Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)

Page scan 00030 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 24, 1958
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)
Leaf #:
00030
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
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 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 31 the Roxy, where it runs for several months. Vice-president and general manager of Dominion Sound Equipments Limited, Fred E. Peters is elected president on the retirement of D. M. Farish. The United Kingdom cuts the entertainments tax by 50 per cent, from a Staggering 36 per cent on admissions to 18 per cent. Activities of Columbia Pictures in Hollywood are taken over by Samuel J. Briskin, a director of Loew’s, Inc. and a veteran of 40 years in the film industry. A member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers and projectionist at the Capitol in Hamilton, Ontario H. H. (Harry) Thornberry, a fourtime president of Local 303 of the projectionists’ union, dies from a fall. May Annual convention of the Variety Clubs International takes place in London, England and votes to hold the 1960 convention in Toronto. The Charity Citation Award goes to the Philadelphia tent for its expenditure of $264,000 on its Variety Club Camp and _ Infantile Paralysis projects. A special Heart Award is presented to William Richard Morris, Viscount Nuffield, world famous philanthropist. Elections resulted in George Eby being named International Chief Barker. succeeding John Rowley. George Heiber of UA succeeds Irvin Coval of Warners as president of the Toronto Film Board of Trade and his post as v-p is filled by Victor Beattie of 20th-Fox. Clare Appel is returned as secretary. Right Honorable Louis St. Laurent is elected a director of Famous Players Canadian Corporation. Sol C. Siegel is named head of MGM studio operations by Joseph R. Vogel, president of Loew’s, Inc., the parent company. Kingston City Council moves up its reduction of the theatre tax from January 1, 1959, to April 1, 1958 to aid local theatres in trouble. Reduction changed the tax from 25 cents per seat to a flat $100. Fletcher Film Productions starts shooting on films for two CBC TV series, Heritage and Handicapped Women. A new technique, group ticket sales for roadshow runs of special films, is becoming a big factor in the take of features like Cinerama, Around the World in Eighty Days and The Bolshoi Ballet. Discounts on blocks of tickets going to social clubs, industrial and commercial firms and fraternal organizations has increased sales and helved fill theatres on off nights. So important has this become to both distributors and exhibitors that Specialists in the field are being hired to take charge of newly set up departments. Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association lists 1,582 standard-type 35 mm. theatres and 227 News Roundup drive-ins in operation in Canada as at April 1, 1958. Florence Long of General Theatre Supply is elected president of the Toronto branch of Women of the Motion Picture Industry. Harry J. Allen, Sr., 66, president of Cardinal Films Limited and a veteran of 40 years in the Canadian motion picture industry, dies suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Toronto. Famous Players takes over the operation of the two Edmonton and the two Calgary drive-ins of Western Drive-in Theatres Limited. Optimism keynotes the three-day conference of Famous Players’ managers and associates at the Park Plaza Hotel in Toronto, which is followed three weeks later with a Vancouver get-together by the firm, Saskatchewan Censor Board reports that it rejected two films and approved 23 after deletions out of 7,200 reviewed in the 1957-58 fiscal year. The Hon. Ellen Louks Fairclough is named Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and thus assumes responsibility for the National Film Board. President of the Motion Picture Projectionists Union Local 173, Toronto and boothman at the Im f Season s SE EE LENE EE LCR OAL AIRE LILLE = ¥ \ RK ELE EE EEE EE EAA AAAS, Greetings to all our fellow exhibitors British Columbia Exhibitors Association MYRON C. McLEOD, President SERRE EE ES EP perial Theatre for over 25 years, Arthur Milligan, 59, dies of a heart attack at his office in the Labor Temple. Government statistics show that the total of theatre employees dropped by 790 in 1956 from the 14,451 of 1955, the result of reduced business and closings of theatres. Alarming proportions in the number of theatre holdups and breakins causes Famous Players and other circuits to issue warnings to employees to adhere strictly to rules and use good common sense to prevent their occurrence as much as possible. Maritime Picture Pioneers honor John E. Tagg, NB manager of Dominion Sound Equipments, at a farewell dinner on his transfer to Montreal after 22 years in Saint John. Sydney Banks is promoted from executive producer to v-p in charge of production at S. W. Caldwell Limited, Toronto. A Russian film, When Storks Fly, wins the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Paul Newman takes down top male honors for his performance in 20th-Fox’ The Long, Hot Summer and female honors go to three actresses, Eva Dalbeck, Ingrid Thulin and FA RAPAIA PAID IS PAPA IS IA IA IA PAPAYA PAPA PAPA PAPA PATA PA IATA RAIA IAS EE AE A wa Bibi Anderson, stars of the Swedish film, Threshold of Life. Ronald Colman, 67, British-born actor and star of Hollywood films since 1922, dies suddenly in hospital in Santa Barbara, California, of a lung infection. June Adele MacPherson is appointed acting Saskatchewan film censor, succeeding the late Reverend D. J. Vaughan and in the Fall William E. Murray is named to the post permanently, with Miss MacPher. son taking over as his aide. Well known to Canadians, Oscar A. Morgan, Paramount Pictures sales executive, retires after 44 years of service in top industry sales management posts. Norman MacLaren’s NFB short, The Merle, takes down top honors as the best color film in the short subjects competition at the Brussels World Film Festival. A. Rousseau of Transvision (Sherbrooke) Inc. is elected president of the National Community Antenna Television Association of Canada, which reports that it now has 77 members. JARO World Wide News ceases distribution in Canada, leaving only two newsreels, those of 20thFox and MGM. William Lester and Joe Oupcher, former Montreal branch managers for Allied Artists and IFD respectively, form Atlas Film Distributors in Montreal for the handling of foreign films. Hatton Taylor, an important film sales executive in Canada and the USA, is named to head sales and promotion for Walt Disney product in Canada by Empire-Universal Films, the distributors. At the same time Barry Carnon, formerly manager of the Hyland Theatre. Toronto, and an outstading exploiteer, is appointed director of advertising, publicity and promotion for the company. Expansion of its facilities, which will add a 50x150 foot studio and revise its largest one at a cost of $250,000, gets under way at Canadian Film Industries of Toronto. Forty-two new members have been added to Quebec Allied Theatrical Industries since the Fall of 1957, Paul Vermet, executive secretary, states. Film industry folk in Winnipeg present Frank Morriss, motion picture critic of the Winnipeg Free Press, with a wrist watch at a banquet in his honor marking his 30th year in that post. Harold Minsky, sales manager for International Telemeter Corporation, in Toronto for the Paramount sales convention, states that Telemeter will get a trial run in some Ontario community in 1959. In October, Eugene Fitzgibbons, head of Trans Canada Telemeter, announces that the target date for the start of the test is early Fall of 1959 and the location will be London. Fire destroys Roger and Donat Martin’s 350-seat Royal Theatre,