Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
. . The<br />
. . Roberte<br />
. . "Mourning<br />
. . "Body<br />
ST. JOHN<br />
CJale of books of tickets as birthday and marriage<br />
anniversary §ifts is being promoted<br />
in Sacksville, N. B.. by Denis Murpliy, manager<br />
of tiie Vogue and Imperial theatres . . .<br />
Charlie Staples, owner-manager of the Queen<br />
in St. Stephen, N. B., put on an outstanding<br />
promotional campaign for the short, "Border<br />
Without Bayonets." He aimed his promotional<br />
material at people living on both sides<br />
of the international line, and drew patronage<br />
from both Charlotte county, N. B., and Washington<br />
county, Me. Some of the footage was<br />
shot in St. Stephen and neighboring Calais,<br />
Me.<br />
Theatre attendance in St. John has been hit<br />
by a shutdown of the local dry dock and ship<br />
repair plant. Reduced employment in the<br />
Halifax shipyards, due to the shortage of<br />
steel, has hurt theatre business in that port<br />
city . , . The Famous Family club of Halifax<br />
will sponsor an Eastertide party for boys and<br />
girls in the shelters for orphaned and deserted<br />
children. A penny sale was held to raise<br />
funds for the party. Dorothy Creighton is<br />
president of the club and Mrs. Freeman Skinner<br />
and Miss P. Connors were in charge of<br />
the penny sale. Mrs. Skinner is the wife of<br />
. the Orpheus manager Garrick in<br />
Halifax closed for remodeling.<br />
If a big pulp and newsprint project for<br />
Charlotte county goes through to fruition,<br />
establishment of a motion picture theatre<br />
there is likely to follow. Lepreaux Is said to<br />
have the inside track on the project.<br />
Gazette Finds Tax Deal<br />
'Agreeable Compromise'<br />
MONTREAL—Montreal Gazette comments<br />
as follows on the settlement of the motion<br />
picture issue between the United States and<br />
Britain:<br />
"The United Kingdom government, once<br />
more, has yielded to popular demand over<br />
doctrinaire opinion in withdrawing the highly<br />
controversial 75 per cent duty on U.S. film<br />
earnings in Britain. The tax, imposed last<br />
August, was calculated to save some $68,000,-<br />
000 annually.<br />
"From the first it was generally unpopular.<br />
Pi-otests from film addicts in the U.K. were<br />
loud and long. For Clark Gable and Lana<br />
Turner are no less part of the life of Houndsditch<br />
than of Hoboken, of Leeds than of<br />
Louisville.<br />
"Further, it was an impractical tax. The<br />
Briti.sh film industry has achieved a deserved<br />
reputation for high quality films. Even by<br />
lowering that production standard it was not<br />
possible adequately to supply British cinemas<br />
without U.S. films. Moreover, the tax crippled<br />
both the U.S. and the British film industries.<br />
Hollywood discovered to its surprise<br />
and dismay that its real profits came<br />
from British exhibition of its product, not<br />
the U.S. distribution.<br />
"Both sides, therefore, were early in a<br />
mood to compromise. And by compromise<br />
the strain has now been eased to the mutual<br />
benefit of both. The new agreement, providing<br />
for nomal import of U.S. films to Britain,<br />
is effective from June 14. For the first two<br />
of the four years for which it runs. U.S. producers<br />
may take home $17 millions of their<br />
earnings plus an amount equal to British<br />
film earnings in the U.S."<br />
$225,000 Wage Dividend<br />
Is Distributed by Kodak<br />
MONTREAL—Canadian Kodak Co., Ltd.,<br />
distributed its largest wage dividend last<br />
week. A sum of $225,000 went to 1,280 employes<br />
as compared with $153,000 paid to 1,175<br />
employes a year ago. George Eastman established<br />
this plan in 1912 and since then the<br />
total wage dividend has been $3,000,000, and<br />
in the world at large $89,100,000. Kodak<br />
bases its wage dividend on the- dividends declared<br />
in the preceding year on the common<br />
stock of the parent company, Eastman Kodak<br />
Co. of Rochester, N. Y., and it is calculated<br />
on individual earnings over a five-year pe-<br />
CALGARY<br />
V M. Leach, operator of the Strand and<br />
Variety theatres here as an associate of<br />
the Famous Players circuit, reports that newsound<br />
equipment is due soon for the Strand<br />
Equipment at the Strand will be put in the<br />
Empress Theatre, now dark, in preparation<br />
for its reopening next fall. Leach leaves this<br />
month for the east, where he will call on<br />
theatre seat factories.<br />
Continued heavy snow and dangerous deep<br />
drifts held film salesmen close to home again<br />
last week. A few made train trips to nearby<br />
cities. Railroads, like all other transport<br />
this month, have been off<br />
schedule.<br />
Arthur Silverstone, recently appointed<br />
