Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 27, 1957)

News Clips The 20th-Century-Fox newsreel has taken the place of the Paramount newsreel on the screen of the Imperial, Toronto and other leading theatres . . . Women of the Motion Picture Industry (WOMPI) is helping to set up the convention of Variety Clubs International in New Orleans . . . Grand Theatre, Regina, remodelled in 1949, has been sold by Famous Players to Foodland, Inc. It was the oldest movie house in the city... Sam Rothman bought the Imperial, Ottawa from Twentieth Century Theatres and will convert it to a store. Josephine Hull, character actress, died in NY at 71... Toronto’s new Federal Government building at Adelaide and Victoria will have an 80-seat National Film Board theatre on the first of its 16 floors . . . Charlie Chaplin’s new film, The King in New York, which was made in Britain, will be shown in Mexico and Canada but not the USA, said Sidney Skolsky in his column . . . Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans, TV serial shot in Toronto, begins at 7 p.m. over WABC-TV in NY in April. Price paid is $150,000 and coverage is about 90 USA markets. W. J. (Red) Fell has resigned as manager of the Bay, Toronto, to enter the sporting goods business in North Bay, Ontario and has been replaced by Charles Murphy, formerely an Empire-Universal booker . . . Canadian players are turning up regularly in Hollywood films. Dianne Foster plays opposite Victor Jory in Columbia’s The Brothers Rico, Leslie Neilsen has the male lead in MGM’s Hot Summer Night and Diana Vandervlis has a brief role in UA’s Girl in the Black Stockings. The films are ready for release. Gratien Gelinas Productions, Limited has been incorporated in Montreal by Gratien Gelinas of Montreal, Canadian theatrical star, with Roger Beaulieu and Pierre Simon, lawyers . . . Three pages were given over to entertainment material in the first Sunday Telegram, Toronto. Lorne Greene and Nathan Cohen are among the new local columnists, with Sheila Graham coming in from Hollywood and Walter Kerr from NY. Clyde Gilmour, Tely daily critic, does a movie listing. First edition got a big reception. Radisson, CBC TV series of 26, now has 17 finished and eight in the can. Total cost will probably be $821,000, Revenue Minister McCann told W. M. Hamilton, PC from Montreal, in the House of Commons. Mil-ko Products will sponsor the series every second week over the CBC’s English CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Short “Shnrows DALLAS Film Industries, Inc. has been formed by a group of Texas bankers to produce two theatre features and 26 TV films as this year’s program. Chairman of the board is Wylie Stufflebeme, a banker from Grand Prairie, and the president Joe Graham, formerly with the American Broadcasting Company. COMPETITIVE ‘“‘bidding without regard for traditional ties’ will be instituted in every segment of MGM, says Joseph Vogel, in answer to charges of nepotism by stockholders. He mentioned that the concession for candy sales in Loew’s theatres, held by the People’s Candy Company, will not be renewed. The company’s officers were relatives of Nicholas M. Schenck, former president, and other officials were interested. KODAK employees in Canada — those of Canadian Kodak Company Limited — will share a wage dividend of $738,000. All persons who joined the company before October 1, 1956, will receive the dividend, which is the largest since 1912. Eligible persons are entitled to $31.75 for each $1,000 they earned at Kodak during the five years from 1951-55. ANNOYANCE at Canadian critics for placing Richard III sixth in the Canadian Film Weekly Poll when War and Peace, which he thought much inferior, placed second, was indicated by Robert Gardiner, in the column, Local Theatre Playbill, which appears in the Kingston Whig Standard. He can’t WE POSSESS The equipment that can remove SCRATCHES from films, either negative or positive stock — 16 and 35 mm. IN CANADIAN FILM PROCESSING *A RECOGNIZED AUTHORITY quite believe the critics voted that way. Wrote Gardiner: “Frankly I’m filled with suspicion. The ‘industry’ is immense, its influence vast. But if this is just an example of the taste of Canadian film critics, they