Canadian Film Weekly (May 23, 1945)

Page scan 0007 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
May 23, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (May 23, 1945)
Leaf #:
0007
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
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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Canadian FILM WEEKLY May 23, 1945 Warners Holds Sales Session Meetings of Warner Bros. home office sales executives and Canadian district and branch heads were held at the King Edward hotel in Toronto last week. Haskell M. Masters, newly-inducted general manager for Warners in the Dominion, was officially welcomed by Ben Kalmenson, sales chief for the parent company. Conferences consisted of forums on Warners’ Pow-Wow (current sales drive), preliminary survey of next season’s policy and product and individual meetings with the six Canadian branch managers. Kalmenson opened the first session with a strong expression of Satisfaction in connection with Masters’ new association with the company, and went on to review what he termed was the strongest lineup of feature attractions ever offered by Warner Bros. He particularly underlined the powerful star and story values in four early releases of the new season, mentioning ‘‘Devotion” (Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, Nancy Coleman, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet), “The Big Sleep’ (Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall), “Saratoga Trunk” (Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman), and “Rhapsody in Blue” (Robert Alda, Alexis Smith, Joan Leslie). In closing, Kalmenson stated that 75 per cent of 1945-46 product has been completed or is in the cutting room. Full listing of product and statement of policy Action Settled Out of Court A scheduled appeal against the dismissal of an action brought by Norman W. Mason against the Roseland Theatre Company Limited of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, has been settled out of court. Mason, managing director of the Roseland Theatre Company Limited, brought action against other directors of the Company, Frank H. Sobey, Stellarton, and Dr. Clarence Miller, George White, Roy J. Benriett, Thomas Foster, Bernard Godden and Henry B. McCoulloch, all of New Glasgow, to set aside a transaction by the company whereby 5,000 ordinary shares were allotted and issued to Sobey. The action was first dismissed in October, 1944, when the case came up for trial in Pictou. It has been rumored that Odeon was behind the move. The company recently acquired three Maritimes houses, none of which has been named publicly as yet. Haskell Masters, recently-appointed Canadian general manager of Warner Brothers, and Ben Kalmenson, general sales manager, at the recent Oanadian session of the company. will be announced at a later date. Mort Blumenstock, Eastern advertising and publicity head, outlined campaigns that have been set to pre-sell and groom for playdates this unprecedented schedule of quality entertainment. He also discussed the new department of education and other features of postwar exploitation, pointing out that each picture would receive a type of handling worthy of its potentiallyhigh box-office value, whether it be a musical of the stature of “Rhapsody in Blue,” an original screen story or a screen adaptation of a successful stage play or novel similar in appeal to “Saratoga Trunk.” Norman H. Moray, general sales manager for short subjects, held the rostrum on the second morning, delivering details of what the gathering agreed will be the most ambitious offering of short-subject product in the history of Warners. Leading the featurettes are five all-Canadian films in Technicolor. Of these, ‘Forest Commandos,” the story of the Ontario forest fire fighters, gets top “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 forl Bargain $6.60.” billing among the eight Technicolor two-reeler specials. This subject was filmed with the cooperation of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, with Alan Fenwick, technical adviser for the Department, Shooting took place in some of the most scenic portions of the Province, including Algonquin Park and the great lake regions of northern Ontario, and in interiors constructed near Toronto. Last year’s largest forest and bush fire provides a thrilling documentary finish. Glenn Ireton, public relations director for Warners in Canada, scripted and directed. The other four are one-reelers. “Snow Eagles,” filmed last January during the largest snow-fall ever recorded in the Alpine-like Laurentians of Quebec, promises to be the most beautiful and action-packed \ski-trail subject ever produced. Story centres about Tom Wheeler's famous Gray Rocks Inn; with a’ gay New Year’s crowd as extras and supers. “With Rod and Gun in Canada” eae \JE 20Z or MORE SF ¥OUR MONEY Ree aides OE atari te be fe WAC LUKE “8, DOMINION THEATRE EQUIPMENT CO 837 DAVIE 3T WANCOUVER BC contains shots from every province, highlighting salmon fishing on both coasts, walrus-taking in the Arctic, deer hunting with bow and arrow, duck shooting near Grand Prairie, Alberta, trout-angling and many other sportsmen pursuits. Canadian tourist industry gets terrific plug with narrator’s sum-up: “If you want the best in hunting and fishing, come to Canada.” Sequences for “Sports Go To War" were also made in all provinces, with the cooperation of the Canadian Active Army. Theme of the short proves that specific sports train soldiers for definite battle tasks. Included are soccer, boxing, cross-country running, track and field events, rugby, lacrosse, rowing, swimming— all filmed against a wide divers ity of picturesque Canadian backdrops. “Canadian Sports’ offers a Dominion-wide panorama of spectator sports, showing such typical outdoor Canadian sports as box lacrosse (played by the championship Salmon Bellies of New Westminster), rugby, lawn bowling, golf, yachting, ladies’ soft ball. This schedule marks the most extensive all-Canadian production ever engaged in by any Hollywood studio, reflecting Warners’ sincere interest in Canada and Canadian life, a trend started a few years ago with this company’s “Captains of the Clouds.” I. F. ‘‘Mike” Dolid, home office supervisor of exchanges, also addressed this session on the problems of wartime operations. Masters held forth on the afternoon of the second day, first leading an informal, get-acquainted round-table, and then confering individually with branch managers. The final day was given over to proviewing a few Hollywood prints of 1945-46 product. At the end of the first day’s conferences, an informal buffet and cocktail party was staged in the King Edward’s Vanity Fair room for some fifty exhibitor and trade press guests. Besides the New York delegation and Masters, the following attended the meetings: Branch managers Joe Plottel, Toronto; Grattan Kiely, Montreal; Earl H. Dalgleish, Vancouver; Greydon A. Matthews, Winnipeg; Sam Pearlman, Calgary; Lew Mc Kenzie, St. John; District Booker E. A. Piggins, Toronto; Salesmen George Altman, Toronto, and Frank Davis, Montreal; and Glenn TIreton, public relations director for the Canadian district, Toronto, @