Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 4, 1956)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Apr 4, 1956
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 4, 1956)
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. 21, No. 14 VOICE of the CANADFAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY TORONTO, APRIL 4, 1956 $3.00 Per Annum ONE CENSOR BOARD — SILVERTHORNE ONTARIO FILM CENSORSHIP CHIEF GOES TWO BETTER “Personally, I’d like to see one national film censorship board,” said O. J. Silverthorne, chairman of Ontario’s Board of Censors in Toronto last week. He had been asked his opinion of recent suggestions from Manitoba and Saskat 20% Press Tax Brings Protest Opposition to the 20 per cent tax on the advertising content of the Canadian editions of magazines from the USA and other countries was opposed by The Telegram, Toronto, in an editorial headed ‘‘A Vicious Tax.” One film trade paper will be affected (Continued on Page 2) Edwards Family Credit To Trade A story to warm the hearts of industry people is that known and appreciated by the citizens of Grand Falls, Newfoundland, who recently participated in the opening ceremonies of the Popular Theatre by Charlie Edwards, 44, 30 years in the business and (Continued on Page 3) Davidson Handling VCI Convention Matters Property Master Lou Davidson of Tent 28, Toronto has been appointed to take charge of reservations for the 20th annual convention of Variety Clubs International, which will be held in the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, May 9-12, with Tent 35 the host. Davidson can be reached at Barnes and Davidson Theatres, Inc., 21 Dundas Square, Toronto. The phone number is EMpire 3-8531. Registration fee is $45 for Barkers and $35 for ladies. On the evening of May 10 there will be a cruise around Manhattan Island as the guests of Coca-Cola and on May 11 a Mardi Gras in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. The Humanitarian Award Dinner will take place on Saturday, May 12 and later there will be an Au Revoir Party at the Tent 35 quarters. Tickets to telecasts will be available. Incorporations, Changes, In Old Companies, Etc. Since the first of the year a number of new companies in the mot##; picture and television fields have been incorporated provincially or have been granted Letters Patent by the Department of the Undersecretary of State under the Companies Act. Others are making changes in the capital stock of their companies. A listing of these companies and the matters affecting them will be of interest to readers: Following is information about companies registered in Ottawa: Merit TV Productions of Montreal became a private company, with a capitalization of 6,000 (Continued on Page 7) "Man Who Knew Too Much’ James Stewart and Doris Day will star in Paramount’s Alfred Hitchcock film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, USA Senate Group Criticizes Violence Though its report noted that the moving picture industry ‘did a fine job of regulating itself,” a USA _ Senate subcommittee headed by Senator Estes Kefauver, which sat in Los Angeles last summer, took the position that brutality and violence in films may “initiate and provide the content for anti-social behavior on the part of emotionally disturbed children.” Also criticized was motion picture advertising for misleading descriptions. ee chewan cabinet ministers that two boards, one for the East and one for the West, might do — with the possible exception of Quebec. “We seem always to be excluding Quebec in our thinking,” he observed. “Why shouldn’t we find common ground with Quebec as well?” The first suggestion this year of a single national board came from the Manitoba censor, M. V. B. Newton, who was supported by his superior, C. L. Shuttleworth, Minister of Utilities. The British Columbia cen (Continued on Page 2) Report Explains NFB Figuration The latest annual report of the National Film Board, submitted to the Honorable J. W. Pickersgill, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, by A. W. Trueman, Government Film Commissioner and chairman of the National Film Board, provides something (Continued on Page 3) Big Oscar Vote Here About 300,000 ballots were collected in Toronto for the Oscar Contests of the Motion Picture Industry Council of Canada. The Telegram, Toronto, which tied in with the contest and is assessing the results, reports about 100 ties. HARRISON FOX WORLD SALES CHIEF Continuing its long standing policy of promotion from within the ranks, Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, last week announced the promotion of Alex Harrison to general sales manager of the film company. Harrison has been Western sales manager since 1954. A youthful motion picture industry veteran, Harrison brings to the general sales manager post 21 years of experience in the motion picture industry. Born and educated in Salt Lake City, Harrison joined 20th Century-Fox in 1935 as a poster clerk in the San Francisco office. He was made assistant booker of that ex change the following year, Harrison entered the Army in 1943 and upon his release three years later was named Western division booker in San Francisco. In 1948 he was appointed San Francisco branch manager, a post he held until 1951 when he was transferred to Los Angeles as branch manager. In recognition of his outstanding performance, Harrison was named Home Office representative in the sales department and switched operations to New York in 1952. Two years later he was nained Western sales manager. Harrison is married and resides in Bronxville, New York. ONT. FILMS COUNCILS TO MEET Annual meeting of the Ontario Association of Film Councils, Inc, will take place on Wednesday, April 4, 1956 at 10.30 a.m. in the National Film Board building at 70 Yorkville Avenue in Toronto. In the chair will be E. R. Crawford, president. On the agenda for the meeting are reports from the federation chairmen, the film councils and film libraries; summer film institutes; workshop training; expansion and future development of the federations and film council; and the annual election of officers. me “ne Popcorn Sell-O-Rama’”’ sponsored by the Popcorn & _Xoncessions Association takes place on April 4 in Chicago’s / Hotel Sherman and Canadians are invited to attend. One © of the discussion leaders is J. J. Fitzgibbons, Jr., general manager of Theatre series ver Confections Limited, Toronto, PCA board chairman. The one-day meeting is the third in a of regional sales and merchandising gatherings. Three problem clinics will be held during the day.