Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 1, 1955)

P age 4 Typographs VARIETY CREW meeting was asked what the policy would be if someone wanted to build a wing in the name of Dr. Jonas E. Salk. “Salk?” joshed Ernie Rawley. “That's the guy who is trying to put us out of business!” . . . Should be noted here and now that Maurice Blackburn composed the music for the NFB’s winner at Cannes, Blinkity Blank ... “The only overflow I’ve had in a year,” wailed a nabe exhib, “was in one of the washrooms” . . . Shocking statistic from the Salvation Army in Buffalo is that the average age of unwed girls facing motherhood has decreased from 18 to 16% ... If you reach for your specs to read something and find you’re wearing them—it’s time for another test .. That nice lad, Rocky Marciano, who is accused by the losers of providing one of the year’s boxing lowlights, phoned Arthur Gottlieb just before the Cockell joust to ask if he could loaf at Art and Glad’s Pickering place for a bit... A lady was loudly lamenting her stolen mink stole and a femme listener made this snooty snobservation: “Her first, I suppose”... To AE: A $35-a-week brain in a $350-a-week job — something's gotta give, gotta give, gotta give. Reminds me of what someone said about Zigmund Bolvini of Epitome Pictures: “He should have been arrested instead of his mentality.” JOHN J. FITZGIBBONS, Variety of NY said, is headed for a post at the Paramount studio, from which he would keep one eye on Famous Players. “It isn’t like that at all,” he told me. He wants to ease up, so he and Mrs, Fitzgibbons will spend more time in California. What’s more sensible than to make phone calls and deal with mail from a desk at Paramount while he’s out there rather than at home? He'll be closer to Telemeter and color tube development too . . . A Toronto Film Critics Circle is being talked up... Orville Fruitman now with AA and Ted Dowbiggin, Tommy's boy, checked in at Paramount’s Toronto branch a while ago... Who'll get the Republic product if and when the Emp-U deal is over? Your guess is as good as mine—and T’'ll bet on mine, it being that easy to figure . . . Toronto's only Chinese exhibitor, Won Chuck Yuen, operates the Royce, which hasn’t a so-called “Chinese Screen” . . . Mel Turner, just back from Hollywood with the ready-to-run print of his Kingston-made feature, The Little Canadian, says he'll likely make three more. He hopes to preem the film in Kingston next month . . . So what happened to that much-publicized RCMP TV series, to have been produced by Hollywood’s Vic Stoloff with the backing of Senator Euler and his Kitchener group? From all this, nothing? . . . The most unappetizing painting I’ve seen, a large gangrene-colored mishmash of a death’s-head and other war symbols, hangs behind the Odeon Carlton’s refreshment counter. AFTER THAT BEATING Cockell, the pig farmer, ought to decide that There’s No Business Like Sow Business... A Hamilton Spectator editorial, commenting on the commercialization of violence, notes “The perversion of boxing into a rough-and-tumble television spectacle, the stylization of wrestling into a sort of ballet of fictitious pain, the decline of hockey into a stick-swinging contest.” So why don’t well-meaning folk extend their protests, usually limited to movies, to these examples of violence, which teach such poor lessons in the name of sport and manliness? .. . Will-o’the whisper: That Ford will build another Oakville plant, this one for trucks . . . The CBC hasn't touched a thing in the Carlton Theatre since acquiring it . . . Addition to the earlier item about J. J. Fitzgibbons: He'll be away about two months and on his return help set the scene for a series of intensive meetings early in August . . . The other day | spoke of “Robert P. Mantell” to Alex Barris and Herb Whittaker. “B Robert B. Mantell,” corrected Herb, assuming an air of great erudition, after which he looked at Barris significantly and said: “Oneupmanship.” Me, I’m a Onedownmanship man myself. Onedownmanship — that’s the art of throwing straight lines to guys who can’t be happy without Oneupmanship .. . With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Stupid: In noting the names of film-theatre fellows who are life directors of Mount Sinai I overlooked Columbia's Ever-Generous Lou Rosenfeld. as CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Fa Ze: s 7 Za June 1, 1955 Observanda ANYONE FOLLOWING the Commons hearings on TV through the newspaper reports can’t help admiring the calm and effective way in which Davidson Dunton gave his Parliamentary enquirers information and opinions about everything and anything. Some people think that controversy regarding the CBC is new and grew out of the way it is being handled by those currently in charge of it. I think that controversy is in its very nature. My opinion is based on the story of its earliest years by its first chairman, the late Hector Charlesworth, who created several fascinating chapters from his experiences for his 1937 book, I’m Telling You, one of the series called Candid Chronicles. Running the CBC always was and always will be a rugged go... Now that polio is being licked, emphasis is growing on the fight against heart disease. How about this idea? An ad, featuring a finger pointing at the reader, with this copy: “YOU ... Are You the Kind of Person Who Gives Others Heart Attacks?” I'd like to mail a copy to Lucius Q. Porkhead, the boss at Epitaph Productions, who allee time hollah . . . First The Asphalt Jungle and The Human Jungle, then the Blackboard Jungle and now The Square Jungle. Hollywood has hit a jungular vein and before we’re through we'll probably get The Pablum Jungle and titles like that. SADDEST GUY for miles around is the Spadina furrier who had accumulated 1,000 pounds of raccoon tails, the useless remnants of pelts, and paid to have them burned when the fire inspector said he couldn’t keep them in his shop any longer. A month later came the rage for Davy Crockett hats. The tails would be worth $5,000 today .. . Agent Joe Poster got an airmail letter from comic Jackie Marlin. Ordinary stamps, no airmail sticker and these words: “Fly It!” .. . Some of the “Canadian” acts on CBC TV’s Pick the Stars remind me of Jack Benny’s vaudeville days. Jack came on, then introduced his partner, Mary Livingstone, “a little girl from right here in Toronto!” Big hand. “Last week,” Jack added drolly, “she was from Buffalo” . . . Vaudeville drummer filled in at a legitimate drama, where the small group of musicians did no more than play the national anthem and some pre-curtain music. He dozed off and awoke just~ as the aged matriarch on the stage, as part of her role, was struck by a heart attack and began a death scene that ended when, after some weaving about, she collapsed to the floor. The drummer, without thinking, accompanied her struggles with a drum roll and a cymbal crash ... Eary note: “Even when he fills them in, his cheques turn out to be blanks.” , r , ~ | tte 52 2% = wi. { Federation of Film Societies’ New Executive Shown above is the new executive of the Canadian Federation of Film Societies, a division of the Canadian Film Institute, recently elected at the second annual meeting in Ottawa, at which the name of the group was changed from the Film Society Division of the CFI. Standing, from the left, are Miss K. M. Gillespie, Ottawa; Harry Gove, Deep River; Jules Huot, Montreal; Dick Small, Sarnia; Michel Brault, Montreal; and Ted Hall, Toronto. Seated are Mrs. Dorothy Burritt, Toronto; Roy Little, Toronto; Miss E, Zimmerman, Ottawa and Toronto; Charles W. Brown, London; and Jean Beauvas Quebec City. : oe