Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 7, 1954)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jul 7, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 7, 1954)
Leaf #:
0006
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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July 7, 1954 SEEN! PIERRE JUNEAU (Continued from Page 1) decision by Ian MacNeill to devote himself entirely to the production phase of Film Board work. Before joining the NFB in 1951 as Secretary to the Board, MacNeill was for several years prominent in the Canadian newspaper and magazine fields. As Secretary Juneau, 32, will serve the Board’s governing body of nine, meeting every three months, and, as special assistant, will be filling the post of French Adviser, formerly a separate position. As such he will advise the Commissioner on production and distribution of films in French in Canada and abroad and advise the Commissioner and film directors on social, economic, cultural and religious aspects of French-speaking Canada. He will also consult with leaders in federal and provincial groups, the universities and other organizations on behalf of the Board. Juneau, a Montrealer, joined the National Film Board in 1949 and since has been district representative and assistant regional supervisor in Montreal, chief of the international division in Ottawa and until recently served for two years as assistant UK and European representative in London. Juneau graduated from the College Sainte Marie in Montreal and received the degree of License en Lettres from the Institut Catholique of the Sorbonne, Paris. Before joining the Board, Juneau was national director of the Canadian branch of the Jeunesse Etudiante Catholique, an international student movement. He is married and has two children. UA's "Tiger And The Flame’ United Artists has acquired for release the India-produced film, The Tiger and the Flame. Rudy Mate To Direct Rudy Mate, topflight director, will handle the reins on PineThomas’ Blue Horizons, action drama of the Lewis and Clark expedition, for Paramount. Eddie Foy Biography Next For Bob Hope Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys will be Bob Hope’s next starring picture, it was announced by Paramount following conferences with the many persons who will be concerned in bringing to the screen the biography of the late, great vaudevillian. Jack Rose will produce and Melville Shavelson will direct from their co-authored screenplay. The film will be Hope’s first biographical role and, as_ such, will be a definite departure from his past parts. It will be filmed in VistaVision and Technicolor, CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Friends of the Motion Picture Art in Canada This photograph was taken during the recent annual meeting of the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa, Standing, left to right, are lan McNeill, former secretary of the National Film Board and former chairman of the CFI’s Film Societies Division; James A. Cowan, president of the CFI; and Gaudry Delisle, director of Visual Education, Quebec Department of Education, and CFI vice-president. Sitting are Dr, F. J. Alcock, chief curator, National Museum of Canada and Mrs. Frances Flaherty, widow of the great documentary producer, Robert Fiaherty. Mrs. Flaherty was present in connection with the Robert Flaherty Festival held during the meeting. MGM Buys Story For Esther Williams Don’t Go Near the Water, an original story by Leonard Spigelglass, has been purchased by MGM as a starring vehicle for Esther Williams. In the romantic comedy with both American and Continental backgrounds, Miss Williams will portray a girl working at an Arizona rest home who becomes involved with a jaded and jittery European actress who, upon being restored to health by Miss Williams, insists that she accompany her to Europe. Signed For ‘Track Of The Cat’ Diana Lynn and Tab Hunter have been signed by Warners to star with Robert Mitchum in Track of the Cat. DRIVE-IN THEATRE STATISTICS Year No. Car Cap. Admissions Receipts 1953 182 —wNo figures issued yet for this year— 1952 104 50,497 8,379,586 $4,409,426 1951 82 40,520 6,554,572 3,347,679 1950 60 31,523 4,943,000 2,290,679 1949 30 15,924 3,019,314 1,393,760 1948 15 9,975 1,595,947 658,641 1947 7 5,438 670,583 274,325 1946 3 —wNo figures were given for this year— 1952 DRIVE-IN STATISTICS BY PROVINCES Province No. Car Cap. Seat Cap. Admissions Receipts PEI 2 * * * * NS 3 * * * * NB 4 1,195 310 154,776 $ 78,894 ONT. 52 27,573 100 4,196,492 2,228,257 MAN, 7 4,521 — 647,115 333,330 SASK, 13 4,269 150 722,661 377,097 ALTA, 8 3,945 225 1,129,440 619,448 BC 15 6,104 524 1,377,899 688,408 TOTALS “104 50,497 1,309 8,379,586 $4,409,426 NOTE: * indicates figures are withheld to avoid disclosing individual operations but these are included in the totals. Two provinces did not have drive-ins—Quebee and Newfoundland. The former has none because they are banned by provincial legislation. Amusement Taxes collected on drive-in admissions were $57,702 in 1947; $131,124 in 1948; $245,094 in 1949; $300,028 in 1950; $406,611 in 1951; and $540,390 in 1952. Information used here is from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, with the exception of the 1953 total, Page 7 Double Features Boost Business Double features, where they are customary, mean better business at the boxoffice, says the fourteenth of a series of advertisement of the USA Council of Motion Picture Organizations, Inc. published in Editor & Publisher. Headed “Those Doggone Double-Features!”, the advertisement points out that many persons within and without the industry do not like them but that theatres, which had tried experimentally to eliminate them, experienced a sharp falling off in gross and were compelled to restore them. “In areas where double features never got started the theatres get along very well without them,” the ad_ says. “Offhand, we’d say that about 65 per cent of the country is now double-feature territory.” The ad calls attention to the “double feature’ problem of other enterprises such as newspapers, which are called upon constantly to promote more and more comic pages, baseball with its double-headers and department stores with their bargain basements. “Apparently the great mass public to which the movie theatre must cater has much leisure,” the ad continues. ‘Three and four hour shows help to fill in time spent in comfortable surroundings at a low cost. “Frankly, our friends (and yours) are against double features,’”” the ad asserts. “Nobody at the country club has a good word for them. This articulate minority is sometimes deceiving.” The ad carries the following postscript: “You’d be surprised how many people love the second feature!” "Tall Man Riding’ Dorothy Malone and Peggy Castle have been set as feminine leads to Randolph Scott in Warner Bros.’ Tall Man Riding. Lesley Selander is directing with David Weisbart producing. Hitchcock Set For "Trouble With Harry' The Trouble with Harry, popular and exciting novel by J. Trevor Story, has been set by Paramount for Alfred Hitchcock, long recognized as Hollywood’s master of suspense, to produce and direct. Hitchcock will start the production this fall. John Michael Hayes, sensational young writer who prepared the scripts for Hitchcock’s last two pictures at Paramount, is already at work on the screenplay. It concerns a little boy who finds a dead body and thus causes chaos.