Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 1, 1956)

News Clips One-time Winnipeg booker for the old Mutual Film Corporation and later manager of the Gaiety Theatre, Frank Waver, 61, city circulation supervisor for the Winnipeg Tribune, died recently ... Mary Wallace, for 16 years assistant manager of the Lincoln, St. Catharines, Ontario, left to be married and was succeeded by Miss Davolyn Imrie, formerly a part-time cashier . . . Harry, Black, a novel by David Walker, who won the Governor-General’s Award two years ago, will be made into a movie. Famous Players regional meetings will take place in September, with the cities in which partners and executives will get together with head office men still to be named ,.. A. J. Mason of Springhill, NS, well known exhibition figure, arranged a reception for his 90-year-old mother at the Eventide Rest Home, Galt, Ontario at which 75 members of the family were present .. . George Georgas of Owen Sound, always a leading golfer in the Pioneers golf tourney, won’t compete in this year’s, to be held on August 16, due to an arthritic condition. But he’ll be on hand to coach duffers. Forty-third convention of the IATSE will be held in the Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri beginning August 20.... Secretary and business agent of Local 440, St. John, NB IA unit, James A. Whitebone, was elected a vice-president of the Canadian Labor Congress, formed from a union of the ClO and AFL in Canada. ... An outdoor theatre in LaFontaine Park, built by the City of Montreal at a cost of $250,000, was opened recently. Stands seat 2,000 and there is room for 2,000 standees. John Barrymore, Jr. Signed John Barrymore, Jr. has been signed for one of the top roles in Columbia’s The Missing Witness, now before the cameras. "No Time For Sergeants’ Barry Nelson will star in RKO’s No Time for Sergeants. Crosby May Star In Gregory RKO Film Paul Gregory’s second production for RKO will be a picturization of the MacKinlay Kantor story, On My Honor. On My Honor, often referred to as an American Mr. Chips, is the story of a leader of a Boy Scout troop in a small mid-Western town. Talks are now proceeding between Bing Crosby and RKO toward Crosby’s enacting the starring role in the film, CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY n the | “SQUARE TAPE CUTTING for the official opening of the NFB’s $6,000,000 studio, now in use, will take place during the last week in September . . . Anybody around here ever hear of a publication called Canadian TV Spotlight? 1 haven’t and people have been asking . . . Now that Spring Thaw went over so well, why doesn’t Mavor Moore stage an autumn revue called Fall Freeze? . . . Yours truly got up the biogs of Jack Arthur and the late N. L. Nathanson for the forthcoming Encyclopedia Canadiana... . Tim O’Rourke, in Hush Free Press: “I can't understand a citizen who watches television in his home on a Sunday being able to conscientiously oppose the opening of movie theatres on Sunday to accommodate fellow citizens less fortunate than himself” .. . Won't the CBC print a manual of overworked words and phrases to guide panelists and interviewees? It’s deadening to hear “As a matter of fact” with every breath they take . . . Jf the fact that sequences are now being lined up means anything, TV Graphic, Fordless, will be back in the Fall, with the CBC lifting the whole tab. They’re trying for an interview with O. J. Silverthorne on film censorship . . . Just before he took so very sick Tommy Holmes of the Club One Two sold his Hamilton Club One Two as part of the site for the new City Hall... The only passport photos I’ve ever seen that don’t look like PD mug shots are in the window of Peggy Todd’s “Village” studio on Gerrard, near Elizabeth. SCORER FOR the UPA Mr. Magoo series is Dennis Farnon, brother of this town’s musical Farnons, Brian and Bob, the lastnamed being the well-known long-time London resident ; “4 thing of beauty is a joy forever.” That’s why The King and I ought to run forever .. . Nat Taylor ticks off Saturday Night right nicely in this issue for deathknelling the nabes . . . Dear Mr. Lamport: “Shouldn’t the City provide some transportation along Front Street from Yonge to Simcoe, what with the Union Station and two hotels being located there? . . . That cop being an authority on Shakespeare for the $64,000 challenge reminds me that the chief private interest of Inspector Andrew McKinney of the Toronto force is Medieval History . .. You remember my item about half the morning papers in certain boxes being lifted? That