Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 19, 1944)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Apr 19, 1944
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 19, 1944)
Leaf #:
0006
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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ee see ee Your Personal Record ROTHERS and sisters, don’t B underestimate the importance of that scrap book the Motion Picture War Services Committee is asking you te fill with reports of Victory Loan work. And scrap books of ‘any kind are important. Not only are they the record of past activities but a file of future ideas. If you toss your scrap book in the corner you are either incompetent or lazy. Or maybe you're just heartless. After all, think of the cause. There'll come a day when it’s your turn to visit that exchange Up There. The head booker, St. Pete, will turn to his helpers and ask, ‘What have you got on that human production called Joe Manager?” “Nothing,” they will say. “No paper at all?” St. Pete will ask. “Not even a Sixth Victory Loan Scrap Book,” they will answer. Well,” St. Pete will answer, “this is apparently a ‘Z’ job. Ship him to the Lucifer circuit and accept any price and any designations. Let them burn up a few commitments with him. 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Any man smart enough to operate, manage or supervise a theatre gets many ideas related directly or indirectly to it. The trouble is that most thought is fugitive and ideas are often no more than birds of passage. Here is a chance to capture them on the spot, It is most important that you include in your comments your opinion of the trailers and news clips that will be sent you for the Sixth Victory Loan Drive, The committee would like your personal reaction as well as that of Are You On Our Side? A ‘Yes Isn’t Enough GRAB OFF ONE OF THOSE 24 PRIZES FOR THE BEST SCRAP BOOK RECORD Remember when you were a kid how proud you were of being paid for acting like a good boy? Here's your chance to get that old feeling again! The Motion Picture War Services Committee will issue 24 prizes to the managers who turn in the best records of theatre Victory Loan activity during the present — Sixth— bond campaign. Your Provincial Chairmen and a special committee in each province will judge the scrap books and give a decision which is absolutely final. The smart and lucky winners will get the following prizes: Ist Prize—$50 Victory Bond. 2nd Prize—$25 War Savings Certificate. 3rd Prize—$10 War Savings Certificate. After that you get a chance at the Grand prizes for the same amount of effort. Your Provincial Chairmen will forward your scrap book, the evidence of your regional triumph, to the Central Committee in Toronto for judging. The national winners will get these awards: Ist Prize—$100 Victory Bond. 2nd Prize— 50 Victory Bond. 3rd Prize— 25 War Savings Certificate. The national prize-winning scrap book will be sent to the Minister of Finance, J. L. Ilsley, autographed and returned to the winner. And what a thrill when you display it in your theatre! your audience. We want to know if films are doing the work intended and if not, why not. You probably have some idea of what is holding them back. Only you can tell us and it is not fair te leave us up a blind alley when you need only assert yourself to do a good deed for the Dominion “and your industry. What goes into the scrap book ? Every item of publicity. Paste in newspaper clippings and copies of yours ads. Put throwaways, programs, etc., in it. Make sure it contains literature pertaining to any contests you may run. Append a note about the results and jf anything you hit on had unusual effect, please say so. That idea might be multiplied more than 1100 times during the next Loan drive—once for each thea~ tre in the Dominion. In that scrap book place details of tieups with merchants and samples of what you used to tell the public about them. Report your front displays and enclose a photo if one happens to have been taken. Tell about radio tieups and boosts and if a new idea was used, describe it clearly. Let the scrap book keep the record of co-operation with the local Victory Loan Committee. And how about yourself and the folks in your theatre? What did they do? Did they serve at special shows. How was their purchasing power? There’s a million things you can put in that scrap book because there’s a million things you can do. Do them—and don’t get lazy. Clip them and paste them. Write the rest down. If you are pressed for time, keep them in some kind of order until you can transfer them to the scrap hook, Make notes about everything. Don’t forget to dig in to that swell press book the committee got up for you. Let that and your conscience be your guide. Get in there and pitch—and be your own scorer. It will pay you —perhaps in money, certainly in satisfaction, M'treal Consolidated Shifts Managers Consolidated Theatres, Ltd., of Montreal last week announced a number of management changes, W. O'Loughlin, manager of the Palace, goes to the Capitol as manager with Bob Sheppar as assistant; Don Reidy, manager of the Princess, shifts to the Palace with John Rosenberg as assistant; Owen Lightstone goes from the Orpheum to the Princess as manager; Paul Guinette goes from the Capitol to the management of the Orpheum with J. A. Gagnon of the Imperial as assistant. Page 3