Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 27, 1957)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Feb 27, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 27, 1957)
Leaf #:
0003
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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News Clips Parry Films of Vancouver has been commissioned to produce a 30-minute 16 mm. color film on British Columbia for the centennial celebration of that province in 1958. The Province hopes the film will reach an audience of 10,000,000 through non-theatrical agencies alone ... The Bloor, Famous Players’ theatre on Bloor Street, Toronto, has been sold and will be converted into a store . Carl Peppercorn, who was RKO’s Canadian general manager some years ago and four months ago became assistant to president Frank Kassler of Continental Distribution, New York, is now vicepresident in charge of sales. Edwin C. Hill, one-time director of the Fox Movietone newsreel, died in Florida at 72 . . . Ernest Pearl of London, who visited Canada last year, was recently reelected president of International Screen Advertising Services at a meeting of the executive council in Brussels . . . Dr. A. W. Trueman, chairman of the National Film Board, was re-elected president of the Canadian Writers’ Foundation, Inc. at the annual meeting in Ottawa. The Foundation provides financial aid to persons of proved accomplishment . Motion Picture Association of America’s market research project will be on a nation-wide basis in the USA. Projectionist at the Imperial, Toronto, since it opened in 1920, George Robinson, a charter member of the Toronto union, died recently at 66... Utah has voted state funds for the erection of TV relay stations where needed... When films couldn’t get through by plane to Stanley Mission, Saskatchewan, Wally Hill, 16 mm. theatre operator, kept showing The King of Dodge City for 27 straight evenings. The Indians kept paying their 35c admission and coming back, although several admitted that they were a little tired of it . . . The Commonweal, Roman Catholic magazine, opposed those objecting to Martin Luther being shown over Chicago TV. Mr. Magoo In UPA Feature Star of the adventures of Don Quixote, first full-length feature cartoon to be made by UPA and distributed by Columbia, will be the nearsighted Mister Magoo. "Kiss Them For Me' Jayne Mansfield will star with Cary Grant in Jerry Wald’s CinemaScope production of Kiss Them for Me for 20th Century-Fox. The comedy is based on Frederic Wakeman’s best-selling novel, Shore Leave. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY ial SQUARE AD DEPARTMENT pressure caused Alex Barris to be taken off movie criticism by the Globe and Mail, even though he was “‘a comparatively sympathetic reviewer,” claims Time. The ads lads, it explains, wanted to please the movie people in the hope that they would listen more favorably to requests for increased lineage. The article neither blamed nor absolved the movie people. Barris, unhappy, quit after nine years and joined The Telegram — not as a film critic but as an amusement columnist. I think I ought to tell you about what some people said after reading the article. Time, these people said, was making l’affaire Barris out of it to get back at the bright, entertaining Ottawa man : of the Globe and Mail, George Bain, whose sneering at the newsmagazines has led others into suggesting that they are tired of having opinion passed off as news . Emile Harvard stepped out as production manager at Canadian Film Industries and will announce a new affiliation at any moment... John Dalrymple of Liberty is doing an article about Canadian tastes in films and players . . . I must confess that I’m tired of the almost complete anonymity of the National Film Board, which, to us who print news about Canadian production, seems like an $8,000,000 Secret Society. Why can’t the federal film agency issue monthly summaries of its activities, at least? MY FRIEND Irving Aaron, a lawyer, called me the other day to object mildly about the old anthem trailers being shown on local screens. “One of these days the people will be in for an awful shock,” he said. “They’ll find that the Queen looks ten years older than they thought her’ .. . Robert Lawrence of NY, in Toronto the user of Meridian’s studio, bought out the NY firm of Loucks & Norling. Hans Tiesler, who used to be production chief at Audio here, operates independently out of the L & N setup... Bob Cringan and Jack Gow, manager and salesman for 20th-Fox in Calgary, just resigned . . . Saw the second Radisson program. Choppy and no suspense in the Indian chase. I hear the first one was good, though .. . Our newest subscriber: Inoizdat, Glavnij Pochtamt, Poctovij jaschik 36, Moscow, USSR ... 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I used to talk with him frequently in other years, for he did considerable free-lance work for Ken Soble’s Metropolitan Broadcasting studio on the top floor of 21 Dundas Square, where we had offices on the street. Every time I ran into Dick we chatted and I never left him without thinking of what a nice guy he was — and that was before TV made him something of a public idol . . . That projected Canadian TV guide, due in March, has an editor — Leo Trottier . . . Proximity of the Hyland, playing The Silent World, and the Hollywood, offering Anastasia, makes possible outstanding double bills by personal selection for those willing to spend the money. I went from the aquarian life of The Silent World to the Hollywood — and ran into more aquarian life, the main short being Hunting Sea Creatures . The man ahead of me gave the girl teller a cheque. After studying it she asked: “How do you want it?” The man was puzzled for a moment, then brightened. “In money,” he answered. February 27, 1957 OSCAR NOMINEES (Continued from Page 1) year for his work in Giant and that of Carroll Baker for her role in Baby Doll. Competing with Miss Baker as best feminine star of 1956 are Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia, Katharine Hepburn for The Rainmaker, Nancy Kelly for The Bad Seed and Deborah Kerr for The King and I. Opposing Dean in the best actor category are Yul Brynner for The King and I, Kirk Douglas for Lust for Life, Rock Hudson for Giant and Sir Laurence Olivier for Richard III. Nominated for the best picture Oscar are Around the World in 80 Days, the Todd-AO roadshow film being distributed by United Artists and which starts its premiere engagement in Canada next week in Montreal; Allied Artists’ Friendly Persuation, now in its first runs in Canada; Paramount’s Cecil B. 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Presentations of the awards will take place at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on March 27 and will be nationally televised. ‘Tip On A Dead Jockey’ Dorothy Malone has been signed by MGM for the role of Robert Taylor’s estranged wife in Tip on a Dead Jockey. Anthony To Direct ‘The Matchmaker" Joseph Anthony, who made his screen bow as director of Hal Wallis’ The Rainmaker, has been signed to direct The Matchmaker, Don Hartman’s first independent production for Paramount release. Starring Shirley Booth, Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Perkins and Paul Ford, The Matchmaker is from the Broadway hit by Thornton Wilder. John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay.