Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 19, 1957)

June 19, 1957 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 3 Maly, Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) Vol. 22, No. 25 June 19, 1957 HYE BOSSIN, Editor Assistant Editor Ben Halter Office Manager Esther Silver CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Canada Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa Published by Film Publications of Canada, Limited 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada — Phone WAlnut 4-3707 Price $5.00 per year. PARA’S BIG PLAY (Continued from Page 1) home boxoffice provided by pay television. Barney Balaban, Paramount president, explained this to the company’s stockholders at the annual meeting in the home office, New York, last week. Paramount is in theatre distribution, theatre exhibition and television station operation in Canada. The first is through Paramount Film Service and the latter two through its subsidiary, Famous Players. Its 16 mm. films are handled by General Films. Admonishing that the theatre market should not be ‘‘sold short’ by anyone, Balaban pointed out that ‘‘traditional theatre outlets have demonstrated their ability to continue as our basic source of revenue, although at reduced levels.”” He said there were profits to be made from theatre audiences ‘if you have the right pictures,”’ and cited the extraordinary boxoffice achievements of Cecil B. DeMille’s production of The Ten Commandments in this connection. Balaban revealed that Paramount intends to become an important supplier of motion pictures for television. He pointed out that the company has been careful not to make ‘‘any premature deals involving our pre-1948 film library,” the temptation to do so notwithstanding. New horizons in the TV field, Paramount’s president declared, presage ‘‘the evolution from complete reliance on theatre outlets for our product to a broader, diversified market encompassing both theatres and television.”’ A far-reaching revolution both in motion pictures and television, he said, is portended by ‘“‘the significan success scored by old feature film libraries released to television during the past year.” The developing pattern of television economics now confirms the view that pay TV is inevitable, Balaban indicated. He said production costs have risen ‘“‘astronomically” in TV, set saturation is being approached, and the problem of reconciling TV ratings with higher costs to the sponsor is becoming more discouraging to advertisers. Pay TV is the answer to this, he declared. Canadian Film Awards (Continued from Page 1) W. R. Carroll, past president of the Canadian Association for Adult Education. Chairman was Charles Topshee, chairman of the Management Committee of the Canadian Film Awards and executive director of the Canadian Film Institute. Judges for the competition were J. R. Kidd, director of the Canadian Association for Adult Education; Walter B. Herbert, director of The Canada Foundation; Miss Helen Wilson of the Ottawa Film Society; John Robbins, editor of Encyclopedia Canadiana; and Charles Topshee. Citations and awards were made as follows: Associated Screen News Limited — For its initiative in developing a program of training young personnel to meet the demands of Canada’s growing film industry; Crawley Films Limited—In recognition of the company’s distinguished production program in the field of educational films; Yorkton Film Council—In recognition of its distinguished International Film Festival which demonstrates the contribution of the film council movement in Canada; Lew Parry—For his distinguished leadership in the development of a Canadian film industry. Joint citations were given to Harold P. Brown, E. Fred Holliday and James R. Pollock for their pioneer work and their continued devotion to the development of Canadian films in education. Roy Tash—For more than a quarter-century of photographing and editing Canadian newsreels and the only sustained project in theatrical film-making in Canada. Donald Mulholland—For his notable encouragement of creative Canadian film production. Reverend Anson C. Moorhouse— For his pioneering in the inspira tional aspects of Canadian filmmaking. John Grierson—In recognition of his unique contribution to Canada’s film-making art and industry. Frank Radford Crawley and Judith Crawley—For their unique contribution as a team to Canada’s film-making art and industry. Trophy of the AMPPLC was given for the best film entry of the amateur competition. Judges for this competition were Guy Glover, NFB, chairman; Tom Daly, NFB; Henry Michaud, Omega Productions; Gordon Sparling, ASN; and Henry Strub, Aluminium Secretariat Limited. John W. Ruddell of Toronto received the trophy and first award for his “ingenious, imaginative and sensitive’ treatment of the subject in his film, Prelude to Spring. Honorable mention went to Miss Helen Webb-Smith of Ancaster, Ontario, for A Sugar Maple, for its “clear, simple and_ attractive’ presentation. NFB Subject Wins City of Gold, the National Film Board’s short about the Yukon Gold Rush, won a top award at the World Film Festival in Cork, Ireland. The French-language version was used. Jan Holden In ‘High Flight’ Jan Holden, UK actress, will star in Warwick’s High Flight. Mountie TV Series Mrs. Mike, story of the wife of a Mountie by Nancy and Benedict Freedman, will be made into a filmed TV series by Harry Ackerman of Ticonderoga Productions and Edward Gross. It was a popular UA motion picture a decade ago. FOUR COMPANIES INCORPORATED Letters Patent of Incorporation were issued recently to four companies of interest to the motion picture industry under the Companies Act by the Department of the Secretary of State of Canada. Names and details of the new outfits are as follows: C & C Films of Canada Limited—A private company in Ottawa of which the incorporators are Roy Adolph Prediger, attorney-at-law; John Joseph Dunne, accountant; and Irene Clara Anderson, bookkeeper, all of New York City. Authorized capital is 500 shares of the par value of $100 each. Allied Colour Film Service Limited — A private company in Toronto, incorporators of which are Clair Tooze and Joseph Williams Thompson, Queen’s Counsel; Robert Muir, solicitor; Doris Read and Mildred Hazel, secretaries, all of Toronto. Authorized capital is 27,000 preference shares of the par value of $10 each and 30,000 common shares without nominal or par value. Mars Film Productions Limited—A private company in Ottawa incorporated by John Hamilton Quain, Redmond Charles Hamilton Quain and Redmond Thomas Quain, advocates, all of Hull, Quebec; and Ethel Louise Shooter and Marguerite Cavan, secretaries, both of Ottawa. Authorized capital is 10,000 shares without nominal or par value. Tele-France-Canada Ltee — A Montreal company of which the incorporators are Guy-Eugene Boisvert and Georges-Charles Lachance, advocates, and Jeannine Pollet, secretary, all of Montreal. Authorized capital is 2,000 shares of the par value of $100 each. Business lor DOES the showing of major old films on TV affect motion picture theatre attendance? We may have an answer to this important question very soon. Since last Fall there has been available to TV stations, particularly in the United States, a ne array of old movies. Couneee try-wide the boxoffice has not really been strong since last summer and, based on this, distributors are withholding their real blockbusters for this period of the year. This summer may well determine the sagacity or folly of making available to TV stations for free showing to the public something similar to what we are trying to sell. For several years attendance charts have shown an upward curve in the summer months when the so-called better shows are off TV. There are proponents of the theory that good old movies on TV do not detract from theatre attendance but rather draw their viewers from the other available shows on TV. They suggest that many people are driven to motion picture theatres because frequently they can only see old movies on TV and they want to see new ones. The other school of thought suggests that the quality of TV entertainment in the past year has dropped to a new low, as evidenced by the number of TV shows which are being cancelled out after this season. They further aver that only the good old movies have helped maintain the viewer level for TV across the board. With the arrival of July we shall witness the release of a most formidable array of top motion picture entertainment. If business takes a spurt similar to the one last year it will be safe to assume that old movies do not basically affect motion picture theatre attendance. Conversely, if the anticipated rise in attendance does not materialize, one must veer toward the conclusion that the motion picture industry has made a sad mistake by selling its backlog, even for the reported one to two hundred million dollars, and that in the long run this may cost the business many times more than that. It is possible that some companies are withholding de (Continued on Page 7)