Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 27, 1957)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Mar 27, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 27, 1957)
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, 22, No. 13 AV a. VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) Toronto, March 27, 1957 BIG SURGE IN CANADA TV PRODUCT N ASN, CALDWELL, SCREEN GEMS, NFB, CRAWLEY—EVERYBODY'S DOIN’ IT Motion picture production of drama, long talked about in terms of cinema and never achieved in Canada, seems to have arrived through television. As David Coplan and Arthur Gottlieb, Telemovies Plan To Get Tryouts Telemovies are not subscription television presentations, Henry Griffing, president of Video Independent Theatres, Inc., told the United Theatre Owners of Oklahoma at their recent convention in Oklahoma City. ‘“‘This is not toll TV but TM—telemovies, made by (Continued on Page 8) Emmy Awards Go Just As Expected The ninth annual Emmy awards for TV brought few surprises. The best one-hour series of 1956 was Sid Caesar’s and the best single program was CBS’ Requiem for a Heavyweight, starring Jack Palance, one of the Playhouse 90 series, which was voted to be the best (Continued on Page 4) Famous Players 1956 Net: $2,738,455 Net profits of Famous Players Canadian Corporation for 1956 was $2,738,455 compared with $2,933,112, a drop of $194,657 — although the first figure is unaudited. The firstquarter operating profit for 1957, exclusive of capital gains, will be somewhat better than that of the corresponding period last year. The total annual dividend per share fell to $1.58 in 1956 from $1.69 in 1955. Earnings after all charges, including depreciation, fell from $4,463,113 in 1955 to $3,965,502 in 1956. This led to a net-profit figure, excluding capital gains, of $2,362,148 compared with $2,544,114 the previous year. Sale of government bonds and capital sales brought $376,307 as against $378,998 in 1955. The company’s annual be distributed soon. report will Nine Features In Five Months From MGM MGM will release nine pictures for the five months starting with April, according to a tentative schedule revealed by Hillis Cass, general sales manager for Canada. In addition, there will be four Masterpiece Reprints. Tentatively scheduled for April are Designing Woman, in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, starring Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall and Dolores Gray; and The Vintage, in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, starring Pier Angeli, Mel Ferrer, Michele Morgan and John Kerr. Tentatively slated for May release are Tarzan and the Lost Safari in Technicolor and wide screen, starring Gordon Scott (Continued on Page 3) Anthony Quinn In ‘Obsession’ Anthony Quinn has been signed by Hal Wallis to star opposite Anna Magnani in Paramount’s Obsession. ELIMINATION OF _ ALBERTA TAX UP TO 60¢ IS HELP CBC Approves TV Station, Satellites Approval has been given by the CBC Board of Governors to the application of Okanagan Valley Television Company Limited to establish a main TV transmitter on Channel 2 in Kelowna, BC and two satellite stations — on Channel 13 at Penticton, BC and on Channel 7 at Vernon, BC. The Governors’ recommendation now goes to the Department of Transport, which is the licencing authority. The Board also approved an in crease in power for CKSO Radio’s CKSO-TV in Sudbury, Ontario. Alberta theatre operators were bolstered financially and business stimulated by the elimination of the amusement tax from all tickets up to 60c by the Provincial Legislature — recently, Previously the tax was 3c—-36-37; 4c—38-44; respectively managing director and president of Canadian Film Industries, predicted when they arranged for the use of their facilities by Television Productions of America, The Last of the Mohicans would open the way for more production of that kind. The first to follow was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which helped bring Mohicans here. Its TV series, Radisson, has completed 17 programs of its projected 26 — with a possible extension to 39 — and the total cost may reach about $900,000. The Mohicans’ series of 39, which is running in California and is due for NY (Continued on Page 3) Last-Breath Beef By Quebec Exhib Readers of The Verdun Guardian, a newspaper in that Montreal suburb, were told about the unreasonableness of the Government of Quebec in the matter of theatre exhibition in a farewell letter by John Dunning, whose Park Theatre in Verdun was forced to close re(Continued on Page 4) WB's ‘Nun's Story’ Warner Bros. Pictures has completed arrangements with Fred Zinnemann and Audrey Hepburn to bring Kathryn Hulme’s best-selling book, The Nun’s Story, to the screen as a Zinnemann production starring Miss Hepburn. ARTISTS, PRODUCERS DEADLOCKED Relations between Canadian motion picture producers and the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists, a national union representing 2,600 artists, are approaching the point of deadlock. The CCAA submitted a Letter of Adherence and stipulated terms and conditions. It asked for signatures, suggesting that any matters it recognized as worthy of variation could be arrived at through its waiver. This is not acceptable to the producers, who apparently want to know just what they’re signing for. Arthur Chetwynd of Chetwynd Films, Toronto, president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada, which has 41 member companies, is chairman of the Joint Negotiating Committee. Serving with him are Donald Carter, production chief at Crawley Films, Ottawa, and Donald Mulholland, Director of Planning and Operations for the National Film Board. Dan McArthur has been close to the committee as an observer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The NFB and others haven’t been hiring union performers and are holding up plans for future production. Among the things the CCAA is said to be asking are liability insurance, higher rates, a change in working conditions and the union shop. The producers were notified of the CCAA’s demands on February | and told assent was expected within seven days. They maintain that the Canadian rates for players would be considerably higher than the USA rates under certain conditions and won’t accept adherence without a clearer picture in their own minds of matters involved in it. “The contract is too mature for this country at the moment,” said Chetwynd. “Our Industry is still a baby. There are so many loose ends that we require more time.”’ He believed there was enough common ground for an amicable solution. To Make ‘Hear Me Good' Don McGuire will produce and direct Hear Me Good, which Paramount will release. "The Sun Also Rises’ Ava Gardner and Mel Ferrer will star in Fox’ version of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. 5¢c—45-55; 6c—56-64. J. B. Barron said: “It will be a tremendous help to us.’’ Some managers thought it might lead to slightly reduced prices. Most felt that the extra money was badly needed and should stay in the theatre.