Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 20, 1943)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 20, 1943
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 20, 1943)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, and Global Cinema
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Picture Pioneers, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Film Weekly

  • Editor: Hye Bossin (1942-64)
  • Renamed Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly (1965-69, editor: Stan Helleur)
  • Renamed Candian Film Weekly(1970, editor: Ed Hocura)

Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70) was edited by Hye Bossin and published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., wholly owned by leading exhibitor, Nat Taylor. In the late 1930s, Taylor was head of the Independent Theatre Association and his Toronto-based chain, Twinex-Century (Twentieth Century), was the largest independent circuit in the country. In 1941, however, he negotiated for chain affiliation with upstart Canadian Odeon before leveraging a better deal and greater booking control with nationally-dominant Famous Players Canada, Ltd. No longer independent, he took ownership of the Independent Theatre Association’s semi-monthly magazine, The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (1940-41), installed Hye Bossin as editor, and laid plans to relaunch in January 1942 under a new name, Canadian Film Weekly. This enduring key publication was no longer solely focused on independent exhibitors but instead covered the entire industry on a national scale–exhibition, distribution and production–with some attention given to studio news from New York and Hollywood.

Bossin was a vibrant writer with a canny way with words, admired in the industry in the United States as well as Canada. He was one of a large family who lived above their father’s secondhand shop in the Jewish “ward” downtown in Toronto. His older brother was a bookie with ties to the underground; his younger brother was a famous journalist, protégé of Walter Winchell, and Hollywood screenwriter. In contrast, Hye spent nearly two decades learning the publishing trade in a printers’ shop before trying a stint as a Hollywood publicist, then writing a column for the Toronto Star Weekly before taking Taylor’s offer to edit the Film Weekly. Bossin was central to the creation of the Canadian Film Archive, the Canadian Film Awards, and he wrote some of the first histories of early cinema in Canada, published in the first volumes of the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book (1951-70).

In 1957, the Film Weekly had incorporated the rival Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57), and began dating its start to that paper’s earlier start as the Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18). Subsequent variants of the Canadian Film Weekly and its yearbooks always claimed their roots all the way back to 1915 and the origins of the film industry trade press in Canada. After Bossin died in 1964, the Weekly’s new editor, Stan Helleur, renamed the magazine Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly, scaling back the pace of publishing but adding a purview for television and broadcasting. The annual was renamed similarly, its subtitle amended to “Year Book of the Canadian Entertainment Industry.” An attempted renewal to weekly format in 1970, edited by Ed Hocura, was short-lived and Nat Taylor decided instead to relaunch under an entirely new title, Canadian Film Digest (1971-77) and Canadian Film Digest Yearbook (1971-86).

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Bossin, Hye. “Canada and the Film: The Story of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry.” In Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, 21-41. Toronto: Film Publications of Canada, 1951.
  • Moore, Paul. “Chronicling a National History: Hye Bossin’s Canadian Film Weekly and Year Book.” In Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, eds., Global Movie Magazines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.

Date Added:
August 01, 2024
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Mrs, Karlan is the former Ruth Axler Esquire Films Moves Esquire Films has moved from 25 Dundas Square to the Film Exchange Building, 277 Victoria St., Toronto *already concerned themselves exhibition associations have | with the growing competition. The Quebec Allied Theatrical Industries has long been dissatisfied with parish hall competition in that province. The Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario is studying the prob(Continued on Page 2.) moving feet of Fred Astaire. Honestly, the boys marching into Berlin, if that great day is rainy, may bear on their backs the leers of Lugosi, the sneers of Ciannelli and the tears of Bette Davis. A flight of fancy? No. which are recorded the things mentioned above, is a compound of nitric acid and cotton. Nitric Acid is used for explosives. Today, because of the rubber shortage, pyroxylin is used as a waterproof surface for army raincoats. 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This Paper Plans Canadian Film Poll This publication is preparing an annual Canadian poll to determine biggest boxoffice attracthe 10 most popular male female stars for the Dominion, based on the activities of the 1942-1943 season. Exhibiand radio critics will ballots and return envelopes in the mail. The bal (Continued on Page 4.) tions and and tors movie and receive Old movie film scrap, on mob to Hell—if it will have The terrific demand of Canadian and USA exhibitors has caused Republic to reissue eight Gene Autry smash hits, with new prints, advertising, etc., among them such standout moneymakers as MEXICALI ROSE, OLD BARN DANCE and SOUTH OF THE BORDER. None of them are dated in any way. These will be in addition to the newest films of Sgt. Gene Autry, now of the USArmy. PLAY GENE AUTRY FOR GREATER PROFTTS!