Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 1957)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
May 1, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 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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VOICE of the A CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Vol, 22, No. 18 Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) Toronto, May 1, 1957 ROBERGE SUCCEEDS TRUEMAN AT NFB LORTIE ACTING COMMISSIONER UNTIL CHANGE ON MAY I! The National Film Board, which had been attacked recently by several Quebec newspapers for the allegedly small number of French-Canadians it employs, now has a French-Canadian chief. Trade, BFI Reps Discuss Archive While British film trade representatives met with officials of the National Film Archive hopes for the activation of a similar organization in this country rose with the announcement that the Canada Council has now become a reality. The film records of Canada’s past (Continued on Page 2) Toronto s Royal In 50th Year Canada’s finest legitimate theatre, the Royal Alexandra in Toronto, is now in its 50th year and no doubt the completion of a half-century of theatrical glory on King Street West will be celebrated suitably and ceremoniously around and about August 26. ‘‘The Royal” (Continued on Page 3) JANIN Productions Limited has been incorporated in Ottawa as a private Montreal company, with 4,000 preferred shares of the par value of $10 each and 10,000 common shares without nominal or par value. Names connected with the incorporation: Jerome Choquette and Louis Beaulieu, Montreal, and William Tetley, solicitor, Mount Royal, Quebec. SYMPATHY for hard-hit theatre operators was expressed in the Nova Scotia legislature by Provincial Secretary G. I. Smith but he isn’t sure the present tax should be cut. Theatre admissions brought only about $300,000 to the Province in the current fiscal year, a drop of more than $80,000 and a figure of about $180,000 less than had been estimated. _ YEAR BOOK INFO LETTERS WILL BE IN MAILS SOON Big Immigration Year Helps BO Potential Arrival of 164,857 immigrants in 1956, compared with 109,946 the previous year, brought the number since the end of the war to 1,400,000. The post-war high was 194,391 in 1951 and the all-time high 400,000 in 1913. Immigrants have been a factor in lessening the impact of television on theatre exhibition in Canada. From the USA came 9,777 and of those from overseas points 51,319 were British, 29,805 Italian, 29,405 German and Austrian and 3,106 French. The post-war British total is now 419,024, the German and Austrian 164,962, the French 27,258 and the American 100,529. Over 54 per cent of last year’s immigrants were males and 68.4 per cent were under 30 years of age. Included were thousands of engineers, doctors and skilled construction workers. SIX MAIN winners of the Academy Award Sweepstakes in Halifax, which was conducted independently of the Motion Picture Industry Council of Canada, were invited to the monthly luncheon of the Halifax Theatre Managers’ Association, where Freeman Skinner, the president, handed out six-month and three-month passbooks to the winners. Fifty doublepasses had gone to runners-up. Total of free entertainment awarded was over $500 worth. OKLAHOMA! in the Todd-AO version went into its second year at the Tivoli, Toronto and James R. Nairn of Famous Players set up a press luncheon in the Variety Club to mark the occasion. A wire from Rodgers and Hammerstein (Continued on Page 7) The letters which are sent to the trade each year requesting the latest information for inclusion in the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry should arrive this week. The task of gathering and processing Guy Roberge, 42-year-old lawyer, was named successor to Dr. A. W. Trueman as Government Film Commissioner and chairman of the National Film Board last week in an announcement by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. The NFB is under the stewardship of the Honorable J. W. Pickersgill, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Acting Commissioner until Roberge assumes office is Dr. Leon Lortie of Montreal, who is a member of the Board. Trueman, who succeeded W. Arthur Irwin in 1953 upon the latter’s appointment as High Commissioner to Australia, became the (Continued on Page 2) Italians Protect Own Production Determined to have a_ strong domestic film production industry, the Italians have taken a number of steps in that direction. After the war, writes Vinicio Marinucci in Unitalia Film, production, poorly organized, reached 160 features a year ‘and after the phase of (Continued on Page 3) New FPCC Director James H. Richardson of New York, treasurer of Paramount Pictures Corporation, was elected a member of the board of directors of Famous Players Canadian Corporation at the recent annual meeting in Toronto. WALD TO MAKE 18 FOR 20th-FOX Jerry Wald, who recently formed his own Independent producing company, will make 18 films for 20th-Fox, of which seven are expected to be in production by the end of 1957. The seven, all in CinemaScope, are An Affair to Remember, in De Luxe Color and starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, with Leo McCarey directing; Down Payment, with Joanne Woodward, Jeffrey Hunter, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Rush, Sheree North and Tony Randall; Peyton Place, to be directed by Mark Robson; Kiss Them for Me, starring Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield under the direction of Stanley Donen; The Jean Harlow Story; The Sound and the Fury; and Jean Christophe. HATTON TAYLOR'S NEW POST Operation of dance schools by theatre organizations, initiated by Interstate of Texas and the Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Almeda, may be extended to Canada. Hatton Taylor, a former Canadian who was until recently Cleveland district sales executive for RKO, has been named general sales manager of the Astaire organization by Charles L. Casanave, president. He’ll also act as a special sales representative in the USA. Casanave, a veteran film industry figure, has surrounded himself with well known people with a similar background, among them Charles Barron, who is ad-pub director, and Rutgers Neilson, for many years an RKO stalwart. The second theatre organization to make deals with the Casanave group is Paramount-Gulf, which is preparing to open a studio in New Orleans. The appointment of Taylor, Casanave said, “‘is the first ef several planned sales panel assignments of film industry sales executives.” Taylor, who has a background of vast exhibitor contacts developed during 25 years of extensive experience in film sales, got into the film business after graduation from St. Michael’s College, Toronto in 1930. the information for the seventh edition, to be issued in October, is a difficult one and the quick co-operation of those receiving the letters will be appreciated. Last year's listing is sent with the request in order to simplify the task for the recipient.