Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 2, 1957)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 2, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 2, 1957)
Leaf #:
0006
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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October 2, 1957 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY News Clips A private company, CHFI-FM Limited, Toronto, has been incorporated in Ontario for the establishment of broadcasting stations, “including television and all sound, images and pictures of whatsoever kind,” by E. J. Piggott, manufacturers’ agent; D. E. Wright, manager; and H. W. Verlinden, electrical engineer; all of Toronto. It has an authorized capital divided into 13,500 5% non-cumulative redeemable preference shares with a par value of $10 each and 15,000 common shares without par value. Odeon offered the Basilio-Robinson fight in Vancouver, using an installation by TelePrompter of Canada Limited . . . Toronto theatres can offer a midnight show at 12.15 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 14 . . . The Production Code Review Board has been expanded by the Motion Picture Association of America from ten to 20 members, half from exhibition and Independent production. This will be the first time exhibitors have sat on the board... James McCormick, formerly of ASN, Montreal, is production manager for Chetwynd Films, Toronto. A scientific study of the effects of movies and TV on children has been asked by a group which attended the Catholic Child Bureau congress in Montreal recently . . . E. C. Kirkpatrick is now in charge of live production at PhillipsGutkin, Toronto, which handles much animation for TV... Cousens Productions of Canada Limited, Toronto, has been incorporated in Ontario with a capitalization of 40,000 shares without par value. It’s a subsidiary of the Clayton Cousens firm of New York. IATSE won the right to represent a large segment of CBC TV employees right across Canada in the National Labor Relations Board vote, which was taken after a group of Toronto members asked for it. Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Ottawa members favored the IATSE, while Toronto and Halifax voted against it. In Montreal the vote was 511 to 30 in favor of the union and in Toronto it was 391 to 123 against . . . John D. McCulloch, former president of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario, has given up operation of the Iroquois, Petrolia. In "Toughest Gun' Jim Davis and Beverly Tyler have been signed by Peerless Productions for top roles in Toughest Gun in Tombstone, George Montgomery starrer for United Artists release. The picture is under way with Earl Bellamy directing for producer Robert E. Kent. ae PICT UAE F . Golf Provides an Enjoyable Afternoon for British Columbia Theatre Men PINEWOOD (Continued from Page 1) Prime Minister of Ontario and former Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, who is now this country’s High Commissioner to Great Britain. Chairman of the occasion will be John H. Davis, deputy chairman and managing director of The Rank Organization. The second speaker from Canada will be Leonard W. Brockington, CMG, QC, president of the J. Arthur Rank Organization of Canada Limited, who will be the last person heard. Among those he will follow is the actor, Kenneth More. Just prior to leaving on what was his 77th trip across the Atlantic, Mr. Brockington attended a meeting of the executive council of the Canada Council. Pinewood has given many great films to the world and has been a bulwark of the British film industry during its most difficult times. “The record of past achievement— both commercial and artistic—acts as its own spur to new endeavor,” said Lord Rank, chairman of The Rank Organization. ‘‘Thus Pinewood today faces the challenge of the future with a steady confidence in its ability to provide screen entertainment not only in quantity but of consistently high quality.”’ Occupying the stages at Pinewood right now are Tale of Two Cities, Carve Her Name With Pride, Violent Playground, The Gypsy and the Gentleman and Rooney. MGM's 'Mock Trial’ Veteran actor Thomas Mitchell will play a co-starring role with Dean Jones and Joan O’Brien in MGM’s Mock Trial, to be produced by Morton Fine and directed by David Friedkin. Mock Trial is based on a story by Edith and Samuel Grafton. Friedkin and Fine collaborated on writing the screenplay. Short Throws SON of the late Robert M. Savini, Emile N. Savini, 65, vicepresident of Astor Pictures Corporation, died in Atlanta last week after a brief illness. Surviving are his wife and three children. PIONEER branch of British Columbia recently inducted its first woman member, Adrienne Caze, at a Vancouver luncheon meeting. Currently in the Paramount, New Westminster, she has been a cashier for 37 years. As a girl in Winnipeg she sang in theatres and she has occasionally returned to the stage of theatres where she is employed when a special attraction is staged. The B.C. Magazine recently devoted a page to a story about her by Wilton Hyde. PILOT for a 30-minute show called Country Music was completed by Meridian Films Limited. Featuring country, Western and popular folk music, it stars Jack Kingston and his Main Streeters and Uncle Penn’s Squares, a dancing group. Julian Roffman directed. EXIT DOORS of theatres must not be locked and the Ontario Theatres Department is cracking down on owners who ignore the law. Leonard Fromstein of the Centre, Toronto, was fined $75 and costs in Toronto Police Court last week for violation of safety regulations when an inspector found all his exit doors locked. "Law & Jake Wade’ Richard Widmark has _ been signed by MGM to star with Robert Taylor in The Law and Jake Wade, adventure story of the West, to be produced by William Hawks. The suspenseful outdoor drama will be directed by John Sturges. FILM ARCHIVE (Continued from Page 1) eration of Film Societies, a division of the CFI headed by Guy Cote of Montreal, a leading figure in the movement to establish machinery for the gathering of film records. The CFI has requested the Canada Council to provide money for a film archives. On the suggestion of Harry Campbell, Chief Librarian of the City of Toronto, and with the support of Dr. Kaye Lamb, head of the Public Archive of Canada and National Librarian, the Federation meeting unanimously endorsed the CFI program for archives. A CFI statement for the information of Archives Committee members said that the National Film Board, officially and through the private efforts of its staff members, has been giving considerably more attention to the work of collecting and maintaining film record material than in the past. The Canadian Broadcast ing Corporation is also studying a policy for film preservation, a move which the CFI urged in its brief to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting. Both the Canadian Film Institute and the Public Archive of Canada are willing to accept film and other records and these will be handled carefully until a film archives becomes a reality. OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 2) aware. Under the circumstances, those who are interested in continued operation of theatres should bend their efforts towards increasing the popularity of their medium with the public. A slogan should be created, adopted and continually plugged. As a starter, we offer: “Movies are your best entertainment — in theatres.”