The Exhibitor (1952)

10 EXHIBITOR Canadian Comment Harvey Harnick, general sales manager, Columbia Pictures of Canada, was elected president, Canadian Motion Picture Dis¬ tributors Association at the annual meet¬ ing. He succeeds Gordon Lightstone, gen¬ eral manager. Paramount Film Service, who retired after five years. Frank Fisher, general manager, J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (Canada) Ltd., succeeds Har¬ nick as vice-president, an office which the latter had held for three years. Clare Appel was returned as executive director. Officers of the Film Boards of Trade in the exchange centres, with the exception of Toronto and Montreal, which have not held their elections yet are: Vancouver — J. F. Davie, RKO, president; J. Reid, JARO, vice-president; Perry Wright, Em¬ pire-Universal, secretary; Calgary — H. Ross, Columbia, president; T. L. Scott, JARO, vice-president; A. Elliott, RKO, secretary; Winnipeg — F. Davis, WB, presi¬ dent; P. Geller, JARO, vice-president; I. W. Blankstein, Empire-Universal, sec¬ retary, and Maritime (St. John) — A. LeeWhite, RKO, president; Lou Michaelson, IFD, vice-president; L. Simon, Columbia, secretary. Jack Arthur, theatre supervisor. Famous Players Canadian Corporation, has been appointed producer of the Canadian National Exhibition Grandstand Show for 1952. Arthur, granted a leave-of-absence by his company, succeeds Leon Leonidoff, Radio City Music Hall, who has had that position for the last three years. Arthnr was at one-time producer of the stage shows at the Uptown, Toronto, and had Leonidoff and Florence Rogge working under him. Then Leonidoff and Miss Rogge left to go to work at the Roxy, New York. Appointment of Arthur has been extremely well-received by the newspapers. Television set owners in Canada will have to pay a tariff of $15 a year for the privilege of owning a set. This is forecast by the recommendation made by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the government for legislation for the col¬ lection of the fee beginning on April 1, 1853. Toronto and Montreal transmit¬ ters of the CBC television stations are expected to go into operation by August or September. “King Solomon’s Mines” was found by the annual poll of exhibitors conducted by the Canadian Film Weekly to be the biggest draw at Canadian theatres in 1951. In second and third spots were “The Great Caruso” and “Showboat”. Bing Crosby continued to be Canada’s top boxoffice personality, while Doris Day, replacing Betty Grable, was runner-up. In a separate poll, Canadian critics selected “A Place In The Sun” as the picture of the year. Vivien Leigh was picked as the top performer of the year. Western Theatres’ 494-seat Furby, Win¬ nipeg, was gutted in a recent fire that lasted seven hours, and caused approxi¬ mately $75,000' damages. Lou Rosefield sold his 593-S9at Westdale, Hamilton Ont., to the Sardo Brothers of that city for a reported price of $200,000. A veteran of 38 years in the industry, Rosefield has operated the Westdale for 11 years. . . . G. M. Hogan and C. S. Morgan purchased a site in Invermere, B. C., and will erect a theatre. At present there is no theatre in the com¬ munity. . . . Assistant manager at Famous Players’ Capitol in London, Ont., Nor¬ man Gray has been promoted to the managership of the company’s Algoma. Sault St. Marie, Ont. ... A scholarship of $25 annually and a season’s pass to its Strand, Marathon, Ont., will be awarded by Premier Operating Corporation to the student attaining the highest marks on leaving a certain public school there to enter high school. Dr. Roger Manvell, director of the British Film Academy, will make a lec¬ ture tour of Canada early in May. ... A 250-car drive-in is expected to be built in Swift Current, Sask. . . . When “StaffWeek” was observed at the Capitol, Regina, the house was picketed but all in fun. Pickets paraded in front of the theatre with placards — “please do cross the picket line.” . . . Ray Tubman, man¬ ager, Capitol, Ottawa, was on a mid¬ winter trip with wife to Florida. — Harry Allen, Jr. Mexican Blackout Follows Arrest Mexico City — As a test case, the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico last week had Espinosa Iglesias, operator, Chapultepec, arrested on charges of violating a law guaranteeing them royalties from production of their works. He is free on $2,230 bond. This resulted in a one-day theatre blackout. Producers and exhibitors took threepage ads in the local press charging com¬ posers with breaking an agreement with the Association of Motion Picture Pro¬ ducers and Distributors, claiming that the composers are paid when films are produced, and that this payment covers exhibition rights. The Government urged the composers to hold up prosecution of the exhibitor, while the composers and the producer-distributor-exhibitor com¬ bine get together to try to agree on new working rules during a month’s period of grace. The composers seek 1.5 per cent of box office receipts of theatres running Mexi¬ can films using music. McNamee To Be Honored Philadelphia — Frank L. McNamee, Fire Commissioner of the City of Philadelphia, is to be honored at a dinner to be held on April 7 at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel by the theatrical division of the combined campaign of the 1952 Allied Jewish Ap¬ peal and the Federation of Jewish Chari¬ ties Building Fund for the Albert Ein¬ stein Medical Center, it was announced last fortnight. Vittorio de Sica, Italian director of "The Bicycle Thief" and "Miracle In Milan", was interviewed by the press recently on his arrival in New Yo.k. MPAA,Distnbs, Exhibs Meet On Arbitration New York — Eric A. Johnston, presi¬ dent, MPAA, last week announced that members of his organization, in response to Allied and TOA requests for arbitra¬ tion, were inviting two members and counsel from each of the following: Allied, TOA, Metropolitan Motion Picture The¬ atres Association, ITOA, and Western Theatre Owners, to meet with the general sales managers of the distributing com¬ panies and counsel. William F. Rodgers has agreed to serve as chairman of the distributor conferees, with the sessions taking place here not later than April 20. The meeting will explore arbitration and conciliation of disputes between ex¬ hibitors and distributors, including dis¬ cussions of proposals heretofore advanced by exhibitor organizations. Any agree¬ ment reached can then be presented to the respective principals for acceptance, and then submitted to the Department of Justice for approval. Member companies listed by Johnston were: Columbia, Loew’s, Monogram, Paramount, RKO, Republic, 20th-Fox, UA, U-I, and Warners. The sales managers’ committee which will meet with exhibitors and counsel are, in addition to Rodgers, A1 Lichtman, 20th-Fox; Robert Mochrie, RKO, and A. Montague, Columbia. Counsel will be Austin C. Keough, Paramount; Robert W. Perkins, Warners, and A. Schimel, U-I. The Johnston letter was sent to Wilbur Snaper, Allied; Mitchell Wolfson, TOA; E. N. Rugoff, MMPTA; Harry Brandt, ITOA; Rotus Harvey, WTO, and the De¬ partment of Justice. Brandt later issued a statement saying he and Max A. Cohen will represent that body, and that he welcomed the participation in the round¬ table meetings. Iowa Dissolution Delayed New York — Upon agreement of Depart¬ ment of Justice and 20th Century-Fox attorneys. Federal Judge Sam H. Kauf¬ man last fortnight granted an extension to June 7, 1952, for the dissolution of 20th-Fox’s joint interest in the Strand, Council Bluffs, la. Villa Park House Sues Chicago — The Villard, Villa Park, Ill., filed an $800,000 anti-trust suit against the majors last fortnight covering the period from 1938 through 1948. March 2G, 1952