Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 1946)

Page scan 00023 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
May 1, 1946
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 1946)
Leaf #:
00023
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 14, 2025
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Page 24 Fox Experiments With 50 Mm. Joint effort of 20th CenturyFox, Western Electric and Eastman companies, extensive research in the production and exhibition of 50 mm. film gives rise to the opinion that it may be the answer for wide guage producers to the threats of 16 mm. hon? movies and television. Experimentation to date has cost the three firms some $500,000, including the production of two test shorts, but it is felt the use of this extra wide ribbon may permit innovations in production techniques which would widen the scope of the motion picture in theatres. The larger and clearer image permits the sound in theatres 1o come from its logical place, behind the screen, since three sound tracks are shot and as a person moves from left to right across the screen the sound travels with ~ him. Too, although 35 mm. film can be blown up to 50 mm. size, the widest guage shooting cannot be reduced to 16 mm. without serious loss of clarity and filling in of shadows, etc. The special cameras and projection equipment were described as.virtually the same as the standard 35 mm. equipment. Two Goldwyns Go Danny Kaye's next, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” and “The Best Years of Our Life,” directed by William Wyler, are under way at Goldwyn studios. Canadian FILM WEEKLY Some Scenes at the Digest Do They gathered from many points in Canada and the USA when Ray Lewis, assisted by son Jay, celebrated 30 years of reporting the trials and errors, joys and sorrows of Canadian film and theatre folk by the Canadian Moving Picture Digest. In the top photo John J. Fitzgibbons, industry leader, is shown while officiating as toastmaster. On the extreme right is the Honorable J. Earl Lawson, K.C., president of Odeon Theatres of Canada. In the second photo Ray Lewis is shown thanking her guests for their presence. On the left are Mrs. Fitzgibbons and William C. Gehring, 20th Century-Fox, New York. The last photo shows section of the concert hall of the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, where hundreds enjoyed the dinner prior to joining the reception guests in the other chambers and ballroom, —— —~— ~~ omen a> ower tt ee May 1, 1946 New Sask'n Board Plans Four Films Saskatchewan's recently reorganized visual education branch, under the jurisdiction of Education Minister Woodrow Lloyd, will produce four motion pictures this year in cooperation with the National Film Board to inter pret certain activities of the province. Fred Holiday, who was supervisor of the visual education branch, is secretary of the board, members of which are representatives from every phase of provincial and government activity. The branch was renamed, expanded and reorganized ‘‘to be a focal point in the production and distribution of films in the province,”’ according to Lloyd. The work in visual education and the operation of the Provincial Film Library will be done by the Saskatchewan Film Board. The board will also undertake the complete supervision of all National Film Board activities, previously performed by visual education. Holliday will carry on this work as Provincial film commissioner, and be responsible for all film activities in the province. The board will be responsible for all matters concerning its appropriation and the interpretation of policy. In these matters it will be assisted by a Film Council made up of representatives from every department in the Saskatchewan government. The council is composed, for the most part, of deputy ministers and key men in each department. “By adopting the new system the Saskatchewan Film Board hopes to be in a position to service each government department more efficiently, as well as providing the public with better service,” Lloyd said. Stars of 'Devotion' Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid, appearing together in ‘‘Devotion,” will co-star in the C. S. Forester best-seller, ‘‘The African Queen,” recently acquired by Warmers. Hunter To Kingston Odeon Theatre Following the resignation of Grant Garrett as manager of the Odeon, Kingston, Ontario, Claude Hunter, assistant manager at the Capitol, Hamilton, has been promoted to succeed him. Hunter's assistant will be Jim Meehan, just return from the services. Morris Snyder, assistant at the Odeon, Kingston, has been transferred to the Capitol, Hamilton, to succeed Hunter. Don Gauld will be in Kingston for a few days to oversee the change.