Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)

—T” aaer——rs—e=E=E———ee— eee. = _ee_—GGe— eee Christmas Number January In year-end meetings the Manitoba-Saskatchewan branch of the Canadian Picture Pioneers elects A. Feinstein president, the Calgary branch names W. O. Kelly and the Maritimes votes in L. A. Sprague. Manitoba Motion Picture Exibitors Association returns Harry Hurwitz to the presidency. Two TV filmed series are slated for production in Canada by USA companies — Cannonball, by Television Programs of America, which gets under way in the Summer, and Survival, by Joseph M. Schenck Enterprises. The latter is later postponed. United Artists Associated acquires control of Associated Artists Productions Corporation through a subsidiary, Gotham Television Film Corporation. It thus acquires an important share of Donnell & Mudge Limited, AAP’s Canadian outlet, which is now United Telefilms Limited. Lloyd Palmer succeeds James W. Cameron as the Lakehead supervisor for Famous Players and the latter comes to Toronto as manager of District ‘‘C” of the Eastern Division. Vancouver plebiscite shows a large majority favor Sunday entertainment but this is interpreted as applying only to sports, while the British Columbia attorney general .says he can see no reason why it should not apply to Sunday movies as well. Twentieth Century-Fox announces that it will release 65 features in 1958 with a gross production value of $65,000,000. Decreasing revenue of the Canadian Film Weekly, in spite of its incorporation of the only other Canadian film trade paper the previous year, is brought to the attention of the Motion Picture Industry Council of Canada by its chairman, urges all sections of the industry to help in every way possible. Dell T. Buckley succeeds Gerald Hoyt as Saint John manager of International Film Distributors and Allied Artists when the latter reSigns. Newsreel pioneer and a co-founder of Pathe-Cinema, Charles Pathe, 94, dies in Monaco. Vernon Hamilton Hudson, 53, manager of the Lincoln in St. Catharines, Ontario, passes. India’s Pather Panchali is named the top film in the first annual San Francisco International Film Festival. Norma Talmadge, 60, one of the R. W. Bolstad, who CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY —<. an A ss VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INOUSFOF JOHN J, FITZGIBBONS, JR. Named chairman of the 1960 con vention of Variety Clubs International, to be held in Toronto. silent film greats, dies in Las Vegas. The Rank Organization opens the Odeon Theatre on Broadway and 47th, a refurbished house. An orderly release of hits throughout the year is promised by Robert W. Coyne of COMPO speaking in behalf of USA film producers. Figures gathered by this publication show that 15 new standardtype houses and three drive-ins opened in 1957, 85 theatres closed down and that the total operating at the end of the year was 1,928, of which 236 were ozoners. Du Art Film Laboratories of New York acquires the assets of Associated Screen News Limited of Montreal and sets up a new company, Associated Screen Industries Limited. Al Young heads both companies, with Murray Briskin reorganizing the new firm as its executive director. Over 2,800,000 Canadian homes, about 68 per cent, have TV sets, a survey shows. Chester Friedman leaves as head of MGM publicity and exploitation in Canada and later announces business connections outside the industry. Andy Griffith and Joanne Wood ward are selected as the top stars and “finds” of 1957 by The Film Daily, NY, in its annual poll, “Filmdom’s Famous Fives.” N. A. Taylor, recently re-elected Chief Barker of Tent 28, Toronto of Variety Clubs International, names committee heads for 1958. Ben Cronk, 71, a veteran of the Canadian film industry who came into the business in 1907 with the Allens, passes in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness. Windsor, Ontario police Comission lowers its theatre licence fees considerably. Producer of over 1,000 pictures and an associate of Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille in the early days, Jesse L. Lasky, 77, dies suddenly in Los Angeles. Internationally-known composer of film scores, Louis Appelbaum, director of the Stratford Film Festival, again assumes responsibility for the Stratford Music Festival after a one year’s absence from the post. President of MGM Pictures of Canada since its organization in 1941 and managing director of its predecessor company, Regal Films Corporation (1941) Limited, Henry L. Nathanson resigns and his duties are taken over by Hillis Cass, Canadian sales manager. Arthur Chetwynd is returned as president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada at the annual meeting in Toronto, which sets up an Industry Development Committee to act as a research department for production opportunities at home and abroad. Chetwynd reports that the Association had added ten new members in the last year, bringing the total to 45. The Motion Picture Industry Council of Canada announces that although it will not sponsor the Academy Award Sweepstakes it has no hesitation in urging individual associations and exibitors to keep the contest going because of the interest it arouses in moviegoers and because of the valuable co-operation it enlists from newspapers, some 30 of which tied in with the competition in 1957. One of Canada’s best film figures, Charles Krupp, 52, dies sud Page 27 Roundup of the News denly of a heart attack in Winnipeg. Howard Strickling, director of studio publicity and advertising at Loew’s, succeeds Howard Dietz as director of advertising and promotion for MGM. February Morris Stein, Eastern Division manager for Famous Players and one of the top showmen in Canada, resigns to go into private business and Robert Myers, formerly assistant to Ben Geldsaler, head of booking and buying, is named to succeed him. Theatre attendance and receipts in 1957 were at about the same level as in 1956 but production of features increased, a USA Government survey shows. Doris Robert, president of Quebec Allied Theatrical Industries, B. C. Salamis, Ed. Gauthier, L. Jones and J. Adilson are named as the QATI arbitration committee to act with a similar group from the National Committee of Motion Picture Exhibitors Associations of Canada in an effort to aid distressed exhibitors. Klenman-Davidson Productions starts shooting on its first feature film, Now That April’s Here, using Canadian performers and _ technicians. The film, distributed by IFD, is given a posh premiere at the Towne Cinema in June. It completes its second film, Ivy League Killers, in November. The Alberta Theatres Association formally asks that use of nitrate film be banned after April 1, 1958 but is not successful in having legislation enacted. Gordon Lightstone, Canadian Paramount chief, and the Canadian film industry are honored by the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews with the presentation of a Certificate of Merit ‘“‘for contribution to the cause of human relations.” Ontario division of the Canadian Picture Pioneers holds its annual meeting and elects its new directors, who later meet and choose R. W. Bolstad as the new president both of their own branch and the national body, since the Ontario executive also acts as the national one. The IATSE and NABET get into a controversy over unionization of cameramen in the Toronto area, both claiming jurisdiction. Paramount sells its pre-1948 backlog of features to MCA for a reported $50,000,000. The Rank Organization converts