Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 22, 1966)

PICTURES NEWS GLIPS PENED last December by MUZZOCCO and GERVANNI, the new 775-seat Dolphin Theatre in the Vancouver suburb of North Burnaby has joined the ODEON circuit and will be managed by BILL MACDONALD, formerly of the Totem in Vancouver * >* *\ Two other recent theatre transfers were the 265-seat Tivoli in MacGregor, Man., from ROBERT HARVEY to WALTER VIRKUTIS and the 300-seat Bienville in Levis, Que., from E. BEAUMONT to M. BOUCHARD % vy x JACK WATSON, 77, partner with FAMOUS PLAYERS in the former Rex in Regina since 1942, died recently in that city after a lengthy illness. He is survived by wife. A past eas of the FEDERATION OF CANADIAN ADVERTISING AND _ SALES CLUBS, GRAEME FRASER, vicepresident of CRAWLEY FILMS LTD. of Ottawa, has been elected first vice-president of the 800member CANADIAN PUBLIC RELATIONS SOCIETY we The CBC-TV network will carry at 10.30 p.m. on July 1 THE SEA GOT IN YOUR BLOOD, a halfhour NATIONAL FILM BOARD production on the people of Lunenburg, NS, and the worldfamed racing and fishing schooner, the BLUENOSE * * * Recent visitor to Toronto was JACK HIRSHBERG, unit publicist for 20TH-FOX’ DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, set to start filming in London next week. His Toronto stay was for meetings with local publishing and broadcasting reps on the film, which will be shot in TODD-AO and DELUXE COLOR with REX HARRISON, SAMANTHA EGGAR and ANTHONY NEWLEY in the lead roles. JERRY LEWIS is also expected to visit Toronto shortly during his drum-beating tour for his latest picture, COLUMBIA’S THREE ON A COUCH * * »* KATE REID, one of Canada’s leading dramatic actresses, will be seen soon in her first Hollywood production when PARAMOUNT’S THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED starts its engagements this summer. She stars in the film with NATALIE WOOD and ROBERT REDFORD * * © UNIVERSAL’S ARABESQUE, starring GREGORY PECK and SOPHIA LOREN, set an all-time Sunday record of $38,176 at New York’s 34-year-old Radio City Music Hall, the world’s largest theatre © *CLAUDE P. LEWIS, JR., who joined 20TH-FOX’ ad department in 1950, has been promoted to assistant advertising manager. bz] Page 6 Panorama it ek ek & by Stan Helleur TEXAS AFTERTHOUGHTS (and let’s have another Big Hand for the Little Lady): They bill it as “The 8th Wonder of the World” and although you were bugged a bit by the lack of open sky and the knowledge that it was nylon down there on the field instead of Stas, you couldn’ t help wishing thai fantastic Astrodome was planted ‘a in Toronto instead of Houston * * * Warner Bros.’ visiting firemen toured the “world’s first and only airconditioned domed stadium” when the baseball Astros were on the road, which was unfortunate. The lights weren’t up and the only action came from a workgang tamping down the infield broadloom and setting up a midfield stage for a personal appearance by TV singing star Andy Williams. Still, parked in a $2.50 red seat in centrefield, trying to keep the lady guide from drawling you out of your mind with statistics, you surveyed the red, brown, blue and gold circle, related the constant 72-degree temperature to the unpredictability of Ontario weather and mentally asked Mayor Givens and City Hall: Why not? * * * Come peasoup fog, thunderstorms or rump-high snows, there would be 45,000 dry seats for baseball, 52,000 for football, 60,000 for conventions and 66,000 for fights or stage shows * * * Does the plastic-paned roof really work? Well, said the lady guide, they had problems at first. In daytime games, outfielders were losing flyballs in the glare over and behind home plate. The solution was to opaque a section of the plastic but the loss of sunlight killed the natural grass. Ultimately, a nylon playing surface was perfected and, according to PRman Bill Giles, son of baseball’s Warren Giles, both baseball and football players find it better than the real thing * * ** You have to see it to believe the scoreboard production whenever an Astro whacks a home-run. They call it their ‘“45-second spectacular” and that’s what it is, the product of $2,000,000 worth of electronic engineering spread on an area 474 feet across and four conventional stories high. More than 50,000 verda ray bulbs cover more than a half-acre of the display area, connected by 1,200 miles of wiring >» : They pushed buttons for us. First a lighted reproduction of fie ‘Rawdon appeared on the left of the scoreboard. Then the roof exploded, with sound effects, and a ball came out of the top and zoomed across with simulated fireworks and rockets as