Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 7, 1945)

Page scan 00011 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Nov 7, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 7, 1945)
Leaf #:
00011
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 22, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

DOUGLAS V. ROSEN Toronto branch manager for United Artists. Peters Predicts Modernization “Prospects are bright for the early application of wartime research in the modernization of motion picture theatres in Canada,” stated F. E. Peters, General Manager of Dominion Sound Equipments, Ltd., on returning a few days ago from the first international convention of the Western Electric Export Corporation in New York. Thirty representatives from all parts of the world met together to preview the newest recording and reproducing equipment and other theatre accessories. Peters pointed out that new techniques employed in the recording of sound, brought about by wartime research, would enable producers in Hollywood to almost literally bring the actors in person to the screen of every theatre across the country. Postwar equipment has been designed to faithfully reproduce voice and music in a natural manner never before attained, with the result that the future promises much greater enjoyment for movie fans. "House | Live In’ Soon in Release “The House I Live In,” an RKO short starring Frank Sinatra and described as a “milestone in the cause of inter-racial understanding,” is expected to be released here shortly. All profits from the showing of this short feature are going to organizations engaged in comhatting the problem of juvenile delinquency. RKO 2-Reel Comedy “Trouble or Nothing” will be the title of RKO’s next two-reel comedy starring Edgar Kennedy. Canadian FILM WEEKLY Chaplin Honored by UA Sales Staff HE boys over at United Artists are going all-out for their new boss, Charlie Chaplin. They’ve picked the week from November 26 to December 1 to be Charlie Chaplin Friendship Week as part of the Grad Sears $100,000 sales drive. The boys aren’t being altogether altruistic, because by boosting Charlie they’ll be boosting themselves into a substantial hunk of the bonanza by swelling the total business during the period of the drive, October, November and December. Charlie has always hit the kall pretty hard in the film league, the hotstovers will tell you, and when Bert Jeffery passed on he was figured as the man to bat fourth. The decision was not only popular with the trade generally but with the boys who flaunt the UA crest in the country’s key positions. Because of that the nomination of a period as Charlie Chaplin Friendship Week is not just a familiar industry selling routine but an honest tribute to the man out of the ranks who got the top spot. The former Montreal branch manager has done much to vindicate his choice and you can hear plenty of chatter from UA positions these days. In the Toronto area Doug Rosen, chief, is supported by Al Iscove and both these lads are welcome sights to film buyers. Doug is one of the friendliest, most pleasant fellows to come out of the West and show the eastern competitors a thing or two—as.well as the westerners who preceded him, of which there were plenty. Al Iscove, of course, is as ready with a smile as he is a contract. In Montreal George Heiber speaks up for United Artists and bookers and buyers are glad to listen, for Georgie makes sense about pictures. He’s an ambitious, clever lad who deserves his share of the breaks, for he’s serious, sincere and enthusiastic. In Saint John Sam Kunitzky is doing well for his outfit, as are the boys who are entrusted with the reputation and welfare of United Artists in the other centres. They are for the most part bright young men whose awareness and energetic exposition of the company’s product reflects the lively, growing character of the country which produced them. Canadian film men enjoy an international reputation these days for their capabilities and the UA gang, given half the break they deserve, will bring the industry even more credit. In the meantime the company’s lineup, improving from season to season, embraces every type of picture for every type of theatre and the men who are boosting the product are among the easiest to do business with in Canada’s distribution field. The films being offered as part of the drive are: The magnificent “Since You Went Away,” with Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Robert Walker, Lionel Barrymore, Monty Woolley and Jennifer Jones. “l’)] Be Seeing You,” with Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple. The Shirley Temple boom is on in a big way right now and the UA films featuring her are winning many dates from alert exhibitors. “Dark Waters,” with Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter and Elisha Cook, Jr. “Captain Kidd,” with Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott and Barbara Britton, is on a subject perfect for escapist entertainment, yet featuring action and adventure. “Mr. Emmanuel” and ‘Colonel Blimp” are two J. Arthur Rank productions, the latter in Technicolor. “Blood on the Sun” features the popular Jimmy Cagney and Sylvia Sydney, rising fast in her return as a boxoffice star. “Bedside Manner” stars Ruth Hussey, John Carroll and Ann Rutherford. “Delightfully Dangerous” is headed by Constance Moore and Ralph Bellamy, supported by Jane Powell, Arthur Treacher and Morton Gould and His Orchestra. “The Great John L’” is a roaring prizefight. drama with a new star, Greg McClure, who shares the lead with Linda Darnell and Barbara Britton. “Three is a Family’ has Marjorie Reynolds, Arthur Lake and Charlie Ruggles. “Guest in the House” is starred in by Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy and Marie (The Body) McDonald. Still bringing them into the theatres are two Lester Cowan productions, “Tomorrow the World,” increasing in timeliness because it deals with the poisoned minds of German children, and the almost unparalleled “The Story of G.I. Joe,” with Burgess Meredith. “The Fifth Chair” has a strong boxoffice lineup of players—Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee, William Bendix, Binnie Barnes and Victor Moore. “Guest Wife’ is a lively comedy of the type made popular by November 7, 1945 CHARLES CHAPLIN Canadian chief of United Artists, who has been honored by his men with a Charlie Chaplin Friendship Week. Claudette Colbert in the past. She stars in it, along with Don Ameche and they are supported by Richard Foran and Charles Dingle. Two Edward Small productions complete the list, “Abroad With Two Yanks,” with William Bendix, Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker and John Loder; and “Brewster’s Millions,’ with Dennis O’Keefe, Helen Walker, June Havoc, Gail Patrick, Mischa Auer and “Rochester.” The boxoffice is receiving plenty of help from Larry Stephens, who is handling publicity and advertising for the company. DeMille Will make Commercial Films Motion Pictures are the teacher of the future, Cecil B. DeMille declared recently in announcing his entry into the industrial, educational and religious film production field. He has formed the Cecil B. DeMille Pictures Corporation, to handle the new endeavor separately from his making of regular entertainment features. Plan Benefit Show For Showman's Kin Ottawa Theatre Managers’ Association has unanimously decided to hold a benefit midnight show at the Capitol Theatre, Sunday, November 4th, for Mrs. Bill Morin, whose husband, wellknown locally as an entertainer, died recently as the result of an accident. Bill Morin always gave freely of his services to aid the unfortunate and his untimely passing left his wife without adequate means of support for herself and her family. a ~