Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 30, 1955)

Ea rs pear Pi a Observanda AT THE RECENT Pioneer dinner Leonard Brockington recalled for me the time Mayor James J. Walker of New York, a famed rounder, addressed the Canadian Club of Ottawa. “This is not the first time,” he said, “that Walker and Canadian Club have been intimately associated” . . . Film-biz folks with two-country status who live here—and there are a few— will lose their USA citizenship unless they take the oath of allegiance before December 14... Will Allied Artists make its feature of Medic with an all-scar cast? . . . That Windsor FPCC TV deal, says New York, is worth $4,000,000. And if it’s made, insiders will bet, Telemeter will cross the border into the rich Detroit market from outside the jurisdiction of the FCC of the USA ... Buffalo Variety Club just elected eight new canvasmen of the 11 picked. How about an international luncheon of the Buffalo and Toronto tents?... Dave Ongley, QC, a board member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, is president of the Dominion Drama Festival. DDF—that’s a Do-It-Yourself theatrical exhibition... That Sargoy & Stein fast-count story from Variety, NY got a big play in papers across the country .. . The 1929 First National ad in Motion Picture Almanac, for Ken Maynard and his horse, Tarzan, pleaded that “Westerns Are Not Dead.” How right it was!...A really nice guy left us when Charlie Weiner, Selznick chief here in 1948, died suddenly in LA. Charlie flattered us by saying that Canada’s lively trade press was responsible for giving our film execs stature in the eyes of their NY bosses. At that time Canada yielded some film companies no more revenue than Michigan. GENIAL HANS FREAD added amplitude to his famed urbanity and greater dimension to gracious living hereabouts with the opening of his expanded Sign of the Steer across from the old location. The preview guests found the look of the place a visual adventure that was perfect as a prelude to the enjoyment of fine food. Then followed some well-wishing by such talented wordwelders as the Hon. Brian Cathcart, Mayor Nathan Phillips, John Fisher, Mickey Lester and others, this in the beautiful Balinese Room, where the Variety installations and dance will take place on December 7. By the way, George Altman, Hans’ brother-in-law, has an important financial interest in the enterprise... How about this as an epitaph for Lucius Q. Porkhead: Unwept, Unhonored and Unhung . . . They ought to call the CBC’s popular program, 11.30 Friday, this: Tabloid With Vitamins ... Want a non-alcoholic glow? Go hear Little Jackie Heller sing simply, sentimentally and sincerely in the Indigo Room of the Barclay Hotel. He wipes time and trouble xsway—and only a fine artist can do that . . . Eddie _ Bracken is interested in a movie screen that is all loudspeaker and is negotiating with Fox. It eliminates speakers, etc. and guarantees true directional sound, he said while playing here. THANKS TO CARLING’S Swayne Smith for permission to use the drawing of Frank’s, Toronto’s first theatre, from an ad in Key to Toronto, which is edited excellently by Kaye Peer . . . Nat Taylor sent a Pioneer lifetime volume to the Toronto Reference Library and C. S. Sanderson, the city’s library head, wrote him: “This is the kind of material which needs to be preserved for the future and we are glad to be able to do this in our permanent collection” ... /t isn’t true that a film about Industry Saver No. 1, Ol’ Jess Huffenpuff, will be called The View From Pompous Ass . The ladies of the Children’s Film Library were so pleased with the story by our Ben Halter that it was read at their next meeting. Ben also wrote our Samuels-O’Gara Disney-Emp-U yarn in the last issue . . . PO delivery delay is taking a lot of the timeliness out of Time . . . Harold G. Baldridge of the University of Alberta, Box 9, plans a book about the Canadian theatre from 1800 to 1900 . . . Paul Raibourn, Para v-p from NY, seems to have a special interest in Famous Players. Was back for the recent directors’ meeting here . . . “Jn case you can find a mistake in the paper, please consider it was put there for a purpose. We publish something for everyone and some folks are always looking for mistakes’—Warsaw Penny Saver. That'll do for here also. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY | i —| —— = wile Ne SOSSWN November 30, 1955 ‘Silent’ Celebs YOU’D HAVE ENJOYED the presentation of the George Awards to leading contributors to the silent screen. The old comedy footage of Swanson, Keaton and Lloyd was as appealing as when first made and that of the first-named, a slappy scene from The Subway, riotously funny. To see and hear so many oldtimers in one evening was to relive what might easily become the Golden Age of the screen. Those onstage as a prelude to the presentations made much of what such memories meant. It would have been more understanding of them to have set up press and other arrangements in keeping with the interest in the occasion, so that the millions whose idols these old-timers were could, by reading about them or seeing them more widely on film and TV, reach back across Time and again, if for but a moment or two, take them to their hearts. As James Card said from the stage, the silent stars, unlike the current ones, earned the lasting love of those who enjoyed them. For an organization based on communication to honor people whose stature derives from multitudes of admirers without calling a proportionate amount of attention to the event is almost a disservice to those honored. Professional advice was needed badly — unless the intention was to run an almost local affair. And that, as I said, would also be wrong. But enough of that. On with the show. Emcee Jesse Lasky was a pleasure to listen to. An unstuffy oldster, it was recalled that he had owned a theatre in Alaska which was “wide open to the four winds, the 40 thieves and the Four Hundred.” He had been in this very theatre at the opening ceremonies in 1922 and had shaken hands with the late George Eastman, for whom it was named. Lasky asked all in the theatre who remembered the period being marked, 1915-25, to raise their hands and most did. “I thank you,” he said, and the hands were lowered. “And ladies,” he added, “I didn’t think you’d do it!” First up was Dick Barthelmess, looking not too much older than in his latter features. Broken Blossoms was his favorite, he told Lasky. He recalled that Tol’able David, a reel of which had been shown earlier, was backed by Averell Harriman, now NY State governor. Frank Borzage said all his films were his favorites. He remembered being asked what his hebby was by a lady and he had said making films was. “But you get paid for that,” the lady corrected. Answered Borzage: “Yes—isn’t that fortunate?” Charlton Heston, pinch-hitting for his current boss, DeMille, said of the seated celebrities of another day: “Those behind me were giants when I was getting into the movies for half price.” Director Arthur Edeson paid tribute to his friend, the late great Billy Bitzer, D. W. Griffith’s cameraman. Buster Keaton clowned for a moment, said “I’m happy about the whole thing” and went back to his seat. Marshall Neilan’s favorite film? Daddy Longlegs. Hal Rossen, a Rochester native, said most any picture he made was his choice. Gloria Swanson wired her regrets at being absent from Rome: “I’m the unhappiest movie star in the whole world tonight.” Harold Lloyd, Shrine Potentate for North America, got out of a hospital to be up there with his old-time playmates. His celluloid loves were Grandma’s Boy, Safety Last and The Freshman. He had made about 300 films, including shorts, “of which we turned out a couple a week.” “Dear Lillian, immortal Lillian,” Lasky called Miss Gish. She addressed the audience, her fellow-guests “and all the unseen ghosts that I hope are here with us tonight.” Then added: “If they were really here, many of them would be on the stage instead of us.” There never was a more universally understood medium than the silent screen. “I think we took the wrong road when we married words instead of music,” she asserted. Still a star, Miss Gish reached the hearts of all who heard her. Mae Marsh was delightful while making a graceful speech. She was going to put her award in a prominent place on the mantle. It seems that her 12-year-old grandson, one of her six grandchildren, was always bragging to the other kids that his granny was a movie star. When they doubted him he marched them in for a look and in (Continued on Next Page)