Canadian Film Weekly (May 20, 1964)

News Clips Italian film stars who will be in Montreal for the Italian Film Week of that city’s International Film Festival, to be held in the Place des Arts from May 31 to June 5, are Rosanna Schiaffino and Ugo Tognazzi, while those from direction and production are Alfredo Bini, Marco Ferreri, Gianfranco De Bosio, Gianfranco Mingozzi and Giulio Cesare Castello. Details of Italian Film Week were announced by Pierre Juneau and Rock Demers, Festival president and executive secretary respectively, and Paolo Canali, Italian Consul-General in Montreal. Demers is chairman of the Week .. . Robert Black, a TV producer who started in Boston and was with CJOH-TV, Ottawa, has joined Crawley Films, Ottawa, where James Williams, after five years in production, has been made a producer-director .. . Charles E. Kurtzman, former general manager of Loew’s Theatres, now holds such a post with Edlyn Enterprises, a three-theatre chain in San Diego. Lou Steisel has been made assistant general sales manager of Embassy Pictures Corp., New York, by D. J. Edele, g.s.m. .. . Cooperative Women’s Guild of Swift Current, Sask., voted support of provincial censorship, making known its endorsement of C. C. Williams’ “effort to minimize the use of profane and obscene language in films,” as the Swift Current Sun reported it. Williams, Minister of Labor and cabinet officer for the film censorship board, is an emphatic protagonist of film censorship... Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., will head Subscription Television’s motion picture activities as an STV vicepresident. He recently quit as executive v-p of Samuel Bronston Productions and was a Columbia v-p before that. James A. Whitebone, MBE, secretary and business agent of Local 440, IATSE, Saint John, NB, was made the first honorary life president of the Saint John District Labor Council when he retired from the active presidency after 15 years. A former vicepresident of the Canadian Labor Congress, Whitebone continues as president of the New Brunswick Federation of Labor .. . Technamation, a process for animating displays that “will completely revolutionize the advertising of motion pictures in theatres” through the use of polarized light in the field of visual communications, will be marketed and distributed exclusively by National Screen Service of the USA ... Bruce Crickmore is now sales representative of CTV Television Network working out of the Toronto office. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY ‘Canadian Production!’ (Continued from Page 1) tabloid form, were given over to A Special Report On Film Making in Canada by Bob Blackburn keyed to the front-page query: What Ever Happened to Canada’s Feature Film Industry? Jeremy Brown, The Telegram’s entertainment editor, joined in the report by devoting his own column to the subject. Probably the most significant use of the keynote phrase was made at the Canadian Film Awards’ banquet by Gordon Sheppard, assistant to the Secretary of State, the Hon. Maurice Lamontagne, on cultural matters. Lamontagne is the cabinet authority for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and the National Film Board. After apologizing for Lamontagne’s inability to be present, Sheppard read a letter from him. Lamontagne Approves In the letter Lamontagne expressed the hope that there would soon be Government inducements for feature film production and assistance to producers. It happens that Lamontagne, the receiver of the recent hail of briefs from the various organizations, should know better than anyone else what chances there are for that. Sheppard, in his opening remarks, had said that he was pleased “at the notable increase in Canadian feature production” and Charles Everett, toastmaster at the CFA banquet, made the same sort of comment. The organizations which met on the same day were the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, who united to share the costs of the Canadian Film Awards banquet. Guy Cote, president of the aggressive Quebec body, L’Association Professionnelle des Cineastes, was the guest speaker at the dinner of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, and Donald Brittain, president of the Society of Film Makers, was a head table guest. Cote Highly Critical The tone and character of Cote’s address to the CSC, much like the material in the briefs submitted to the Government, was quite hostile in relation to the distribution and exhibition side of the Canadian motion picture industry. He called the Canadian Co-operation Project, a scheme worked out by the Motion Picture Association of America and Ottawa to boost Canadian tourism on USA screens in return for leaving film remittances unfrozen, “a preposterous and shameful deal.” APC directors, studying the film structure of this and other countries, discovered things that “literally horrified us,’ even though they were known to others. “But these