What's New? (Summer 1971)

ldo MISS FAMOUS PLAYERS THEATRE PANEL The Miss Famous Players Theatre Panel is a community relations project directed primarily to developing an avenue of dialogue and communication with young people, to confirm a sincere interest in them. Made up of 16 to 17 year old Grade 12 and 13 girl students the Theatre Panel represents some 128 Secondary Schools in the Metro Toronto area. Reason for the distaff Theatre Panel is the experience which has taught that the activities, type of programs, and scheduling lend themselves to, and have the most appeal for, young women. The Toronto Miss Famous Players Panel is the second such project. The first Theatre Panel originated in Montreal some six years ago. Patterned after our successful Montreal counterpart the Toronto Theatre Panel meets every third Saturday morning during the school period of September to May, 9.30 a.m., in The Cinema, TorontoDominion Centre. Thanks to the fine support and co-operation of film distributor friends each meeting opens a screening of an important upcoming film attraction. There can be no question that film has been enthusiastically adopted by young people as the new art form and this serves the vital purpose of introducing new product and assists in providing them with a better insight and understanding of the medium. They, in turn, carry news of the films back with them to fellow students at their respective schools, an important avenue of communication. After each screening, the Theatre Panel Queen, selected at the beginning of the year by a board of judges, chairs a business portion of the meeting, then introduces a special guest of honor previously requested by the entire panel. This past year, for example, has seen Mr. Dan Driscoll of the National amcue a /] ayero Film Board chat informally with the group on film criticism. Des O’Connor, star of the London Palladium show made a personal appearance, Mr. A. Maynard Robinson presented the art of stage make-up, actually taking a volunteer from the group and aging half her face for middle age, the other half into the nineties. Mr. Leonard Crainford, National Director Information Services, Canadian Mental Health Association spoke on his theatre career, and his Public Relations job dealing with mental health. Final meeting for this year will present Mrs. Shirley Reynolds, cosmetician for DuBarry, who will talk on the proper use of cosmetics, skin care, and other items of good grooming. All members will receive a DuBarry lipstick as a gift. In every instance the warmly enthusiastic response of panel members, accompanied by direct informal dialogue with the students, has resulted in each guest enjoyably spending more time than originally scheduled. In planning the many varied and interesting activities considerable care is taken to avoid any suggestion of student exploitation, care taken to avoid interference with schooling or school time. For example, the decision is deliberately made to hold the last meeting of the year early in May in order not to interfere with summer examination time. Future programs to keep these wonderfully busy, and interested young adults occupied include a ‘sugaring-off’ party when the group will be bussed into the country to experience maple ‘sugaring-off’ time. There is to be an early May windup semi-formal Coronation Dinner, where the Queen will be Crowned and receive her scholarship gift of $100.00, followed by attendance by the entire group at the Toronto Premiere of Paramount's WATERLOO. It will be noted that Theatre Panel programs are not confined to the ‘every third Saturday morning’ meetings. Field trips requested by the group, similar to the aforementioned ‘sugaring-off’ party in April, include a visit to a film house where they can see raw prints and negatives being processed, sound mixing into a single sound track, etc. On the agenda also is a visit to Variety Village, the Ontario Variety Club’s Vocational Guidance School for physically handicapped young Canadians. While at the Village School they will visit the new manufacturing plant where components are being produced to serve the needs of the prosthetics division of the Ontario Crippled Children’s Centre. Concomitant with their interest in the handicapped and less fortunate, accompanied by the considerable energies of this fine group of girls, is the growing desire to adopt a worthy cause and present fund raising projects in support of it. Spearheaded by the group, Famous Players will support this with two or three special morning screenings in the Fall with the proceeds of ticket sales being devoted to raise funds for their charities, and other Panel activities, e.g., Christmas Party, their Miss Famous Players uniform blazers etc. More directly film-industry-oriented will be the guest appearance of the Panel, representing their various schools, at the premiere performances of major attractions of peculiar interest to students, or where special rates for student groups prevail, such as Paramount’s WATERLOO. The theatre Panel is an ongoing project in that, as grade 13 students pass on into first year university, grade 12 students of last year become the grade 13 nucleous of the new Panel next year. This group invites the incoming new grade 12’s to join, and so on. To sum up, confrontation with the young folk on the panel, their parents, and other interested adults, confirms the immense value of the program as a worthwhile Company and industry p.r. project, and worthwhile extra curricular activity for the students. It adds stature to the industry while making a considerable contribution to the development and fulfilment of students, enhancing their well known interest and support of the film business.