Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 1957)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
May 1, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (May 1, 1957)
Leaf #:
0006
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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May 1, 1957 Page 7 Short Throws (Continued from Page 1) was read to the guests. The event was also commemorated by Famous Players and Magna Theatre Corporation donating the entire proceeds of a matinee last week to the Toronto Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society. ATTENDANCE in Britain was down seven per cent last year, states a Government report, with TV the big factor. One in 25 theatres went out of business. Two weeks ago the Government reduced the ticket tax at cinemas and eliminated the 3314 per cent tax on live theatre tickets. Licences for radio and TV sets went up from $8.40 to $11.20. Business is still good in those areas without TV service. INNOVATION in Canada, according to the 1957 Film Art Trailers’ Drive-in Trailer Catalog, is an alltalking, live intermission short in color featuring a professional actor, which should help promote business for the refreshment stand. The booklet, containing all the latest gimmicks and money-making ideas in the drive-in trailer field, has been mailed to all open-air operators. Film Art Trailers’ Sam Vinsen will gladly supply extra copies to anyone sending him a postcard to 21 Dundas Square, Toronto. THE BARRIER, a two-part film dealing with industrial relations in big business, is the latest in the Perspective TV series of the National Film Board. Produced by Julian Biggs, directed by Tom Farley from a script by George Salverson and lensed by Donald Wilder, the two parts of The Barrier will be shown on successive Sundays on the CBC TV and connected network, WINNER of The True Story of Jesse James. Lyric Contest, sponsored by 20th-Fox, Bullseye Records and Dell Publishing to publicize the 20th-Fox CinemaScope production, was Barbara Anne Davis of North Burnaby, Vancouver. Accompanied by her grandmother, the Canadian girl will visit Hollywood, tour the movie studios and go out on a date with Robert Wagner as the prize for submitting the best entry. LETTERS Patent dated March 25, 1957 have been issued under The Corporations Act to Crest Productions Limited ‘‘To present, produce, manage, conduct and represent at any theatre, music hall or place of amusement or entertainment such plays, dramas, comedies, operas, burlesques, pantomimes, revues, promenade and other concerts, musical and other pieces, ballets, shows, exhibitions, variety and other entertainment as Film. Trade Scenes: Hollywood and Montreal The top. photograph shows Cecil B. DeMille, producer of The Ten Commandments, welcoming some Canadian industry people to the Paramount lot. Left of Mr. DeMille are E. A. (Ed) Zorn, with Famous Players as Western manager until his retirement some years ago, and Mrs. Zorn. On the right are John Ferguson, Winnipeg district supervisor for Famous Players, Mrs. Ferguson and Anthony Quinn. The bottom photo was taken in Montreal at the recent premiere at the Avenue Theatre of Rank’s feature, The Battle of the River Plate. Left to right: Allan Spencer of the United Amusement Corporation’s publicity depart ment; Vice-Admiral H. G. DeWolf; Bob Johnson, Rank film manager in Montreal; and Winston Curry, manager of the Avenue. "The Brothers Karamazov’ Claire Bloom has been signed to star in MGM’s The Brothers Karamazov, which will also star Yul Brynner, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Basehart and William Shatner. the Company may from time to time think fit.’’ Authorized capital is divided into 4,000 shares without par value. MONTREAL, short subject made by Associated Screen News and acquired by the National Film Board for distribution, will be released by Warner Bros. in Britain. GRATITUDE for the 50 per cent reduction in the licence fees of Alberta drive-ins was expressed by exhibitors. ‘“The Alberta Theatres Association is very grateful to the Provincial Government for recognizing this inequity between fees for drive-ins and those for indoor theatres,” said A. W. Shackleford, president. Drive-ins with more than a 500-car capacity formerly paid $250 per year but now pay $125 or $25 per month. Morissette Now NFB Statistics Chief Successor to G. B. Thompson as chief of the Research & Reports Division of the National Film Board is Raymond Morissette, 30, who joined the NFB in 1954 after being with the Dominion Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Health and Welfare. He was with the Personnel Division of the NFB for three years until his promotion. Born in Riviere Trois Pistoles, Morissette was educated at Rimouski Seminary and was for three years in the Economic Section of Social Science at Laval University. Condon Due In May On Kramer Special Richard Condon, campaign supervisor for Stanley Kramer and formerly UA London-Paris publicity exec, will be in Toronto on May 20-21 for a series of press and commercial luncheon and cocktail party gatherings in the interests of The Pride aad the Passion. He’ll meet with commercial representatives while here for the Kramer blockbuster, a UA release. News Clips Alan Young, Canadian comedian, is in Britain to produce, direct and star in three one-hour TV shows for Granada, an independent TV organization . . . Raymond Burr, one-time Vancouverite who is one of Hollywood’s top supporting actors, will do the Perry Mason full-hour TV series that will fill the present Gleason slot in September —if Gleason is serious about quiting ... A. W. (Al) Plunkett, star of the wartime Dumbells all-male army show, died in Toronto last week at 58... York Theatre, Bloor & Yonge B&F house in Toronto, will switch to a part art policy, showing offbeat foreign films, on May 9. CBC-TV began a series of 24 feature films on Saturday evenings from 9 to 10.30 p.m. last week. Program, called Great Movies, is introduced by Fred Davis Shareholders of Associated Artists Productions Inc., which sells the Warner backlog of films to TV, approved a four-for-one stock split, Maxwell Goldhar of Toronto, vicepresident and treasurer announced last week . . . WBUF, Buffalo TV station reaching into Western Ontario, will have a big power boost ... Twinex has taken over the 410seat Valour in Winnipeg from Leon Asper and will operate it as a first-run art house with Len Norrie, former Empire-Universal Winnipeg exchange head, as manager. Hosts of the famous British Rugby team, the Barbarians, at a reception in its honor at the York Club, Toronto were Leonard W. Brockington, CMG, QC, president of the J. Arthur Rank Organization of Canada Limited and his fellow directors of that company. Well known citizens and the sports editors of the local papers were among the guests . . . Edmund Grainger has signed with MGM as a producer and his first film will be The Valiant Strain . . . Wolfe Cohen, president of Warner International, announced the appointment of Tom O’Sullivan as vice-president and treasurer and Max Greenberg as vice-president. David B. Wallerstein, who has many friends among Canadian showmen, will succeed the late John Balaban as president of Balaban & Katz, theatre circuit in the Chicago area. He’s 51 years old... Pat Pearce, formerly of the Montreal Herald, has succeeded Dusty Vineberg as TV-Radio critic of the Montreal Star . . . Samuel and Harvey Fingold have established National Commodity Brokers Limited, with offices in Toronto. Sam had an important place in Ontario exhibition for years and Harvey was with his organization until he made deals for its theatres with other exhibition interests.