Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 15, 1943)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Sep 15, 1943
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 15, 1943)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
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
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[LAASSY VOICE of the ASCE SAS AA CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Vol. 8, No. 38 a Ask fio ec Tie With Ottawa “We are ready President J. Arthur and willing,” Hirsch told} in promotion literature Theatrical Industries last week in Montreal, “‘to give our entire help to the government, but I think that we should be consulted as a whole and not let things drift in Win Yourself a Patriotic Prize TORONTO, SEPTEMBER 15, 1943 Prospectus Versus Product Exhibitors Ask That Pre-Season } Printed Promises Be Kept A question being raised in USA exhibition circles which may have some future application to Canada is the failure of certain distributors to live up to-pre-season promises made and prospectuses. $2.00 Per Annum Veteran Ottawa Operator Passes A veteran Ottawa motion pic . 5 75x Gao We ture projectionist who learned his The complaints, though trade in the days when the pro originating across the line, jectors were cranked by hand, are of particular interest here| Michael Ventura of Ottawa, died because they apply to the sale there last week. He was 45 years of yearly blocks, a method in| °¢: a haphazard way, as has often (Continued on Page 4) Technicolor at Peak Production If Technicolor continues its yearly growth in the same proportion it won't be too long hefore sepia A features will be in the minority. The company’s cameras are being subjected to the maximum use right now. They have 22 of them in action, two to each film in production, and it could use several times that number. sii | (Continted “wa. Fema: ©) ic on Page 6) ; the meeting of the Quebec Allied ' The Motion Picture War Services Committee will hold a contest for all theatre workers to find a good slogan for the coal conservation campaign. Prizes will be $25, $15 and $10 in War Savings Certificates for the best punch-lines. The Fuel Committee of the organization will do the judging. All details will be announced soon, So get a head start by using your head now. ‘There’s money, fun and duty in the pursuit of an apt phrase. Help earn part of your personal coal bill by thinking of ee eee ane that will help ooydanuae Theatre Men Plan Coal Conservation The coal shortage, now Janada’s No. 1 emergency, will get the special attention af theatre operators under the leadership of the Motion Picture That body met with men from nl) Barron Now Voices Paramount News ‘Win Barron, Paramount’s Canadian publicity man, is now com-~ mentator for the Canadian part of that company’s reels. Paramount has been using an increasing num-~ ber of Canadian subjects and theatres are boosting the reel through newspaper ads. War Services Committee. the Department of Munitions! and Supply in the office of Chairman J. J. Fitzgibbons to work out ways and means of effecting and influencing con: servation. To help bring about a 30 per cent reduction in coal used for heating theatres a two-page guide and pledge is being circulated} Exhibitors will follow its instructions closely, at the same time using the screen, lobby and acdver(Continued on Page 2) ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Boxoffice Sensation in Canadian Motion Picture History! The Biggest general practice in the Dominion. In the USA yearly block booking | is an exception, most of the come panies selling in blocks of five.| The right to cancellation and substitution provide the exhibitor with | Ventura, A UNIVERSAL PICTURE in GLORIOUS 25 years ago. for his father, (Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 2) The Coal You Save Will Heat Hell for Hitler With Hitler’s European Fortress being transformed into his tomb by the Allies, another double-barrelled job that will speed the process has been given theatre men. You are being asked to cut your use of coal by 30 per cent and to influence your patrons to do the same. Those ebony chunks are really black diamonds these days. Whenever a great issue is moving towards the decisive period one thing becomes plain—that the greater the action, the greater the reaction. The increasing action in Europe by our soldiers and their comrades has caused a proportionate reaction at home. And a very important part of it is the need to save coal. Coal moves the trains and ships which speed our soldiers towards victory. Coal heats the smelters from which are weaved in steel many of the things of war. Coal is importantly related to the outcome. The English lived for so long during this war putting out fires they didn’t light. The Germans are living among fires they aren't lighting and can’t put out. But Canadians still light their fires and put them out any time they want to—one of the rarest privileges in the world today. Exercise that privilege by making fewer fires and cutting down those you do. Save coal to beat Hitler. Save to beat Hell. TECHNICOLOR After playing in an orchestra for some time during his late ‘teens, he went into motion picture work At first he worked the late George at the old Paris theatre.