Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 2, 1948)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jun 2, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 2, 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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June 2, 1948 World Theatres Total 88,765 (Continued from Page 1) field Andrus, editor and news editor, respectively, of The Film Daily, the Year Book estimates that 500 new theatres were built in 1947 and that the world total ‘ of theatres has a seating capacity of 39,178,781. Other informative and interesting facts given by the Year Book are: Theatres operating in the USA as of January ist, 1948, totalled 18,351, which included 36 newsreel and 622 Negro houses. The estimated world gross of American motion pictures totalled $2,465,000,000 in 1947. Hollywood feature production costs reached an estimated $451,000,000 last year. Features planned for production in the USA in 1948 are 433. Estimated 1947 USA _ film rentals were $547,850,000. There were 66 film exchanges operating in six Canadian cities. The average daily attendance per USA film theatre was 804 and the average seating capacity for these houses was 635. (Continued from Page 8) and $2,500,000 on shorts in 1946 (these figures do not take into account capital investment). The Canadian government maintains the National Film Board, but does nothing to subsidize the private film industry. The total private investment in one of the most important parts of the industry—that located in the Province of Quebec—is said to amount to no more than $1,000,000. The costs of feature films produced in Canada have ranged from $150,000 to $500,000. The production technique has resembled United Sates in some cases, but in most instances it has been found too expensive to bring in first--class personnel, costumes, etc., for the making of only one picture at a time. A few days after the British Government’s announcement of a 75 percent tax on United States films, a representative of one of the large United States producers went to Canada to see whether he could obtain a studio. However, it is not believed that any sizeable United States branch, British branch, or wholly domestic feature film production industry will materialize in Canada for a long time. (To Be Concluded) ‘You pay no more-oftenless. NOW AVAILABLE | FOR IMMEDIATE ; DELIVERY. ~ Why be satisfied with anything but the BEST? FACTORY ALIGNMENT GAUGES USED ON GENERAL THEATRE Toronto e 104 Bond St, Montreal 288 St. Catherine W. ALL REPAIRS OUPPLY 'rTeo Winnipeg ° 185 Portage E. Vancouver 963 Granville St. Oe THE MYST OF THE IC THE SUPERWORLD INV ADING. x ESTERD AY | ! TRUE! a. a Rar UNBELIEVABLE! ‘ : ad eae * > Sf Se ASTRAL FILM A Film Classics Production REMARKABLE! UNIMAGINABLE! a = Ss