22 - Sunacy Decemne: 16 1996 - Nonh Snore News

AFFLUENCE & INFLUENCE _

Demon for punishment

From TV to tourism, Art Jones
has to have a finger in every pie

NEWS photo Mike Wakefleld

ee

taste like you spent the whole day
produced by the North Shore Family Services Society to reaise funds

200 recipes with meals that are
quick and easy to prepare but

in the kitchen. A number of them

are also ‘Heart Smart.”

FAST & FANTASTIC and MORE FAST & FANTASTIC have been
for community social programs. Pick up your copy at the North Shore
Family Services offices in North or West Vancouver or at one of
these locations:

¢ Eaton's
Park Royal

e Baron Books
Lonsdale Quay Market

« Coles Books
Park Royal North
Capilano Mall

¢ Smith Bookstore
Park Royal South

© Pot Pourri
Lynn Valley Malt

* Vaientine’s For Hair
2172 Marine Dr., W. Van.

° McNews
1460 Lonsdale

 Queensdale Gallery
129 W. Espianade

® Tools & Techniques
250-16th Street

¢ Carol's for Fine Gifts
Park Royal North

« Amber Books
3775 Marine Drive, W. Van

© Reader's Retreat
Lynn Valley Mall

* Save-On-Foods
North Shore

IF ART Jones could choose
one theme to describe his
career, it would be being in
the right place at the wrong
time.

By Evelyn Jacob
News Reporter

For instance, back when private
TY broadcasting was still a new
concept, Jones, then an indepen-
dent film producer, beat 13 appli-
cants to win a licence to operate
CHAN-TV (now BCTV), follow-
ing a government decision to open
up the airwaves and allow an
alternative to the CBC.

A coup for those days to be
sure, but getting a new station up
and running cost plenty both in
time and money. After two years
as president, Jones packed it in.

Then in the °60s came a stint as
studio and production manager
for the old Panorama Studios in
West) Vancouver, which at the
time was Vancouver's only film
studio.

Those were the days when you
had to fight to get American pro-
ducers interested in B.C., and
Jones kept up the fight for four
years. But it wasn't enough to
keep the studio in the black.

‘In those days financiers
thought you were out of your
mind to do something like that,"*

us

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NAME; Art Jones

BORN: Vancouver

EDUCATIGN: UBC graduate
OCCUPATION: $ Private market-
ing and promotions consultant,
Art Jones and Associates
RESIDENCE: West Vancouver
FAMILY: Married to Mary; three
children, two grandchildren, two
**pranddogs”’

HOBBIES: Loves to ‘‘putter,"*
golf and work in his tool shop

laughs Jones, ‘‘l just figured,
once again, that I was in some-
thing too early.”’

But his early pursuits illustrate
that Jones was truly ahead of his
time.

With one hand gripped tightly
on a cellular phone (‘‘l decided to
join the 20th century,’’ he jokes),
Jones is one of those guys who
love to digress, and he enjoys a
good laugh after each
reminiscence.

Like, for instance, the time he
and Pierre Berton flew into the
Headless Valley (as the Nahanni
Valley inthe Mackenzie District of
the Northwest Territories was
called at the time) in a 1929 vin-
tage Junkers W34 ski plane.

The year was 1947. Stories had
been circulating that the bodies of
prospectors in search of a lost
mine had been found decapitated.

90 AXXES
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sunroof

985-9311

Jones, a brash young camera-
man, and fellow newspaperman
Berton were assigned to check out
the story by Hal Straight, the late
Vancouver Sun editor.

“We went in in the middle of
winter,” Jones recalls, ‘tand we
were lucky: we were in the banana
belt — it only hit minus 72.""

The story was carried by over
100 newspapers across North
America and won an International
News Service award for journal-
istic enterprise.

Almost 35 years to the day
later, Jones appeared as a mystery
guest on an episode of Front Page
Challenge and proceeded to stump
the panel, including Berton.

In 1948, Jones and
photographer Ray Munro decided
to go into business for themselves.
They formed their own commer-
cial photography company, Ar-
tray, before switching from stills
to motion pictures.

As a film producer he always
managed to keep a finger in the
pie — even during 30 years of
involvement with B.C.’s tourism
industry.

In 1984, he was elected presi-
dent of the Greater Vancouver
Convention and Visitors Bureau, a

See TV page 23

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We entecAinnetr |

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