Boxoffice-Febuary.28.1953

—
—
. . Two
and
Courl Fight Conlinues
Over Montreal Roxy
MONTREAL—With numerous setbacks in
his courtroom fight to keep a roof over his
Roxy Theatre, Paul Cardinal, proprietor, arrived
back in the old courthouse February 19
with a new tactical move. Meanwhile, the
show goes on with the city of Montreal
demolishers drawing perilously near.
The battle concerns a city move to dislodge
the theatre proprietor from premises at St.
Lawrence boulevard and Dorchester street.
The land is required by the city and has
been expropriated in connection with its
Dorchester street widening project.
Most proprietors and tenants in the
affected area have moved out and the city
has put in demolition crews to tear down
buildings and prepare the ground for paving.
But the theatre owner sat tight.
Last week Justice Andre Demers of the
superior court ordered the Montreal sheriff
to get rid of the theatre owner forthwith.
Before he got around to it, Cardinal shot
back with a request to an appeal court judge
for permission to appeal from the ruling.
The request was refused and that pai'ticular
route to the higher court was blocked.
But Cardinal tried again. He filed a new
appeal, this time directly to the five-judge
bench of that court, a type of appeal permitted
in certain kinds of cases. Now, the
next move seems to be up to the city. To
meet the fresh onslaught it may retort with
a petition to set aside the new appeal and
have it dealt with without delay by the
court of appeals, now in session. Robert
Turgeon is acting for the theatre owner.
'Sound Barrier' Paces
Vancouver First Runs
VANCOUVER—Business was up at most
first run situations, with a stronger lineup
of films and milder weather. "Breaking the
Sound Barrier" did sma.sh business at the
Orpheum and "Thunder in the East" at
Strand also had top business.
Coprtol— Stop, You'e Kilfing Me (WB) Fair
Cinema Paulo Col), The Happy Time (Col). . . .Good
Orpheum Breaking the Sound Borrier (IFD) Excellent
Plaza Girls in the Night (U-l) Good
Strand—Thunder in the East (Para) .... Very good
Studio— Romeo ond Juliet (MGM), reissue Fair
Vogue—Ruby Gentry i:20th-Fox)
Good
Sam Pinanski Pioneers
Boston Tri-Dimension
From New England Edition
Boston—Another "first" in the motion
picture industry was credited to Samuel
PinaiLski, president of .American Theatres
Corp., when he presented three-dimension
pictures at his Pil^m Theatre
January 15.
In 1927 he brought the first talking picture,
"The Jazz Singer," to Boston for
his Modern Theatre, now the Ma>-flower.
Two years ago he equipped his Pilgrim
Theatre with large screen television, the
first in Boston. Now with the Tri-Opticon
three-dimensional method he can
be referred to as "first in sound, first in
theatre television and first in third dimension,"
MONTRE A L
Cpwial theatres for the showing of films suitable
for children, who have been banned
from Quebec cinemas for several years, due
to the tragic Laurier Palace fire, were recommended
by a parent writing to the Montreal
Star. The letter deplores the exclusion of
juveniles from viewing such typical children's
fare as animated cartoons. He suggests that
the provincial government appoint a special
board to classify all pictures suitable for children
and designate the theatres at which they
may be shown.
The National Film Board will construct new
headquarters at suburban St. Laui-ent at an
estimated cost ol approximately $5,225,000,
Resources Minister R. H. Winters announced.
The various offices in Ottawa will be removed
to Montreal within two years . Montreal
first nights, a week apart, which attracted
unusual public interest, were the premieres of
"I Confess" at the Palace and "Tit-Coq" at
the St. Denis. The former was filmed in
Quebec, while the latter, a film version of
the famous melodrama by Gratien Gelinas, is
a Montreal production.
Eastern Theatres has declared its regular
annual dividend of $1.50 a share, payable February
27 to shareholders of record February
Montreal motion picture folk were
24 . . .
distressed to learn of the death a few days
ago of Thomas Cleary, father of Tommy
Cleary, popular public relations manager of
Consolidated Theatres.
Paul Dupuis, French-Canadian star of the
J. Arthur Rank film, "Johnny Frenchman,"
one of the big hits of London, is back in his
homeland, appearing on the stage at the Gesu
in the leading role in Agatha Christie's mystery
thriller, "Ten Little Indians" . . . W.
