Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1957)

January 2, 1957 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 5 PA coun Khe J orner & Around the corner W 3 have a friend, in W This Great city that has W Ao end; vet days go by, \( And weeks rush on, and \()7 Before J knotw it a pear -\, 38 Gone, and J never W See mv old friend’s W Face, for Life is a (7 Swift and terrible W Race. He knows J like “vs, 2iim just as well as NV gn the days when J WY Rang his bell and he \(y Dae mine. ba oe Baw be arctan vid , W, Tired men: tived with \Z Planing a foolish game, WW Cired with trving to Wy ae a ae sae Ww Hlorrow,’ J sav,‘ wi Call on Fim, just to NZ on that as thinking (\* im.” But toW Florrow comes ~~ and WV Tomorrow gocs, and the \Y/ Distance between us \(j7 Grows and grows. (J Around the corner: NY Wet miles atwan...‘“Hrere's vn, A telegram, sir...” W “Fim died today.” \Z And that’s what we get, NV; And deseroe in the \( ¥Fnd: Around the corner, W A vanished friend. OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 3) The present day dollar buys much less than 50 per cent of the pre-war dollar. Admission prices generally have not risen in any near proportion to this. This is the time to start correcting this maladjustment. There are many things which our business can do to help itself as a body, but each individual can start helping himself on the basis of examining his own situation and price structure. Th! gy Z1gee WHO’S HOOSIER: Charlie Bochner introduced me to his new manager at Canadian Seating Company, Dave Dewey. I had a pleasant chat with Dave and Mrs. Dewey at the Variety affair. They’re from Indiana . .. A Paramount executive told me this story. One of his colleagues sold an exhibitor a 50 per cent picture, with the latter having the right to deduct the cost of the second feature from the gross of the first. So the exhibitor bought Columbia’s From Here to Eternity—also a 50 per cent picture! Both companies ended up with 25 per cent each... The Ben Granatsteins’ 17-year-old, Jack, is at the Royal Military College, St. Jean’s, PQ, and will go from there to the RMC at Kingston to graduate into a military career. Ben runs the cigar counter in the Film Exchange Building .. . “This is a three-season watch,” the jeweler cracked, peering into the works. “‘No spring” . . . Was fascinated at the sight of an Edison 1904 print of The Mischievous Elf, owned by Eddie Garand of Montreal and in fine condition. It’s about 20 mm., has three of the same frames across, with these divided by sprocket holes. Eddie also owns a poster of Bernhardt .. . Dan Krendel, for Tent 28, wrote the Turofsky family how heartbroken we all were at the sudden passing of Nat, who was lavish with his lens when it came to the cause of kids. GREGORY CLARK suggests in The Packsack, his syndicated column, that Canadian players stop giving semi-English pronunciation to certain words. “Should they not preserve at all costs the speech with which they were born, perfecting it, tis true, in all respects save altering its authentic sounds?” he asks. But how about the language within a language our TV gabbers of commercials are evolving? I mean the ones that urge you to “have a fresh scup of coffee” or insist that “Quality pays in the yend” .. . Puzzle: Why do women wait until they arrive at the box to open their purses and search for fare? A woman picks up a box of chiclets, approaches the clerk, then goes through the business while men waiting to pay pile up behind her. “It’s maddening,” says druggist Dave Otis .. . It isn’t true that Miss G. R. Lee, the glamazon stripteuse and occasional author, is writing a Do-It-Yourself book called Undo It Yourself ... Archie Laurie told me that the Variety Village lads were great in A Christmas Carol, which Phil Stone narrated. Pete Street played Scrooge wonderfully well in a wheelchair and Fred Atkinson, by playing Tiny Tim, joined fiction and fact, since he uses crutches. Gerald Pratley taped some of the play for CBC’s Assignmen ...Bob McStay’s review of Mary Jukes’ play, Every Bed Is Narrow, for Variety, directed Kermit Bloomgarten’s interest towards it. He wired Bob for a private elaboration. FRANK FISHER, Odeon Theatres v-p, gave his many friends a bad scare by getting pneumonia, but the popular Frank fought his way back along the road to good health... Billy, the Joe Rosenfelds’ 20-year-old U of T student, won a Rhodes Scholarship and will spend the next two years at Oxford, where he’ll read history .. . Coming Soon: The Golden Anniversary of the Royal Alexandra, which opened in 1907. In her recent book, Toronto, (Cassell & Co.) the late Katherine Hale wrote: “The Alexandra, though it comes late into the historic picture of Toronto, is really the culminating note of all those early, sometimes rowdy, often sedate, but generally festive evenings of theatre that have existed along King Street for over 100 years. Nearly every English-speaking actor of importance has appeared here in the last half century.” Right now congratulations are due to two RA lads: Ernie Rawley, headed for NY to run the new USA legit organization, which is mighty flattering to the appointee, and Ed De Rocher, who succeeds Ernie as manager. Both great guys . . . Charlie Stephenson, the old-time showman, let me read the m.s. of his autobiography, which is extremely interesting and full of laughs, Some smart publisher should add it to his catalogue. THE LION'S TAIL” (Continued from Page 1) the resignation of five present directors, four of whom are vicepresidents. Tomlinson, whose 250,000 shares of the outstanding common stock represent five per cent of the total, claims to be the largest individual stockholder. There are 5,142,000 outstanding common shares. Formerly of Oakville, near Toronto and now of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Tomlinson said that the company, which operates the MGM studio, was “riddled with nepotism and favoritism.’’ He said he had asked Louis B. Mayer, now 71, to come back to the studio ‘‘to make the lion roar again’’ but he refused to entertain the idea while the present management was in power. Tomlinson asked for the resignation of five directors, among them Charles M. Reagan, Charles C. Moskowitz and Howard Dietz. Another named by him, Richard M. Crooks, has been reported to be the representative of other Canadian investors. He resigned a week before the meeting. Joseph R. Vogel, who became Loew’s, Inc. president in October, said that Tomlinson’s suggestions had been considered in the past and that he had refused the offer of a directorship several times. He pointed out recent changes involving Nicholas Schenck and Dore Schary and said others would be leaving. Tomlinson said that Vogel had agreed that the majority of the 13 directors should be outsiders. The Schenck and Schary resignations, he claimed, were intended to stave off a proxy battle. The press people, gathered in the office of Tomlinson’s attorney, Benjamin A. Javits, heard the former say he hoped that the matter would be settled without a proxy battle. Javits is also an important holder of Loew’s stock. The annual shareholders’ meeting will be held on February 28. The Tomlinson road-building company was fined $100,000 in 1954 after pleading guilty to being among the firms that received overpayment for work done in the Fort William area. The firm does. not seem to be active any more. Tomlinson’s brother, W. S. Tomlinson, who is associated with him, is a resident of Port Arthur, Ontario. Joseph Tomlinson, who was born in the USA but is a Canadian citizen, has a well-known racing stable. 20th-Fox' 'The Desk Set' Gig Young has been added to 20th-Fox’ The Desk Set. AMPPLC Meeting Annual meeting of the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada will take place in the King Edward Hotel, Toronto on January 19. The subject of guest speaker Merle M. Schneckenburger will be ‘The Sponsor Speaks.”’