Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 1, 1954)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Sep 1, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 1, 1954)
Leaf #:
0000
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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Vol. 19, No. 33 BERNSTEIN CANA 53 Sitns Opened Since January Ist Five theatres, four of them drive-ins, opened in Canada recently to bring the number of situations starting operations since the beginning of the year to 58, of which 34 were ozoners. There are now 216 drive-in theatres doing business in Canada (Continued on Page 7) Big Fox Backing For UK Indies Finance and distribution are being offered to British Independent producers of known ability by Twentieth Century Fox, which already has the first of FF we VOICE. of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY TORONTO, SEPTEMBER 1, 1954 CLEVELAND RKO MGR. COMES BACK TO TAKE TOP POST General sales manager of Allied Artists Pictures of Canada Limited, effective September 6, will be John Bernstein, a Canadian now Cleveland branch manager for RKO, who was promoted to that position in September, 1949 while Our Ben Halter To Be Julius Hayman M.E. Ben Halter, production editor of Canadian Film Weekly and the Year Book, as well as assistant to Hye Bossin, managing editor of Film Publications of Canada, leaves this week to become managing editor of Julius Hayman Limited, He'll handle the firm’s publications, including The Jewish Standard and Clothing Journal. An after-theatre farewell party was given Ben in 20th Century Theatres’ recreation room by many of the friends he made in the industry during his eight years with this firm, Born in Toronto, Ben was educated there and in Cobalt, Ontario and Edmonton. After graduating he began his career as a printer. At the outbreak of World War Il he was employed at The Robert Simpson Co. Ltd. and left the firm to enlist in the in charge of the Toronto branch, it was announced by D. V. Rosen, general manager. Allied Artists Pictures of Canada Limited was established for the assumption of the Canadian franchise of Allied Artists Productions, Inc., which JARO has handled for years. “In Bernstein we have a Canadian with outstanding sales experience in this country and the United States,” said Rosen. “He will be welcomed back by all exhibitors, for they know him as a (Continued on Page 3) $3.00 Per Annum JA AA SALES CHIEF Terry Ramsaye Passes At 68 Dean of American film historians and former editor of the Motion Picture Herald, Terry Ramsaye died last week in the Norwalk, Conn. hospital at the age of 68. He had been retired to his home in New Canaan for some years because of heart (Continued on Page 7) Rubin Quits Loew's For 30 years with Loew’s Inc., MGM’s parent company, as supervisor of its legal affairs, at the same time holding other important responsibilities, J. Robert Rubin resigned recently. Loew’s will buy his residual interest. FPCC REGIONAL MEETINGS three UK-made CinemaScope productions, That Lady, ready for a November West End pre(Continued on Page 8) Republic Has 11 Features On Way; Preps More Republic, with 11 outstanding productions on the way and more being prepared, will complete its physical expansion and improvement program with a new office building, RCAF, serving four and a half years, during which he edited several Airforce magazines. He joined our staff shortly after being discharged. etc. Final cost, which includes that for four new sound stages being used in the company’s augmented 195455 production schedule, will be $3,000,000. The immediate program of Republic, which is represented in Canada by Empire-Universal Films, is as follows: Timberjack, a top budget production in Trucolor with a Van Sam E. Morris Dead; Was Retired Exec One of the great pioneers of motion picture distribution, Samuel Edward Morris, vice-president and general manager of Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. until his re wood last week at the age of 72. tirement in 1945, died in Holly-, A series of conferences will take place in September and October, when a group of Famous Players home office executives will confer with partners, associates and district managers. Roundtable discussions will be held on product, operation, confections, advertising, new media of presentation and other important topics. The head office party will leave Toronto on September 11, arriving in Winnipeg on September 13 for a two-day session. Regina will be next for a one-day meeting and the party arrives in Calgary Thursday morning, September 16, also for a one-day visit. Edmonton will be the scene of a meeting on September 17 and Vancouver comes next for two days, September 20-21. The party will include John J. Fitzgibbons, R. W. Bolstad, Ben Geldsaler, Bob Eves, George Cuthbert, J. J. Fitzgibbons Jr. and James R. Nairn. On October 4-5 meetings will be held in Saint John, NB; in Toronto October 13-14 and in Montreal October 20. NO-GLASSES 3-D SHOWING An impressive demonstration of Tri-Dim, a system of 3-D pictures which does not require special glasses for viewing, was reported by Merlin Lewis from Dayton, Ohio for The Film Daily, NY. “A complicated series of prisms and the two lenses combine two images on the screen, from film that has two images alternating,’ Merlin explained, noting that “a person in the foreground is seen with a sense of roundness, and is placed in the foreground couver, BC background to star Vera Ralston and Sterling Hay(Continued on Page 4) AA's 'The Black Prince’ Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru and Peter Finch star in Allied Artists’ The Black Prince, now under way in England. BOASBERG QUITS RKO; WALTER BRANSON IS WORLD SALES CHIEF An exhibitor from 1905 to 1918, he was vice-president of Louis Selznick’s Select Pictures, Ine. for five years before he joined Warners in 1920. He set new patterns and policies in distribution and his efforts helped Warners keep control in 1932. naturally in relationship with objects in the background, which also have their own sense of roundness and depth.” The inventor, Stu Sheldon, a veteran equipment expert, gave the demonstration in the cellar of his home near Dayton before local citizens, some of whom are financially interested. Sheldon said it would cost about $1,800 to equip a theatre. Merlin thinks Tri-Dim feasible for theatrical use and considers it easily adaptable to all new techniques. Walter E. Branson was named world sales chief for RKO Radio Pictures Inc. by J. KR. Grainger, president, following the resignation of Charles Boasberg, who leaves on October 30 to join the newly-organized American Production and Distribution Corporation, which Fred Schwartz, NY circuit leader, heads. Boasberg succeeded Robert Mochrie as RKO sales head in October, 1952.