Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 4, 1948)

Page scan 0004 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Feb 4, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 4, 1948)
Leaf #:
0004
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 21, 2025
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February 4, 1948 Canadian FILM WEEKLY At Opening of New Audio Pictures’ Studio Want Sunday Shows In Yellowknife, NWT At a meeting of the Northwest Territories council recently, the local branch of the Canadian Legion asked that Sunday shows be permitted in Yellowknife for the recreation of miners. Granting of the Legion’s petition would require an amendment to the Lord’s Day Act, but it would apply only to the specified locality, in the opinion of authoritative sources. Sunday shows are legal in Quebec. Young, Pathe Head Eyes RKO And UA R. Young, whose Pathe Industry wholly owns Eagle-Lion Films, Inc., in a recent statement said that “A group of private investors associated with me has been looking at both RKO and United Artists with a view toward a possible investment, but to date nothing has come of it. Whether agreement can be reached on price and other factors is a question for the future to decide,” dash marmmamenmane san \ eos ee cwecbommemaicesioeaii bei taves newest and most complete motion picture studio in New Toronto as guests of Audio Pictures. The top photo on the left shows the Honorable D. Roland Michener, Provincial Secretary, who represented Ontario Premier George Drew; Arthur Gottlieb, president of Audio Pictures; Mayor Robert Saunders of Toronto; and Hans Tiesler, vice-president, who is in charge of production. Mr. Michener officially opened the studio. In the top right photo Edward S. Currie, general manager of the Canadian Kodak Company, is shown being interviewed over CJBC by Lorne Greene. In the left photo in the centre panel a section of the crowd on the sound stage is shown and in the right the old-time oasis for the thirsty. The bottom left photo shows Tiesler; Al Young, Du-Art Laboratories, NY; Gottlieb; Arthur Loucks, Loucks and Norling Studios, NY; John Hans, Depicto Pictures, NY; and Al Raffe, Craftsmen, Limited, NY. Entertainment and atmosphere was in the mood of the 90s, as indicated by the bartenders and Violet Murray. ee Brampton Theatres To Be Re-Named Odeon Theatres’ Capitol in Brampton, Ontario, undergoing extensive alterations, will be renamed the Odeon when it is again opened for business shortly. The new theatre being built by Odeon, which is expected to open sometime in March, will be named the Roxy on completion, Committee Endorses No Smoking Bylaw Civic legislation committee of Toronto City Council endorsed a request for permissive legislation to provide a bylaw governing smoking in theatres in the city. Bylaw sought would give Toronto power to allow smoking where facilities were satisfactory and prohibit where otherwise, Page 5 Thousands joined in celebrating the opening of Canada’s Theatre Employees Help Nab Gunmen Cleverness and quick thinking by theatre employees aided Toronto police last week in the apprehension of two men suspected of armed robbery in two different sections of the city. In the first instance a lone holdup man shoved a gun at the cashier of the Bedford Theatre and made her hand over the ticket money. The manager, Neil Talling, saw the man running from the booth and, on being informed that the same man had apparently held up a cafe previously, immediately notified all theatres in the neighborhood, with the result that the man was caught by the police in the Glendale Theatre. An usher at the College theatre, Lewis Urry, while taking’ care of the boxoffice queue happened to overhear a constable calling in the description of a man wanted for the armed holdup of a nearby drug store. When he recognized the suspect in the theatre lineup, Urry informed the officer and the man was arrested,