Canadian Bacon - History of Canadian Filmmaking (Part Two)

In the words of Douglas Addams: “In the beginning, Famous Players Canada was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”

Enter Paramount, and The Exhibition Wars

After the retirement of Schuberg, Famous Players quickly became one of the largest theatre chains in Canada, controlling 207 theatres by 1920, the year of the company’s initial arrival. The Famous Players chain began with 13 theatres in Ontario and British Columbia, but the company quickly expanded its holdings to 100 by the end of 1926. Famous Players became the Acclaimed Players of the exhibition industry, albeit in a hostile way. The theatre chain quickly began to squeeze independents out of the market, starting with The Allens.

In 1918, the Allens had established themselves as the biggest chain in Canada, with lucrative cozy deals with Goldwyn and Paramount. Adolph Zukor, one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures, came knocking in 1919 and demanded a partnership, but the Allens refused. Zukor started whispering to Paramount. What followed was Paramount's suspiciously later that year: it began pulling out of its exclusivity deal with Allen Theatres Enterprises and began establishing its own line of theatres. Sensing that they might lose control of the Canadian economy, Paramount moved quickly to establish Famous Players Canadian Corporation, composed of prominent Canadian financiers and funded with Canadian capital, but controlled by Adolph Zukor's Paramount, with Canadian box-office receipts redistributed to New York to support American productions.

By 1923, Zukor had taken over the world, and the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission would agree, determining that the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation possessed and exercised a dominating control over the motion-picture industry and was the largest theater owner in the world. The Allan Brothers sought to keep their business afloat, but Allen Theatres Enterprises declared bankruptcy in 1924.

By 1930, Adolph Zuckor was a god. He would acquire direct control of The Famous Players Canada Corporation (FPCC), which owned 33% of all Canadian theaters. This was a powerful control that Zukor relished to his own benefit, especially when it came to deflecting British Quota Laws.

In 1931, Attorney General R.H. Pooley presented new British quota bill proposals to the federal government, which were seen as well-planned defensive measures against paramount. However, there was a knock at his door, and after a cozy meeting with Famous Players representatives. He withdrew the bill four days later, citing “reasons.”

The Government of Canada would eventually open an investigation into Famous Players for creating a monopoly in Canada and for using unfair business practices and unethical tactics against its competitors. A report commissioned by the Government of Ottawa stated that the FPCC was detrimental to the public interest and was not acting on behalf of Canadians. The FPCC now owned about 400 of an estimated 18,000 theaters in North America, but command 67% of box-office revenue, and up to 6,000 theaters in the nation were restricted to showing only Paramount products.

An investigation of the American monopoly in Canada’s film sector began in September 1930 under the Federal Combines Investigation Act. The Federal Combines Investigation Act was first enacted in 1923 as a Canadian Act of Parliament that regulated certain anti-competitive corporate practices. It prohibited monopolies, misleading advertising, bid-rigging, price fixing, and other means of limiting competition.

Prime Minister R.B. Bennett appointed Peter White to investigate more than 100 complaints against American film interests in Canada. White’s report concluded that the Famous Players combine was “detrimental to the Public Interest.” Provinces, including Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C., would also take FPCC to court for violating this act.

During the White investigation into a company in the Canadian film Industry, Evidence surfaced of hush money, bribes, and whisper campaigns. "Col. Cooper testified under cross-examination the Famous Players Hays Association paid $8000 to kill the British quota bill in British Columbia" (telegram Ray Lewis to Mrs. John Cameron, March 12th, 1931). White himself, in his report, stated: "The evidence also established that this lobbying cost Famous Players in the neighborhood of $5000..." The 234-page White Report came out on April 30th, 1931, after an exhaustive investigation.

In 1931, the push to defend British—and sometimes Canadian film production- turned into a war of influence. At the time, Canadian producers received no government support. There were many bankruptcies and business failures. Regular production of Canadian films for Canadian theatres was highly unprofitable due to the monopoly. As much as filmmakers tried to defend their rights in the film industry, there was no support, sway, or power they could use to swing the balance of power in their favour. American exhibitors were permitted to violate the law without any meaningful punishment.

During the case, the Attorney General of Ontario presented its case in a curiously half-hearted manner, and the Canadian Moving Picture Digest, a trade paper, called the trial a travesty of justice. There was ample evidence that Famous Players had tampered with the market, but the best evidence was never used in court.

After a lengthy trial, in 1932, FPCC and other defendants were found not guilty on three counts of “conspiracy and combination.” The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had been active behind the scenes, and on behalf of its sister company, Paramount, and with the help of Colonel John Alexander Cooper, a Canadian media mogul and Chairman of the Motion Picture Distributors and Exhibitors of Canada, created an effective lobbying effort that convinced the government in Toronto to drop the case.

The MPAA

The Motion Picture Patents Association was formed in 1908 by the leading film manufacturers and distributors. The cartel included Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig Polyscope, Lubin Manufacturing, Kalem Company, Star Film Paris, and American Pathé. After pooling their resources, they used their power to control the entire film industry across North America. They flooded the market with white, American English-speaking films. If a Canadian film couldn't turn a profit in favour of the MPAA or meet this criterion, it wasn't shown. This, in turn, significantly delayed the development of the Canadian film industry and filtered specific cultures from media images. The MPAA ensured that box-office returns from films screened in Canada did not contribute to the national film industry, thereby prompting numerous Canadian talents to leave for Hollywood.

