Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 2, 1955)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Feb 2, 1955
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 2, 1955)
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. 20, No. 5 A VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE TORONTO, FEBRUARY 2, 1955 INDUSTRY $3.00 Per Annum NO. OF 35 mm. SHOWS? ABOUT 2,192 24 FOUR-WALL SITUATIONS AND 11 DRIVE-INS BEING BUILT How many 35 mm. theatres were there in operation in Canada at the end of 1954? This is a difficult question, what with information having to be watched and checked daily from several sources. New theatres cpen in small Todd-AO All-Way Projection Unit Todd-AO will have an all-ways projector for comparatively wide theatre installations in a year, it was announced in New York. The company will offer them as soon as 50 key city installations for the first Todd-AO prcduction, Oklahoma!, are completed. Cine (Continued on Page 5) VarietyInductees, Committee Heads Seven persons well known in the entertainment world will be inducted as barkers of the Variety Club of Toronto and another, a leading businessman, will become an associate barker. They are Harold E. Roberts, head of Real Estate for Famous Players; (Continued on Page 3) Toronto's Population Up 81,456 To 1,254,001 The population of Metropolitan Toronto showed an increased of 81,456 over 1953 and is now up to 1,254,001, Assessment Department statistics show. The 1952 gan was 39,193. In 1953, the DBS says, there were 110 movie houses in Toronio and these took in $12,317,919 of Ontario’s BO total of $39,570,781. It can be considered that the Toronto gross was from 35 mm. four-wall theatres exclusively, while the Ontario gross is drawn from every kind of exhibition—drive-ins, 16 mm. houses, Itinerant operators, etc. The next best Ontario city was Hamilton, with $2,425,748 from 23 theatres. Toronto is the big portion of the Ontario gross, while Ontario is the big portion of the national gross, which was $109,072,528 in 1953. Latest count of Montreal’s city directory is 1,814,064 for Greater Montreal. towns but they often replace old ones. Theatres close in big cities and aren’t replaced. Theatres open in communities which had none or one. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics gathers figures but it lumps 35 mm. theatres with 16 mm. ones under certain conditions — and then issues figures a year behind. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association keeps figures based on the reports of its branches but its past few totals haven’t been for the calendar year. Thus an exact fi(Continued on Page 3) Fed-PQ Amity Re TV Censorship The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will not show TV films and programs which do not suit ‘‘the mentality of the Quebec population,” while the National Film Board productions are approved for telecasting in the province by the Board of Cinema (Continued on Page 8) Drive-in Assignment The Airview, a 348-car drivein opened near Aylmer, Ontario late in the 1958 season by C. E. Wray and Clarence W. Durling, has assigned. The trustee is Fred O. Kine & Company, London, Ontario. Aylmer has one theatre. 25 YEAR CLUB DINNER ENJOY ABLE The dinner of the eastern section of Famous Players’ 25 Year Club, held last week in the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, was an unusually interesting occasion, made so by the induction of some Theatre Bookings Up For National Film Board Sales totalling $872,962, added to rentals and royalties of $130,795 and $7,751 of miscellaneous income, brought the National Film Board $1,011,508 during the fiscal year ended March 31, 1954. Deducted from $2,997,528, the total of two auine voted the NIB by Palo" oe er ee liament, there is left the sum of $1,986,020 as the cost of operating the federal Managers Assoc'n Formed In Halifax of the company’s leading figures, who came from Halifax, Montreal and other cities to join those living in Toronto, the company’s headquarters. Among those inducted following the welcome of His Worship Nathan Phillips, mayor of Toronto, were R. W. Bolstad, J. J. Fitzgibbons, J. R. Nairn, M. Stein and Wm. Summerville, Sr., Toronto; and George Ganetakos, W. H. Giles, W. G. Lester and W. H. Mannard, Montreal. The first two are the top officers of Famous Players and some of the other executives of United Amusement Corporation, which operates 40 theatres in Montreal. Toastmaster for the occasion was Norman Robertson, QC, Famous Players’ counsel, who inducted Fitzgibbons. The latter and Bolstad helped conduct the inductions, which were marked by many expressions of sentiment, personal friendship and loyalty to the company. Wires from Adolf Zukor and Barney Balaban si i i film agency. Or so it seems. These figures, as presented in the NFB’s 1953-54 report, show its ‘Total income” to be $4,009,036, a figure arrived at by add'ng the $1,011,508 revenue to the $2,997,528 government grant. The report gives the NFB’s ‘Total (Continued on Pege 5) Spencer Tracy Starrers Jeremy Rodock and Bannon have been selected as the next two starring vehicles for Spencer Tracy at MGM. Douglas Smith, Odeon-Garson Theatres Limited supervisor in Halifax, is president of the newly-formed Halifax Theatre Managers Association. Other officers are: Malcolm Walker, vice-president; Carlton Brown, secretarytreasurer; and Hilary Howes and John Aliotis, directors. The association, says Smith, will benefit the industry and the theatre-going people of Halifax. Meetings will be held monthly and the organization is open to all theatre executives. were among the many of a congratulatory nature received. NEWS OF THEATRE CONSTRUCTION One new theatre opened in Canada recently and construction is now under way on three others. Miss A. Pelchat, who operates two other theatres in Senneterre, Quebec, has opened her third situation in that community of 1,686, the Metro. One of the theatres under construction is W. C, Aiken’s 480-seat Cardium, the first theatre in Drayton Valley, Alberta. The other two are in Quebec, Lucien Boeuchard’s Paroissiale as the first one in Normandin, population 1,209, and S. Bode’s cinema at Sherbrooke and St. Lawrence, Montreal. The Vezina, Montreal, formerly the National, has reopened under the management of Socio and Celzi. HERE ARE DATES FOR THIS YEAR'S _ _ EQUIPMENT SHOW Dozens of Canadians attended last year’s mammoth equipment show in Chicago, which makes the dates of the next one important to them: November 6-7-8-9. The place is the Morrison Hotel, Chicago. This yeor the International Popcorn Association and The Equipment Dealers Association will again | combine with a national USA exhibitors’ body to stage the show. This time it will be the Allied States Association, which has the most Independents in its membership.