Boxoffice-May.03.1952

. . The
Only Two Pictures
Rejected in Ontario
TORONTO—The annual report of Chairman
O. J. Silverthorne of the Ontario censorship
and theatre inspection branch for the
fiscal period ending March 31 showed that
461 features produced in the United States
had been examined, of which 404 had been
passed in their entirety while two releases
had been rejected.
British features to the number of 61 were
examined, of which 48 were approved without
change. During the year, 34 foreignlanguage
features were examined and 21 were
approved in their entirety.
The report said that the two rejected features
were produced by U.S. companies not
identified with the Motion Picture A.ss'n of
America. Only 36 deletions had been made
in the product from British studios.
During the year 25,951 pieces of advertising
were censored, compared with 38,009 in
the previous fiscal period. The number of
pieces rejected totaled 314. 30 of which later
were passed after revision.
Silverthorne said that only two new theatres
were completed in the last 12-month
period but a considerable number of older
theatres were remodeled.
Due to the work of inspectors and the cooperation
of owners in safety measures, Ontario
had been entirely free of theatre disasters.
Firefighters Program
Held at Edmonton
EDMONTON—Roly Keil of the FPC Strand
here has received many bouquets for a special
Firefighters show he staged for kids
during the Easter school recess.
Firefighters is a weekly radio show sponsored
by a real estate firm and aimed at
children in the 6-14 bracket. It seeks to
promote fire safety In the home and has
the approval of the city fire department and
provincial safety officials. A city fire marshal
is chief of the group and speaks during the
half-hour radio program to members of the
Firefighters, all of whom are issued cards
and who pass written tests for various promotions
in rank.
Manager Keil staged his show in the morning
and about 80 Firefighters paid a dime
and .showed membership cards as admission.
The sponsor picked up the bill for the balance
on admissions. The show was "Rookie
Firemen," with cartoons and extras, and
Fire Marshal Hugh MacKay spoke.
A fire drill was staged and the house was
emptied in one minute, 48 seconds.
"It was the first time an audience ever
took part in fire drill here," says Manager
Keil. "The kids were wonderful. They were
told how to get out, and there wasn't a hitch.
Even the balcony was emptied without disorder.
Stars at Toronto LaSalle
TORONTO—The LaSalle in central Toronto
blossomed forth with a three-day combination
show consisting of "Catskill Honeymoon,"
the Yiddish musical film produced by
Marty Cohen, and the personal appearance
of two stars, Lillian Lux and Paul Burstein.
"Catskill Honeymoon" recently had its Canadian
premiere of one week at the swanky
Royal Alexandria as a roadshow.
FPC Views Ottawa Ban
On TV Plans as Unfair
O TTAWA
A number of changes have been made in
20th Century Theatres' personnel in the
Ottawa district following the reopening of
three drive-ins, one of which, the Aladdin,
has been taken over by the Nat Taylor circuit.
Jack Marion, who came here from Toronto
several months ago, has been placed
in charge of the Aladdin. Bill Curley has
become manager of the Britannia, and ha.s
been succeeded at the Nelson, a standard theatre,
by Kenneth Down. William Stepanischen
has gone from the Rideau, where he
was assistant manager, to the Cornwall
Drive-In, and Ray Nadeau has been appointed
a.ssistant to Don Watts at the Rideau.
Casey Swedlove has continued with the Foto-
Nite stunt at the Ottawa Linden although
the police decided to file a charge of conducting
a lottery a couple of weeks ago.
Foto-Nite is also being conducted at the
Francais, where owner Bob Maynard presented
a $120 award to Andre Levis of Hull
as the winner last week.
Manager Ernie Warren has already reaped
three big weeks at the Elgin with "With a
Song in My Heart," and the end is not in
The Odeon had a night of music
sight . . .
April 24. The Ottawa Choral Union presented
"The Songs of Hiawatha," the concert
replacing the evening performances of "Room
for One More," which was in its second week.
The Famous Players Cartier in Hull was
the scene of a labor-union meeting Sunday
morning (27), when the many members of
the International Brotherhood of Pulp and
Paper Workers gathered to hear reports on
contract negotiations. The union represents
1.800 mill employes in Hull . spring
series of weekly Curtain at 8:30 performances
is now in full swing at the FPC Capitol in
Peterboro, the attraction for the reservedseat
presentation April 23 being "Bitter Rice."
An estimated 2,100,000 Canadian theatregoers
have already seen "Royal Journey," the
feature produced by National Film Board.
Production cost of the picture, up to the first
print, was $88,000. There is no data yet on
the revenue from Canadian theatre bookings.
Drop Plans for Theatre
When Site Deal Fails
EDMONTON, ALTA.—Failure to
secure his
selected site has forced Walter Kostiuk of
Edmonton to abondon plans to build a $150,-
000 theatre in the west-central part of the
city.
Kostiuk had selected a site near 118 avenue
and 124 street near a new suburban development
in the heart of a new apartment district.
He had engaged a prominent architect
to prepare sketches. After several months
of unsuccessful negotiation with city land officials,
the project was called off.
Winton Hoch will photograph "Salome—the
Dance of the Seven Veils" for Columbia.
I( )l(i INTO President J. J. FllZKibbons anluMiiiri
(I ill the 32nd annual meeting of Famou.s
Players Canadian Corp. here last week
that the company's current business was
ahead of that of a year ago.
Famous Players has the best television facilities
available at Its disposal but Is not
permitted to make u.se of the equipment by
the Canadian government, he pointed out.
The policy taken by the government on television
was de.scribed as unfair and unreasonable
because it will set up a business in competition
with FPC, he a.s.serted.
The FPC president expressed confidence in
the future of the motion picture busine.ss. telling
the meeting of shareholders that good
pictures continued to draw record crowds in
Canadian areas which had television.
In an interview later, Fitzgibbons declared.
"We want to get into the TV business as a
natural area of expansion for us but Ottawa
does not want us to go in yet."
He expressed resentment over payment of
taxes to a government that took the theatres'
money to go into competition with the theatres.
The government does not plan to consider
i.ssuing a permit for privately operated TV
until three years after a national system is
established.
"In the meantime," Fitzgibbons said, "the
government will use huge amounts of the taxpayers'
money to prevent private enterpri.se
going ahead with its know-how and finances."
Fitzgibbons felt that the government should
concentrate on cultural or informative programs
but, a private TV service would provide
a much greater choice of programs, and
quicker.
The Famous Players' chief referred to the
company's relationship with Paramount Pictures
Corp. which is interested in Allan B.
DuMont Laboratories and International Telemeter
Corp. which have developed theatre
and home-subscribed television svstems.
Toronto Theatres
Mark CFL Anniversary
TORONTO—To mark the second anniversary
of the Canadian Children's Film
Library operations, a special juvenile
matinee day was conducted in Toronto
last Saturday (26), with 41 theatres participating
in the showing of library programs.
This was the largest number of
neighborhood houses in a cooperative
move in support of the Canadian committee.
Total of 130 films, mostly features, are
now available for the library showings.
Typical bookings included "Penrod and
Sam" at the Donlands, "Stablemates" at
the Birchcliff, "Black Beauty" at the
Hollywood, "It Happened in Brooklyn" at
the Kent, "Young Tom Edison" at the
Alhambra, "Circus Boy" at the Parkdale,
and "Bush Christmas," Danforth.
A Swedish feature. "Master Detective
Blonquist." with English narration, was
given a library matinee at the Humber.
BOXOFFICE May 3, 1952 103