Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Canadian anthem on 35mm

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Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 03-14-2012, 01:41 AM:

Good day to our friends in the Great White North. Down here in the States it is not unusual (or so it used to be, anyway) to show our national anthem at the start of the evenings program. I figure that was just as typical in Canadian theatres only with O Canada or God Save The Queen. Where can I find some old trailers of these two anthems? Can you Canucks share with us Yanks the history behind when GSTQ would have been supplanted by O Canada? Thanks!

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 03-14-2012, 03:04 AM:

It might be a difficult find on 35, if it even existed.

This does exist on 16 though. I have a copy but it's been through hell and back, years of abuse via a B&H autoloader. O Canada

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 03-14-2012, 03:51 AM:

Thank you for sharing that link, Ron. That is a good version! The copy with the YouTube post says it was a TV sign-off as well as run theatrically ...so I suspect there were some 35mm versions floating around.

Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 03-14-2012, 07:21 AM:

I have two versions of O'Canada on 35mm. One is boring just shots of the parliment buildings. The other is from around 76' ends with a freeze frame of a kid white water rafting. Also have a colour nitrate US anthem. Another odd things I have is a end tag that you would put at the end of ever show, its a picture of the Queen with red curtains.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 03-14-2012, 01:21 PM:

I would love to get copies of the two National Anthem trailers I ran in the Air Force back in '82-'84. The older one was a bunch of stills including a laughable one of a little boy in a flower costume (he looked real happy too...not!)

The newer one featured the Air Force Thunderbirds and was in Dolby Stereo.

Anyone have these in 35mm or found them online yet?

Posted by Mike Rivest (Member # 5500) on 03-14-2012, 05:03 PM:

Some footage of that 1979 O Canada film have been lifted from
"La mémoire des anges" http://www.nfb.ca/film/memoire_des_anges_La/related_films
and
http://www.nfb.ca/film/memories_of_angels/

0:45 is the Montreal Forum, now an AMC theatre. I can tell by the clock above the center ice.

Posted by Brent Francis (Member # 5008) on 03-14-2012, 06:58 PM:

Nobody runs the national anthem up here, in Toronto or Ottawa at least. If I recall right someone complained. I remember going to a screening back in the 70's - when the anthem came on and everyone stood,a french-speaking gentleman made a big deal about NOT standing. (Around the same time there was a hockey game in Quebec and when someone wouldn't stand, a security guard actually yanked him up).

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 03-14-2012, 07:53 PM:

Tony: I seem to recall the national anthem with the Thunderbirds pictured, as a station sign-off in the late 80s or early 90s. Other than assuming it was released by the USAF, I have no clue where a copy is. It was a good one, visuals and all.

How about "God Save the Queen." Is that still played up in Canada...on TV or in theatres? What about Australia or others countries in the Commonwealth?

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-14-2012, 08:37 PM:

Tony-I worked at a military theater for about two years in
the mid 1970's.

As you know, it was SOP to run the anthem before every show
while everyone stood up.

While cleaning up, I found an entire stash of 35mm anthems
covering a period of almost 20 years or more in a room in
back of the screen at the theater, so I started using those
anthem prints too, in addition to the 'new' one I had.

"The guys" appreciated the fact that I showed a random anthem
before every show, instead of the same one every night.

My favorite one was a 'sing along"'version, which used the
old "bouncing ball" over the words at the bottom of the
screen. The only problem was that there was an entire phrase
missing (like, "the rocket's red glare") due to a splice in
the film. Some of the more hard-core guys would actually sing
along out loud to the bouncing ball, but the spliced-out
phrase would throw them all off. Although it was slightly
irreverent, it was fun to hear them all get thrown off tempo. [evil]

My final night there, I spliced ALL the anthems together. It
made up almost a full 2000ft reel, and put it on before the
show. When the first anthem faded out, everyone started to
sit down, but then the 2nd anthem came on, and everyone had
to stand up again. This repeated through two more anthems
before some people started turning around and giving me
dirty looks up in the booth.

Some Lt. Colonel finially marched upstairs and stormed the
booth to see what was going on. He didn't think it was as
amusing as I did.

The company commander heard about it and called me into his
office the next day. Fortunately, he had a bit of a sense of
humor and he actually thought the prank was harmless fun. He
admitted that he only called me into his office to give the
"appearance of repremand" and told me 'never to do it again',
- - a moot point since I did it on my final night at work
and I was being discharged in about a week anyway.
(and he knew that)

I wish I'd kept that reel. It had some real "classic" anthem
versions on there. Wartime versions with tanks & guns, and
peace-time versions with patriotic postcard shots of Washington
DC & Mt Rushmore, etc. There was one from the late 1960's that
was all NASA stock footage from the space program, and ended
with that famous shot of an astronaut saluting the flag he had
just planted on surface of the moon. Whatta classic!

You used to be able to get 35mm anthems through your local
army recuiting office, but I doubt they do that anymore.

I think I have a coulple here from the late 70's but I'd
have to search for them. I've got a great "war bonds" reel
from the late 1940's with Kate Smith singing "God Bless
America" that I used to occasionally run on July 4 or
Memorial Day, when I did change-over shows, but I can't
run it on the(damned~!) platters. I hate those things!

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 03-14-2012, 09:25 PM:

quote: Justin West
How about "God Save the Queen." Is that still played up in Canada...on TV or in theatres? What about Australia or others countries in the Commonwealth?