Arthur Irwin, head of the National Film
Board, will be the next Canadian high commissioner
to Australia, replacing C. Eraser
Elliott. Irvin was editor of MacLean's magazine,
and left that post three years ago to
reorganize the National Film Board.
Harold Giles, general theatres supervi.sor of
United Anni.sement, and wife are holidaying at
Fort Lauderdale, Pla. ... J. Alphonse Ouimet,
general manager of Canadian Broadcasting
Corp., addressed the McGill Alumnae society
on "Television and Its Impact on Our Way of
Life."
Impetus will be given to the coming annual
Canadian Red Cross society campaign for
funds by means of a 90-foot trailer which will
be attached to all newsreels showing in theatres
during the course of the drive. The
trailer was produced and processed at the
studio and laboratory here of A.ssociated
Screen News in both English and Fi-ench. Red
Cro.ss offiicals are confident this trailer will
be a decided factor in helping them to
achieve their goal of $5,310,600, to finance
their operations during the coming year.
Shift in Poster Firms
TORONTO—Two Changes have taken place
in the poster and sign field here. Theatre
Poster Service, 250 Victoria St., headed by
M. L. Zweigman, has taken over the Johnny
Poole Sign Service at the same address. H. A.
Harvey of Pictorial Displays announced removal
of this business from 80 George St. to
700 Queen St. East. These premises held
the former Teck Theatre, long closed.
T. J. Courtney. Halifax,
Dies at Hockey Game
HALIFAX- -Thomas J. Courtney, manager
of the Casino Theatre for many years, died
as a result of a heart attack at a hockey
game.
Born at Portsmouth. England, 53 years ago,
he came to Halifax at the age of 8 with his
mother. He started at the Casino in 1927
under the late R. J. Macadam, then ownermanager,
and moved up to manager. In 1945,
he was named supervisor in the maritimes
for the Odeon chain. Two years later, he became
information director for Nova Scotia,
and held this post at his death.
He was an amateur photographer and took
many scenic films of Nova Scotia. He was
active in the annual Rotary Ice Cycles show.
Surviving are his wife, his mother, one
brother, one stepbrother and one sister. Burial
was in Holy Cross cemetery after requiem
mass at St. Thomas Aquinas church. Mrs.
Courtney was the former Pearl Logan of
Yarmouth. A number of Courtney's photographic
shorts won prizes and were screened
at the Casino and other Nova Scotia theatres,
including "Riches of tlie Sea," depicting lobstering
in Nova Scotia: "Happy Valley,"
"Gateway to the World" and "Spring Fever."
OTTAWA
rjespite an unseasonable drizzle, 1,200 members
of Ottawa's juvenile school safety patrols
paraded under pohce escort to the Rideau
and Imperial, units of 20th Century Theatres
supervised by Ernie Warren, Saturday
morning (21), for screenings of "The Greatest
Show on Earth" . . . Manager Jim Chalmers
of the Ottawa Odeon has been active as an
organizer in the National European Flood
Relief Fund, Inc., support of which has been
encouraged by the Canadian Odeon circuit.
Local exhibitors recall that Len Bishop introduced
a form of 3-D film presentation
some 25 years ago when he was manager of
the Regent. He is the manager now of
Toronto Shea's where Natural Vision films
will be introduced in April. Ottawa is not
mentioned as one of the ten places where
Famous Players will introduce 3-D pictures,
however, the announced list includes Hamilton,
London, Windsor and Montreal (where
TV competition is strong i Halifax, Winnipeg,
Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, as
well as Toronto.
Hy Bessin of the Glebe Theatre offered the
second in tlie series of special stage attractions
when the Deep River Boys appeared
last w'eek. The screen feature was "Sunny
Side of the Street." Pi-ices were raised to
Manager T. R. Tubman held "The
$1 . . .
Stooge" at the Ottawa Capitol, while Fred
Leavens of the Elmdale also had a holdover
in the first West End run of "Son of
Paleface."
Graeme Fraser of Crawley Films distributed
handsome multicolored folders
as birthday
cards for the company's 15th anniversary.
The local studio has turned out 382
The latest in added stage
major films . . .
features at Bob Maynard's Francais was
Dr. Howard Klein, hynpotist. Owner W.
Ferrah of the Strand in Ottawa south had a
good turnout of juveniles last Saturday (21).
All youngsters received free ice cream if they
got there before 2 p.m.
94 BOXOmCE :: February 28, 1953