Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 1, 1956)

Vol. 21, No. 31 Action A-Plenty On Wps. Scene Winnipeg is getting to be the Coney Island of the Canadian movie business, from a_ standpoint of using the unusual to attract patrons. Above this semicarnival clatter and chatter was heard the noise of a squabble, as Harold Diamond, whose Circus (Continued on Page 6) The Shorts May Shrink CBC TV The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation spent $25,274,260 for television in its 1955-56 fiscal year on programs and got back commercial revenue totalling $7,403,438, it was revealed in its annual report. The $25,274,260 figure compared with one of $15, (Continued on Page 7) IN-CAR cooling units for drive-ins have been developed by the Wilson Company of Boston as the Wilco-Therm and the USA list price is $45. They plug into a 110-volt outlet on a post or into the lighter socket of a car and are rented to the patron. COMPETITION for movie theatres is growing from wrestling in Montreal. At the Montreal Baseball Stadium 23,227 persons paid admission to see Edouart Carpentier of Paris defeat Antonino Rocca of the Argentine. RED CHINA has long-range plans to build a film industry and will construct studios in five cities with the assistance of three other countries in the Communist orbit—-East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. VOICE of TORONTO, AUGUST 1, the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE 1956 FILMS FOR TV; TV FOR CINEMAS; FUTURE-PROGRAM PUZZLER The character of the motion picture industry a couple of years from now is anybody’s guess, judging by the variety of actions and opinions currently prevalent. With more of the smaller and older houses going dark daily and the Staff Changes, Additions At National Film Board Janet Scellen, who has returned to National Film Board headquarters, now in Montreal, after serving for years in the USA offices of the federal film agency, was recently attached to the Canadian Program Division. She'll work on specialized programming outside the fields already being covered, Guy Comeau recently joined the NFB as @ program officer in the Canadian Division. Jean-Jacques Chagnon, who hos had considerable experience in the educational publishing field in French Canada, joined the Commercial Division early this month as a distribution officer. Mary McLachlin, formerly business manager of the NFB’s London office, was transferred to the Commercial Division as a distribution officer some weeks ago. More changes are not unlikely as the NFB adjusts to its new conditions. NEW TV film sales company has been organized in Toronto — The Telecanada Corporation at 175 Bloor Street East. David Griesdorf is the general manager. OEDIPUS REX, feature made at Canadian Film Industries by Leonid Kipnis and the Stratford Festival Foundation, will be released in October in the USA and Canada. The Canadian premiere may take place simultaneously in Stratford and Toronto, Kipnis said at Stratford recently. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie. Kipnis said that the joint production program of his interests and the Stratford Foundation to film the entire First Folio of Shakespeare over a 20-year-period may begin with the Festival’s (Continued on Page 7) larger and newer ones having an uncomfortable time economically, some companies have _ strengthened the agency responsible, tele vision, by releasing their backlogs to it. Others keep trying for big, big pictures to keep the theatre crowds coming. Nothing is for sure, since all the big ones don’t pay, either. Dore Schary just said that—and he could have been speaking for all the companies. On the production side the boundaries are crumbling, with the studios that used to serve theatres exclusively now feeding (Continued on Page 3) New Theatre Opened In High Prairie, Alta. Alex Tomnuk and Bill Dorish recently opened their 425-seat Park Theatre in High Prairie, Alberta. Previously G. Watson’s three-day, 125-seat Roxy was the only house operating in the community of 1,200 persons. The Park, modern in every detail, has a candy bar in the spacious lobby and a special crying room for parents with young children. INDUSTRY $3.00 Per Annum QUESTION: WHICH WAY DID THEY GO?’ Haines Now WB Sales Manager Roy Haines has been appointed general sales manager of Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., it was announced by Benjamin Kalmenson, executive vice-president, in New York last week. Haines, formerly Western Division sales manager, succeeds Benjamin Kalmenson as (Continued on Page 3) OT Business oi TET IS only a question of time before the neighborhood theatre goes down the drain,’ a motion picture distributor told me recently.” This is the opening sentence of an article captioned TV’s Sleeping Partner written by Saturday Night’s movie editor, Mary Lowrey Ross, and recently printed in that publication. The article goes on to attribute part of the present-day problem to the decision of the big moviemakers in Hollywood to make pictures for TV and fewer features for theatres. This is not the first prediction of doom which has been sounded for the neighborhood (Continued on Page 3) FIVE FROM UA IN AUGUST Russ-Field’s Run for the Sun, Superscope adventure spectacle, heads the list of United Artists features set for national release in August by William J. Heineman, UA vice-president in charge of distribution. The other films are The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Huk, Hot Cars and Emergency Hospital. Filmed on location in Mexico, Run for the Sun stars Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard and Jane Greer and is in Superscope and Technicolor. The Beast of Hollow Mountain, in CinemaScope, color by DeLuxe and the new Regiscope process, stars Guy Madison and Patricia Medina. Huk, starring George Montgomery and Mona Freeman, was filmed on location near Manila in Eastman color. Lansing and Mark Dana. Hot Cars, a Bel-Air production, stars John Bromfield, Joi Emergency Hospital, also a Bel-Air production, stars Walter Reed, Margaret Lindsay, John Archer and Byron Palmer. The next two edition: of this publication — those that would have been dered me August 8 and }2 _ nave been suspendec to provide vasdticn Hime for our staf.