Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 1, 1956)

» service /additional special provision for Kfunds was made” and the Gov» ernment, August 1, 1956 (BC'S REPORT (Continued from Page 1) 915,901 in the previous year. A considerable reduction in TV is ahead “unless some anticipating this, had proposed a $12,000,000 grant in its 1956-57 supplementary estimates. Total income of the CBC was $38,942,402, such income being made up of all monies from any source, including government grants and the 15 per cent excise vax on radios and TV sets. Expenditures came to $38,572,512, this figure indicating a surplus until the addition of a $1,728,511 depreciation allowance, after which a deficit becomes evident. The net deficit of the TV service was $1,071,791. The 1954-55 operation expenditure was $29,103,538. CBC television operations include six English-language and two French-language stations and the supplying of a national service of programs for 22 private stations. The English-language service was available to 9,000,000 English-speaking people, the French service, on five stations, to about 4,000,000 French-speaking people. The national service averaged 35 hours a week in English and 27 hours in French. It included sustaining programs supplied and broadcast free of charge on private stations. Private outlets ‘also shared in the commercial revenue from sponsored CBC-produced programs they carried. Gross billings to sponsors and agencies totalled $19,471,530, from which there were deductions of $2,706,455 to private stations, $3,261,870 for agency and network commissions and $4,368,260 for direct production costs. The excise tax revenue of $22,799,955 was up by about $1,330,000 from 1954-55. It provided $17,737,991 for television services and $5,061,964 for radio. This revenue is expected to drop this year as television sales are near the saturation point. Miscellaneous sources such as broadcasting license fees charged to private stations, interest on investments and profits on the sale of bonds totalled $757,502. During the last fiscal year, the CBC received its sixth television service loan, amounting to }$8,250,000. The corporation now owes the Government $24,250,000 for television, and $3,173,802 for radio, or a total of $27,423,802. The loans are repaid in semi-annual payments over periods ranging up to 30 years. Among other costs for both radio and television, engineering expenditures were _ $7,699,907; wire lines for station networks cost $2,498,306; and administrative expenses amounted to $1,561,857. These figures showed CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY MORT BLUMENSTOCK PASSES Passing of Mort Blumenstock at 54 saddened the industry last week. He died of a heart attack in his Beverly Hills home, leaving his widow, Sandra, and a daughter, Mrs. Marvin Perskie. One of his two brothers is Sid Blumenstock, advertising manager for Paramount Pictures. In May the late Mr. Blumenstock stepped out of his post as vice-president in charge of publicity and advertising for Warner Bros. to enter production on his own. He came to Warners when it absorbed the old First National Pictures Company, where he was writer and film editor. While at Warners he originated the junket plan for film and War Bond premieres. END WARNER-PATHE NEWSREEL Pathe newsreel, founded in 1909 by Charles Pathe and acquired by Warner Bros. nine years ago as Warner-Pathe, will be discontinued on August 23. The accumulation of newsreel footage over five decades will be sold to one of the several potential purchasers now negotiating for it with Warner News, Inc., the subsidiary company. About half of the USA’s 19,200 35 mm. theatres show newsreels now, a drop that began in 1950 through the desire of exhibitors for economy in the battle with TV competition. Four newsreels remain—20th-Fox’ Movietone News, MGM’s News of the Day, Paramount News and Universal News. The last is not distributed in Canada and the others are “Canadian” in that Ontario requires that roughly 25 per cent of the content of each should be of Canadian character. Movietone News is served its Canadian content by Shelly Films, with Charles Quick its cameraman, while Warner-Pathe has Phil Pendry as a full-time lenser here. Paramount’s domestic sequences for its Canadian Paramount Newsreel, which Win Barron goes to New York weekly to edit and commentate, come from Associated Screen News. Pendry joined Warners over three years ago, after having been with Associated Screen News shortly after his arrival from Britain. Short Throws (Continued from Page 1) current attraction, Henry V. Because of the Quebec players in it a Montreal location, possibly the Renaissance studio, may ‘be used. However, filming in Stratford, where a permanent building will replace the present tent theatre, is the ‘ultimate goal.” REGINA managers met recently to discuss the state of the theatre business and the Leader Post gave them much space in a prominent position for their discussion of a ‘marked slump in business.’’ Among those who participated were Hillard Gunn, Capitol; Arnold Bercovich, Broadway; and J. D. Watson, Rex and small increases over 1954-55. The CBC report indicated that it was “planning to maintain services and carry out essential development within the limits of the resources available’ pending Parliament’s decisions on future financing. It said the parliamentary decisions would be based on recommendations contained in the report of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting, which is scheduled to complete its cross-Canada_ investigation of radio and television next month. The report was tabled in the House of Commons by National Revenue Minister J. J. McCann, who reports to Parliament for the Crown-owned corporation, Grand, Closing of the fairly new 830-seat house, the Nortown, by I. Reinhorn, was talked about. The managers hoped that the municipal government would realize the need for a reduction in the amusement tax. SALES of TV sets are dropping, says Ottawa. May sales were 20,088 compared to 20,709 in 1955, while the total sold from the first of the year was 186,341 —a decline from 262,206 in the same period last year. STAR of last. year’s Stratford Shakespearean Festival as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and a veteran of many films and plays in Europe, Frederick Valk, 55, died in London recently of a heart ailment. He had been starring in Peter Ustinov’s London comedy, Romanoff and _ Juliet, when he was stricken. BATTLE of the passes is taking place in Hamilton, where the IATSE projectionist union is picketing the Dydzak drive-in theatres there and at Clappison, nearby. The union is distributing passes in front of the drive-ins, these being good for admission to A. I. Rosenberg’s Hamilton drive-in, the Scenic. The Dydzaks, whose Windsor theatre was the scene of a recent battle involving pickets, met the passes tactic by inserting an ad in the Hamilton Spectator advising all who had them that they would be honored at their Hamilton and Clappison drive-ins! Page 7 RON LEONARD He will succeed Jim Hardiman as director of advertising and publicity at the Odeon Theatres (Canada) Limited when the latter leaves early in September for California. Betty Garrett Signs Betty Garrett, heretofore associated exclusively with song and dance roles on stage and screen, plays her first straight dramatic part in Columbia’s The Missing Witness, picturization of the Cosmopolitan Magazine thriller by John and Ward Hawkins. eeeeeeseeseeeeeeee ee eee eeee give US a tumble give US a try ASN’ TRAILERS are your best buy! *ASSOCIATED SCREEN NEWS 2000 Northcliffe Ave., Montreal