Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 19, 1960)

Page 6 SALES CABINET (Continued from Page 1) inet, “designed to better service exhibitors,” is the second move in that direction, the first having been the local autonomy system for branch managers introduced some time ago. The other four in the cabinet are the Chicago, New York, Dallas and Albany branch managers, respectively Robert Conn, Abe Dickstein, Tom McCleaster and Clayton Pantages. They will be replaced in their branches but will work from them. Pantages will help co-ordinate ad-promotion campaigns with sales policies, working with Norris, ad-pub v-p Charles Einfeld and exploitation director Rodney Bush. Thus his work will bear on Canada. Myers, working from Toronto, will have responsibility for a greater geographical area. The Canadian member of the sales cabinet became Toronto branch manager in 1948 and in 1951 succeeded Arthur Silverstone, now deceased, as general manager in Canada. He came into the industry in 1935 as a salesman for United Artists, left in 1942 to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, switched to Warner Bros. in 1946 and later joined EagleLion. The cabinet will determine sales policies on each release of the 1961 schedule of 60 features, which Norris said are “by far the most ambitious in picture numbers and budget level.” WANTED 500 to 600 theatre chairs in good condition. Give full particulars in first letter. Send replies to: BOX 24 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. E., Toronto 5, Ont. Going-Away Gift for Odeon's Ron Leonard CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Charge-A-Vision Story (Continued from Page 1) swering some questions at the moment. One was whether Rediffusion Inc. of Montreal, subsidi ary of Rediffusion Ltd. of Britain,’ had an interest in Charge-A-Vision. “JT refuse to answer that question,” he said. Montreal’s Rediffusion, a 15,000-subscriber community antenna monthly-fee operation, began in 1951 with some elements of subscription TV. He admitted, however, that T. A. Cross, manager of Montreal’s Rediffusion, took photos of C-A-V’s metering box and information to the parent company during a recent trip to the UK. Harnett left for London a few days after the interview. C-A-V will have its pilot operation in Sault Ste. Marie by the new year without any doubt, Harnett said. The company is _ basically a franchise-rental one, so it is negotiating with several financial groups to undertake the Sault operation through its Ontario-incorporated subsidiary, Community Television Ltd. If no franchiseholder emerges C-A-V will undertake operation of. the Sault project, for which a site is owned, with the backing of General Instrument-Sickles. Fee to franchiseholders will be 10 per cent of revenue, ‘it is heard, but Harnett would not confirm that. A $2-perbox weekly yield is anticipated. The customer will pay a $4 monthly community antenna fee but the installation charge hasn’t been decided yet, since it may vary. Places with ranch-house structures would pay more than those where the housing is close together, the cost of dropoffs being higher. The C-A-V box has a metering device and five outlets on its selector, two of which will offer ‘‘superior motion picture programmes Ron Leonard, for the last four years director of advertising and publicity at the Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd., is seen on the left receiving a Samsonite suitcase from his successor and former aide, Paul Hanner, as a going-away gift from his friends on the occasion of his retirement to go into a business of his own, Some 30 press, radio and publicity men attended the stag dinner at the Westbury Hotel at which the presentation was made. with no commercials.” These operate in conjunction with the elapsed time meter and will record the time in operation. Channel A will cost $1 per hour and Channel B 50c. The box has a removable key for use by the owner so that unauthorized running can be avoided. At the end of two months the customer reads the meter, takes one of six addressed envelopes from the box and puts a cheque in for the amount owed. C-A-V will have spot checks and a $1 service charge will be asked of a customer who fails to remit or requires a call from a meter reader. Reaction to ads? Hundreds of calls from the public to the newspaper, since C-A-V has no Sault office and quite a few enquiries came from motion picture exhibitors and TV _ studios, Harnett claims. Any doubt about the collection method? None. Pay later is a solid economic philosophy and practice on this continent. ‘‘House owners and householders pay rent, water bills and other things so why shouldn’t they pay us?” Rediffusion shows that it is a good method. How does C-A-V stack up against the coinbox method? It’s much cheaper, says Harnett—‘‘one-third of the cost of the prepaid system.” C-A-V is ‘low-cost post-paid TV as against prepaid high-capital cost TV.” It can go into 10 places “compared to one the other concept can go into.”” He saw no competition with Telemeter. ‘‘We’ll be moving North to South.’’ C-A-V will go into places where there is no multiple-channel TV and Telemeter can’t follow “‘by virtue of its capital cost.” The Sault, with 60,000 population, 15,000 homes and a very high income level, is ideal for the start. ‘“‘We don’t know all the answers. Telemeter doesn’t know all the answers. But I do know that we’re working from a low-cost deal up and Telemeter is working from a high-cost deal down.” Programming? ‘We never said at any time that we will run firstrun pictures.” Product supply? “The motion picture industry isn’t stupid from the top down; there’s no combine in it and no restraint of trade. The production business is not controlled by one producer and there’s enough vision and enough need in the industry to as “sure Charge-A-Vision that top films will be released to it. The motion picture industry will go along with something that will give it a volume market.” Transmission? Bell Telephone rates are too high. “Were compelled to use public utility poles ’ wherever possible and string our own cable.” Who owns Charge-A-Vision? The basic invention is by Hunter Re October 19, 1960 News Clips Gilles Pellerin, Montreal actor, has been appointed a member of the Quebec Board of Cinema Censors . . . Canada’s population rose to 17,930,000 on Sept. 1, 380,000 higher than on the same date last year, it is estimated by the DBS . . . Crackdown on bingo, lotteries and raffles in Quebec is planned by Provincial Police Director Josaphat Brunet, who is seeking prosecution directives from the attorney-general following several raids . . . The CBC has applied for a French-language satellite TV station at Mont Laurier, Que....A six-part series on the world popu lation explosion and the pressing need of increasing food and other resources will be telecast on the CBC’s Explorations program Wednesdays at 10.30 p.m. beginning Nov. 2. Produced by the NFB the series is narrated by Stanley Burke from a commentary by Gordon Burwash and was produced by Donald Fraser. Before going into motion picture theatres Wm. Goetz’ two-hour feature in Eastmancolor, The Story of David, which was made in Britain, will be offered over ABC TV in hour portions over two weeks . . . Edward J. Fisher, personal rep for George Sidney, producerdirector of Columbia’s multi-million-dollar Pepe, will visit Toronto and Montreal during a month tour in behalf of the film... An indefinite leave of absence because of illness has been granted Burt Sloane, UA publicity manager... Jules Verne’s Master of the World, In the Year 2889 and The Floating City and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, which will all be in color and will cost well over $4,000,000, will be on the forthcoming release schedule of American International Pictures. The company has also raised its standing print order to 600 to permit four to six major territories to play off a film simultaneously. search of Toronto, which assigned the patents to Charge-A-Vision International. As yet that company, a private one incorporated in Ottawa, owns 100 per cent of the stock. Will there be a public issue? ‘‘I doubt it.’” General Instrument-Sickles of Canada, which employs 350 and has plants in Waterloo and Mount Forest, is a subsidiary of General Instrument Corp. of New Jersey, an $80,000,000 corporation which manufactures engineering products, radio and TV components and has many USA government contracts. Its board, at a meeting last week, put the company behind C-A-V. “I have the assurance of the Canadian operation that the American group is behind it.” First sales target for franchises are the 200 Canadian and 800 American community antenna systems.