Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 24, 1945)

Page scan 00028 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 24, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 24, 1945)
Leaf #:
00028
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 15, 2024
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January 24, 1945 Many Changes for Post-War Houses When the smartly uniformed movie usher shows you to a seat in the post-war theatre it will probably be something more than the present upholstered surface from which you watch the histrionic abilities of your favorite stars. Famous Players Canadian Corporation, who are celebrating their Silver Jubilee this month, are keeping a close eye on seating developments as revealed by airplane companies. The latter have been employing the services of nerve specialists for several months past, to design and build a comfortable seat which will provide the maximum in nerveease and rest, and theatre people plan to copy the final result for the greater comfort of movie patrons. This is only one of several post-war theatre innovations which Famous Players are studying. Another long step toward three dimensional presentation will be taken in the realm of sound. A minor but interesting development of the post-war theatre is the floor covering. Instead of the ordinary carpet being laid, a rich, deep pile which has been sprayed on will yield to the patrons’ feet. This a composition of latex and wool, sprayed on a concrete floor, giving as soft and durable a surface as the costliest rug. It is still news to many carpet manufacturers, but has been used in American war industries with satisfactory results. It is not only cheaper than carpet, but where a small area may become worn, it can be quickly patched up again with an application from the spray gun, and the entire “carpet” is as good as new. Television is still a subject on which movie people talk with crossed fingers. Famous Players are planning to add television to their regular movie programs as soon as it becomes practicable to do so, but although grandiose reports have come from various quarters on the advances being made in television, those who are prepared to bring this latest of miracles to movies audiences know that many perfections have to be made before it will compete with film. Its principal asset at the present stage of development is the speed with which it reports news events; but for anything else film with its color and sound, and the advantages of skilled editing, will still offer the best in entertainment—and may not be entirely replaced by television even in the news field where the latter is expected to be most in demand. But whatever its role on the screen, television Will be given a chance. Canadian FILM WEEKLY BaF Theclics 1000 ROYAL BANK BUILDING TORONTO FAMOUS) PLAYERS CANADIAN CORPORATION T E D 1000 ROYAL BANK BUILDING TORONTO Page 31 Salvage Drives Get Much Help When the Department of National War Services launched its campaign for much-needed salvage for the war effort officials turned to the Canadian Motion Picture Industry for assistance. In many cities and towns throughout Canada motion picture theatres organized highly successful salvage drives, one of the most important being the one for waste fats necessary to fill Canada’s rapidly diminishing glycerine stores. The theatres knew that best results could be obtained by in teresting youngsters and set up special morning matinees, the only price of admission being cans of fat. So successful were the early ‘fat shows” that the government asked for _ these matinees to be repeated in a number of town and cities. The theatres in all instances donated their services and those of their staffs, handled the advertising and arranged for the collection of the salvage. Motion picture distributors loaned films for the special shows free of charge. When there was urgent need for other types of salvage, such as rags, waste paper, rubber, etc., special children’s shows brought results never previously obtained. Famous Players theatres across Canada joined wholeheartedly in in the salvage campaigns and turned in to salvage depots many tons of valuable scrap. Charles LaFerle, director of National Salvage, wrote this letter to the president of Famous Players: “T should like to express to you and the Famous Players Canadian Corporation Limited my hearty appreciation of the splendid co-operation your company is extending to the National Salvage Division of the Department of National War Services through your series of salvage shows in your theatres throughout Canada. “The Salvage Division has an important task in collecting all the salvage possible throughout Canada to assist in providing necessary raw materials for our war industries to enable them to maintain their ever-increasing production program. “Thus the assistance which is given the Salvage Division by the special salvage shows sponsored by Famous Players organization is warmly welcomed as a timely patriotic means of co-operation in getting on with an important phase of the Canadian war effort.”