Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 28, 1955)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Sep 28, 1955
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 28, 1955)
Leaf #:
0006
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Picture Pioneers, 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:
August 08, 2024
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THE PICK OF THE PICTURES | REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol. 20, No. 37 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Page 7 AA 13-WK. DRIVE (Continued from Page 1) franchise a year ago, the sales effort will run 13 weeks and end December 31, 1955. During the new Sales and Booking Drive, Allied Artists will be releasing some of the most important product in the history of the company, Bernstein said. Following Wichita, in CinemaScope and Technicolor, starring Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford and Edgar Buchanan, will be The Phenix City Story, the highly dramatic and true story of corruption, gambling, prostitution and murder in Phenix City, Alabama and actually filmed in America’s “City of Sin;” The Warriors, in CinemaScope and Technicolor, starring Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru, Peter Finch and Yvonne Furneaux; Gunpoint, in CinemaScope and Technicolor, starring Fred MacMurray, Doro‘thy Malone, Walter Brennan and Tommy Rettig; and Walter Wanger’s production of The Body Snatchers, in SuperScope, starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan and Jean Willes. i These four major attractions will be released, one every three weeks, from October 3 to the end of the year. The special attractions will be augmented, during the new Sales and Booking Drive, with a steady flow of regular product, The following is a partial list of the upcoming’ films: Night Freight, starring Forrest Tucker, Barbara Britton, Keith Larsen and Thomas Gomez; Wicked Wife, with Nigel Patrick, Beatrice Campbell, Moira Lister and Betty Ann Davies; The Return of Jack Slade, in SuperScope, with John Ericson, Mari Blanchard, Neville Brand and Casey Adams; Bobby Ware Is Missing, with Arthur Franz, Jean Willes, Neville Brand and Walter Reed; The Toughest Man Alive, with Dane Clark, Lita Milan, Anthony Caruso and Ross Elliott; Paris Follies of 1956, with Margaret and Barbara Whiting, Forrest Tucker and Dick Wesson, photographed in EeastmanColor; Shack Up on 101, with Terry Moore, Frank Lovejoy, Keenan Wynn and Lee Marvin; Calculated Risk, with Tom Drake, Beverly Garland, Bill Elliott and Helene Stanton; and two Bowery Boys comedies, Jail Busters and Dig That Uranium, with Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, and Mary Beth Hughes. 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Flynn, The Man From Laramie has been turned into a first-class screenplay by Philip Yordan and Frank Burt, and tightly directed by Anthony Mann. The William Goetz production offers Technicolor, CinemaScope photography ably lensed by Charles Lang. The musical score by George Duning, as conducted by Morris Stoloff, is an exciting undertone to the continual action. An exceptionally good cast has been assembled for this top-drawer Western: Jimmy Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Alex Nicol, Aline MacMahon, Wallace Ford and Cathy O’Donnell. Their performances offer the ingredients which please most audiences. Another element for audience satisfaction is continual, clearly defined action, although several of the sequences may be slightly rough for all viewers. The brutality underlining Nicol’s portrayal may appear just a bit too realistic in spots. CAST: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O/’Donnell, Alex Nicol, Aline MacMahon, Wallace Ford, Jack Elam. 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