Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 22, 1948)

Page scan 00018 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 22, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 22, 1948)
Leaf #:
00018
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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Christmas Number CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 19 iN Compliments } iN of the i iN Season fs i iN To Everybody i in the i Film Industry * JOHNNY COHN TORONTO EEE LE ENE LIE OEE EEE LE LE LE LEE LE LE LEE EEE ELE SA SASASASASASASASAFASAFAIO FAFA Fa Sa » Se QSESASASA SA SASATASASALAFAP ATA 5 EE EEE ELE PEELE E ELE 4 = Season's Greetings . Albert Glazer George Cummings PEERLESS LABORATORIES Toronto EE EEE EE ELE ELE LEE LEE d SA ‘“ SERRE TA TE RAPER AAS, SPE LELEE EEE EL EEL EES % Season s Greetings Toronto Motion Picture Projectionists Union KARMA MLL IL PLL ELE LL LL LE EL ELE LE LE LE IE LE EL 7o FASS PAPA PAPE PS FA PATA PA RS FA Fe y SASAPATASASASAFASASOSATO Te Doo ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO (Continued from Page 17) end-named play. The Queen’s seems to have had a quiet opening but the Mail observed that it was crowded, that “the seats were easy oi access” and the house ‘‘excellently designed.” In opposition the Academy of Music offered “The Black Crook.” At Shaftesbury Hall, Mrs. Anna Bliza Young, 19th wife of the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, lectured on “My Life in Bondage,” a recital guaranteed by advance notices not to offend tender tastes. The loss of the Royal Lyceum was more than made up by the theatre which replaced it, the Royal Opera House. Its opening on September 14th, 1874, under the direction of the actor-manager, C. L. Graves of Chicago, provided the city with a distinguished occasion. The lieutenant-governor and the city council were among those who filled its 1,450 seats, 600 of which were in the balcony. Alderman James French, the owner, made a speech and Graves read a poem which pointed out that ‘Where er’st but a few months back, devouring fire made of the Muses fane a funeral pyre” there now stood a magnificent new temple of Thalia. “The entertainment was commenced by a farce not on the program,” sarcastically observed the Daily Leader, “a divertissement by ‘the gods,’ who fully sustained their traditional fame for howling, caterwauling and whistling which added greatly to the comfort of themselves and the rest of the audience.” Then Sheridan Knowles’ company offered Dion Boucicault’s “London Assurance.” The dome of the Royal Opera House, stated the Leader, was lit by 12 metallic reflectors with 100 jets of gas. Around the dome were likenesses of Byron, Burns, Moore and Mozart. Over the proscenium arch Shakespeare gazed back at the audience and beneath his picture were these of his words: “Nothing extenuate nor set down in malice.” The Royal Opera House was to play host to the theatrical world for many years to come, as well as to such luminaries as Henry Ward Beecher, who spoke on “The Reign of the Common People,” and De Marsan Spender, “the Great Dickens Reader.” But its position as Toronto’s newest and most beautiful theatre did not last long. One week later the Grand Opera House, a theatre that was to become international in reputation, opened with more pomp and received an even warmer welcome. For some years the Royal Opera House offered serious competition to the Grand Opera House, then dwindled in importance as varied fare occupied its stage under the sponsorship of a number of managers. One of these, named Kero, gave Toronto something to talk about. In about 1879 Kero, who lived in the Shakespeare Inn, disappeared and was never heard of again. Kero liked to gamble, was known to carry as much as $5,000 cn him and was a conspicuous figure because of a large gold watch-and-chain which spanned his middle. Some theorized that he was done away with for his possessions, one account saying that he had been tossed over Niagara Falls. Others opined that he, a Yankee, had gone back across the border to avoid paying his gambling losses. At a much later date workmen discovered a skull in the cellar and it was thought that it might be that of Kero. Investigation showed that it had been used by the gravediggers in the “Hamlet” of T. C. King, a favorite Toronto actor who was advertised .as “Wngland’s Greatest Tragedian.” As for the Royal Opere House, which later came to be known as the Royal Theatre, it was removed from the local scene by a fire in 1922, after long years of unglamorous service as a factory, first for the manufacture of lithoraphs, then spoons and lastly mattresses. Release Title Set Release title for Columbia’s Randolph Scott starrer filmed as “Wild Bill Doolin” has been set as “$5,000 Reward.” KAVANAUGH HAMUTON 2:9848 * TORONTO L0.63/17 GEE OEE LE LE EE EEE LET, a ZN » SESE PA RAPA AA PA PAPA PA RATA PA BA SA RAPA PAPA PARA 6318 6 on PEELE EEE EEE Ss HER YEAR hoy, 6 PETEMERSEE PERE { PHOTO ENGRAVERS and % ELECTROTYPERS LTD. EEE ZEEE CHARLES and KEN CASHMAN GEIR ENE E RE IERIE vg S N SSE eS OLE EEE NE LENE ELLE, iN Season’s Greetings ¥ General Amusement Services 277 Victoria St. Toronto SSSA SAPS PAPA SADA PAPA PA PARA TATA >) v SERS LL PLE OL Ok OL LE EEE ES aN ts WD, Season's Greetings KAPLAN & SPRACHMAN M.R.A.LC. Architects SAPS IS PGI PS IA DSA PS PAPE PA SA SA PASS SSSA PAPA PSSA SAPS PAPA SAPS PA PAPAS 2 SLE LE LLL SL LLL ELE ELE LE LEE EEE LEE ELE LE ELE LE LE IEE La APaFS PAPA PS RA PAPA PSPS PS PSY a . | :