Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 5, 1944)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Apr 5, 1944
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 5, 1944)
Leaf #:
0002
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 01, 2024
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THE PICK OF THE PICTURES Vol. 9, No. 14 TORONTO, APRIL 5, 1944 REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum ~ Col. John A. Cooper Resigns Quits as Distrib Ass’n Chief After Twenty-Three Years Colonel John A. Cooper, for 23 years chairman of the Directorate of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, tendered his resignation at the annual meeting in the administrative offices of that organization last week. COL. JOHN A. COOPER After 23 years of service to the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, Colonel Cooper has resigned as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, ending his official connection. Jolson to Produce One of Columbia’s most ambitious productions, “Burlesque,” starring Rita Hayworth, will see Al Jolson making his debut as a picture producer as part of a term. deal. Odeon, FPCC Bid For Ham. United Canada’s two leading motion picture theatre circuits entered into sharp competition for the holdings of Hamilton United Theatres Limited, the Capitol and Palace theatres of Hamilton, On tario, both first-class houses. They are operated by Odeon Theatres of Canada Limited (Continued on Page 4) Ontario Premier ravors War Pix *“T hold very strong views on the value of up-to-date, vivid pictures of what our men in uniform are doing and what they are facing,’ Premier George Drew told the Ontario Legislature last week. “There should be more extensive use of the camera by a Canadian organization to (Continued on Page 4) Will Hays Delivers Annual Report “Fortunately for the cause of liberty,’ said Will H. Hays, president of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America in his annual report, issued last week, “our motion picture industry and the free people to whom it belongs have chosen the voluntary way, rather than the way of compulsion, to establish channels through which the film’s power can flow freely for the benefit of mankind, “Where true liberty thrives, no good of man or society can languish. The way of the voluntary is, indeed, the way of all that is characteristically human in life. Because it developed under the auspices of freedom, ruling itself to maximize that freedom, the motion picture industry had the will and strength to mobilize every facility at its (Continued on Page 14) Citizenship Award To Mrs. Moore Mrs. B. K. Moore, for 27 years manager of Moore’s Theatre, Grimsby, Ontario, was awarded the Good Citizenship Medal, which is presented annually, by the Lions Club, Nominations for the award are made by residents and organizations at large. Mrs. Moore, an outstanding citizen, was the most popular recipient of the award to date. She is extremely popular in the industry. The Association elected Leo M. Devaney president, succeeding the late James P. O’Loghlin. Devaney, RKO general manager in Canada, has occupied that position pro tem until now. A. W. Perry of Empire-Universal, was elected yicepresident. Other directors elected were: David Coplan, United Artists; Gordon Lightstone, Paramount Pictures; H. Nathanson, Regal (Continued on Page 4) FARL LAWSON TOM BRAGG Post-War Theatre Sites Purchased Evidence of the coming postwar drive for more theatres in the Dominion is being revealed in reports of a local nature, In Midland, Ontario, the town council is preparing to enter into an agreement with the Midland Operating Company, in which H. L. Nathanson is interested, for _ (Continued on Page Il) Sandwell CBC Gov'r B. K. Sandwell, editor of SaturCay Night, has been appointed a Governor of the CBC, filling the post left vacant by the death of N. L. Nathanson. Some lightning caricatures of well-known film and theatre men. They were made on the spot by W. B. Mac of the Toronto Evening Telegram art staff at the party for Archie Laurie and were first shown in that newspaper,