Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 18, 1961)

Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) October 18, 1961 Vol. 26, No. 40 HYE BOSSIN, Editor Assistant Editor . . Ben Halter Office Manager . . . Esther Silver CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario Authorized as Second Class Mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash Published by Film Publications of Canada, Limited 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario Canada « Phone 924-1757 Price $5.00 per year SPECIAL AWARDS (Continued from Page 1) president of Famous Players, as The Pioneer of the Year “for his contribution to the industry as a whole.”’ The committee, made up of previous Pioneers of the Year and headed by a CPP founder, O. R. Hanson, decided also on a _ posthumous award to the late I. H. (Izzy) Allen of Toronto and special awards to David Ongley of Toronto and Len B. Johnson of Vancouver. The awards will be presented at The Pioneer of the Year banquet, to be held in the Crystal Ballroom of the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, on Nov. 27. Toastmaster will be Frank H. Fisher, president of the CPP, who followed up his announcement of the major selection with that of the others a week later. Davie has devoted almost every Sunday evening and other hours to making the Pioneers’ Trust Fund shows held at the drive-in donated by Len B. Johnson & Associates a success. Cooper was recommended for an award by the Alberta branch, which owes a lot to his devotion. Bob Hurwitz is a popular choice because of his hard work for the Pioneers and the industry in general in the Manitoba-Saskatchewan area. Bill Redpath, over 50 years in the industry, is one of its best loved figures. He was a salesman of Edison projectors to the first exhibitors in Ontario and himself gave motion picture exhibitions as ‘Professor Redpath.” Izzy Allen’s generosity was legendary and his enthusiasm for CPP projects boundless. David Ongley, who has been president of the Dominion Drama Festival, came into contact with the Pioneers when handling legal matters for motion picture industry clients. He is not a Pioneer but its solicitor. Nevertheless, he stands as high as anyone in the estimation of motion picture people. His aid has been invaluable. Tickets are available to any member of the motion picture industry for himself and friends. In the past several years the occasion has been a sellout. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Universal Lineup (Continued from Page 1) manager of Empire-Universal, which distributes Universal product in Canada, and Mark Plottel, sales manager, were very pleased with the long and powerful lineup of pictures, which will get special exploitation support through the co-operation of Barry Carnon, Emp-U ad-pub director, with the American company’s exploitation machinery. Films covered in the reel were Ross Hunter’s remake of the great grosser, Back Street, this time with Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles and a large cast; Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Broadway hit, Flower Drum Song, also produced by Hunter as one of the most lavish films in many years, and with Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki and directed by Henry Koster; Lover, Come Back, the excerpt of which drew roars of laughter and which stars Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall under Delbert Mann’s_ direction; Cape Fear, a drama of shock and suspense starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen with the support of Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen and Barrie Chase, all directed by J. Lee Thompson, who directed The Guns of Navarone; The Outsider, the real life story of an Indian member of the Marines, Ira Hamilton Hayes, ‘“‘The Hero of Iwo Jima,” who is portrayed by Tony Curtis under Delbert Mann’s direction; and The Last Hero, a tough, real and fascinating Western directed by David Miller and starring Kirk Douglas and Gena Rowlands. Also completed is Touch of Mink, directed by Mann and starring Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young and Audrey Meadows. In work and due for release this season are The Ugly American, The Spiral Road, and Freud, story of the great mental healer. Marlon Brando will star in The Ugly American, Rock Hudson, Burl Ives and Gena Rowlands in The Spiral Road, and Montgomery Clift in Freud. Universal, which has _ placed Phantom of the Opera on its release schedule, acquired distribution rights for The Sergeant Was a Lady, a comedy, and Lancelot and Guinevere, _ starring Cornel Wilde and to be produced in Britain. Listed for production is The Chalk Garden, a Ross Hunter film to star Hayley Mills and Joanne Woodward; Diamonds For Danger, a comedy melodrama; The Dark Angel, also through Ross Hunter; and Six Black Horses, in which Audie Murphy and Dan Duryea are teamed. Latest acquisition by Universal is Somersault, to star the Come September