Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 2, 1947)

Page scan 0003 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jul 2, 1947
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 2, 1947)
Leaf #:
0003
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 4 Canadian FILM WEEKLY .. July 2, 1947 There Were 10,000 Fans on Hand to Help Create Variety Village N. Battleford Council Checking Permit A proposal by Famous Players Canadian Corporation to build a new theatre in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, was held in abeyance by council while the authenticity of a permit from the Provincial theatre inspector to another theatre builder was being checked. This latter house is at present under construction. Members of a group intending to build a community theatre were the ones who questioned the permit and they stated that they will withdraw if the letter is found to be authoritative. At present the only theatre operating is Famous Players’ 510seat Empress. Ballerina Tested Ricky Soma, 18-year-old ballerina, is being screen-tested for the lead role in Jesse L. Lasky's “The Miracle of the Bells.’ hs Elmer Yoter, Toronto Maple Leaf manager, and Tommy Thomas, manager of the Baltimore Orioles, flank Chief Barker John J. Fitzgibbons at the great game in behalf of Variety Village. In the next photo we see Yoter and the crippled kids who occupied Ted Covert’s Royal Box. First photo on the bottom shows Mayor Robert Saunders and Fitzgibbons with the youngsters and in the other photo we see Conny Smythe of the hockey Maple Leafs with Peter Campbell of the baseball Leafs. Shooting Started On e o Mono's ‘Big Flight’ Carl Krueger, Monogram producer, has started filming of his air feature, “The Big Flight,” at March Field, with active cooperation of Unifed States Army Air Forces. Making their first appearance in a dramatic film, five squadrons of Shooting Star (P 80) jet planes took part in maneuvers, with Henry Sharp and William Clothier photographing the action. Krueger recently handled deal for Monogram release of the USAAF Technicolor film, ‘‘Thunderbolt.” Jane Wyman Signs New WB Contract Jack L. Warner, executive producer of Warner Bros., announced that Jane Wyman, starring in the current “Cheyenne,” had been signed to a straight ten-year contract which will continue her association with the Burbank studio for a total period of more than 20 years. The new pact begins January 1, 1948. Edgar Bergen Cast Edgar Bergen will have the comedy lead in RKO’s “I Remember Mama.” New NEB Short Is "Mexico Today’ Latest National Film Board release is ‘‘Mexico Today,” a short which is a comprehensive picture of that country and its people. In two distinct parts, the film shows the old Mexico with its adobe huts, poor lands and miniature industries as compared with the modern Mexico of fine architecture, up-to-date ideas and progressive national life. Of particular interest to Canadian audiences is the showing in the short of the growing friendliness and increasing trade and cultural relations between the two countries. Aussie Star Cast Ron Randell, Australia’s fayorite male star, has been assigned by Columbia to play the romantic role of the family doctor in the Susan Peters-Alexander Knox starrer, ‘The Sign of the Ram,” La WARNER (ada NEWS NOV. |!