Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 28, 1945)

Page scan 00024 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Nov 28, 1945
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 28, 1945)
Leaf #:
00024
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 22, 2024
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November 28, 1945 Canucks at Work Among Aussies Appointment of Ralph Foster to the direction of the Australian Film Board, newly formed ZOvernment organization patterned on Canada’s National Film Board, has stirred curiosity about the state of our craft in the sister Dominion. Foster, who arrived in Australia last April as NFB representative to that country and to arrange film coverage of Canadian participation in the war against Japan, will begin at once to publicize that country through documentary films. Australian film consciousness is probably greater than that of any other country and the allyear round sunshine is a great impetus towards native film production. Last year Australia, with a population of six and one half millions, chalked up 145,763,000 admissions. Canada, with a population of ten and one half millions, had a paid total attendance of 280,167,180. The Aussie figure represents an average of 24 entertainments per year for every man, woman and child, although the presence of Allied troops in large numbers had something to do with it. In 1943 Australia, despite the difference in population, had 1,571 movie theatres, several hundred more than Canada. Several films are being shot in Australia right now, among them one by Columbia and another by Ealing. Ernest Turnbull, leading Aussie exhib, and J. Arthur Rank have a production-distribution deal, it has been reported. Several other Canadians are prominent on the Australian film scene. Sydney Gresham, EKaling representative, is formerly from Toronto, where his family operated theatres; and Nicholas Pery, Columbia manager, is from Quebec. Wolfe Cohen, formerly of Winnipeg and more recently Canadian general manager for Warner Brothers, is well known there in his capacity of WB head for that and other territory. Monogram's Parsons Goes Independent Lindsley Parsons has resigned as producer and studio executive for Monogram Pictures, it is announced. Remaining at the studio in independent production, he plans to re-organize his own company, Lindsley Parsons Productions, Incorporated. He has also accepted a position as co-producer on the new Bowery Boys series, and will devote more time to the production of the Charlie Chan Pictures, in which he has an interest, te Before leaving Sudbury, Ont., for Toronto, Jo Kurk, who managed the Regent Theatre there for three years, was presented with a radio on behalf of his friends at a gathering in his honor. The presentation was made by Verd Mariott, manager of the Grand Theatre. Seen in the In Preparation Canadian FILM WEEKLY Get Your Ad Copy in Noss! Canadian FILM WEEKLY Sudbury Honors Departing Manager phcto, left to Christmas Number Page 25 cy right, are Mariott, Kurk and Max Phillips, former manager of the Regent, who returned to that post after being discharged from the tank corps of the Canadian army. Many friends spoke highly of their association with Kurk.