Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 24, 1945)

Page scan 00019 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 24, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 24, 1945)
Leaf #:
00019
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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Royal Canadian Navy officers are shown above at a screening of 20th-Fox’ US Navy epic “Fighting Lady,” the story of an American aircraft carrier in the battle of the Philippine Sea. Sydney Samson, Fox Canadian general manager, screened the film at the special request of the RCN. ECAUSE movie-goers have B scarcely felt the differences which the demands of war have made on the industry, it is ofen taken for granted that the production and exhibition of pictures is purely a war-time luxury, getting by on priorities and other restrictions with the plea that movies are neded for home front morale. Canadian government officials, war industry leaders and others in a position to know, testify that the home front morale needs are no hollow plea in themselves but a vital necessity for an all-out war effort. But that par gets see SESS SS Sct cA Kite eA Pes Ee Sp ON Teese e 6 ee ee ne 6 ee 8 8 8 ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee PICTORIAL DISPLAY 80 GEORGE ST., TORONTO sf oe 8 fff 8 fe fee ts 6 bee Se ee ee ee WS APP PSAS AAS PII ISA SIS PKS SE SpE Ep eg pS MOVIE INDUSTRY HAS EXCELLENT WAR RECORD ticular value is only the beginning of a list of the services which the industry has rendered the country since the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. J. J. Fitzgibbons, president of Famous Players Canadian Corporation, and national chairman of the Canadian Motion Picture War Service Committee, says that the records of the movie industry in war compare favorably with that of any other industry. HE screen which has been consistently denied commercial users has been given for the asking to advertise and promote the sale of Victory Bonds and War Savings Stamps; it has been used to stimulate blood donors’ services and salvage campaigns. The Red Cross and other War agencies have been cheerfully given the screens in hundreds of Canadian communities to state their needs and tell their stories to the people. And in addition to the screen itself, actors and acresses have come to this country from Hosllywood by the score of help with personal appearances in the various bond campaigns. Special pictures have been made in Hollywood for the Canadian war effort and shown gratis. The Hon. J. L. Isley, Minister of Finance, has expressed the gratitude of the government for this co-operation and has said how important it has been to the success of the war financing problem. Many a lonely man and woman in the armed services will recall the Sunday shows made available to uniformed men and women in various parts of the country— shows which have helped to kill the monotony of leave spent in strange communities. The Sunday shows have been provided free to the troops, expenses being paid by the theatres with films donated by distributors. This record of the past five years Famous Players finds as gratifying as their full 25 years of serving the Canadian entertainment world, an anniversary which is being celebrated this month. Two of the best Canadian produced stage shows in years—the Army and the Navy shows—have played from coast to coast in many Famous Players theatres, The Industry gave financial support to the Navy Show and the Army Show was produced by Jack Arthur, on loan from Famous Players. 4p value of the motion picture industry to civilian morale was shown in England during the blitz of 1940 and 1941. During the height of the blitz about 800 cinemas were closed in Britain, partly because of bomb damage and partly in response to a government request . that people be discouraged from congregating in comparatively small areas. The drop in civilian morale was so noticeable that the government hastily called on the cinema operators to re-open as soon as possible, which they did, and have been going ever since. A Bob Hope picture which was played specially to the homeless and battered people of Coventry right after the. saturation raid on that city was admittedly a big factor in the maintenance of morale there. Too Few Juvenile Pix, Claims Convenor A list of motion pictures suitable for children over eight years of age, all currenly showing in Toronto and district, has been endorsed by the Toronto Home and School Council, it was announced last night. Mrs. J. H. Couke, visual convener, stated that there are no suitable films for children below this age, with rare exceptions. The films are the Adventures of Mark Twain, The Canterville Ghost, Home in Indiana, The Story of Dr. Wassell, Lassie Come Home, The Great Mr. Handel, Going My Way, See Here Private Hargrove, Henry Aldrich, Boy Scouts Up in Arms, The Sullivans, Since You Went Away, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, Meet Me in St. Louis, Target for Today, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Winged Victory, Can’t Help Singing, Minesweeper, Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Bathing Beauty, Rationing. Coming “family pictures” are Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, The Three Caballeros, Tomorrow the World, Wilson, A Song to Remember, and Son of Lassie, Mrs, Couke said,