Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 16, 1955)

Page 6 Observanda THERE WERE SO many handsomely-dressed gentlemen and so many beautifully-gowned ladies at the Pioneer dinner that—as I said there—Nat Taylor must surely have made a deal with Central Casting for a couple of hundred dress extras .. . When Louie Rosenfeld, the guest of honor, disappeared towards the men’s room, leaving Haskell Masters high but not dry, the latter referred to him as “the absent Pioneer of the Year” . . . Louie was a riot and Dave Coplan, who arrived late with a party of six and had to eat in the Royal York dining room because the banquet hall was filled, said: “I missed Louie’s ; presentation but I hear four companies have an ™ re option on him” . . . Bob Rubin and Charlie Boas[ . berg, NY Para execs, were at the dinner, and {| | x Bob said it was unforgettable. “I’m going to “~*~ “* spread this all over New York when I get back,” he asserted . . . CBC TV newsreel gave the dinner plenty of footage at 7 p.m. but clipped it in favor of a plane crash at 11 p.m... . Haskell Masters recalled for the guests the time that Rosenfeld received a cheque from Leonard Brockington for some poker losses. With it was a note suggesting humorously that Louie might conceivably put so much value on the autograph that he would rather frame the cheque than cash it. Back came a letter from Louie: “I do appreciate your autograph. I will cash the cheque and frame the letter.” When Haskell finished telling the story Brock, a few seats from him, stirred much laughter with this comment: “And when I got the cheque back from the bank I found that it had been raised.” GEORGE OULLAHAN, aided by George Altman and Harry Lester, did a great piece of difficult work in making the physical arrangements for the CPP dinner . . . Chet Friedman of MGM did a tremendous job of handling the dinner publicity and press, TV, newsreel and radio arrangements—and even the New York Times picked up the CP story. Chet, by the way, got McAree’s full Globe and Mail column for The Bar Sinister... To the MGM Newsreel editor: There’s no “Royal Military Academy” in Kingston. It’s the Royal Military College . . . Dave and Mrs. Daniel are going to Winnipeg for the wedding of their son, Ted, who is with the Manitoba government’s communication service .. . African Witch Doctors have formed a 4,000-member association. That’s sure putting all your hex in one basket . . . Overheard: “Lucius Q. Porkhead is the kind of a boss who makes you wish you’d saved your money” . . . About 75 million wooden toothpicks are pro duced per year but some people have them in ivory and gold. | recall a friend telling me that he saw a gold one that had belonged to Joseph Howe on display in a Maritime museum. This one was a toothpick on one end and an earcleaner on the other. Ugh! ... Al Turnbull, Dominion sound engineer who attended the MPICC sessions, recalled the accomplishments of the late Hy Goldin during his address to the dinner of the Institute of Radio Engineers, zs did Jack Bain in introducing him. CANADIAN FILM AWARDS presentations will likely take place during the Stratford Shakespearean Festival next summer. So Walter Herbert told the meeting of the The Association of Canadian Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada. which Pierre Harwood of Montreal, here primarily for the MPICC pow-wow, chaired as prexy .. . Ten-year man with ASN sales in Montreal, Jack MacKay, just quit . . . Du Pont’s Ronald Ringler is now SMPTE Canadian membership committeeman, a_ post handled for years by the late George Rutherford . . . Bob Shields now handling the NFB info and promotion chores in Ottawa that were Tony Wright’s responsibility before he left . . . The Carlton Theatre, which the CBC bought from B&F, is about ready as a radio studio to replace the Concert Hall on McGill Street, which will vanish when the building is torn down. The CBC Playhouse on Grenville, a radio studio, will be used for TV dry runs and the TV building on Jarvis will be extended all along the Wood Street frontage, eliminating the parking lot . . . Touche for Jay Smith. At the dinner for Gordon Lightstone, Jr. I introduced him as “publisher of the Canadian Moving Picture Digest, which some people call the poor man’s Canadian Film Weekly.” Jay, in referring to my presence at the same event in his Digest column, identifies me as “editor of the junior trade journal.” True, at that. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Typographs IN MACLEAN’S James Bannerman offers a long flashback on Barnum’s outsized elephant, Jumbo, who was killed by a train at St. Thomas on September 15, 1885. Nowhere in the piece is any account taken of that wire story from the USA some years ago, in which a circus man who was there claimed that Barnum framed Jumbo’s death because the elephant had become smelly and hard to handle . . . A bad penning always turns up. All the way from Paris my ex-aide, Dan Halperin, now United Press rep there, points out that Stephen Crane, not Emily Dickinson, authored The Wayfarer, recently reprinted here. Shown up by my own literary flesh and blood yet! There’s no respect for parents any more... Sorry to see good old Jimmy Davie stepping out of RKO... The Crest’s Othello, which ran three weeks, was an eye-catching production, aided somewhat by access to Stratford’s storerooms. But that Valk! A real ranter who, no doubt because German is his native tongue, can’t capture the rhythms of English speech. Each declamation saw him racing to make too little breath do for too many words. In the end there was always a crashing pileup of language, which some members of the audience probably took for an emotional peak. Most of the time you just couldn’t make him out. ‘“Volcanic’’? Yes. But also unintelligible. Murray Davis offered an excellent Iago and I would like sometime to see him as Disraeli in a revival of Parker’s play, which would be sort of timely, considering the Suez situation . . . Casino, offering vaud-burleQ, is doing 60 per cent immigrant biz weekdays and 70 per cent Saturdays. Stage gags, unless visual, die every time. AT THE DISTRIBUTORS’ luncheon for delegates to the exhibitors’ national meeting Archie Mason of Springhill, NS rose to thank them. He was proud to say that when Charlie Chaplin, now UA g.m. and the chairman, had been made manager of the Saint John branch his first contract was one from Mason. “What Archie didn’t tell you,” cracked Charlie, “‘was that Haskell Masters, who had my job then, rejected it!”... Owen Bird, that bright BC newcomer to MPICC sessions, arrived a couple of minutes late and Dave Griesdorf, the chairman, observed that it was probably because he had come from so far. “That’s right,” said Owen. “My dog team broke down”... With Owen as a BC delegate was another MPICC newcomer, Max Chechik, whose brother Ben is about to start building a drive-in theatre near Sydney, Australia... Carl Madsen of the Cameo, Morrisburg had a regular patron and one day he won a Foto-Nite jackpot. After that he came no more and Carl, meeting him on the street, asked why. “You know that money I won?” he explained. “I bought a TV set with it”... Ben Sommers, Manitoba exhibs’ prexy, will handle Foto-Nite out of Winnipeg from now on... Thanks to Harry Allen, Mrs. Wallace McCutcheon, Norm Hersco, Chuck Sweeney, Dick Newman and so many others for their congrats re my CFA Special Award , . . Ever see the little guy on the Steve Allen program who chews bottle tops, etc.? If there’s a bumper crop he’ll chew the bumpers. CONVERSATION was about a fellow who went mad about an air hostess at first glimpse. “A case of love at first flight,” commented Raoul Auerbach .. . With The Ten Commandments coming up let me bring back the story about Pharaoh’s daughter fetching a baby home. “Isn’t this the prettiest baby you ever saw? she gurgled. Pharaoh frowned and opined he was plumb ugly. “That’s funny,” said his daughter. “He looked good in the rushes ... Elevator girl in the Royal York was apologizing to a passenger for having taken him well past his floor. “It’s okay,” the nice guy comforted her. “It'll still be there when we come down”... Dusty Brooks: “I just found a way to drive a woman crazy. Lock her in a room with a thousand hats—and no mirror”. . . Scotty Peacock, 20th Century drive-in manager, gives all his late fall and winter time to his mink farm, which isn’t too far from the Northeast ozoner ... Kid just back from his first day at school was asked what he learned by his father. “Not much, I guess,” he guessed. “I have to go back tomorrow”. . . Ran and Doris Freeland, whom I visited at their Fantasy Farm with their friend and mine, jeweler Jack Levy, have a 16-year-old Spaniel that snaps tossed coins out of the air and keeps them in her mouth. That pooch sure doesn’t have to worry about a penniless old age. What’s that about a dog’s life? November 16, 1955