Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 12, 1944)

Page scan 00018 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jul 12, 1944
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 12, 1944)
Leaf #:
00018
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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July 12, 1944 Canadian FILM WEEKLY W. Covert Again PRC Has 87.385.000 Budget for °44-45 With the accent on pure enGuy,” to be produced, directed 2nd V-P of IA All incumbent officers of the International Alliance of Stage Employees and Moying Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada were reelected at 37th convention, held at St. Louis recently, among them being William FP. Covert, Canadian organizer, as second vice-president. Nine hundred and seventy-three delegates, senting 728 local unions, were present, the largest representation in IA history. The Toronto local sent President Dave Seigel, Bert Higgins, James Sturges, Gus Demery, Harry Fisher and Earl Curtis. Among the other Canadians present were Edward Nally, Hamilton; Fred Hoodless, Kitchener; George Sim, Fort William, and Edward England, St. Catharines. President Richard A. Walsh, suggesting the organization of television .workers, recommended that Section Two of the International Constitution be changed to read: “To achieve by organization and mutual endeavor, the improvement of the social and economic conditions of workers identified with the theatrical, television and moving picture industries of the United States and Canada.” The financial report of the IATSE showed that cash on hand amounts to $262,102.01, plus securities, the cost value of which amounts to $137,018.26. The grand total of assets is $603,688.73. Resolutions recommending 4 fourth term for president Roosevelt were unanimously passed by the convention. repre Prepare to Query 20th-Rank Deal Gaumont British stockholders, at a special meeting on July 18, will question the deal made by Spyros Skouras representing Twentieth Century Fox and J. Arthur Rank for the control of the company. The USA. Department of Justice is investigating the deal from the cartel angle. Stockholders will question the point which restricts voting on ordinary shares to British holders; how the change in voting will help the British holders; why an American must be imported to run British cinemas; and why a British organization must obtain permission from a USA company to expand in British dominions. tertainment, Producers’ Releasing Corporation have set 24 features and 16 Westerns for the company’s 1944-45 program. It is planned to spend approximately $7,385,000 on the program and studio expansion. Leon Fromkess, vice-president in charge of production, has announced that there will be no ceiling on the budgets of individual pictures. The cost of a film will be determined by topicality and entertainment values. The schedule is elastic to permit the production of additional features which the company may see fit to add to the schedule, Fromkess also stated. Some of the top features on the list are: ‘‘Dixie Jamboree,” a musical starring Frances Langford and Guy Kibbee; ‘“Bluebeard,” a psychological horror thriller starring John Carradine and Jean Parker with Nils Asther and Ludwig Stossel; “Swing Hostess,” musical starring Martha Tilton with Charles Collins, Iris Adrian and Cliff Nazarro; “At the Post,’ the human story of a boy, a horse and a dog starring Stuart Erwin; “I Accuse My Parents,” a drama of modern delinquency starring Mary Beth Hughes; and “I’m From Arkansas,” a hillbilly musical. Other important productions slated for 1944-45 are: “Fog Island,”’ melodrama adapted from a George Abbott stage hit; ‘“‘Hollywood and Vine,” a musical with a Hollywood locale; “His Adopted Daughter,” a mystery melodrama; “They Eloped One Night,” a comedy starring Jimmie Lydon and Freddie Bartholmew; “The Wife of Monte Cristo,” a story using the Alexander Dumas characters; “Drums of Death,” a jungle thriller; “Queen of Burlesque,” a backstage story; “East Side, West Side,” a night club farce; “Bombshell from Brazil,” a Latin-American comedy-drama; “Crime Inc.,” a sensational expose of racketeering in the raw, to be produced by Leon Fromkess; “Swamp Man,” a story of the bayous, starring Buster Crabbe; “Hannah from Savannah,” a sea-faring saga; “GI “TEST FILM. 10,000 cycles 35 mm., with easy instructions, so that you can focus your Sound Lens in absolute precision and secure clear sound and the Maximum from your sound System. Just what many theatre owners have longed for! Bargain $6.60.” and written by Christy Cabanne; “War Marriages,’ (tentative title) an original comedy drama. “First Illusion,” a $10,000 psychological drama; “Enchanted Forest,” a fantasy of the forests; “Quebec,” a Canadian drama laid in the Dominion’s ancient capital; “Here We Go Again,” starring Frank Jenks and Iris Adrian; another film starring Jimmy Lydon‘ and Freddie Bartholmew. On the Westerns schedule, Buster Crabbe and Al “Fuzzy” St. John will be starred in eight films and Tex Ritter and Dave O’Brien will be co-starred in a series of musical Westerns. The films will be produced by top-flight directors and producers. The production lineup lists: American. Productions, Inc., headed by Donald C. McKean and Albert Herman; Jack Schwarz in association with producers Harry D. Edwards and Lou Brock; Sigmund Neufeld Productions, with Sam Newfield as contract director; Roth-Greene-Rouse Productions; Alexander -Stern Productions; I. E. Chadwick Productions; George Weeks Productions; Leon Fromkess and associates, Christy Cabanne, Martin Mooney, Harry Wurtzel and Geo, Moskov. The following directors will handle PRC product: Christy Cabanne, Lew Landers, Albert Herman, Elmer Clifton, Sam Newfield, William K. Howard, Wallace W. Fox and Joseph H. Lewis. Extra Wages Up Film extras were paid a total of $6,103,224 by major studios in 1943, the highest figure in motion picture history. Republic to Open Mexican Branch Arrangements for the opening of a Republic branch office in Mexico are being completed by Morris Goodman, vice-president in charge of foreign distribution. The office, to be located in Mexico city, will handle sales and distribution in Mexico. Republic offices were recently created in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Panama, AVE 207 OR MORE OF YOUR MONEY THE EESTI Stiee jiwuecrens ARE: COMPURE TREAIKE SUMUES SHOALS Fee 2EYERAE STREAK OOCMINION THEATRE EQUIPMENT €O BO? DAME ST BANC OVUER BC Page 19 Covering Canada’s Film Front All The News of The Film World —~