Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 13, 1956)

{ y ~~: Vol. 21, No. 24 SUBJECT: Three Institutes In Ontario This July Strong registrations are expected at the three Summer Institutes on Films and Community Leadership, to take place at three Ontario educational institutions? during July. They are sponsored by the Ontario Association of Film Councils in co-oper (Continued on Page 5) Films Barometer Of Ethnic Growth “Rew changes in Ontario during the post-war decade have been. more dramatic, or are likely to have more far-reaching effects, than those which have taken place in the province’s race pattern as a result of immigration,’ says the Hamilton Spec (Continued on Page 3) PROFITS of Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., in the six months ending February 25 amounted to $1,863,768 or 75 cents a share, compared with $2,081,000 or 84 cents a share the year previous. The current net is before taking into account a return of $3,000,000 set aside for contingent liabilities and no longer required but after provision of $1,650,000 for taxes and $200,000 for contingent liabilies. Net earnings in the six-month period was $4,863,768. ., DECREASE in the profits of Columbia Pictures Corporation for the three quarters ending March 31 amounted to almost 50 per cent, going from $3,655,000 or $3.25 a share in the previous year to $1,855,000 or $1.57 a share in<.° ~rent year. ares en Oe es GONERAL TH “ATRE N MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY s EIN CE TOT SARA TER FEATURE TORONTO, JUNE 13, 1956 PRODUCTION HERE SO WHAT'S NEW? SOME THINGS — BUT NOT MANY ARE DIFFERENT Has Canada, groping toward feature production for years without much success = , got its hands on something solid at last? Some serious people are engaged in some very financially-serious motion picture undertakings at the Movie Circuit Hustles Patrons On TV Page Famous Players Toronto advertising is competing with TV on its own ground —the TV page of the three newspapers. James R. Nairn, FP ad-pub director, has been placing a one-column ad listing the company’s attractions at the various theatres in both evening papers. Toronto’s only morning paper gets such an ad before holidays. So far as is known, Toronto is the only city where an effort is being made to attract amusement seekers away from TV on the TV page, which now gets wide reading. Nairn says the idea originated with Mort Margolius, FP’s Toronto suburban supervisor, who also manages a large neighborhood house. “Today! Come Out For Great Entertainment at Famous Players Theatres,” the ad urges. It then says: ‘“‘More Information: Amusement Page.” “We'll try anything,” says Nairn, ‘to win them back.” STEPHEN BOYD, son of a former Hamilton, Ontario man, has been signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox and will report to the company in Hollywood shortly. Boyd’s career began in London, England as a theatre doorman and his contract was the result of his outstanding performance in the film, The Man Who Never Was, made in England by 20th-Fox. Spyros Skouras, head of the film studio, called Boyd ‘the greatest find since James Mason.” HONORED on the Queen’s Birthday List were Peggy Ashcroft, 48, one of Britain’s outstanding Shakespearean actresses, who was given the title of Dame and actor-manager-produc (Continued on Page 4) Harry Coleman has sc!d Coleman Electric, Toronto to General moment, although their opinions about their contribution to the establishment of a Canadian feature production industry may not correspond with those of independent observers. The enterprise of Leonid Kipnis in arranging the filming of Oedipus Rex and the establishment with the Stratford Festival Foundation of a company for shooting Shakespearean dramas will emphasize potentialities rather than create anything broad and permanent. The Oedipus Rex feature will have com (Continued on Page 4) NO PANORAMA DEAL — PRINZ A Denial that Panorama Productions, a newly-organized Vancouver film company headed by Oldrich Vaclavek, will shoot the Canadian sequences for the Billy Bishop story was wired to the Canadian Film Weekly from Hollywood by LeRoy Prinz. The story, datelined Vancouver, appeared in The Montreal Gazette and other Canadian newspapers and it was based on a statement by Vaclavek, described as “a veteran Czech producer,” that his firm had been picked “to film the Canadian sequences of Ace of Aces.” An enquiry from the Canadian Film Weekly to Prinz, head of LeRoy Prinz Productions and one of Hollywood’s veteran film figures, brought this reply: “Vaclavek and Panorama have no connection with our organization and will not shoot any part of Billy Bishop story.” Earlier reports from Vancouver announced the establishment of Panorama and its intention of shooting a Western feature, My Lord Cowboy, near Kamloops, BC for distribution by RKO. its films, the first of which is to star a Hollywood player and be ready in September, are to be made with a special regard for the Commonwealth market, the reports say. In Toronto Jack Labow, Canadian general manager of RKO, said he had no knowledge of a distribution arrangement for the proposed film. * . ' Escapade In Japan An unusual human _ interest story involving two six-year-old boys, one American 2) i the other Japanese, has been for production by RKO in nd around Tokyo in the spring of 1957. It will be titled Esca> ge ja fonan. oc Tepe $3.00 Per Annum 11 RKO Features On Shooting Sked A second group of 11 major productions will be put before the cameras by the new management of the revitalized RKO between June 7 and October 15, it was announced in New York by Daniel T, O’Shea, president, after ———— two weeks of conferences with (Continued on Page 5) "Solomon And Sheba’ Solomon and Sheba will be filmed in Spain for United Artists next Spring by Arthur Hornblew, Jr., who will produce the Biblicag epic in association with Edwart age Small. The film will be made in =| Technicolor and a wide screen process, with a cast of top stars. Cast in "Flamenca’ Bruce 1dlum has _ signed Richard Ky for the male starring role>-ig Flamenca which Odum will, produgg Spain fer Paran = Vision and Tgg story bya Theatre Supply Company Limited, nationar i. =tre : epoly y Operating in Ontario only, Coleman Electric, organiza ELECTRIC was the oldest supply house in Canada. The stos ae DS AGI cA _ COLEMAN VTULTEE | =| suppty Buy. our