Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 1, 1947)

Page scan 00013 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 1, 1947
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 1, 1947)
Leaf #:
00013
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 14 Canadian FILM WEEKLY ‘RCMP-File 1365 New NEB Film “RCOMP-File 1365,” a Natvional Film. Board special on tne \-ork of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is getting distribution through Columbia Pictures. The film is due for immediate release in Canada. Running 34 minutes, “RCMPFile 1365” is based on an actual Canadian murder case and written from official RCMP reports. It opens at the scene of the | crime in Regina and follows the Mounties as they chase the fugitive across the Dominion and out into the Atlantic. Shooting was done in Ottawa, Hull, Smith Falls, Regina, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax and aboard one of the RCMP Marine Detachment ships. Besides a number of RCMP officers, NCO’s and men who appear in the film as RCMP, there are several Canadian actors in the production. Red Roberts, a veteran student in Ottawa, plays the victim; Dick Hunter, Montreal student (McGill) and former dancer in RCAF overseas stage productions, plays the murderer. 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Trains appeared to rush out from the screen and clownish characters seemed to poke long poles right into the faces of the balcony customers. The illusion was effective enough, but the spectators were required to view the pictures through spectacles made of colored material. Without them the screen produced a confused and blurred mass of red and blue images. Probably because of the bother entailed in using the spectacles and possibly because of the cost of the process, it proved to be a passing novelty and nothing more. Yet the possibility of heightening reality on the screen . by means of three-dimensional movies remains as a lure for an inventor who turns up a cheap and effective method. The latest attempt is reported from France where one Evelio Lopez, a Spanish engineer, recently demonstrated a new method which is claimed to give a complete illusion of reality. 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Butler recently completed “Two Guys From Texas,” the Dennis Morgan-Jack Carson starrer now being edited and scored. Managerial Change John J. Irwin of Collingwood, Ontario, has replaced Charles Caruso as manager of the 428seat Capitol Theatre in Kincardine, Ontario. "Born Yesterday’ Columbia has purchased the play, “Born Yesterday,” as a new Starring vehicle for Rita Hayworth. "Lost Illusions’ New Tite For Korda Pic Carol Reed’s production based on Graham Greene’s story “The Basement Room,” which is being produced by Sir Alexander Korda’s London Films Productions, will be known as “Lost Illusions,” according to word received by 20th Century-Fox. Michele Morgan ‘and Ralph Richardson will be starred. ——— October 1, 1947 Film Society Asks $50,000 Fund The National Film Society, with headquarters in Ottawa, is campaigning at present to raise $50,000 as working capital, it was stated by C. G. Cowan, president. 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To assist sponsors, such as industry, governments and other groups, the society maintains a screening panel with a knowledge of consumer demand. It also makes regular reports to film sponsors on all bookings, giving such details as date, place, name of organization, number of showings, etc. Under the society’s system, borrowers receive films free, paying only transportation costs. "Cyrano De Bergerac’ Korda-Welles Film Orson Welles, who went to London recently to confer with Sir Alexander Korda, will star in ‘and direct a screen version of Edmond Rostand’s famous play, “Cyrano de Bergerac.” In making the announcement from his London. Film Productions office, Korda also disclosed that Ben Hecht wculd write the script for the picture which will be made in England early in 1948. “Cyrano de Bergerac’ will be released in this country by Twentieth Century-F'ox. WANTED Operator for small town. Good proposition. Apply Box 341, CHATHAM, Ont.