Canadian manager of 20th-Fox, stopped off<br />
here for two days on his first transcontinental<br />
tour of the Donimion. He said he was<br />
pleasantly sui priced to find on the way west<br />
that business came up to last season. He announced<br />
that Sir Alexander Korda's product,<br />
which 20th-Fox will distribute, will be exhibited<br />
in all units of the Famous Players<br />
circuit.<br />
Another general manager here from<br />
Toronto on a visit was Charlie Chaplin of<br />
United Artists. His chief worry seemed to be<br />
arranging the second run of "Henry V." He<br />
was certain this picture would take some<br />
selling to folk in the prairies.<br />
Alf Shackleford, manager of the Capitol<br />
and Roxy theatres in Lethbridge, is now<br />
on his second year as president of the<br />
Lethbridge and District Exhibition and<br />
Rodeo Ass'n. Shackleford is also on his fifth<br />
term as alderman in Lethbridge.<br />
'Each Dawn I Die' Theme<br />
Causes Youth to Repent<br />
Vancouver—The films' message that<br />
crime does not pay struck a telling blow<br />
here last week. A conscience-stricken '<br />
youth gave away or threw away $670 of<br />
stolen money after seeing "Each Dawn<br />
I Die" at the Paradise Theatre.<br />
He was carrying his loot when he entered<br />
the theatre and after seeing the<br />
picture he dropped $590 of it on the floor.<br />
On leaving the theatre he handed the<br />
other $80 to Johnny Jones, doorman, saying<br />
he had found it in the theatre. Reggie<br />
Trish, janitor, subsequently discovered<br />
the money on the floor and the youth<br />
was arrested by police.<br />
MONTREAL<br />
Qeorge Garetakos, president<br />
and managing<br />
director of United Amusement Corp., left<br />
for a four-week vacation in Florida. A rest<br />
was recommended by his physician . . . Filmrow<br />
extended best wishes to Wilfred Mainville<br />
when he recently opened the Rose in<br />
Ste. Therse . Foucault is leaving<br />
Empire-Universal, where she is French<br />
stenographer, to join the Abbott Laboratories<br />
in St. Laurent.<br />
Exhibitors in town included P. Boumansour<br />
of the Royal, Louiseville, and Adrien<br />
Lapierre of the Capitol, Beauharnois . . . Warner<br />
Bros, has set "My Wild Irish Rose" at the<br />
Capitol Easter week . Becomes<br />
Electra," released through RKO, starts<br />
April 12 at His Majesty's . and<br />
Soul" played thi-ee weeks at the Capitol, first<br />
picture to do so since "The Lost Weekend"<br />
in 1945.<br />
Harry Kaufman, eastern division manager<br />
of Cardinal Films, was in Toronto on his way<br />
to visit western branches . Eloi Cormier,<br />
salesman for Peerless Film, returned from<br />
Moncton, where he attended his father's<br />
funeral . . T. J. Gould of Toronto, general<br />
sales manager of MGM, visited the local office.<br />
Asked if she planned to go to Hollywood,<br />
Barbara Ann Scott, Canada's world champion<br />
figure skater, replied, "I like going to the<br />
movies but I don't know about acting in<br />
them" . . . Prints of the Gaumont-British<br />
one reeler on the royal wedding have been<br />
purchased by the Daughters of the Empire<br />
and will be played on the National Film<br />
board circuit throughout the Dominion.<br />
Maurice Chevalier will be presented in eight<br />
performances at the Plateau hall April 14<br />
to 22 . . . The Mount Royal put on a program<br />
featuring the "Sweet Singers of Israel" and a<br />
Yiddish picture, "Kol Nidre," with English<br />
subtitles . . . "Henry V" had a one-day<br />
presentation at the Verdun Palace. Special<br />
arrangements were made for attendance by<br />
students.<br />
Television to Be Speeded<br />
By Change in Electricity<br />
TORONTO—Television here is "just aroimd<br />
the corner," now that the Ontario government<br />
has decided to switch from 25-cycle to<br />
60-cycle power, according to the chief engineer<br />
of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.<br />
First two centers to benefit will be Montreal<br />
and Toronto.<br />
"We welcome the change," he declared. "It<br />
is a boon to us because we have been forced<br />
to buy special equipment for the 25-cycle centers.<br />
With only a small amount of that<br />
equipment manufactured, cost has been high.<br />
We will now buy standard equipment and<br />
thus cut costs. He said the expense of the<br />
changeover will be only minor as most CBC<br />
outlets are already on 60-cycle power.<br />
He did not think conversion of present<br />
standard television sets would be completely<br />
satisfactory. "It would be much better to<br />
buy new television sets," he said.<br />
Write 'Ice' Music Score<br />
Musical score for Film Classics' "Blonde<br />
Ice" will be written by Juan Duval and Victor<br />
Graniodos.<br />
102 BOXOFTICE :: March 20, 1948