commented about the tremendous construction development east of Yonge but didn’t mention the building in which Canadian Film ANNOUNCING... the appointment of DOMINION SOUND EQUIPMENTS LIMITED as EXCLUSIVE CANADIAN DISTRIBUTORS f ‘PANAVISION super PANATAR’ the VARIABLE LENS FOR ALL ANAMORPHIC SYSTEMS @ VARIABLE—Just one knob adjusts to any aspect ratio from 1.33:1 to 2.66:1 @ SHARPER & BRIGHTER—Over the full width of screen . regardless of aspect ratio @ SUPERIOR COLOR @ NO FOCUSING @ CORRECTS DISTORTION @ EASY TO CLEAN @ SUPERIOR DEFINITION DOMINION SOUND EQUIPMENTS LIMITED HEAD OFFICE: 4040 St. Catherine Street West, Montreol. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY June 9, 1954 Weekly, the tractor div of Ford, head office of IFD, M. C. Taylor Advertising and Twentieth Century Theatres are located. It was Nat Taylor, president of Twentieth Century Theatres, who first saw the post-war possibilities of the few blocks between Yonge and Sherbourne, now the scene of about $30,000,000 worth of office construction. When we first got here part of it was like a country lane and some of it belonged in the last century. The corners of Church and Sherbourne had a little bit of activity, for dowagers and their servants came out of the winding streets of ancient Rosedale, on the other side of the ravine, to shop. There was one modern building, erected before the war—that of the Manufacturers’ Life. Nat acquired the south-side property from Church east to St. Paul’s Cathedral, in which his own and two other buildings now stand. He began the post-war movement that vanquished the Victorian atmosphere of the street with the 20th Century Theatres Building in the Spring of 1949. WHILE POPPING OFF about popcorn at the IPA regional meeting Jim Blevins of Nashville said a survey had revealed that 35,000,000 Americans are dieting. And one lad insisted confidentially that some USA circuits make an area study of popcorn consumption before going ahead with plans for a new theatre! . . . In case you care, there were 3,140,000 phones in Canada in 1952... Friend of mine, just back from Italy, told me how that femme fad, the Italian haircut, got going. The girls who couldn’t afford hairdressers in that impoverished country decided that the simplest thing to do was to eliminate the need for them by cutting their own hair. The cute and casual look that resulted from the amateur shearing caught on and hairdressers were forced to adopt it . . . My thanks to the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario for its appreciation of our help in getting the amusement tax campaign going. The board instructed exec sec Arch Jolley to write us .. . Won't they please reissue that fine movie Dodsworth? I saw a TV version that was good enough to stir happy recollections of it... 1 can never quite get over the shameless fakery of wrestling offered as a contest, the frequent triumph of evil incarnate as pictured on TV and the straight-faced commentary. Why worry about the alleged furthering of wrong values by movies and crime comics when there is more cruelty and violence in a halfhour of TV wrestling than in miles of one and tons of the other... Popular and capable Ernie Roberts left ASN, Montreal, where he handled public relations for years. _ TIME TO REPEAT. Confucius said: “A gentleman has nine aims. To see clearly; to understand what he hears; to be warm in manner; dignified in bearing; faithful in speech; painstaking at work; to ask when in doubt; in anger to think of difficulties; in sight of gain to remember right.” _ Mr. Confucius, I wish you’d speak to Lucius Q. Porkhead of Epitome Productions and Zigmund Bolvini of Epitaph Features. They've been making folks lives, including their own, miserable for years. I nssesnsnsssssssssseesesesessetsssssnsssssteses Talking Over the Bad Old Days in Marlag O : The forthcoming release of Marlag O by International Film Distributors inspired a buffet luncheon at the Variety Club, where some former inmates of that German POW camp got together. On hand also was Ed Sammis of NY, author of the play from which the film was made, who is seated on the left. Next to him is Ernest Bartlett, now features editor of The Telegram; then comes Professor Bob McCrae of the University of Toronto. Bartlett and’ McCrae were in Marlag O at the same time. Standing, left to right, are Ken Johnson, The Telegram; George Nagy and Larry Stephens, IFD; Rex Frost, CFRB; and Barney Simmons, Towne Cinema.