may as well go back on the re-write desk and let those Monday morning studio releases do their job.” PRESS and trade preview of the latest Cinerama production, Seven Wonders of the World, will take place on April 2 at the Imperial Theatre in Montreal. On the following evening a formal premiere of the film is being held under the auspices of Les Chevaliers de Colomb de la Province de Quebec and S. H. Fabian and Samuel Rosen, president and executive v-p respectively of Stanley Warner Cinerama Corporation. COMPLETE slate of 1956 officers was returned in the recent elections for 1957 of the Toronto Motion Picture Projectionists, Local 173, IATSE. Re-elected. were H. N. (Doc) Elliott, president; Bill Hills, v-p; John Jeffrey, secretary; Bob Milligan, treasurer; Lou Lodge and A. Milligan, technical advisers; P. Cox, film; G. Hulse and G. Rands, mechanism; and H. Brooks, sound. The officers have scheduled a series of lectures for the coming season. 20th-Fox' ‘Peyton Place’ Mark Robson has been signed to direct 20th Century-Fox’ production of the nation’s number one best-seller, Peyton Place, which will be produced by Jerry Wald. * mpi : 4824 Cote des Neiges Rd. Montreal 26, Que. RE. 3-7181 mm ' language network . . . The Rank Organization will open an _ exchange in Mexico, with V. T. Dickins in charge . . . From January 1, 1946 to December 31, 1956 the number of immigrants from the USA to Canada was 90,619. Para's ‘Short Cut To Hell’ Newcomer Georgann Johnson will star in Paramount’s Short Cut to Hell. WANTED: 176” wide aluminum screen and pair of 434’ lenses. New or used. FOR SALE: 15’x 12’ plastic screen and pair of 514” lenses. Good condition. GEM THEATRE 9686 Jasper Ave., Edmonton, Alta. | | | March 27, 1957 | TELEMOVIES PLAN (Continued from Page 1) motion picture producers and shown by motion picture exhibitors.” Service will soon be available in Bartletsville, Oklahoma at $9.50 for 13 features. Meanwhile Robert J. O’Donnell has announced his interest in a similar system for Dallas through Interstate Home Corporation and North Little Rock Theatres, Inc. in Arkansas has applied for a city permit. Telemeter, which Paramount controls and which is franchised to Famous Players in this country, will demonstrate a production model of its coin box on the West Coast soon. Telemeter, like the other -pay-see telesystems, is awaiting the okay of the Federal Communications Commission to go ahead with public demonstrations. These would use the airwaves. The use of cable places them outside FCC jurisdiction, a situation similar to the one in Canada. Here the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has no power over television via cable, this being subject to the authority of its senior body, the Board of Transport Commissioners. The CBC has unofficially acknowledged that paysee systems using the airwaves would constitute private broadcasting — closed circuit — and thus be outside its jurisdiction. Famous Players television interests, headed by Eugene Fitzgibbons, won’t include community antenna stations in Kenora, Ontario, North Battleford, Saskatchewan and Kelowna, BC. Application to local councils have been withdrawn. The conclusion was that single-channel service wouldn’t be practical for Famous Players’ future aims in the matter of the first two and the coming of a local station made the third unnecessary. While awaiting USA _ developments in the pay-see field Famous Players in striving to make its Kitchener and Quebec City TV stations solid operations. Arthur Fitzgibbons Directs CKMI-TV Director of operations for CKMITV, the Quebec City English-language station owned by Television de Quebec (Canada) Ltee. is Arthur Fitzgibbons, it was announced by the board of directors. He was formerly commercial manager of CFCM-TV, which will now program in French, with CKMI-TV_ handling English. The recent inauguration of a French-language station makes Quebec City the first major metropolitan market in Canada with two privately-owned competitive stations. Jean A. Pouliot, former executive engineer for Famous Players Canadian Corporation, which owns 50 per cent of the company, has become general manager of Television de Quebec, with administrative responsibility for both stations,