escort. At the end of the flight, a larger baseball appeared with the words “HOME RUN’—and more exploding fireworks. But that was only Phase 1. Next sequence showed two lighted cowboys, firing guns and ricochetting bullets all over the board. Next two huge steerheads appeared, snorting fire, with a US flag and Texas flag unfurling from the horns of each. At that point a mounted cowboy flashed in, stage left, and tried to rope a Steer. The action traversed the display and got a big boff when the cowboy, getting his rope caught in the steer’s horns, was dumped. Final sequence erupted in a eer color skyrocket display, complete with ear-puncturing effects * * * « And now over to you, Jack Kent Cooke. i st xr TALKING OF SPECTACULARS, what about Sam Shopsowitz’ recent Bar Mitzvah celebrations for son Noah in Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Synagogue? Of the many lines relayed from the elaborate affair I like best the crack by Shopsy’s close friend, Victor Borge. “This makes me think of my own Bar Mitzvah,” said Borge. “It reminds me of all the things I NEVER had” * * * The entertainment industry appeared to have Toronto synagogues tied up that particular weekend * ** xx At Holy Blossom Temple, Jeffrey, a son of Charles Chaplin, head of Seven Arts (Canada), married Marion Stark. The date, incidentally, coincided with the senior Chaplins’ 30th wedding anniversary ~ * Same day, at Beth Am Synagogue, Elaine Halter, daughter of our managing editor, Ben Halter, married law student Arnold Handelman Meanwhile Jack Fine, Executive Assistant at B. & F. Theatres (Toronto), was making similar plans. He’ll marry Valerie Robbins, former secretary to the late Izzy Allen, some time next month. MORE TRADE TALK: ee "Morris, until recently film critic for the Toronto Globe and Mail, is returning to hometown Winnipeg and the Tribune. He’d been with the Free Press for years before coming to Toronto »* One of those blind spots that occasionally assail typesetters and proof-readers hit us during production of the previous issue, with the result that a caption under a Variety Club photo read Jack Fitzgerald instead of Jack Fitzgibbons. Fitz, inciden (Continued on Page 11) CANADIAN FILM-TV BI-WEEKLY HOLLYWOOD sUZY KENDALL, British actress, has been named by © producer director James Clavell for a co-starring role with Sidney Poitier in Columbia’s To Sir, With Love, now before the cameras at Pinewood Studios in England * * * Warner Bros. has made a deal with Cine-Europe S.A.R.L. for distribution of a World War II espionage drama, Triple Cross, which has been in work for a month at the St. Maurice Studios in Paris with Christopher Plummer, Romy Schneider, Gert Frobe, Trevor Howard, Claudine Auger and Yul Brynner * * ** Otto Preminger’s next for Paramount, Hurry Sundown, has started shooting on location in Baton Rouge, La. The film stars Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Diahann Carroll, Burgess Meredith, Faye Dunaway, Robert Hocks and John Phillip Law. bh dete eek cant ae” 2 Gildor-Scimitar Productions, the newly-formed Universal company in England, will start work on its third film, The Jokers, in London tomorrow (June 23) with Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed and Harry Andrews starring. Its first two films — The Countess from Hong Kong, produced and directed by Charlie Chaplin, and Fahrenheit 451, made in association with Enterprise Films of Toronto — are now editing * * * Universal has two more productions in work in Europe, The Scandal in Paris and Deadlier Than the Male at Pinewood in England. The first stars Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet and Yvonne Furneaux and the latter Richard Johnson, Elke Sommer, Sylvia Koscina, Suzanna Leigh, Nigel Green and Steve Carlson. 24-year-old Ww Ww x? Location filming on MGMCinerama’s multi million dollar roadshow production, The Grand Prix, has moved from Monte Carlo after three weeks to Spa, Belgium, for another four weeks. Starring in the John Frankenheimer film of auto racing are James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Harriet ners and Jessica Walter ~ Claudia Cardinale has been sed by MGM io star opposite Tony Curtis in Don’t Make Waves, which is due to get going this summer in Hollywood. Now under way at the Culver City Studios is This Way Out, Please, which is the new title for Three for the Wedding, toplining Sandra Bee, George Hamilton, Celeste Holm, Mort Sahl, Dwayne Hickman, Bill Bixby, Dick pee man and Allen Jenkins <a 20th-Fox has added Ray Waleien, Jack Kruschen and Irene Tsu to the cast of Caprice, which stars Doris Day and Richard Harris. @ June 22, 1965