Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 7, 1956)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Nov 7, 1956
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Nov 7, 1956)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
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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— iy 7 [LAAN Vol. 21, No. 43 A TORONTO, NOVEMBER 7, 1956 VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY $3.00 Per Annum PRESS HAS STAKE IN SHOW BUSINESS ONE-THIRD OF PRIVATE STATIONS NEWSPAPER-HELD OR SHARED Is part of Show Business in Canada falling to the newspapers? In Windsor recently John J. Fitzgibbons, president of Famous Players, was quoted as saying his company was going into TV in a big way because “We're resigned to the fact that Pioneers Create Extra Awards Ancillary award of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, to be presented at the Pioneer of the Year Award dinner honoring Oscar Hanson, will go to James A. Whitebone, MBE, Saint John, NB, a veteran projectionist who is IATSE business agent there and a leader in (Continued on Page 4) Special Guests At DeMille Luncheon The recent gathering in Toronto honoring Cecil B. DeMille, produ -cen of The Ten Commandments, was comprised of persons of importance from many fields and quite a few were attending a motion picture gathering for the first time. Hearing the guest of honor (Continued on Page 4) FORT WILLIAM, Ontario paid $17,000 and legal costs to settle a $77,641.85 claim by Neebing Enterprises because it authorized extension of a street through a drive-in -site on which work had been done. RESCUE Co-ordination Centre of the RCAF in Vancouver is pictured in Morning Incident, one of the Perspective series, which the National Film Board supplies to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Directed by Fergus McDonell from a script by Charles E. Israel and produced by Julian Biggs, it tells the story of a seaair rescue. ODEON has reopened the second of six theatres it closed in Vancouver some months ago. The Kingsway is now operating on a six-day policy for sub runs. COLOR PICTURES — __ON TAPE SEEN BY —USA'TV AUDIENCE MPTAO In On Battle To Leave Signs Be The Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario, represented by A. H. Jolley, its executive secretary, was among the organizations which protested against the proposed Toronto ban on overhanging street signs. A petition with the names of 3,412 manufacturers was stacked three feet high before the Works Committee as part of the record of objection. Several organizations favored the ban. The MPTAO brief pointed out that lighting was an asset to successful theatre operation and the ban would add to the problems of theatres. When the ban on overhanging signs on Yonge Street went into effect the cost of removal and reinstallation on the roof, along with expenditures for smoothing the front of the theatres, came to over $20,000 for the larger ones. All 17 theatres on Toronto’s main street were affected by the order. TORONTO is considering a 64,840-seat open air stadium which would encompass the present Canadian National Exhibition grandstand. To cost $6,000,000, it would house the Maple Leaf ball team if it were accepted into the major leagues, as well as football. UNESCO will establish a LatinAmerican Educational Film Institute in Mexico City, with half the cost borne by the Government of Mexico. The Government will name the director and Unesco the executive producer. VARIETY CLUB film, being made by Ralph Staub of Columbia, will have an all-star list of narrators: Bob Hope, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Alan Ladd, Glenn Ford, Jerry Lewis, Bing Crosby, Ed (Continued on Pace 5) First’ public demonstration of color moving pictures from tape, given by RCA during « TV program, brought newspaper opinion that the system, developed to compete with one Ampex has in black-and-white, isn’t ready yet for general vse. When it is all but our largest movie houses are going out of business because of television.” But with Famous Players, subsidiary of an American company, being limited by the CBC, the question arises: ‘‘Who’ll have the TV stations that will get the Show Business that movie houses will lose?”’ Of course, nobody in theatre business is willing to make the same kind of sweeping statements based on the next ten years which have been attributed to Fitzgibbons. In the last days of the Royal Commission’s recent Ottawa sitting (Continued on Page 3) Coplan Organizes Screen Ad Coy Announcement in the new Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the formation of Times Theatre Advertising Limited by David Coplan marks the greatest forward step taken by the screen advertising medium in Canada in years. “It’s the culmination of the work (Continued on Page 3) BC Theatre Opened Premiere Theatre Company Limited has opened its 387-seat, six-day Premiere in Fruitvale, British Columbia. Construction of the theatre, the only one in the area, was started by R. Winfield late in April of last year. GUELPH MGRS. NET $502 FOR VARIETY George Pratley of the Guelph Managers Association presented the Variety Club of Toronto with a cheque for $502.50, the proceeds of a recent show, at the Variety meeting last week in the Prince George Hotel. Chief Barker Dave Griesdorf thanked the Guelph managers and the two Barkers who helped with the show — Gerald Peters and John Kurk. The meeting accepted the slate of 18 nominations for the Crew submitted by the special committee without adding any. Named by the committee, which was headed by R. W. Bolstad, were 10 of the 11 members of the incumbent Crew and eight non-members. Griesdorf declined renomination due to the ‘‘pressure of personal matters’ and announced the election meeting would take place in the Prince George on Tuesday, November 20. The Installation dinner and dance has been set for the Sign of the Steer for Thursday, December 13. Inducted into Variety at the meeting were Lloyd Burns, vicepresident and general manager of Screen Gems (Canada) Limited; Reo Thompson, manager of All Canada Television; Mickey Stevenson, Paramount Toronto manager; and Ernest Heath, Paramount auditor. COLUMBIA'S CANADIAN SALES DRIVE “Hey Rube!” the traditional rallying cry of the entertainment industry, has been adopted by Columbia Pictures as the name of a sales drive honoring Rube Jackter, the company’s assistant general sales manager, it was announced in Toronto last week by Louis Rosenfeld, general manager of Columbia Pictures of Canada Limited. The drive, which will have two 13-week sections, will start in Canada on January 2 and run to June 27. The Hey Rube competition will have individual as well as branch prizes, this being an added incentive arranged by Harvey Harnick, general sales manager. In keeping with its title all promotional material will have a circus theme and a special house organ, The Barker, will be distributed. there will be a revolution in the making of films, for the use of labs as we know them now will end. The viewers were warned that what they were about to see was an experiment. Big advantage of the tape method is instantaneous reproduction.