Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 5, 1944)

Page scan 0004 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 5, 1944
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 5, 1944)
Leaf #:
0004
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
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‘@ wT * 44 ~~. * IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER WHEN GOOD TOGETHER! SHOWMEN THE ORDER OF AND GOOD THE DAY WITH SHOWS GET PARAMOUNT “LA ryyount fUMUE EXTRA SSD PLAYING TIME IS PRODUCT! VOL. 3 (ADVT.) ‘LOVE ON THE BEAM Another Paramount picture riding the beam right into the boxoffice is “No Time for Love” starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. Again Paramount gives the exhibitors a great opportunity to cash in on present demands for the comedy and light entertainment angles sought by the cash customers from one end of the Dominion to the other. “No Time for Love” is the kind of comedy that almost anyone can visualize themselves in. Lines are fast and racy and the action keeps up with the dialogue all through the picture. In “No Time for Love,” Claudette Colbert turns in one of the neatest bits of comedy seen since “It Happened One Night.” Fred MacMurray shines, too, in a tailormade role. Even the lines of the script seem to have been built right around the stars of the picture. Claudette interprets the role of a photographer working on a paper while MacMurray is a sand hog —but what a sand hog! Scenes where Claudette goes to film Fred at work under a river are real thrillers of the first magnitude. They'll have patrons right forward on their chairs with their hearts in their mouths. “No Time for Love” is the picture that no exhibitor can afford to be without right now. HOLLYWOOD FLASHES Robert Benchley’s first assignment under his new writingacting contract with Paramount will be in “National Barn Dance,” which the studio is making with the picturesque troupe of the famed radio show. Fritz Thyssen, the German industrial magnate who virtually financed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party so that rearmament could bring him riches, but who later broke with the Nazis and escaped the country, will be portrayed by Lionel Royce, specialist in German roles, in Paramount’s documentary feature, “The Hitler Gang,” directed by John Farrow, commander RCN (ret.). The Lowdown on the Production and Distribution of the Best Shows in Town! Keep “Em ‘Riding High” ere NO. 1 I944 Paramount Sets Fast Pace For the New Year Paramount sets the pace for the industry in 1944 with the Technicoloured musicalulu, “Riding High.” More and more has public demand made it necessary to have light, escapist type entertainment and Paramount has done well New Hope Title Bob Hope has been given a new title by the Hollywood Women’s Press Club—that of the most co-operative actor in the film colony. Hope was presented with a beautiful gold token at a luncheon in Hollywood given by the members of the Club. Bob Hope is now at work with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in the fourth of the Road series, “Road to Utopia.” That Ladd Again! Paramount Studios have completed a deal for the screen rights to the Richard Henry Dana classic, “Iwo Years Before the Mast,” and will star Alan Ladd in it. The picture will be made as one of Paramount’s most spectacular productions. “Two Years Before the Mast” was written by Dana following two adventure-packed trips around the Horn on sailing ships. PARAMOUNT WISHES ONE AND ALL HAPPY and VICTORIOUS NEW YEAR to keep abreast with moviegoers requests. In “Riding High,’ Paramount have one of the fastest moving comedies seen on the screen in some time. Abounding in toe-tingling tunes and magnificent color, “Riding High” stars Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell supported by such names as Victor Moore, Cass Daley, Gil Lamb and Milt Britton and his Band. Sets used by Paramount in “Riding High’ are some of the most lavish seen in many a moon. Plenty of ingenuity went into the designing of them. The finished product on the screen is something to make patrons suck in their breath. “Riding High’ is a glorified musical that tells the story of an ex-burlesque queen (Dorothy Lamour) and a mining engineer (Dick Powell) for whom a counterfeiter (Victor Moore) acts as cupid. The comedy team featured throughout the picture is Gil Lamb and Cass Daley. Extra comedy sequences feature Milt Britton and his Band in some of the wackiest scenes to ever see the light of film. Much of the credit for the fastmoving dialogue goes to a former Canadian, a Torontonian in fact, Art Arthur, brother of the genial editor of Film Weekly, who scripted the yarn along with Walter DeLeon and Arthur Phillips. Orchestras up and down the Canadian airways are jamming the festive days with song hits from “Riding High” among them ‘Indian Girl Heap Hep,” “Whistling in the Light” and “You're the Rainbow.” The numbers are of the light, easy-to-remember type and scores of patrons will whistle them on the way home from the theatres. The exhibitors who wish to open up the new year by riding high at the boxoffice will book Paramount’s “Riding High” promptly.