Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1946)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 2, 1946
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1946)
Leaf #:
0000
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 07, 2025
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.

Vol. 11, No. 1 How Theatre Men Hail End of Bingo Unrestrained bingo operations, forbidden by law, have reached “immense proportions” in the special circumstances which the war brought about and will now be curtailed, Ontario’s AttorneyGeneral Leslie Blackwell announced last week. Lotteries too (Continued on Page 6) Pix Maintained Army Morale Canadian Army morale was maintained by the entertaining pictures sent by the industry to the Canadian Army ‘Overseas, Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes, chief of the general staff, declared in a letter to the War Activities Committee of the (Continued on Page 6) VOICE of ——— ---—Soa a 5 — out the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE a Victory TORONTO, JANUARY 2, 1946 Poet eee Hollywood Banquet Raises Question in Dominion Presentation of plaques to the War Activities Committee and the Hollywood Victory Committee, both USA film industry war effort organizations, by Hon. L. B. Pearson, Canadian ambassador to the United States, has raised Regal Signs with Exchange Union Toronto Film Exchange Employees Union, Local B-78 of the IATSE has signed a collective agreement wtih Regal Film Oorporation. The agreement, first of its kind in the local film exchange industry, provides for increased wages, maintenance of membership, grievance and arbitration procedure, seniority, two weeks’ holiday with pay, and sick leave. The union officials are conducting negotiations with a number of film exchanges in the city. Rank, Pathe Close World Dist’n Deal The J. Arthur Rank interests of Great Britain and those of Robert R. Young—Pathe Industries—have entered an Anglo-American distribution agreement for the world market which will apply to a program of 20 films, ten from each. The films will be marketed throughout the world beginning September, 1946, under the “Eagle-Lion” trademark, the symbol of Rank’s distribution organization. The Young interests, emphasizing that neither the program nor the personnel of PRC, which they own, will be affected, will form a new com-~ pany to handle the films in the United States and Central and South America and its ownership will be vested in Pathe Industries. The name “Eagle Lion Films, Ince.,” as it is used cur (Continued on Page 4) the question of victory dinners in Canada by every regional branch of the Motion Picture War Services Committee. The plaques, symbolizing Canada’s gratitude to Hollywood for its assistance during the period of hostilities, were presented be ‘fore more than 300 of Holly A HAPPY NEW YEAR wood’s leading citizens at a dinner given by the National War (Continued on Page 2) Elect Officers Don Stapleton was elected president and Bob Martin of the Rexy, Ottawa, was elected secretary at a recent meeting of the eastern division of MPTAO. INDUSTRY $2.00 ‘Per Annum Dinner? Observe Odeon Anniversary At a Christmas banquet which coincidentally celebrated the first anniversary of Odeon Theatres, in the Maritimes on an expanded scale, A. I. Garson, Maritimes manager of the chain, was host to representatives of the motion picture business and civic and (Continued on Page 10) High Honors to Spyros Skouras Spyros P. Skouras president of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation and head of Greek War Relief in the USA last week received the highest honor of his native land as a climax of triple public commendation. The Gold Cross of Saviour was (Continued on Page 2) Kershaw Resigns, Brown Now Prexy Peter D. Brown, vice-president and general manager of General Theatre Supply Company, has been appointed president of the company, succeeding Frank H. Kershaw who came east to take over the position he has just resigned. The announcement was made by R. W. Bolstad, vice-presis dent of Famous Players. Kershaw will return to the west coast to enter business for himself. The promotion of Pete Brown to the presidency is in line with the company’s policy of promotion from within the ranks of the organization. Brown has served in the company in a number of capacities since 1930. J. J. (Jack) Fitzgibbons, Jr., has been associated with Frank Kershaw in the organization and development of Theatre Confec (Continued on Page 2) in a rip-roaring film from — Empire-Universal with ALAN CHANEY, CURTIS, LON KENT TAYLOR, NOAH BEERY, Jr. and MARTHA O'DRISCOLL. It’s a BOXOFFICE special from EMPIRE-UNIVERSAL,