Glittering Premiere at U.T. Opens 'A Touch' Tonight

Two years of production and more troubles than Panline had perils end tonight in a blaze of light for Ivy Films, the College's once-struggling movie club.

A world premiere, replete with celebrities, floodlights, and engraved invitations will turn Massachusetts Avenue into Broadway at 11 p.m. The occasion is the first showing of "A Touch of the Times," student-written and produced flick. The University Theater will play host.

The film is, technically, a "flick" as it doesn't have any dialogue. Produced without any sound track--mainly because Ivy had no sound equipment in its early, struggling days--the film has, however, recently acquired a running musical accompaniment.

Tonight's celebrities at the much-publicized premiere include ex-Governor Robert F. Bradford '23, John Mason Brown '23, critic Brock Pemberton, and professor John H. Finley, Jr. '25, master of Eliot House.

In honor of the showing, Finley will stage a pre-premiere reception at Eliot House in conjunction with the board of directors of Ivy Films Research, Inc., the legal name of the film club.

World-Wide Distribution Set

When Ivy bills tonight's presentation as a World Premiere, it means just that. After several false starts in arranging distribution rights, the club has finally come up with an arrangement that will insure world distribution for "A Touch." Olio Video Productions of New York has signed and sealed a contract with the organization that promises both amateur and professional distribution.

The way things now stand, "A Touch" is scheduled for a nation-wide tour some time in the near future. Its one-night stand in Cambridge, however, may turn out to be its only Boston showing. This fact, coupled with its timely premiere on the eve of a football weekend, has probably accounted for the sell-out anticipated by members of the club.

Lauriston Ward, Jr. '49, president of Ivy, is naturally very happy over the way things are shaping up. In addition to publicity that "A Touch of the Times" is gleaning for his organization, the money it is making, and the jobs it has created for its producers, the film is also stirring up interest in the student body.