The Americans had built the perfect system. Canadians who wanted to work in film before the 1940s had to travel to the United States to seek employment, as tariffs and monopolies prevented them from securing permanent positions in their hometowns. This further depleted Canada’s ability to compete with America. The Canadian film industry was set up to fail, all thanks to the MPAA.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)’s lobbying group was restructured in 1940 and renamed the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA). It continues to represent American and Canadian distribution interests in Canada as the Motion Picture Association of Canada (MPA Canada) and remains an active lobbying organization.

A Heritage Minute With Nat Taylor

Nat Taylor (b.1906) was a Canadian inventor and film producer who, from age 17, was a highly successful local theatre manager who continued his hustle throughout his twenties. But his big breakthrough came in 1934, when he founded 20th Century (Twinex) Theatres in Toronto and partnered with the Famous Players Corporation to expand his reach across the city.

Taylor also produced the industry’s key trade magazine, The Canadian Film Weekly(F.1941), based in the same city. By 1951, it included a yearbook for the Canadian film industry, a Christmas Almanac, advertisements for newly released Canadian films, and round-ups of local and national film events.

With Famous Players, he would build one of the world's first cineplex movie theatres in Ottawa, Ontario, at the Elgin Theatre in 1935. In the same year, he formed the Independent Theatres Association of Ontario. He created one of the first movie theatres in a shopping mall, the dual-screen at Yorkdale Plaza in Toronto, Ontario (which opened in 1964), and one of the first in an office building. This was another dual-screen theatre that opened in 1962 at Place Ville Marie in Montreal, Quebec. All these achievements culminated in Taylor receiving a special Genie Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Canadian Film Industry in 1984.

Taylor is also credited with introducing the practice of selling tickets to different movies from the same box office. This is standard practice today, but it was uncommon in the 1960s, as movie theatres would only play one movie at a time, and people would have to wait for tickets for a different movie to be sold at a different time. By the 1970s, Taylor had founded a new theatre chain with Garth Drabinsky, an energetic young Toronto entertainment lawyerwho was also in charge of distributing The Canadian Film Weekly. This theatre chain was initially named Pan-Canadian Film Distributors but was quickly renamed Cineplex Odeon Cinemas after N.L. Nathanson, who founded Odeon Theatres in 1941, offered Taylor a job.

Drabinsky, who had bigger plans, was in the midst of persuading Taylor to invest C$1 million (US$840,000) to purchase space in the basement of Toronto's Eaton Centre shopping complex. Taylor, preferring to work alone, proposed a partnership in which he would own Cineplex and Nathanson would own Odeon, with the two operating as a single entity. Their first location would be Drabinsky’s proposed 18-theater complex in Toronto’s Eaton Centre. Theaters would primarily begin screening 16mm specialty films, European art films, and Hollywood second-run films.

Cineplex Odeon would work closely with Universal to distribute and co-produce some of its productions, striking a home video deal for most titles released through Universal's MCA Home Video banner. Cineplex Odeon would continue to grow, expanding with an international division, Cineplex Odeon Films International, which distributed films outside North America. Taylor and Cineplex Odeon also produced one of Canada's first horror films, The Mask(1961). It was the first Canadian feature to receive relatively wide distribution in the U.S. since Back to God’s Country in 1919.

Taylor was an anomaly in the film industry, particularly in distribution. Most theater moguls wouldn’t lift a finger for Canadian cinema or particularly care about contributing outside of their business to help support it. To them, it wasn't worth investing time or money in. American movies were the moneymakers, and those had priority.

In the 1960s, Nat Taylor helped lead the new age film movement by advocating that it would be fair for Canadians to produce and screen their films in Canadian theatres. At the same time, the chairman of the National Film Board, Guy Roberge, began assisting an association of Quebec filmmakers, Claude Jutra and Gilles Carle, who had begun lobbying for the same right. He and Taylor collaborated to arrange a meeting with the Board of Governors of the National Film Board to encourage potential policy changes. With Roberge's assistance, they drafted a memo requesting that the Prime Minister support a new agency that could provide loans and invest in Canadian feature films.

This memo recommended the establishment of an inter-departmental Committee on the “Possible Development of a Feature Film Industry in Canada.” A government committee was quietly formed in 1962 and met monthly for two years under Roberge's chairmanship. The Secretary of State, the Honorable Maurice Lamontagne, who was responsible for all the cultural agencies at the time, recommended the services of Jack Firestone, an economist on the staff of the University of Ottawa. Firestone’s job was to thoroughly investigate the economic backgrounds of the Canadian and American film industries, which he began immediately. He eventually produced a two-volume report that significantly influenced the committee's subsequent outcomes. However, the report remains confidential and non-releasable to the general public to this day.