caused a reader to tell me about evening-paper boxes. She stops her car, dashes to the box, puts a nickel in and grabs a paper, then dashes back. When she gets home she finds frequently that the paper is yesterday’s . . . Do you think Hollywood will ever get around to making a film about one of the heroines that helped win women equality in modern life? There’s plenty of conflict available for any such film—but the love story angle is too hard to beat, I guess ... Night sight: The late railbirds on the Post Office wall at Bay & Front—staffers on a breather . . . Day_ sight: The pretty preggies outside Grace Hospital, waiting for their pre-natal classes. LOCAL INDUSTRY lad spent the last part of his vacation for a trip to Las Vegas and, as usual, went for more of his bankroll than he figured. After he got to Chicago he examined his finances and found that he had day coach fare and 29c over. He figured he’d invest 25c of it in a cushion for the long, hard ride—but the rental price, he found, was now 35c. Nothing to do but take a little anaesthetic against the pains of travel—in the form of a Mickey of rye. Then he got an idea. Across from him were two lads and these he asked to have a drink. When each had swallowed his he said: “That'll cost each of you three cents.” They paid him the six cents with puzzled laughter. He added it to the 29c and rented the cushion, then sat against it and killed the rest of the bottle with his new friends . . . Joe Jolley will act as exec producer for that original Canadian musical being angeled by Gerry Morris and Riley Brethour. Stan Daniels and Ray Jessel will do the lyrics and score and Lynn Howard the book, with Harvey Hart directing for its debut at the Avenue in January. Harry Rasky will be the press agent. Theme: the boom in Canada... The Winnipeg Free Press TV critic, Marion Lepkin, wrote recently that Gisele Mackenzie “has been streamlined into a dime-a-dozen model. Now you can’t tell her from all the flashy, classy numbers that roll off TV assembly lines by the hundreds.” I doubt if the male vote will support ML’s view in the slightest. Miss Mackenzie is distinctively different—and as lovely as ever. August 1, 1956 WINNIPEG SCENE (Continued from Page 1) Drive-In has been offering free admission for some time, charged that there was a theatre combine in Winnipeg that was preventing” him from getting first-run attra tions. He told the Winnipeg Triv, bune that he will take the matter to the combines investigation committee in Ottawa. The paper reported that other theatre men dismissed his charge as “ridiculous” and “nonsense.” A theatre official explained: “Wirst-run pictures are sold on a percentage basis. Distributors of films, like any other business, sell or rent their product to the outlet ~ which will give them the most return, Downtown movie theatres can pay the distributors more than neighborhoods or drive-ins can.” The Winnipeg Free Press also gave important space to his also gave important space to such story treatment was puzzling. Famous Players and its local partners, the Miles, were identified as the heavies—but not a single accuser was named. The closest the story came to that was to say that Diamond had made the charge earlier. The Free Press is itself a chain paper—a Southam unit. Though charging no admission fee, concession sales have permitted Diamond’s operation in Kirkfield Park, St. James, near the city, to break even. His newspaper ad says: ‘‘Admission Absolutely Free—No Give-Aways— No Gimmicks—No Lottery—No Phonies.” This ad offered five color cartoons at 9.30, The Farmer Takes a Wife at 10.15, and Royal African Rifles at 11.45. The Airport, Starlite, Eldorado and Pembina drive-ins, operated by Western Theatres Limited, offer a ’56 Pontiac free through a lucky selection. Another group of theatres have Foto-Nite attendance every Tuesday and Wednesday. The Northmain invites its patrons to “Play the Big Game” on Wednesday nights. Other theatres in Manitoba offer Bingo in competition with halls. RKO's 'Run Of The Arrow’ Brian Keith will star in RKO’s Run of the ‘Arrow. First Galahad Pic Before Cameras John Beal, Augusta Dabney and Shepperd Strudwick have been signed for the starring roles in Galahad Productions’ first feature for RKO release, Brave Tomorrow. Shooting is under way at Production Center, Inc., fullyequipped modern motion picture plant in Manhattan, and on location throughout the New York commuting area. All of the 12 pictures which Galahad will make for RKO during the next three years will be produced in New York using Broadway talent. eh