Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 3, 1957)

Page scan 0003 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Apr 3, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 3, 1957)
Leaf #:
0003
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Page 4 FOX SELLS 16 MM. (Continued from Page 1) will act as supervisor of 16 mm. distribution and sales will be handled by the present personnel, as is the case with several of the distributors in the small-gauge field. The company, as originators of CinemaScope, feels that films made in that process are important in raising the standards of 16 mm. exhibition and it has decided not to squeeze them “‘flat.’’ Many 16 mm. exhibitors have acquired the necessary lenses. However, the company will also have the entire Fox backlog available, most in the old ratio, even though pre-1948 films are being sold for TV by NTA. The shift leaves General Films with the product of one major company, that of Paramount. The decline of 16 mm. commercial exhibition because of TV has not had nearly the adverse effect on 16 mm. rentals one might think. By striving for new accounts of every kind the income has been maintained. ‘‘Every place that’s got a chimney” is a_ potential account, as one salesman put it. What has helped keep: the flow of revenue stable has been Canada’s material expansion, with its many construction projects in places not reached by TV, as well as lumber and mining camps, etc. Convents, seminaries, hospitals, jails — they’re all accounts for the salesman alive and enterprising. Film salesmen with the small product have become doorknockers, bellringers and so on and they have many interesting tales to tell. The salesman of earlier industry days thought he had adventures the flicker hawker of this decade couldn’t match. The present-day salesman can not only match him—but leave him behind. WB's ‘Missouri Traveler’ C. V. Whitney Pictures has signed a deal with Warner Bros. for the latter company to distribute its forthcoming film, The Missouri Traveler. Wpg. Projectionists Win Curling League Ernie Kellett’s projectionist rink won the playoffs in the Winnipeg Theatre Curling League and received the Famous Players’ trophy and prizes. Lou Miles’ Western Theatres’ Rink, winner of the consolation series, got the Sammy Krupp Memorial Trophy and prizes donated by Charlie Krupp. The runner-up rinks got prizes donated by Western Theatres, General Theatre Supply, Theatre Confections and the curling rink. At the luncheon which followed the prizes and trophies were presented and the new officers elected. Charlie Krupp is honorary president, Lionel Gibb president and Don MacKenzie vice-president. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY News Yotes UA PLANS STOCK OFFERING A public offering of 350,000 shares of common stock and convertible subordinated debentures due 1$69 is proposed by United Artists Corporation, last of the privately-held major motion picture companies in the USA, it was announced in New York by Robert S. Benjamin and Arthur B. Krim, chairman and president respectively. Of the 350,000 common shares, 250,000 will be offered on account of the corporation and 100,000 for the management group, which will still own a majority of the stock after the sale. Proceeds of the sale will be used to retire certain outstanding debts and to increase working capital to finance expanding independent film production, it is stated by the company. Marketing of the securities, the first public distribution of its stock by UA, will take place after the middle of April and will be handled by a group headed by F. Eberstadt & Company. NEW CBC NEWS APPOINTMENTS Strengthening of its News Service after four years of steady expansion is the object of three supervisory appointments by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. All three will be stationed at the Toronto headquarters of W. H. Hogg, chief news editor. C. G. Gunning, formerly assistant to Hogg, becomes general news editor; D. J. Macdonald, previously manager of national TV news, is promoted to general supervisor of TV news; and Laurence Duffy, editor-in-charge for BC in Vancouver, replaces Macdonald. The CBC now operates 11 news rooms, producing 90 radio and 12 TV newscasts daily from St. John’s, Halifax, Montreal (English and French), Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. PAPER SAYS GOV'T TAX FOOLISH The Manitoba government “‘is literally biting off its nose to spite its face” in its failure to do something about the amusement tax, stated The Winnipeg Tribune editorially earlier this month: “The position in regard to amusement tax on motion picture theatre admissions is not quite the same. Manitoba exhibitors have asked the government to reduce its tax on theatre admissions which reach as high as ten per cent of the admission price. The movie people pointed to the competitive factor of television. It is no secret that television has cut into theatre revenue and this has been particularly disastrous to some neighborhood houses which have closed their doors. The government should reduce the amusement tax. The exhibitors could then keep admission prices where they are if that would give them sufficient extra revenue to stay in business. Every neighborhood house that darkens its doors means that much less revenue to the government via the amusement tax. Surely it is shortsighted to let such a condition continue.” ; ANNOUNCEMENT General Theatre Supply Company Limited is pleased to announce the Appointment of Mr. Arthur A. Richardson, popularly called ‘Ritchie’, to the sales engineering staff of the Company. With wide experience in the Theatre and Electronic Equipment Business, Mr. Richardson has held important positions with both British and Canadian companies. April 3, 1957 ACADEMY AWARDS (Continued from Page 1) best film, actor and actress. Brynner’s award was for The King and I and Miss Bergman’s for Anastasia, both of which were 20thFox productions. Interest in the awards reached a new high in Canada due to the Academy Award Sweepstakes, the country-wide competition which will reward moviegoers with four Oldsmobiles and a host of other prizes for naming the Oscar winners in !2 categories. Hundreds of thousands of ballots are being checked now. Best supporting actress was Dorothy Malone for her stint in Written on the Wind and best supporting actor was Anthony Quinn for Lust for Life. Best director was George Stevens for Giant. Other awards included: Documentary feature — JacquesYves Cousteau’s The Silent World. Documentary short—Louis Clyde Stoumen’s The True Story of the Civil War. Foreign film—The Italian-made La Strada. Costume design —In black and white, Jean Louis for The Solid Gold Cadillac; in color, Irene Sharaff for The King and I. Special effects—John Fulton for The Ten Commandments. Original screenplay—The Frenchmade The Red Balloon. Two-reel short — The Bespoke Overcoat. One-reel short — Crashing the Water Barrier. Cartoon short—Mr. Magoo’s Puddle Jumper. Cinematography — In black and white, Joseph Ruttenberg for Somebody Up There Likes Me; in color, Lionel Lindon for Around the World in 80 Days. Irving Thalberg Memorial Award —Buddy Adler of 20th-Fox for consistently fine production. Special awards — Eddie Cantor for devoting most of his life to the entertainment of mass audiences and Y. Frank Freeman, Paramount production head. Paramount's ‘Teacher's Pet' Mamie Van Doren has been signed to star with Clark Gable and Doris Day in Paramount’s Teacher’s Pet. Forest's Unit F Producer in charge of the National Film Board’s Unit F, which handles French-language activity, is Leonard Forest, it was announced by Pierre Juneau, executive director. Roger Blais, who held the post, is being reassigned. NFB Ups Jones Peter Jones, formerly producer of the NFB’s Eyewitness series, is now acting executive producer of Unit D, of which the producers are Larry Gosnell, Tom Farley, Wallie Hewitson and Frank Spiller. Unit D is responsible for films sponsored by government departments.