Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 28, 1953)

Page scan 00010 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 28, 1953
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 28, 1953)
Leaf #:
00010
Language:
English
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, and Global Cinema
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Greig Dymond in memory of David Dymond, 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:
May 23, 2024
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tate iat iad ge soak, acto CE us Mit os wt i all nase each province @ Location, personnel and fees of each censorship Fd Order Your Copy Now! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? An up-to-the-minute list of Canadian theatres, with names, locations, seating capacities and licensees @ 16 mm. Afferent cen places of exhibition @ Boxoffice from 1930 on—theatres, receipts, total admissions @ Personnel of theatre circuits, A COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF INFORMATION distribution companies, studios, labs, equipment and service organizations ® The amusement taxes and licence fees for board @ Production facilities @ Provincial legislation and inspection personnel @ Film carriers @ Newsreels © Credits for every film produced in Canada last year 1953-54 @ Film composers @ List of Canadian producers, directors and writers @ Winners of USA, Canadian and British awards f = AR ® Unions of projectionists, actors, musicians, stagehands, cameramen, etc. @ A complete list of press and radio BOOK film commentators @ Television information @ Canadian of the members of USA engineering and advertising organizations @ Canadian Broadcasting Corporation @ The National CANADIAN Film Board @ And other information, as well as a ; MOTION PICTURE section devoted to the history of the Canadian motion picture INDU STRY theatre and biographies of those who established and developed it from the first days. Edited by HYE BOSSIN Please send me the 1953-54 edition of the CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY | YEAR BOOK. Remittance, including postage, is herewith enclosed for: (1) Non-Subscriber ($2.25) R ft Th e 1) New Subscriber ($3.00 for one year’s subscription and free Year Book) | e urn is | Mail the YEAR BOOK to | | SET i caine erdain ee evicma ean Reread tec rit aN NACROVONN Ene MRS PANN ie va. FILM leet oe ee ee ee ) PUBLICATIONS ON, calid leanne creer eae toe OR CatiNc gs ENE MONE Mee ee helen eae cee of Canada, Ltd. | : | 175 BLOOR ST. EAST Province or State TORONTO 5, ONT. | | CANADA