Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 1, 1954)

September 1, 1954 TERRY RAMSA YE (Continued from Page 1) trouble, but continued to fill his widely-read department in The Herald. His ill health was aggravated by a fall at his home early last month. An engineer from the University of Kansas before becoming a newspaperman on The Kansas City Star and Times, Ramsaye came to Montreal in 1920 for the CPR to help organize Associated Screen News, which grew out of the 1919 British-backed USA newsreel edited by him, Kinograms. He was always interested in Canada and several articles just before his passing were about the possibilities of Canadian motion picture production. Ramsaye was an ASN consultant until 1940. Although he had a busy and creative career as a newspaperman, journal and film editor, and motion picture publicist, Ramsaye’s fame will likely rest on his great two-volume history of the movies up to 1926, A Million and One Nights, published by Simon & Shuster and not republished since. He recently finished a book about the cultural aspect of motion pictures for publication by the Harvard Press as part of a Library of Congress project. As an engineer he worked for Bell Telephone and Western Electric. After that he was employed by a number of papers, including the Chicago Tribune, then in 1915 he became publicity and advertising director for the Mutual Film Corporation. Here he founded Screen Telegram and from this he became a noted film editor. He was editor-in-chief of Pathe News and among the features he edited later was Grass. The late Mr. Ramsaye left Pathe News to join The Motion Picture Herald, which he edited from 1931 to 1949, along with the Motion Picture Almanac. On retiring from these posts he became consulting editor for Quigley Publications. Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Helene Thompson Ramsaye, and his mother, Georgia Rates Ramsaye, 91, who lives in Tonganoxie, Kansas, where Mr. Ramsaye was born. His father was Lee M. Ramsaye. ‘The Mean Streets' Acquired Columbia has acquired Thomas B. Dewey’s Cosmopolitan novel, The Mean Streets. Para's ‘Mavericks’ The Mavericks, a story of the Old West, has been purchased by Paramount as a large-scale screen production. The novel was written by Leonard Praskins and Barney Slater, wellknown screen writers. It will be serialized in a national magazine soon with book publication scheduled to follow, CANADIAN) FILM WEEKLY wile Ne SOOSSW LET’S BREAK FROM the barrier this week with a laugh. A lady made her turf selections in the traditional way—sticking a hatpin through the racetrack program—and bet the winner in every race. On hearing about it hubby got hot instead of happy. “You dumb dame!” he hollered. “If you had the brains you were born with you'd have used a fork instead of a hatpin. Then you’d have won straight, place and show!” . . . Judith Robinson’s 69-year-old scoop in her Toronto Telegram column: That the Union Pacific, in an effort to thwart the growth of the CPR, which was drawing American settlers into Canada from the area through which UP rails ran, sent Louis Riel back from Montana to his 1885 rebellion and supported him with money, : ammunition and firearms... Observation: At 30 you begin slowing up, at 45 breaking up. PS: I'm 48... Why doesn’t Fox remake the Muni-Cregar starrer, Hudson’s Bay, in CinemaScope? .. . Some people invite you to “drop up” to their apartment. How can you “drop up”?.../f you can remember when drivers used to refer to their autos as “the machine,” then you jes’ ain’t young any more, In Maine I saw an old store with a sign welcoming “automobilists.” By the way, a tonic up here is something the barber rubs in your hair or that you take in the Spring but in Maine it’s just soda pop . . . Raymond Allen was in town last week and praised Bob Johnson, Mickey Isman, Oscar Richards and the others who helped get $7,000 with a benefit for the four-yearold Dutch immigrant who lost both legs. REMEMBER THE COELECANTH)? That’s the creature of the deep, thought to be extinct, that was discovered ofi South Africa by Prof. J. L. B. Smith in 1952. He and a group that includes a Canadian, Cdr. Duncan Hodgson, RCN, world record holder for tuna fishing, will seek another coelecanth in the Indian Ocean. In the group is Trevor Beaumont, famed African hunter and angler, who will film the expedition and write a book about it. Toronto’s Tom Wheeler of the Wheeler Newspaper Syndicate has invited the attention of interested parties to the film . . . Night club singer-hoofer, irked by poor accompaniment, went off with thanks to “Joe Fink and his great musical aggravation.” He must have got crippling rhythm instead of rippling rhythm . . . Fascinating sight: Parking meters being emptied into a pot pushed from this one to the next on a self-caddy. This kind of golf I'd like to play . . . Bernard Baruch to a NY Times interviewer: “We can’t cross a bridge until we come to it; but I always like to lay down a pontoon ahead of time” . . . Want to do me a favor? If you are a Year Book advertiser, please get your copy into us as soon as possible after reading this . . . Comedian Joey Adams, writing from Montreal to NY Mirror columnist Lee Mortimer: “Canada is great if you happen to be a polar bear.” So who needs him, who? ... Good new game: Scramble, Scrabble with playing cards. THERE AREN’T MANY distribution heads as personally pepular around here as Charlie Boasberg, who'll leave his NY RKO office in a couple of months for a profit-sharing top spot with a new setup. All you need are ears to learn that this is a real nice guy ... With so many Western pictures the movie business will soon have more outlaws than in-laws. Or am I talking crazy?... Where movie titles come from: One night I was with a visiting production executive and we dropped into a local bar. He read the Liquor Licence Board placard: “Occupancy By More Than 70 Persons Is Dangerous and Unlawful.” He borrowed my pencil, saying: “That’s a terrific title -— ‘Dangerous and Unlawful’”.. . USA 1950 population showed 994,562 persons born in Canada, with only the Italian-born figure greater. Massachusetts had 192,514 Canadian-born in its 4,690,514 population . . . Judging by the poor arrangements almost everywhere on this continent, hotel owners never heard about reading in bed. I'll bet good illumination for that purpose would boost magazine sales plenty . . . Jack Arthur, sick a while back, is coming along fine. He puts in most of every day on his CNE grandstand presentation, which stars Roy Rogers .. . Officials of Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists doing a burn at a Maclean’s article by Earle Beatty who wrote that they want to grab the talent AGVA and the AFM are fighting over, Utter bunk, they say. Page 7 TERRY RAMSAYE Author and film trade authority, who passed away recently. 53 SITUATIONS (Continued from Page 1) and that number will probably reach 240 before the end of the season, since there are 22 others in construction and eight more planned. There are 17 standardtype houses in work and 21 more are projected. MacLean’s Building Reporter states that ten construction and alteration contracts were let in Canada in July and these were worth $456,400. Of these, two for $100,000 were in Nova Scotia; two worth $37,000 were in Ontario; one valued at $156,000 was in British Columbia; one for $75,000 was in Newfoundland; one worth $50,000 was in Alberta; one for $25,000 was in New Brunswick; one valued at $10,000 was in Quebec; and one for $3,400 was in Manitoba. Opened were the 500-car, $60,000 Ridge Drive-in in Hammond, BC, owned by E. Canning, I. Morrison and L. Warren; F. G. Spencer Company’s Mountain Drive-in near Campbellton, NB; Ches. Berry’s 365-car drive-in in Camrose, Alberta; the 375-car Blue Moon Drive-in in Foam Lake, Sask., owned by Blue Moon Theatre Co., of which T. Halyk is president; and Senkovic & Mendoza’s 400-seat Dorval in Dorval, Quebec. Odeon-Garson Theatres is drawing up plans to rebuild the Kent Theatre in Moncton, NB. The new structure will be on the same site'on St. George Street formerly occupied by the theatre, which was destroyed by fire. Famous Players will start work soon on the alterations to the lobby and marquee of its Capitol Theatre in Lethbridge, Alberta.