Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 9, 1943)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jun 9, 1943
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 9, 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 08, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Ck SPS CT PT ee ee rte Aa OS ee, a ee we « Big Money Year For the Studios The studios, particularly those with theatre subsidiaries, are having a high old time of it financlally. A summary of financial reports from studios with current fiscal years ending next December shows bigger profits and much bigger taxes. MGM headed the rest with a more than 1941, which yielded (Continued on Page 2) United Artists Hits Stride United Artists, after a period of product shortage and adjustments, seems to have hit its stride in slam-bang fashion. After a series of films that kept the wickets busy, highlighted by “In Which We Serve,” the company started issuing solid socks in succession at the boxoffice. “Hangmen Also Die” (Continued on Page 2) VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE Record, Annual Report Shows A preliminary survey of Canadian theatre business in 1942, made by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa, indicates that admissions and net receipts will exceed con siderably the record figures of 1941. 9 War Has Its Compensations With the boys wandering off to war or hauled away to essential industries, film exchange girls are taking over and doing a swell job. For instance, United Artists. In Vancouver Janet McBeath has become an assistant booker. The same is true of Naomi Landau in Montreal and Ethel Cutler in Toronto. The gals are sizing up the stuff and shipping it where it gets the best results. They’re more personable too. It may be that exhibs will unknowingly buy personal charm along with pictures. Who said something about curling up with a good booker? Swing Shift Shows? Yes, No, Maybe Newspapers and theatre men got off to a false start recently when the press picked up the support of swing shift shows by O. J. Silverthorne, chairman of the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau and sent it around the country. SS Fienstein Heads Mono Winnipeg Office Abe Fienstein, formerly of the Winnipeg office of Paramount, is now managing the Monogram branch in that city. Rob Francais, Ottawa Thieves who forced their way into the Francais Theatre, Ottawa, opened the safe in the manager's office and got away with $620.22. a i eee SENS Caer eo +. Next of Kin? | pia sane 1948-44 program—A PRE-RELEASE. Canadian premiere at the Uptown Theatre, Toronto, June 9th. Te Silverthorne said he would be glad to see odd-hour shows for defence workers where necessary, or words to that effect. The press reports made it look as if he was asking for them. Toronto newspapers polled exhibitors, some of whom claimed that such shows had been experimented with and failed. This consensus of exhibitor opinion drew a reply in the Toronto Daily Star from Drummond Wren, general (Continued en Page 2) ——— — The 1942 admission figure, based on national attendance, is 10 per cent higher than that of the previous year. Admissions to motion picture houses numbered 179,611,306—an increase of 16,964,616 in the 12month perlod used by the Bureau. Boxoffice receipts in 1942, exclusive of taxes, reached $46,930,278, amounting to 13 per cent (Continued on Page 2) Roxy, Glenboro, Man. Definitely Closed The Roxy Theatre, Glenboro, Manitoba, open until a while ago, has closed down. The house operated two days each week and seated 275. T. Hanneson was the licensee. Population was 500. INDUSTRY Admissions Up T. Ten p.c. in "42 Patronage and Receipts Reach Last Rites for N. L. Nathanson “One word more than any other sums up Nathan L. Nathanson. He was 2 builder.” With these words Rabbi Maurice N. WBisendrath characterized N. L. Nathanson, leaders of the Canadian motion picture industry for whom funeral services were held at the Holy Blossom Synagogue in Toronto. “His constructiveness, his dyna (Continued on Page &) New Equipment For Hartland, N.B., House New and improved sound equipment has been installed in the Capitol, Hartland, New SBrunswick. Travel curtailment caused a greater reliance on movies for entertainment and the management is helping the public enjoy itself as much as possible. Manager Is Alderman Outremont, a Montreal municipality. Photo by Albert Brown Eugene Maynard, veteran Quebec showman, manager of the Savoy Theatre, Verdun, who was recently elected an alderman of He’s the first theatre manager to win political success in that area, + ——-—-————— — me has everything it takes to make a truly great picture, plus an entirely new idea never shown before on the screen. Pre-sold by every newspaper in the country, it is the first production from m a a ae ae en te ane ea (Advt.)