Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 8, 1947)

Page scan 0009 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 8, 1947
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 8, 1947)
Leaf #:
0009
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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etait Page 10 Mark Hellinger Joins Selznick The future productions of Mark Hellinger, which will in clude three Humphrey Bogart pictures and one Ernest Hemingway story, will be released throughout the world by the Selznick Releasing Organization. This was the gist of an announcement last night by Daniel T. O’Shea and Neil Agnew in behalf of the David O. Selznick Enterprises and by Hellinger and A. Morgan Maree for Mark Hellinger Productions, Inc. The contract calls for six pictures to be produced and delivered at the rate of three per year. The first production will go before the cameras this coming Spring. Hellinger’s current picture, ‘The Naked City,” starring Barry Fitzgerald, will be his last picture for release by UniversalInternational. Mark Hellinger’s productions will bring to SRO not only film stars Humphrey Bogart and Burt Lancaster, but also many of the literary works of Ernest Hemingway. Mark Hellinger has an exclusive arrangement with Hemingway whereby Hellinger will make four pictures based on Hemingway’s stories within the next eight years. Bogart, who will star in one of the Hemingway stories, is a stockholder in Mark Hellinger Productions, Inc. and is under exclusive contract to that organization, except for his one picture yearly with Warner Brothers. Lancaster is also under contract to Hellinger. Both Bogart and Lancaster will appear in at least one and possibly two of the films called for under the Selznick deal. . A number of the Selznick stars will also appear in the Hellinger pictures. List of Selznick contract actors and stars, one of the largest and most important in the industry, includes Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Dorothy McGuire, Shirley Temple, Valli, Robert Young, Louis Jourdan, Robert Mitchum, Guy Madison and_ countless others. Screen Indian Films In Toronto Houses A number of trade screenings of Indian films have taken place in the Fairlawn and Royal Alexandra Theatres, ‘Toronto, under the auspices of the Indian Government Trade Commissioner, M. R. Ahuja, OBE. The most recent showings were at the Royal Alexandra, where an invited audience looked at “The Journey of Dr. Kotnis,’ in English, and “Ram Rajya,” with English titles. w Canadian FILM WEEKLY wd Rf» of Cinema in Canada (From the Saturday Night, Toronto) The Paris critics have been pretty harsh to the first major film of French Canadian production to reach the screen in their city, a piece called “La Forteresse,”” which is rather neatly described by one of them as “speaking French but thinking American.” This, we fear, is the legitimate and proper reward of an effort to do in the province of Quebec what can be much better done in Hollywood. If the Canadian producers of films, in either language, are going to content themselves with merely warming over the old and habitual dishes served up by the “international” producers they might just as well save their money right away. It is even suggested that the scenario for “La Forteresse” was bought second-hand from a Hollywood company, and worked over into French by a writer who would probably have been capable of producing something much more characteristic off his own bat. There may be a shortage of people in Canada who know the technical tricks of the cinema trade, but there is no shortage of good imaginative artists who know the Canadian material, and who could learn all the necessary tricks in six month. True, there is always the risk that while learning the tricks they will forget the knowledge, or allow themselves to be persuaded by Hollywood that the tricks are everything and the knowledge is nothing. But that is a risk that must be taken, and with a really good artist there is always a strong chance that his art will survive. MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS NOW! For the Annual MEETING and LUNCHEON of the MOTION PICTURE THEATRES ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO To be held TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21st, 1947 at the KING EDWARD HOTEL, TORONTO {Vanity Fair) Business Meeting 10.30 A.M. Registration 10 A.M. Luncheon 1PM. MOTION PICTURE THEATRES ASS’N OF ONTARIO ARCH H. JOLLEY, Secretary 21 Dundas Square ELgin 9630 Toronto, Ont. October 8, 1947 Command Pert. Being Readied Eric Johnston has announced that the American film industry has pledged its full support tc make an outstanding event of the second Royal Command Performance which will be held on the night of November 26th at the Odeon Theatre, London. An American motion picture, Johnston reported, will be selected for this year’s performance. The King, Queen, Princess Margaret Rose and_ possibly Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip are scheduled to be present at the performance which is sponsored by the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund for a worthwhile English charity connected with the entertainment world. In addition to all major film companies which are members of the Motion Picture Association of America, Johnston emphasized the fact that independent producers have been asked to enter their most important feature film for consideration for this booking of honor and prestige. A delegation of American film stars will travel to London with Norman Siegel, Hollywood liaison for the performance. Montreal Showmen Lunch Aboard Ship Some 15 men and women from the film industry in Montreal were guests of W. L. Payne, director of motion pictures and speakers’ bureau of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at a luncheon aboard the company’s liner, the Empress of Canada, while she was in port. Those attending included William Elman, president of the Montreal Film Board of Trade; W. J. Singleton, general manager of Associated Screen News; J. M. Alexander, also of ASN; and Captain E. A. Shergold, master of the ship. Toronto Library Will Handle Non-Th. Pix Educational films, previously handled by other organizations in Toronto will be _ distributed through the Central Circulating Library, College and St. George Sts., and will be available for borrowing by community centres, ’ other organizations and groups and individuals arranging educational film displays, it was announced recently. Inauguration of the new service at the public library has been made possible by co-operation between the Toronto Central Film Committee, city council and public library board. City council has made a grant of $1,000 to the film committee for purchase of educational films this year,