Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 17, 1949)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Aug 17, 1949
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 17, 1949)
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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August 17, 1949 —RKO-Canada L the faith in the quality of the product shown by Mochrie and the New York executives, Leo Devaney and his Canadian compatriots think well of their chances to score twice in suc~ cession. Three of the principal attractions of the new season will be The Outlaw, Mad Wednesday and Vendetta, which were personally produced by Hughes before bhecoming active head of the studios. Independent affiliates releasing through RKO include Samuel Goldwyn, Walt Disney, John Ford and Merian C. Cooper, Walter Wanger, Sol Lesser, Polan Banks, Jack Skirball, Niven Busch, Irving Allen and Franchot Tone. Of the 40 features, more than one-half are completed. Currently, five big-budget films are before the cameras in Italy, France, England and Hollywcod. Early in the Fall, RKO will begin release of Howard Hughes’ production of The Outlaw, a picture which has become known to millions, although few have ever seen it. Nine features on the new program will be in color. Samuel Goldwyn will be represented by three productions: Roseanna McCoy, Beloved Over All and My Foolish Heart. First on the release list is Roseanna McCoy, whose story takes its theme from the Hatfield-McCoy feud. It stars include Farley Granger, Charles Bickford, Raymond Massey, Richard Basehart, Gigi Perreau, and introduces Joan Evans, Goldwyn’s latest star discovery. Granger and Joan Evans are teamed again in Beloved Over All, in which Goldwyn introduces a new find, Phyllis Kirk. {My Foolish Heart will have Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Kent Smith and Lois Wheeler in the leading roles. Walt Disney will have three features on the list. The iirst, an all-cartoon feature, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, is Disney’s interpretation of Washington Irvin’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” with the tale of the Headless Horseman told and sung by Bing Crosby, while Basil Rathbone recounts the story of the fabulous Mr. Toad from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind of the Willows. Disney is now in England producing Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” This will be his first excursion in all-live action, feature production, and will have color by Technicolor. Cinderella will be an early release, The second Howard Hughes production to be released, Mad Canadian FILM WEEKLY ineup: 40 For 49-50 (Continued from Page 1) CANADA’‘S DEVANEY COPS RKO Leo M. Devaney (left), Canadian district manager for RKO Radio Pictures, is-shown being congratulated by Robert S. Mochrie, the company’s vice-president and general sales manager, for winning the President’s Prize as leading drive captain in the 1949 Ned Depinet Drive. The presentation wos made at the recent sales meeting in Toronto, ; Wednesday, will introduce to a new generation the bespectacled Harold Lloyd. The cast of Hughes’ third production, Vendetta, is headed by Faith Domergue, George Dolenz and Hilary Brooke. Jane Russell will be seen in three RKO pictures during 1950. They are It’s Only Money, 2 comedy with music, which costars Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx; Shanghai Incident, with Robert Michum co-starred; and [Montana Belle, a super-western in Truecolor. : Gary Grant is to star in a feature called Cheater of Cheats. One of the top attractions will be a story of air power, Jet Pilot, which will co-star John Wayne and Janet Leigh. It will be in Technicolor and the production will be personally supervised by Hughes. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, an Argosy production, directed by John Ford, has color by Technicolor and is an heroic tale of the far west. The cast is headed by John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr. and features Victor McLaglen, George O’Brien ‘PRESIDENT’S PRIZE’ Arthur Shields and Mildred Natwick. Robert Michum is represented with Christmas Gift and The Big Steal, besides the already mentioned Shanghai Incident. In Christmas Gift his co-star will be Janet Leigh. The Big Steal stars William Bendix and has Jane Greer as his leading lady. Weep No More, to be released this Fall, stars Joseph Cotten and Valli. Claudette Colbert, George Brent and Robert Young are teamed in Love Is Big Business, produced by Jack S. Skirball. He will also produce a new melodrama, Blind Spot. The Man on the Hiffel Tower, filmed in Paris, is the first feature made with the new Ansco color process. This stars Charles Laughton, Franchote Tone, Burgess Meredith, Robert Hutton, Jean Wallace, Patricia Roc and Belita. Savage Splendor, in color, records an expedition into Africa organized by Armand Denis and Lewis N. Cotlow. It brings to the screen some amazing wild animal scenes, Glen Ford and Valli have the Page 9 leading roles in The White Tower. The cast so far includes Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Claude Rains and Oscar Homolka. Victor Mature will star in two vehicles, Mr. Whiskers and Easy Living. The latter stars Lucille Ball, Lizabeth Scott, Sonny Tufts and Lloyd Nolan, Carriage Entrance, to be produced by Polan Banks, stars Ann Sheridan and Robert Young. Bed of Roses, headed by Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott and Joan Leslie, is before the cameras. I Married a Communist is the story of a couple caught in the mesh of Red intrigue. Laraine Day, Robert Ryan and John Agar are the stars. The Bail Bond Story, an expose of a multi-million dollar a year racket, stars George Raft, Ella Raines, Pat O’Brien and Bill Williams. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell are starred in They Live By Night, directed by Nicholas Ray. Roughshod, a western with a different twist, stars Robert Sterling, John Ireland, Claude Jarman, Jr., and Gloria Grahame. Tarzan fans will see Lex Barker in a new Sol Lesser production, Tarzan and the Slave Girl. Harriet Parsons will produce Come Share My Love. Strange Bargain, a drama, will unite Martha Scott and Jeffrey Lynn. RKO will continue presentation during the balance of 1949 of Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman. Other features are Follow Me Quietly, Make Mine Laughs, Arctic Fury and Terror. Six Tim Holt western features complete the feature program. Short subjects will include a series of Disney single reel releases, including six specials and six revivals of the most popular Technicolor cartoon hits. The first of the new Walt Disney series of True Life Adventure films is Seal Island, photographed in color on the Pribilof Islands. Other short films include two new My Pal short subjects featuring the dog, Flame, six tworeel comedies starring Leon Errol and six two-reel comedy specials featuring comedy stars. From RKO Pathe there will be 13 of the popular This Is America 6eries, as well as 13 Sportscopes; two two-reel sport subjects and a two-reel Technicolor special The Boy and the Eagle narrated by and starring Dickie Moore. RKO Pathe will also continue the series of 13 one-reel Screenliner subjects,