The report presented to the Canadian Ministry in 1966 caused some concern. Griffith Johnson, vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Export Association of America (MPEAA), who was chairing the meeting and one of the most influential members of the group, nearly choked on his coffee. The proposal was simple: let Canadians make films—and show them in their own damn country. The MPAA disagreed, arguing that it would create more competition in an already highly competitive market. The MPAA and the officials under its leadership who presented at the meeting responded negatively to the proposal. The MPAA was still a massive lobby of the Canadian government. A few ministers benefiting from MPAA agreements could sense that this proposal could end some of their present benefits.

The committee's final report to Cabinet included the following paragraph: “The cooperation of Major distribution companies is a necessity for the development of the industry, and Canadian feature films must be given fair and equitable treatment in distribution and exhibition, particularly in Canada. It is, however, difficult to prejudge the attitude that the Major distributors will take toward Canadian productions. This can only be determined after Canadian producers have made several films and established a proven record. …..The Committee recommends, therefore, that, for the present, the Corporation's role in distribution should be to assist Canadian producers in arranging distribution through established companies in Canada and abroad.”

What emerged from the meeting wasn’t a solution, nor was it a counteroffer; it was a counterask replete with compromise, to further benefit American filmmakers. The MPAA's pitch was that Canadians would attempt to place their own films in their own theatres; they owed the MPAA some level of profit security, as there would now be fewer screens showing American movies. They stated that Canadian producers would need to provide additional benefits to enable American firms to establish operations in Canada while maintaining their facilities in Hollywood. Canada would also avoid discriminatory measures against American film producers and distributors, including screen and import quotas, special taxes, and similar restrictions that currently reduce the output and earnings of foreign film producers and distributors in Canada. This counterproposal wasn’t accepted, and negotiations continued regarding how to maintain peace while still creating a system that benefited Canadians.

The Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) /TELEFILM

However, Taylor and Roberge’s lobbying efforts were a partial success. As ugly as those negotiations were, they laid the groundwork for the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) legislation. The CFDC legislation was passed in 1967, passing through the House of Commons and the Senate. This would be a monumental achievement, and CFDC would become the primary government organization overseeing Canada’s audio-visual industry. The CFDC was rebranded in 1984 as Telefilm Canada and was responsible for selecting Canada's annual Academy Awards submission for Best International Feature Film, among other responsibilities.

With an initial annual budget of $10 million, the CFDC, unlike the NFB, was expected to become self-financing. It was conceived as a commercial agency interested in the profitability of the films it supported and their contribution to Canada's cultural life. However, the CFDC was also responsible for securing distribution for its films without government assistance, resulting in the first CFDC-financed films being seen by only a small number of Canadians.

In 1968, the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) opened its doors, and French-language films in Quebec found early traction. With the National Film Board already headquartered in Montreal (and still is today), the ground was fertile for a new wave of homegrown auteurs and talent for the CFDC to harness from the province. The first few years of the CFDC's existence were focused on strengthening the overall production of the Canadian film industry and on effective marketing, promotion, and film distribution, for which it invested a total of $15 million. From a trickle of four or five films a year in the early ‘60s, production surged to more than 20 within five years.

But there was a catch. The theatre chains—the gatekeepers—answered to American distributors and the MPAA. The CFDC's efforts to get Canadian films into Canadian theatres only succeeded if they were de-Canadianized. American distributors did not favor Canadian productions, as noted by the CFDC in its first Annual Report to Parliament. To increase the number of Canadian projects considered for distribution, the CFDC opened an office in New York, where Wolfe Cohen, former head of Warner Brothers International, leveraged his contacts to secure a better platform for Canadian productions in the United States.

Back home, pressure was mounting to establish a quota for Canadian features, mainly from Ontario. A Task Force led by John F. Bassett produced a January 1973 report that supported the CFDC’s mission and proposed a quota system with incentives for theatres that played Ontario-made films to help develop audiences and, in turn, increase revenue for the Ontario film industry. Bassett recognized that problems could occur. For instance, cheap films could be produced for quota purposes and shown at bad times. Which, in turn, won't do much to stimulate interest in Canadian content. But it was a risk he was willing to take.

The CFDC heavily supported Bassett’s proposal, and it cranked out annual reports, loaded with stats and projections, to support Bassett’s findings and to validate its increasing involvement with films, especially for television. Film attendance was slipping, and if Canadians wouldn’t pay to see themselves in theatres, they should be able to see themselves on television. It was an ideal medium for viewing Canadian content when it could not be viewed or promoted elsewhere.

Broadcasting, like film, is critical for promoting, preserving, and developing a nation's social and cultural values. There was a growing public belief that there was too much American broadcasting on television. Canadians were flooded with moods, opinions, taste shifts, reading material, and television, all from another culture that wasn’t theirs. Television became the most profitable medium for performers, writers, musicians, and Anglophone film directors.

When the CFDC’s films were correctly distributed, they succeeded considerably at the box office. Between 1975 and 1976, 20 films were released in Canada with CFDC support, 11 in English and nine in French. The most successful films from this period were Lies My Father Told Me(1975), $600,000; Recommendation For Mercy(1975), $600,000; Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time(1975), $400,000; and Shivers (formerly The Parasite Murders)(1975), $259,000.