Canadian Film Weekly (May 9, 1945)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
May 9, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (May 9, 1945)
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 15, 2024
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May 9, 1945 Building Begins On New FP House Construction of the new Paramount Theatre, planned for New Waterford, Nova Scotia, at an approximate cost of $120,000 is scheduled to get under way this month. This announcement comes from Fred Gregor who is associated with George Walker and Eldridge Gouthro in the project. It is also revealed that the new theatre will be a Famous Players affiliate. The house will have a seating capacity of about 360. It will be air-conditioned and will include all the latest developments in theatre construction. The theatre will also be built to prepare for the arrival of television in the postwar period. Plans for the new showhouse were made by Kaplan and Sprachman, Toronto architects. 20th-Fox to Get British Pix Two British films, costing an average of 150,000 pounds each, are to be produced for world-wide distribution by 20th Century-Fox, as a result of an agreement entered into by Spyros P. Skouras, ‘president of 20th-Fox with J. Arthur Rank in London. G.C. E.'s First Top-Grossing Success! Canadian FILM WEEKLY 7 79a » ~~ Ms ee N4q fat > ges bOND Frances Dee and Joel McCrea draw lucky numbers in a2 Victory Bond drawing at Associated Screen Studios. The two stars paid 2 visit to the Montreal movie studio on the day after their radio appearance on Canada’s Victory Loan Show. Shown above from left to right—Grace Blackburn of the studio’s loan drive committee, B. E. Norrish, president of Associated Screen News, Joel McCrea and Frances Dee. Six employees of the studio will win prizes in the drawing, participated in by purchasers of bonds. In addition to prizes ranging from Victory Bonds to War Saving Certificates, to be awarded by number at the end of the drive, each winner gets the envelope in which the lucky number was sealed — autographed by both Frances Dee and Joel McCrea. Page 7 Pix on the Agenda Of US State Dept. An interest in organizing and extending the freedom of exchange of information and ideas internationally by means of motion pictures, as well as press and radio, has been expressed by the American State Department. The government is not going into the film business, according to a statement made by Archibald MacLeish, assistant secretary of state, in an address before top ranking film makers, but movies are definitely on the agenda of the State Department. Motion pictures are the greatest means of getting a message across to conquered or other peoples, MacLeish said. "Thunderhead’ Wins Medal of Honor Parents’ Magazine has awarded its Medal of Honor for the Month of April to Mary O’Hara’s “Thunderhead, Son of Flicka,” 20th Century-Fox’ Technicolor sequel to “My Friend Flicka,” as the outstanding movie of the month. The March award of Parents Magazine also went to 20th-Fox for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”