facts grieved and angered us, for we could not understand how any country aspiring to some form of cultural integrity could tolerate some of the situations we came across.” ‘Economic Stranglehold’? Some of the “facts”: 1. Canada is one of the few countries without legislation to support feature film production; 2. “Film distribution and exploitation in Canada was basically controlled by foreign interests and constituted a structure with all the characteristics of a monopoly, or combine.” Two major chains control every first-run house in the country and, controlling less than 20 per cent of the number of theatres, get more than 50 per cent of the boxoffice receipts. In Montreal they get 78 per cent of the BO and in Ottawa 87 per cent. English-language versions get the best playdates in Quebec; the French get the others and the publicity is cheapened to match. In the Hull-Ottawa area 38 per cent of the population is French-speaking but Frenchlanguage films get only six per cent of the BO — and one fifth of that goes to native French films and the rest to Hollywood and other dubs. To break the “economic stranglehold” the APC wants a minimum of 75 per cent Canadian ownership of theatres and the establishment of a chain of French-language cinemas in Quebec. Hollywood Seeks Govt. Aid It begins to appear that the distribution and exhibition sections of the industry, which are being made the villains of the piece, ought to shake off their complacency. Some of the APC ideas seem obviously unrealistic and may be there for shock value more than anything else. A mutual point of view between the critics and the criticized is not impossible. The APC believes in subsidies. So does the American production industry — a _ very strong production industry and rich compared with the almostnothing Canadian one. Arthur Krim of United Artists and Spyros P. Skouras of 20th CenturyFox met recently with USA Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy and the trade is guessing that the subject was a proposed production subsidy plan. There are benefits for all if marketable features are made in Canada. Vic Nowe Repeat Winner Vic Nowe, manager of Odeon Carlton, Toronto, the who won the Quigley Award in 1962, repeated his victory this year. A panel of 20 distinguished judges looked over close to 100 campaigns from all over the world. May 20, 1964 1962 FIGURES (Continued from Page 1) 1961. The 1962 figures are the latest available, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics being that far behind. Potential admissions in 1962, based on performances and the number of seats in the number of theatres, were 530,780,643, while the actual admissions were 91,258,324—the lowest since 1935. The grand gross, $60,941,230, was the lowest in over a decade. The stronger business of the last two years has caused the rate of decline to lessen and it is expected that the figures for 1963 will not show a drop from those of 1962. Quebec had the highest average admission price, 75c, with Ontario (69c) next and BC (65c) third. Newfoundland (46c) had the lowest, then came NB (48c) and Saskatchewan and PEI (50c). The 1962 potential admissions figure of 530,780,643 compares with 818,652,591 for the peak year of 1953, which indicates the decline in the number of theatres, days open and number of performances. The potential admissions figures are for 1,278 auditorium theatres, of which 1,187 are 35 mm. and 91 16 mm. The total number of seats, 702,075 is 31,000 smaller than the figure for 1961. There were 240 drive-in theatres operating in Canada _ in 1962 with a capacity of 88,758 cars, an increase of two in the number of theatres and an increase of 429 in car capacity. The receipts from admissions (excluding taxes) increased to $6,806,888 from $6,653,262 in 1961. Total receipts from other sources amounted to $3,229,710, compared with $2,901,856 in 1961, of which $3,055,023 was derived from the sale of candy, drinks, cigarettes, etc., $41,117 from the rental of concessions and vending machine space, $104,881 from exhibiting commercial advertising films and $28,689 from other unidentified sources. These theatres paid $1,850,411 to 2,100 employees in salaries and wages. Amusement taxes amounted to $399,346 compared with $490,793 in 1961. Eleven of the 240 drive-in theatres operating in 1962 were equipped with 16 mm. projectors and reported receipts (excluding taxes) of $57,749 and a total attendance of 103,815 persons. The drive-ins also had 860 walk-in seats, The number of employees in the 1,278 auditorium cinemas went up from 9,496 to 9,857 and total salaries and wages went from $15,611,602 to $15,052,783. In 1962 there were 60 film distribution companies—nine more —with 132 exchange offices—15 more — and these had 826 employees — 10 more, who earned a total of $4,070,014—$3,103 less. Of the 906 films released for theatrical presentation, 523 were features, 141 cartoons, 169 newsreels and 73 other shorts.