Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 15, 1948)

Page scan 00012 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Sep 15, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 15, 1948)
Leaf #:
00012
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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September 15, 1948 Eagle-Lion In Triple Montreal Opening Eagle-Lion is setting up a triple-smash series of openings in Montreal, all scheduled for mid-September. The Canadian premiere of Sir Laurence Olivier’s ‘‘Hamlet’”’ is set for the Odeon-Kent on September 20th. The film, already reporting a heavy advance sale, will start an extended run on a $1.50 boxoffice scale. On September 19th, J. Arthur Rank’s million-dollar Technicolor film of the Olympic Games in 12 reels, starts at His Majesty’s. The print is being flown over specially from London by BOAC. The same week, to celebrate Canadian Army Week, ‘‘Against the Wind” is to play at the Avenue. The film, a thriller which reveals hush-hush tactics of the British and Canadian armies during the war, has a Belgian locale and two Canadian stars, Paul Dupuis and Robert’ Beatty. “Against the Wind” is one feature of the week’s Army pro gram worked out by French and’ English regiments in Montreal. ‘Neptune's Daughter" Red Skelton is to do a comedy swimming routine with costar Esther Williams in MGM’s “Neptune’s Daughter’ now in preparation for an early shooting date. Canadian FILM WEEKLY MARSHALL DINNER ON SEPT. 18th Members of Tent 28, Toronto, Variety International, have been invited to be present at the Humanitarian Award Dinner in honor of the Honorable George C. Marshall, USA Secretary of State, at the Statler Hotel, Washington, on September 18th. They were so informed by John J. Fitzgibbons, chief barker cf the Toronto. tent, who will be there as an international Officer and will attend the three-day business session which precedes the dinner. Hye Bossin, editor of the Canadian Film Weekly, has bzen invited as a guest of the committee. The leading figures of the motion picture world have been made members of the honorary committee for the occasion. Membership in the Toronto tent was conferred on Roly Young, Lucio Agostini, Bob Kesten, Mervin Goldstone, Al Perly, Bert Wilkes, Jacob Smith, Joe Marks, Myer and Bernard Okun, Bill Forman, John Murray Anderson, J. C. Cohen, Irving Stern, Monte Beder and Bill Reeves. It was announced that the annual Blues Vs. Whites interclub game of the Maple Leaf Hockey Club will be played on October 12th for the Heart Fund. About 100 barkers turned out for the first meeting of the new season. Rogers And Astaire Team In MGM Film Metro -Goldwyn-Mayer will bring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire together again in the Technicolor musical, ‘The Barkleys of Broadway.” Miss Rogers will replace Judy Garland, who has been ordered to take a long rest by her physician. Charles Walters, who directed Astaire and Miss Garland in “Easter Parade” will again be behind the cameras, with Arthur Freed producing. Robert Mitchum Set For Role In "Malaya’' Robert Mitchum has been assigned by RKO Radio to one of the top male roles in “Operation Malaya.” Merle Oberon previously was set as the feminine star of this international melodrama written by Manchester Boddy, Los Angeles editor and publisher. Robert Sparks will produce “Operation Malaya.” Filming of the Frank Fenton screenplay will start early in December. Page 13 Three-Picture Deal Set By Hughes, UA Howard Hughes, who recently purchased a controlling interest in RKO, has concluded a deal with United Artists in which the Hughes Tool Company will invest approximately $750,000 in three pictures to be delivered to UA, according to an announcement Gradwell L. Sears, president of the latter organization, made public recently. The agreement was set as part of negotiations through which Hughes reclaimed ‘‘The Outlaw” and two unreleased films, “Mad Wednesday” and “Vendetta,” which he had _ produced for United Artists before buying into RKO. Schulberg To Shoot Series In Italy Operating as an independent producer, B. P. Schulberg has announced that he will make six pictures in Italy and Switzerland by the end of 1949, all to be financed abroad and principally by Itailan bankers. First of the six will be “Goya and the Duchess of Alba,” which Schulberg said he would stage in Italy with Jean Renoir directing. Filming is to begin this autumn. The second picture is to be “Torch in the Wind,’ from an original by Tay Garnett. Paramount CONGRATULATIONS TO Odeon Theatres on the opening of the ODEON TORONTO ‘The Hit Company’ Pictures