The only regular playing of the national anthem (on broadcast media) in the UK is at 01:00 when BBC radio 4 closes for the night (switches to a feed from the BBC World Service). This follows an extended version of the Shipping Forecast (and a programme trail if time permits, otherwise just the sign off from the continuity announcer).

Cinemas stopped showing it many years ago. I wonder if Jack Roe still have any 35mm copies at the back of a cupboard somewhere?

Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 03-15-2012, 05:28 AM:

I don't ever remember God Save the Queen being played in Canada. O'Canada yes until the early to mid 80's. We still play it sometimes in front of classic Canadian films. At some point the government stopped giving the anthem to theatres, so as the trailer got beat up and damaged the cinemas stopped playing it. I do remember as a kid seeing everyone stand up for it and take off their hats.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-15-2012, 08:09 AM:

As far as I know, the AAFES theatres always open with the national anthem. I have worked at one a few times, and always just ran whatever anthem film was in the booth. The latest one that I have seen was a kinescope of a video that was probably made in the 1990s (it had lots of Desert Storm footage).

Does anyone live in a market where TV stations still sign on in the morning and sign off at night? I have distinct memories of being a kid in the 1980s when I would get up early to watch the TV stations sign on (usually at around 6:00 or 6:30am). A typical sign-on at the time consisted of a test pattern (usually with tone), a station ID card with an announcer reading off the call letters and transmitter location, the national anthem (one of several versions), and possibly a PSA or two. For the most part, this ended in the late 1980s, when most stations began broadcasting 24/7.

Some examples:

WGBH sign-on
WLVI sign-on (1/2)
WLVI sign-on (2/2)

Did/do Canadian stations sign on in a similar way?

Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 03-15-2012, 01:42 PM:

Hey Scott we still have them.

Some stations still do O Canada when they sign off or start up.

Here is a sign off with anthem from TVO (TVOntario)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j60v8GBA0ic

and CBC has many

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-DW7BshmZE&feature=related

and here is a sign off with God Save the Queen (CJOHTV)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtXs7WHm4I&feature=related

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-15-2012, 04:54 PM:

Although the Kuhio Theatre in Honolulu was equipped for 70mm and a Road Show venue, PATTON played there in 35m as a general release. Although it was a 35mm print, it had a special opening as well as the usual intermission with entr'acte and exit music. Before the movie started, I had noticed an American flag on a stand on the left hand side of the screen and the Hawaii state flag on the right. When it was show time, the house light dimmed and a man's voice on the soundtrack announced "Ladies & Gentlemen, Our national anthem' and The Star Spangled Banner played against a blank screen and we all got up and stood. As soon as the anthem was over, the movie opened with the American flag filling the entire width of the Kuhio's huge screen and George C. Scott as General Patton delivering his famous "shoveling shit in Louisiana" speech. I thought that was a very stirring opening and it made me very proud to be an American.

BTW, 16 DAYS OF GLORY, the 1986 documentary film by Bud Greenspan about the 1984 Olympic Games at Los Angles concluded with Placido Domingo singing Giuseppe Verdi's Hymn of The Nations' and it featured the Canadian national anthem as well as Great Britain, France, Japan, Italy and concluded with a very stirring rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. I have it on laserdisc and watched it many times and I always get goose pimples every time I watch that segment of the film.

-Claude

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-16-2012, 10:59 AM:

The version of the Oh Canada shown in theatres came from the National Film Board of Canada and was made u pof footage from a 1967 film Helicopter Canada

Posted by Brent Francis (Member # 5008) on 03-16-2012, 05:01 PM:

I remember "God Save The Queen" on CJOH... I also remember people thought the owner was a nut for still running it!

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 03-18-2012, 11:50 PM:

Justin: Yep that T-Birds Anthem was a good one. I would not be surprised if AAFES released it to the "civilian" world..or maybe it was made for TV stations and they bought it for use in their theatres.

Jim: Great practical joke...luckily you had a good commander who understood the spirit of the gag. I was stationed at Davis-Monthan where the numbered Air Force commander was located (a two-star General). The General was a huge movie buff, and when he saw one of my pre-show performances he was so impressed he came into the booth after the show to meet me. After that he and I became good friends in as far as a General and enlisted man could be friends. He was a great officer and a tough but fair commander.

If you can spare one of those late 70's anthems I would pay you for a copy. PM me. (Odds are that one of them is the one I described because I was there in 1982).

One of our "projectionists" (he was marginal at best, frequently started out of frame and missed changeovers with regularity) got fired because the General got tired of him airing the "two-pop" prior to the Anthem. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 03-20-2012, 07:22 AM:

Well thank you for the comments or the input Especially from our canadian friends. In summary it appears that up in canada The monarchy is not a priority but neither is the canadian anthem? Do drive in theaters still play either of those?

Posted by Brent Francis (Member # 5008) on 03-23-2012, 09:43 PM:

There's just a lot of... politics involved in playing our Nstional Anthem. (Notice I'm being discreet?)

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 03-26-2012, 02:36 PM:

I saw an old (dirty scratched and oily) 35mm "O Canada" reel recently, being discarded at an ancient place going digital. I did not save it.
The political situation is not too complex... the "old" words referred to "sons" which is, of course, sexist... so the words were changed. I doubt if a version with the "new" words exists on film.
There were laws, regulations, or maybe just a custom that required the anthem be played before a show - at least before the first show of the day IIRC. When I started, the how opened with the 35mm anthem or an audio version on tape, then the trailer reel, then the feature. This got pretty intense running 70mm since the anthem/trailers were 35 and that machine had to be converted to 70mm during the first feature reel.
That rule or whatever went away decades ago.