Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 27, 1954)

Page scan 0004 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 27, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 27, 1954)
Leaf #:
0004
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
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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— October 27, 1954 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 5 37 AA FEATURES (Continued from Page 1) Morey R. Goldstein, vice-president and general sales manager; and John C. Flinn, publicity and advertising director. The Canadian delegation was led by N. A. Taylor, president of Allied Artists Pictures of Canada Limited, who addressed the meeting. Of the 12 pictures spearheading the releases between now and next August, Mirisch revealed, at least one will be in CinemaScope, three will be in Technicolor and in the entire new product there will be diversified subject matter. They are, in order of release: The Human Jungle, a Gary Merrill-Jan Sterling starrer, and The Bob Mathias Story, in which the world-famed athlete portrays himself; Cry Vengeance, a Mark Stevens starrer, and Target Earth, a science-fiction thriller; Tonight’s the Night, in Technicolor with David Niven, Yvonne De Carlo and Barry Fitzgerald; The Big Combo, starring Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace and Richard Conte; The Annapolis Story, in Technicolor and starring John Derek, Diana Lynn and Kevin McCarthy; John Brown’s Raiders, with Raymond Massey, Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter. Shotgun, in Technicolor and starring Sterling Hayden, Yvonne De Carlo and Zachary Scott; and The Black Prince, in CinemaScope with Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru and Peter Finch starred. Hold Back the Night, from the best-selling novel, to star Richard Basehart and Neville Brand, and Mother-Sir, to be produced by Walter Wanger, with Joan Bennett starred. Also to be made for the new season is Wichita, which is to be in CinemaScope with Mirisch as the producer. Other forthcoming large-scale productions will include four in Technicolor. They are Yellow Knife, to be produced by Wanger; Legionnaire, African Fury and The Green Hills of Idaho. Scheduled also for filming are Phenix City, with which Samuel Bischoff will make his debut as a producer for Allied Artists; Gun Point, General Hospital and The Atomic Submarine, Massacre at Dragoon Wells, to star Barry Sullivan; Today Is Forever, Desperate Women and The Intruder; Singapore East, starring Broderick Crawford; Dangerous Assignment, with Brian Donlevy starred; Port of Hell, with Dane Clark, Carole Mathews and Wayne Morris in the star roles, and Sweet Charity, with Richard Conte starred. The program: will be completed with four Bowery Boys comedies, the first of which will be High Society, with Ben Schwalb News Notes BRISKIN TO ASSOCIATED SCREEN NEWS Murray Briskin has been named executive assistant to Maxwell Cummings, president of Associated Screen News, and he will take up residence in Montreal, where the company’s laboratory, studio and head offices are located. The appointment followed his resignation from Film Laboratories of Canada Limited and Audio Pictures Limited, where he had been assistant to the president, Arthur Gottlieb, and general sales manager of both companies. Control of ASN, Canada’s oldest lab and production organization, came into the hands of Paul Nathanson, an important minority stockholder, early in January, when he acquired the shares of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which played an important part in the founding of the company in 1920. In May shareholders representing the new management elected Cummings, a prominent Montreal business man, president and George Beeston of Toronto vice-president. NEWS OF THEATRE BUILDING Cliff Easton recently opened his fully modern Wawota Theatre, now with 317 seats in Wawota, Saskatchewan. ‘ Work will start soon on the Parkway Drive-in Theatre, RR2, near Kitchener, Ontario for A. I. Rosenberg, who was finally given a permit by The Waterloo Township council. Two applications to build theatres were made to the council of Edson, Alberta, which has a population of 1,951 and a 275-seat house operated by H. G. Stephenson and T. Fowler. Seven theatre contracts valued at $258,000 were let in Canada during September according to MacLean’s Building Reporter. Two awarded in Quebec totalled $103,000; three in Alberta, $185,000; one in Saskachewan, $30,000 and one in Manitoba, $40,000. Winnipeg’s city-owned 1,475-seat Playhouse was reopened after an $80,000 renovation job, with Mayor Garnet Coulter speaking from the stage. A movie program, Curtis Nagel’s South American film lecture, attracted the audience. ENGINEERS' BODY MAKES AWARDS The first Special Achievement Award of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, holding its seventysixth semi-annual conference at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, was presented to Earl I. Sponable and Herbert E. Bragg, both of Twentieth Century-Fox, for their personal contributions to the development of anamorphic motion-picture photography and projection resulting in the commercial success of Cinema-, Scope. The Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award went to Lorin D. Grignon of Twentieth Century-Fox for his work in stereophonic sound development, while the David Sarnoff gold medal award winner was Ray D. Kell, research scientist with RCA, for contributions to TV, particularly in the matter of color. John G. Frayne of Westrex was elected president of the society’s board of governors. Barton Kreuzer of RCA is executive vice-president, Norwood L. Simmons of Eastman Kodak editorial vice-president, Byron Rounabush of Byron Inc. convention vicepresident, and Edward S. Seeley of Altec secretary. HONOR O'BRIEN CIRCUIT STAFFER With the O’Brien Theatre, Arnprior, Ontario for 36 years, Miss May Daze was honored by her employer and friends on the stage recently. “May exemplifies Show Business in Arnprior,” said Russell Simpson, general manager of M. J. O’Brien Limited, the Ottawa. Valley circuit. M. J. O’Brien, Jr., son of the founder of the circuit paid tribute to May for her long service and presented her with a watch from the organization. Manager George Jordan gave Miss Daze a pen and pencil set from theatre colleagues and Michael J. Murray presented her with a huge bouquet of roses from the Renfrew house staff. Miss Daze drew hearty applause from the audience with a pleasant speech of thanks. A reception followed. producing and Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall starring, two films to star Bill Elliott and two in the goman in Columbia’s The Bomba, The Jungle Boy series. From: Laramie. Assign Feature Role Donald Crisp will be Alec Wasan TEN FROM PARA (Continued from Page 1) recently. “At no other period in Paramount’s history has there been a release lineup that could compare with the one we have now insofar as inherent grossing strength is concerned,” Schwalberg said. ‘Every picture has been produced with one eye on the boxoffice, so to speak, as evidenced by the top-flight stars, producers, directors, stories and production values they offer,” he emphasized. October and November releases are Rear Window, in Technicolor, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly; Sabrina, produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Academy Award-winners Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden; Cecil B. DeMille’s Reap the Wild Wind, a re-release of a great boxoffice hit, in Technicolor, and starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard, and the special VistaVision pre-release engagements of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in Technicolor, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen and directed by Michael Curtiz. December and January will bring release of Hal Wallis’ Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis comedy riot, Three Ring Circus, the second VistaVision production, which also is in Technicolor; this will be Paramount’s Christmas-New Years holiday offering. Also The Bridges at Toko-Ri, in Technicolor, based on James A. Michener’s Life Magazine classic, produced by Perlberg-Seaton, directed by Mark Robson and starring William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March and Mickey Rooney. Set for February release are Mambo, Ponti-DeLaurentiis production directed by Robert Rossen and starring Shelley Winters, Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano and Katherine Dunham, and George Pal’s_interplanetary epic, The Conquest of Space, in Technicolor. March releases will be Ulysses, Homeric epic in Technicolor also produced by Ponti-DeLaurentiis and starring Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn and Rossana Podesta, and Perlberg-Seaton’s The Country Girl, Academy Award contender starring Bing Crosby, William Holden and Grace Kelly, which will be pre-released in December. MGM's 'Body Beauty’ Esther Williams will be an Olympics diving champion who barnstorms Europe in her rise to fame and fortune in MGM’s Body Beauty which Joe Pasternak wil) _ produce.