Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 24, 1958
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)
Leaf #:
0008
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Picture Pioneers, 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:
August 15, 2024
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Christmas Number ON-FEATURE motion picN ture production in Canada, an impressive reality now, came in for thorough examination by Arthur Chetwynd, president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada, following his welcome at the opening of the recent Shelly Film Workshop in Toronto. A British Columbian who now operates in Toronto, Chetwynd was a university teacher of physical education, an athletic coach and a physiotherapist before settling into full-time motion picture production eight years ago. The AMPPLC has about 50 . member companies ranging from two-men shops to studios employing hundreds. “If they are sincere, all of these people are interested in the need for developing a sound and effective motion picture industry in Canada — competent, responsible and professional in every respect,” he said. He believed them to be sincere, capable and aware that ‘There is endless variety and countless possibilities for imaginative creative works of art. That may sound like extravagant language for a 20-second TV commercial. In my opinion, it is just as possible to produce a work of art within the rigid disciplines of a 20-second limit as it is in a 90minute dramatic feature film— 4 bdevridian Faluons L ioited TORONTO KEELE EE ENE EEE EEE EEE CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY *. e Competent. Kesponsible and Professional... ° although I fall into the category of a motion picture fan who prefers to watch a good full-length movie.” QNE of the immediate objec tives for a bigger and better Canadian production industry was this: “It is up to all of us to resist constantly the alltoo-accepted habit of following foreign standards and mores of behaviour like sheep. We must encourage exchange of ideas with other nations but we must also be ourselves.” Here are some of the things important to the future of motion picture production of the kind now occupying almost all of the industry’s working time: Meet and discuss: “We should get together more often as practical businessmen, as seekers after truth, as Canadians in such meetings as this to dis ERE EE EE EEE EE EEE EE ENE EEE EEE TEER iN Es is x 38 FA RAPA PAPA PAIS IAPAIAIA PAPA PAPA PS IA PA PAYS IAPARA PA NAPA PAPA PARA RA PAPA RA RARA: BRI ARTHUR CHETWYND cuss techniques and experiences and to find ways and means of making and marketing more and better motion pictures.” Basic philosophy: ‘We should take ourselves seriously as film-making, film-buying and film-seeing people.” Training courses: ‘““We must recognize film-making as a vital element in our developing national culture and urge our universities and technical schools to initiate the necessary \} 300 New Hargrave Bldg. DE LE LL ELE ALR ALAA 13 + Season's Greetings and Best Wishes To All the Members of the Motion Picture Industry MANITOBA MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITORS ASSOCIATION a PR Pa Sn RR Pk PR RA RS RR PR BR RR PR RA RRP RSS Page 9 courses in education, academic and technical, to yield the creative and technical personnel we will need to record our national history and character on film, television and video tape, just as there are training schools in other professional fields.” Experience: ‘We must make many more films and train many more people, so that they can pour their thinking and their skills into more and greater films.” Competition: “Competition and teamwork go hand-in-hand. There is nothing sinister about either.” (CONCLUDED Chetwynd: “I congratulate all of you for having such a clear picture of the contribution we must all make if we wish to see Canada’s future as a leading film producer brought to fulfillment. The fact that you have gathered for this film workshop is a clear indication of your healthy curiosity and sincere desire to increase your knowledge, ability and experience in this most fascinating field of endeavour — motion picture production. I know you are going to enjoy yourselves during the next three days. I wish you the best of luck and it is my sincere hope that you will all go back to your respective jobs, refreshed and inspired.” ML MLE EE EE EE REEL EEE EE EEE EE Ef Winnipeg. Manitoba a