Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 31, 1955)

Vol. 20, No. 33 TORONTO, AUGUST 31, 1955 NWA $3.00 Per Annum AK PREVI This Odeon Drive Without Any Top An unlimited number of prizes in the form of apparel and household goods is available to every Odeon manager for increased attendance in the new drive being put on by the circuit and named “The Odeon ‘Live Like a King’ Ticket Sellebra (Continued on Page 4) Attendance Down At Variety Game Attendance at the annual Variety baseball benefit at the Toronto Maple Leaf Stadium, during which the home team lost to Havana 4 to 3 in a very good game, was 7,287 — about 10,000 fewer patrons than the record for that particular event. (Continued on Page 3) OLD-TIME IDEAS PROVE HARDY IN BATTLE FOR PATRONAGE Not-so-sneak previews, personal appearances — these old-time ways of boosting the film boxoffice have suddenly been rediscovered at a time when exploitation departments are looking for new ones. It’s like finding uranium ore in an Periodical Editorializes Re Trade Paper Helpfulness Today there are about 250 business papers in Canada and Industrial Marketing reports that 28 new ones were started from July, 1954 to June, 1955. The USA has 2,300 business papers. “The time comes in every field of commerce and industry when the need is felt for a paper of its own,” states an editorial in the current issue of Canadian Printer and Publisher. It gives some of the news areas, then says: “Hence, the business paper becomes the standard reference or ‘bible’ in its sphere.” The editorial concludes: “Canadian business papers, many of them bucking U.S. as well as homegrown competition, have set for themselves very high standards of responsible and progressive journalism, and are rendering outstanding services to the country as well as the particular fields in which they circulate.” USA's Film Restoration Points Up Our Need Approaching completion of the restoration of copyrighted movies up to 1912, a project of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, directs interest again to the matter of a Canadian film archive, for among them are a number made in Canada or about Canadians. For responsible agencies, such as an officially-approved film archive, the Academy will make the material available providing that Primrose Studios of Hollywood, the restoration firm, is given the order and that an extra print be deposited in the USA’s Library of Congress. That information and much (Continued on Page 8) Saskatchewan Theatre Open The Elk’s Lodge of Shellbrook, Saskatchewan has opened its new 420-seat Elk’s Theatre, replacing the old outdated house. BOASBERG TO JOIN PARAMOUNT SETUP AFTER LABOR DAY Former Circuit Head Tom Moorehead Dies Thomas H. Moorehead, juvenile court judge in Peel County and founder of the Peel Construction Company, died last week from a heart attack in Brampton, Ontario while in his car. Thirty years ago he built the Capitol, Brampton and this led to the Moorehead & Filman circuit, with theatres in a number of Ontario towns. Frank Filman was his brother-in-law. The circuit was acquired by Hanson Theatres, which later went to Famous Players. Veteran distribution executive who. was RKO sales chief before helping to organize DCA, Charles Boasberg will join Paramount home office in an important sales capacity after Labor Day, it was announced by George Weltner, head of abandoned copper mine. Recent experiences in Canadian cities have industry executives working toward increasing their ee The “Major Studio Sneak Preview” is beginning to creep back into bigtown ads and the idea is bringing such results that circuits plan to introduce it in smalltown houses. There are, of EWS & P.A.'s BOOST BO Balaban Praises FPCC Executives No single company could make all the good films the motion picture industry needs, nor could two, Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures, said at a luncheon given in his honor by Famous Players. He welcomed such pictures from all (Continued on Page 3) July Bldg. Awards Three construction and -alteration awards, valued at $108,000, course, theatres which have had a weekly preview on a fixed night each week for years. The boxoffice benefitted but it was found that the audiences grew more and (Continued on Page 4) TWENTIETH CENTURY REGIONALS Regional meetings of Twentieth Century Theatres for this year will be held in different Ontario cities on September 7, 21 and 28, it was announced at the home office in Toronto by N. A. Taylor, president and managing director. Accompanying Taylor will be Raoul Auerbach, vice-president; Harry S. Mandell, secretarytreasurer; M. L. Axler, theatre operations manager; John S. Kurk, district manager; and Barney Fox, head booker. The last -meeting, slated for Toronto, will also be attended by S. V. Roth, district manager; H. P. Ginsberg, head of accounting; D. D. Lawless, chief auditor; and Daye Mandell, Inter Theatre manager. On September 7 managers from Orillia, Lindsay, North Bay, Sudbury, Napanee, Belleville and Trenton will meet with the head office group in the first-named city. The party will inspect theatres in Windsor, Chatham, Sarnia, St. Thomas and London and managers from these cities will come to the meeting in London on September 21, as will those from Brantford, Dunnville, Welland, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Galt and Kitchener. | The closing meeting takes place in Toronto on September 28. BEAUDRY NOW SMPTE FELLOW Roger Beaudry, who recently joined Shelly Films Limited at its new studio on Brockhouse Road, Toronto, will be among those to become a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers at its forthcoming 78th semi-annual convention, scheduled for early October at Lake Placid, NY. He has been a SMPTE member for some time. One of the Canadian motion picture industry’s top-ranking technical experts, Beaudry was born in Ottawa, educated in electrical engineering at Queen’s University. After service in the Royal Canadian Navy he joined the National Film Board in 1945 and was its chief sound recording engineer until he joined Shelly. were let in Canada in July. Alberta had one, worth $90,000, and Ontario had two, valued at $18,000. In July, 1954 ten contracts were awarded and these were worth $456,400. world wide distribution, He'll handle exhibitor distress appeals. “This information and opinion will then be channeled to Mr, Boasberg, who will thereafter handle the matter with honesty, friendliness and expedition,"