Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 24, 1957)

CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY April 24, 1957 News Clips Famous Players Canadian Corporation’s annual meeting will take place at the company’s head office in the Royal Bank Building, Toronto, on April 23 . . . William Shatner, Montreal-born actor, who will appear in Hamlet and Twelfth Night at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, has been signed by MGM to work in two features per year for five years . . . Henry Kogel, staff engineer of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, has resigned . . . First showing of Montreal, 20-minute ASN-made color documentary bought by the NFB for the CCO series, took place in Loew’s, Montreal on April 19. Benefit shows for the Charles Houle Fund may be cancelled because the Provincial Government refuses to exempt them from the ban on children under 16 attending commercial cinemas. The Government says blanket tolerance would create too great a precedent. Houle, a policeman, was killed on duty. . . Toronto and Montreal groups of TV workers have applied to the Labor Relations Board to have the IA decertified as their bargaining agent. They claim they don’t have enough say in their affairs but Canadian IA chief Hugh Sedgwick says their representatives participated in negotiations for their present contract and 74 per cent of the membership voted for it. British exhibitors’ long fight for a reduction in taxes won a measure of success in the budget announcement in the House of Commons and, while it was not as big as hoped for, it may save some theatres from closing down. The budget raised the license fee for TV sets, which may also be a help.. . Associated Artists Productions, formerly PRM, Inc., which acquired the Warners backlog for $21,000,000, earned about $1,000,000 or $2.50 a share in 1956 and the net profit for the first quarter of 1957 totals the same. Its Canadian subsidiary, Donnell & Mudge, will be selling the films to TV in a couple of months. . . Ivor Lomas, FRPS, lab manager at Crawley Films, has been made a Fellow of the British Kinematograph Society, a rare honor. Columbia Extends Warwick Deal Columbia Pictures and Warwick Productions have agreed to extend their current producing-releasing agreement for another two years, continuing through 1959. The announcement followed by about 30 days a statement that the two organizations had agreed to terminate their present deal at the end of this year after a five-year relationship. — OPINION — The Unforgoiten is the title of the editorial in Image, Journal of Photography and Motion Pictures of the George Eastman House, from which the following is taken. It is by James Card, Curator of Motion Pictures at the George Eastman House, Rochester: Old age has few victims more pitiful than the once great leading ladies of the theatre. They sit with defeated hands, dejectedly fingering their brittle and yellowed old clippings, vainly seeking reassurance in praises published so long ago they have themselves forgotten the details of their past success. But the actors and actresses of the cinema are the immortals. Their greatest work, fresh as the day it was achieved, is kept forever in the film archives of the world. Alice Terry, Francis xX. Bushman, Bebe Daniels, Mae Murray, Nita Naldi, Ramon Novarro, Lila Lee, William Haines, Blanche Sweet, Esther Ralston, Betty Bronson, Colleen Moore, Clara Bow, May Allison — they may think that they have retired from the screen. But they are wonderfully mistaken. Their shadows are kept busier than they ever were before by the Cinematheque Francaise, the National Film Library in London, the film archives of Yugoslavia, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Japan, Portugal, and South America. Like the Museum of Modern Art Film Library in New York, many of these institutions circulate their collections throughout their own _ countries. New generations of admirers are constantly added to film artists’ conquests of the past. Some players are developing greater followings in the world of film societies than they ever had before. The only requirement for the kind of immortality that the screen can bring is that one make an unforgettable contribution. Whether the contributor be cameraman, director, writer, actor or actress, the film archives of the world are dedicated to preserve their achievements. And if achievements they are, they will never be forgotten. BOLSTAD (Continued from Page 1) bers take places on The Crew. He paid tribute to his fellow-barkers at Famous Players, of which he is vice-president, for their devotion to Variety and their aid where his personal efforts are concerned. ‘We grew up together in business, joined Variety together, learned how to work together and to somehow enjoy the many problems connected with helping the futures of the boys at Variety Village,’ he said. Nairn was introduced by Chiet Barker N. A. Taylor, who had previously called on Past Chief Barker Wm. Summerville, Jr. to make a presentation to Ernest Rawley, now a resident of New York, and First Assistant Chief Barker Dan Krendel to report on the annual convention in New Orleans. The gold cufflinks with The Barker insignia and the lifetime gold membership card that are to go to Rawley were received for him by his successor as manager of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Edwin DeRocher. ‘‘Ernie will be pleased,’’ DeRocher said. “‘I know he loved doing the work he did for Variety.”’ That work, Summerville had pointed out, included the national tours of British attractions, the financial results of which meant a great deal to the Heart Fund and brought Rawley a Heart Award. Krendel, who called the International convention ‘‘successful and inspiring,’ told the members that Variety Clubs International officers had asked about Toronto as the scene of a future convention. During the meeting Taylor announced that Winnipeg theatre people had given another $100 to the Heart Fund and Chet Friedman urged the members to get their ads in before the May 15 deadline of the souvenir baseball program. Two tickets to the opening performance of Damn Yankees at the Royal Alexandra Theatre will go to the member who has signed the most ads by May 4, DeRocher said. LATEST in the _ Perspective series produced by the National Film Board is The Yellow Leaf, a sympathetic study of an elderly widow who goes to live in a home for the aged. Produced by Julian Biggs, it was directed by Fergus McDonell from a script by Charles E. Israel and was _ photographed by Donald Wilder. ASSOCIATED ACQUIRES PARAGON Associated Theatre Services Company, a Winnipeg booking and buying organization in which Charles Krupp, Barney Brookler and Murray Sweigman of Theatre Poster Service Limited are partners, has acquired Paragon Booking Association of Winnipeg and will now service some 50 theatres. Joe McPherson, who resigned as Toronto branch manager of J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors some time ago and later purchased Paragon from Joe Harris, will remain with the company and manage it in association with Krupp and Brookler. Associated Theatre Services was formed two years ago to do the booking and buying for an initial 18 theatres. Since that time about 17 theatres were added and these 35 have now been increased by Paragon’s 15. HARRY COHEN Named Montreal branch manager for Allied Artists Pictures of Canada Limited. FILM and television supervisor for the CPR is Norman G. Hull, who resigned as Associated Screen News’ general sales manager recently. Hull, with ASN for 23 years as a cameraman and director, will conceive films to demonstrate improved operation and to emphasize safety measures. OFFBEAT Independent films will be made by a new company formed by Ivan Tors, producer, and Andrew Marton, director, named New Venture Productions. Art Arthur will join the company in an executive position on August 1 when he completes his current assignment for Paramount and others included in the organization will be Herbert Kline, producer of documentary films, and Thelma Schnee, head of story and casting departments. Five films are in_ preparation. Arthur has been associated with Tors on previous productions. YEE AS EET SO EEE: OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 3) where sometimes it is extremely difficult or trying for a potential patron to reach? Some of the answers are obvious and others need research. The public has not turned away from the motion picture theatre. It does, however, continue to bypass in increasing degree the theatre of antiquity or discomfort — the one where rowdyism or noise is permitted to intrude on proper enjoyment of the entertainment offered — the one showing poor or timewaster films or judged to be so old that they should be on TV. With a little concentration one may lengthen this list. On the other hand, good attractions, in attractive theatres, with a reasonably early run, are racking up greater grosses than ever. You cannot read the sign posts unless you stop and look, 4a