team, Rock Hunter and Gina Lollobrigida, which will have the same director, Louis Mulligan, and be made in Paris. “The amount of money we have committed in the pictures we have completed, in production and in preparation, represents the greatest investment in negative costs in our company’s history and reflects our high confidence not only in the future of Universal but in the motion picture industry,” Milton R. Rackmil, president, stated at a recent meeting in New York. At present Spartacus, which had impressive hard-ticket engagements, is moving into popular runs and is proving itself to be big BO on that level also. GEORGE BROWNRIDGE DEAD Passing of George Brownridge of Brantford in a Toronto hospital last week stirred memories of what was a major effort to establish a Hollywood in Canada. Old-timers remember Brownridge, who got his first industry job in a Sudbury movie, went to work in Toronto for General Films, then became a projectionist. His first connection with production was at the studio Connes & Till built on the shores of the Humber River, near Toronto, in 1913. Col. Louis Till of Britain was one of the principals and differences developed between the local people and a Philadelphia firm which held a partnership. This led to the studio’s closing. Brownridge had a distribution contract with Connes & Till. In 1916 Brownridge organized financial backing for the Adanac Production Co., which built a studio in Trenton, Ont. The Great Shadow, starring the elder Tyrone Power and Marguerite Snow, was made there as an answer to Bolshevism backed with money from the CPR and other companies. Other films made there were Power and The Marriage Trap. Legal difficulties developed and some time later the studio closed down with a loss to the backers. In 1927 another feature, Carry On Sergeant, was made there at a cost of $500,000 by Canadian International Films and it too was a large loser. At that time the studio belonged to the Ontario Government, which had taken it over in 1923 for its Motion Picture Bureau. Brownridge went to the USA, where he engaged in various enterprises. He was for three years executive vice-president of Clairmount Laboratories, engaged in public relations, became a liquor importer and then a publisher. Some years ago he moved from New York to Brantford with his wife, who survives him. The passing of Mr. Brownridge, who was in his late 70’s, will be regretted by all who knew him. October 18, 1961 IM PROGRAMMING (Continued from Page 1) designed 12-page booklet identified as “Your Telemeter Guide” and the current one shows a picture of Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap on the cover. The Parent Trap, a Disney feature from Empire-Universal, came on TM about a week after it closed its longrun Toronto engagement at Famous Players’ University Theatre. That engagement had been part of an ll-theatre booking, one of which, the Westwood, played the film for two weeks. First and foremost are the movies, some of which are used for children’s matinees. Some are late — No Love For Johnnie — and some aren’t — La Parisienne, Home Before Dark, The Horse’s Mouth, The usual price is $1 per program except for the kids’ matinees, which are 25c. The Second City Revue, a taped show from Chicago which proved popular some time ago, was back at $1.25. Toronto Argos’ football games, some shown exclusively on TM, are $2. There is the regular use of shorts as a_ public service, some from church organizations. Others are industrial films from Modern TV Service, the Textile Workers Union, the CNR, Hydro-Electric and _ other sources interested in boosting a cause, a service or a product. TM does not charge the films’ sponsors, nor does it buy them. Recent titles of booster films are Comment & Conviction, Assignment Lunchbox, Fashion ’61, It’s All in Knowing How, The Mayflower Story, Building a Highway, Forging in Closed Dies, To God and My Country and Red Letter Days. They are part of the programs known as Women’s World and Dad and I. There is a nightly newscast and Etobicoke Recreation News, these being produced by Bob Nelson, TM administration executive under Phil Issacs, franchise operations’ chief for International Telemeter. TM also produces programs for fire prevention week and other such campaigns as a public service. Nothing of a direct commercial nature appears on a TM screen. However, the Guide, which has a circulation of 5,400, tells the readers that Dow Brewery and The British American Oil Co. Ltd. help make football games available. It even carries an ad for a store. Telemeter also engages in promotion of motion pictures through tieups. One such was with Bantam Books for ‘Great Movies From Great Novels’’ and another, with a Chinese restaurant, was for The World of Suzie Wong. Sask'n Annual Meeting Annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Exhibitors Association. will be held at the Bessborough Hotel, Saskatoon, on Oct. 22-23. Reg Plumb is president of the organization.