Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 28, 1955)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 28, 1955
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 28, 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. 50 ¥ > he VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE TORONTO, DECEMBER 28, 1955 yi * INDUSTRY $3.00 Per Annum LONG, STRON Honor March At St. John Banquet Fifty members of the motion picture industry, along with several guests, honored Reginald G. March, who retired recently as 20th-Fox Saint John manager. With F. Gordon spencer as toastmaster, they enjoyed a banquet in the Admiral Beatty Hotel at (Continued on Page 18) Tangled Trail Of Trades 55 Take The leading Canadian business paper, The Financial Post, published in Toronto, assigned Donald R. Gordon to take a look at the state of the motion picture theatre business in Canada. It gave much space to his findings, the article appearing on the sec (Continued on Page 8) A. W. PERRY, EMPIRE-UNIVERSAL HEAD, PREDICTS BIG BO BIZ With 12 important U-I features to be released in Canada through Empire-Universal Films in the first four months of the new year, and with 22 more in various stages of production, A. W. Perry, president and general manager Lightstone, Gene Fitzgibbons Head CCCJ Committees Gordon Lightstone, general manager of Paramount Film Service, will again act as chairman of the Motion Picture Committee of Support of The Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, states Richard D. Jones, national executive director. Eugene Fitzgibbons, Famous Players’ TV chief, will head the Television Committee. The honorary chairman is the Right Honorable Louis St. Laurent, Canada’s Prime Minister. Co-chairmen for Brotherhood Week (February 19-26) are John J. McHale, KSG, of London, Ontario, and Mr. Justice Edouard Rinfret of the Supreme Court of Quebec. Motion picture support of Brotherhood Week through trailers and newsreel inserts is being prepared now. John E. Motz of Kitchener heads the daily press section and John A. Marsh of Amherstburg the weekly press section. RKO To Regain Place In Product Picture The new year will see RKO swing into production on a scale that will eventually bring two features per month to its releasing organization, with from 12 to 15 being readied for work during 1956, William Dozier, production chief, said in Hollywood last week. To those arriving at exchanges via this schedule will be added several features originating under financing, production and distribution deals with Independent producers, The news indicated that RKO would return to the market with something of its old impact under the leadership of its new owners. A staff of producers, directors, (Continued on Page 24) Paramount's 'Piersall Story’ Tony Perkins has been signed to a long-term contract by Paramount and will star in The Jim Piersall Story. 2 a of the latter organization, returned from Hollywood in a jubilant mood. Perry, who attended the U-I meeting of top sales and promotion executives, was accompanied by Mark Plottel, Emp-U sales manager in Canada, and M. J. Isman, Montreal branch manager. He foresaw great benefits to the Canadian exhibitor, as did Plottel and Isman, in both the amount of product and its boxoffice strength. Every picture will be supported with intensive promotion in what is the first stage of the Charles (Continued on Page 4) AA's "Hold Back The Night’ Allied Artists has signed Mark Richman to star in Hold Back the Night. G U-I FEATURE PROGRAM 54 Film Rentals Raised By Video Film rentals amounting to $35,773,251, a record figure, were received by the 48 distributing companies operating in Canada in 1954, 15 more than in 1953, according to the complete figures just issued by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. This represen (Continued on Page 10) S. Swartz Heads Wpa. Pioneers Most of the recent 12th annual meeting of the Canadian Picture Pioneers’ Manitoba Saskatchewan branch, held in the St. Charles Hotel, Winnipeg, was taken up with a discussion of support for the benevolent fund. The afternoon business meeting, (Continued on Page 5) $350 To Five FP Pilots As Fitz Blitz Prizes Five Famous Players managers — district winners in the Famous Players recently-concluded 13-week $10,000 Profit Blitz For Fitz cash contest — took home $350 each, $100 of which was a special award from the company’s pres VAUGHAN NOW ‘GENERAL MANAGER’ Frank L. Vaughan has been officially named general manager of J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (Canada) Limited, it was announced by that company’s president, Leonard W. Brockington, CMG, QC, LL.D, following a meeting of the board of directors in Toronto. He succeeded Frank H. Fisher, now vice-president in charge of Theatre Operations for The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Limited. Fisher moved over to exhibition late in November and Vaughan, then general sales manager, was placed in charge of the operation of the Rank distribution arm. Announcement of the appointment of an assistant to Vaughan will be made next week, along with the naming of the latter’s successor to the position he will leave when promoted. The name of a Republic representative just added by JARO will also be made public, er <= ident, John J. Fitzgibbons, Sr., in whose honor it was created. They were Eddie Newman, Metropolitan, Winnipeg; Paul Valliere, Capitol, Quebec; Eddie Lamoureux, Palace, Windsor; Clarence Marshall, Capitol, North Battleford, Saskatchewan; and Robert Knevels, Tivoli, Windsor, Ontario. Each group had additional winners, and in one 10 collected (Continued on Page 17) RKO Purchases ‘Cash McCall’ Cameron Hawley’s best seller, Cash McCall, has been purchased by RKO for production in 1956.