Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 10, 1945)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 10, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 10, 1945)
Leaf #:
0008
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 15, 2024
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January 10, 1945 Newf dland Has Own Film Board First showing of films in hundreds of tiny fishing villages around the Newfoundland coast will take place this winter, under an agreement worked out last March whereby the National Film Board assisted the Commission of Government in Newfoundland to set up the island’s first film service. Many Newfoundlanders will be seeing movies for the first time. This service will be under the direction of the newly created Newfoundland Film Board. Present plans call for the operation of five circuits in 1945. The Newfoundland Board is building up a film library, training projectionists and sending projectors and generators into farflung, isolated communities. The same kind of films that go on NFB circuits will be shown, all, at present, in 16 mm. J. A. Cochrane, of the Newfoundland Department of Reestablishment, is chairman of the Newfoundland Film Board. Two units of the NFB were on location in Newfoundland this summer. Of the footage shot one film will be made for distribution exclusively in Newfoundland, depicting the history of the island and the life of the people in its fishing outports around Newfoundland’s six thousand miles of coastline. Another film will be made as part of the Canada Carries On series for exhibition in Canadian theatres and subsequent non-theatrical showings. Sask Board Set Up To Apply Union Act A new seven-member Labor Relations Board is being set up to administer Saskatchewan’s Trade Union Act, labor minister C. C. Williams has announced. The act will be proclaimed early in 1945. A plan to utilize Federal labor relations services was abandoned. The provincial Vacations With Pay Act will also be proclaimed early in 1945. ‘Going My Way' Gets NY Critics Honors Paramount’s “Going My Way” has been chosen the best picture of 1944 by the New York film critics and stage actress Tallulah Bankhead was named the year’s outstanding movie actress for her performance in 20th-Fox’ “Lifeboat.” Honors for the best male performance went to Barry Fitzgerald for his work in “Going My Way.” The critics also picked Paramount’s “Hail the Conquering Hero” and 20th-Fox’ “Wilson,” for honorable mention. Canadian FILM WEEKLY NIGHT PHONES Here are important phone numbers connected with exchange head offices in Toronto. The number below the name of each company is that of the office and the ones after the names are those of the bookers and shippers. These are night numbers in the homes of these mentioned and may be used in case of emergency. Regal Films ADelaide 5703 (Miss) D. Wilson—JUnction 7004 Booker, R. McBain—LYndhurst 9082 United Artists ELgin 3371 Booker, R. Knights—GLadstone 0772 Shipper, J. Johnson—HArgrave 7273 Warner Bros. ELgin 8118 Booker, J. Sherwin—KEnwood 2576 Shipper, J. Fletcher—RAndolph 2562 Monogram Pictures ADelaide 0418 Booker, I. Stern—KEnwood 3142, MElrose 6361 Shipper, F. Winkle—GLadstone 8494 Producers Releasing Corporation WaAverley 1821 Booker, (Miss) G. Tyber—MIdway 5518 Shipper, J. Gertzbein—KiIngsdale 8910 Twentieth Century-Fox ELgin 7223 Booker, J. Powis—KEnwood 8019 Shipper, F. Taylor—HOward 2973 Columbia Pictures WaAverley 4531 Booker, A. Fox—HUdson 9678 Shipper, J. Bond—HYland 1283 Z Paramount ELgin 0376 Booker, R. Murphy—HOward 4749 Shipper, S. G. Deans—GRover 2378 Empire-Universal WaAverley 8621 Booker, H. Gould—WESTON 690-R Shipper, H. Spector—LOmbard 9796 RKO Distributing Corp. ELgin 6121 Booker, G. Upjohn—HUdson 3805 Shipper, R. Mitchell—MIdway 0896 Re-elect Seven Col. Directors Seven Columbia directors were re-elected by the company’s stockholders at the recent annual meeting. Those re-elected are: Harry Cohn, Jack Cohn, A. Schneider, N. B. Spingold, A. Montague, Donald S. Stralem and Comm. Leo M. Blancke. The board of directors will soon meet to elect officers. No important changes are expected. Farr Screens MOT For N. S. Rotary Members of the North Sydney, Nova Scotia Rotary Club and local school board officials were recently guests of J. W. Farr, popular Maritime manager, at a special March of Time showing in his Rivoli Theatre. Subject of the reel was “Juvenile Delinquency.” Farr tied up the screening with the weekly Rotary dinner meeting and received many thanks for his thoughtful generosity. Mont] Critics ‘Best 10 List Herbert Whittaker, screen reviewer for the Montreal Gazette, has picked as the “Ten Best Films of 1944’ San-DemetrioLondon, Lifeboat, The Purple Heart, Home in Indiana, Voice in the Wind, Going My Way, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Seventh Cross, Thunder Rock and Lost Angel. “Of the ten films which are this department’s choice for the best shown here in 1944,” he wrote, “two are forthright tragedies, four are serious dramas, two are comedies on serious themes with serious moments and the remaining two are stories of youth, with comedy and tragedy mingled. This is not to suggest that there were no musicals, drawingroom comedies or farces in 1944, or no good ones. It simply means that some of the best movie-makers were allowed to turn their hands to matters of some weight.” Although he explained that the order of the ten was accidental, he devoted more space to SanDemetrio-London than to any other film. This picture, a British film produced by Michael Balcom and released in Canada by Esquire, was based on a true story and was regarded as a tribute to the Merchant Marine. Two Canadian actors were among those featured. They were Robert Beatty of Hamilton and James Donald of Montreal. Pete Barnes Dons Stage Togs Again Pete Barnes of Barnes & Davidson, theatre operators and dispensers of Foto Nite, returned to the stage recently, playing several engagements in Rouyn, Quebec, in connection with Foto Nite. Pete headed a Western troupe of entertainers. Excerpt from a review which appeared in the Rouyn-Noranda Press: “Hailing originally from Texas, Petes Barnes is a personal friend of Gene Autry, the popular western singing star now in the U.S. Army Air Force. The nickname ‘Big’ applied to Barnes is no exaggeration. He’s something of a giant, and has personality enough for two ordinary persons to get by on. The cowboy outfit in which he makes his stage appearance is an eye-opener, only one of the features of which is a special leather belt with solid gold buckle, the gift of a mine in the west. Pete entertains with lasso and other rope tricks, and tonight will be the last chance to see him in person.”