Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 11, 1948)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Feb 11, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 11, 1948)
Leaf #:
0008
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 11, 1948 with ELLA RAINES ARLEEN WHELAN » RAY COLLINS o WITH PROMOTIONAL AIDS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR BOX-OFFICE SING. (2) | mpi From re -Lniwerscn! efilins, Limited Canadian FILM WEEKLY Gre REELECTION A Study in lnaleseace (From the Ottawa Evening Citizen) “Crossfire,” one of Hollywood’s rare incursions into the field of basic social problems, will be shown in Ottawa in the next few days. Both as a documentary and as entertainment of the thriller type it is worth seeing. An indictment of anti-Semitism on this continent, it is at the same time an urgent warning against racial or religious intolerance of any kind. It emphasizes the dangerous consequences of the “blind, ugly hate” which some people carry about with them “like a loaded gun.” In the film story this blind hate leads to murder, a handling of the theme to which no doubt certain critics might object on the ground that although some people may dislike Jews they rarely end up by killing them. The technical excellence of the film, however, is undeniable. And iis message is even more timely than its creators could have foreseen. For since its filming the two men chiefly responsible for it—Adrian Scott, the producer, and Canadian-born Edward Dmyiryk, the director—have been dismissed from the Hollywood siudio by which they were employed because they were among the ten or so leading Hollywood producers, script-wriiers and others who refused before the recent hearings oi the Committee on Un-American Activities to declare their political opin Shu ions and accordingly were cited for contempt. First Tele Newsreel Set By Fox, Reynolds Television’s first daily motion picture newsreel will »e broadcast over the entire east coast network of NBC every weekday at 7.50 p.m. beginning February 16th. Produced by 20th CenturyFox’ Movietone News, it will be sponsored by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for Camei Cigarettes. Deal was set by Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th-Fox, Thomas D. lLuckenbill, vicepresident of William Esty Co., advertising agency for the tobacco company, and Frank E. Mullen, executive vice-president of NBC. Movietone News will produce the video newsreel in addition to its regular releases and will throw its world-wide resources behind the telecast, flying in its reels to New York from its cameramen all over the globe. Plans eventually call for the broadeast to extend from coast to coast. MGM's "The Yearling’ Given PMPC Award MGM’s production of Marjorie IXinnan Rawlings’ Pulitzer Prize novel, “The Yearling,’ was presented with the Protestant Motion Picture Council’s 1947 Award for the Picture of the Year at a recent luncheon in New York. Plaque was given by Mrs. Jesse M. Bader, chairman of the Council, and accepted by J. Robert Rubin, vice-president of Loew’s Inc. Big-Scale Production Slated For Jamaica N. N. Nethersole, a Kingston, Jamaica, lawyer, issued a statement recently that Independent American and British producers had set details of a plan to establish a major-scaie film industry in Jamaica. Higures given by INethersole were for an unbelievable amount and plan was said by him to be set up primarily to close the gap between Hollywood and Britain caused by the 75 per cent tax on American films. He said the Independent producers were attempting to break away from the control of large American and British corporations and expected to be aided by the film laws of both the UK. and the USA. Technical experts were scheduled to arrive shortly to begin arrangements for the groundwork and it was hoped that production could begin in 1949. Mono's ‘Street Song’ Monogram will film Hal Collin’s “Street Song.” "Birth Of Baby’ Big In Montreal Date Proof of the power of that type of film at the boxoffice is the record )usiness being done by “Birth of a Baby,” reissued after several years by Pioneer Films. The film, playing its first Quebec engagement, has been doing capacity business at His Majesty’s Theatre, Montreal, The Studio that brought you “THEEGG awl NOW BRINGS YOU "THESENATOR WAS INDISCREET The Picture that GIVES YOU THE LAUGHTIME OF YOUR LIFETIME “Tip-top entertainment of a type audiences haven't had in a long time and could stand.” —VARIETY “Sparkling satirical comedy eee top-notch.” —SHOWMEN’S TRADE REVIEW “Laugh-provoking satire... headed for the better returns.” —THE EXHIBITOR “Rollicking satire ... Expert handling all the way. An eye-opening entertainment.“ —THE FILM DAILY “A delightful romp... redeemable at any boxoffice!’ —MOTION PICTURE HERALD Limited