Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 23, 1959)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 23, 1959
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 23, 1959)
Leaf #:
0002
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Vol. 24, No. 49 VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE Christmas Edition INDUSTRY TORONTO, December 23, 1959 YEAR-AROUND DRIVE-INS INCREASING SNOW, FOG NOT FATAL TO WINTER OPERATION; FOOD TAKE GOOD WE first ran this year’s cover illustration in 1950 as a piece of humorous exaggeration — humor so exaggerated that it was worthy of being pictured. We got Bill Bounsell to draw it. It proved prophetic and we feel sorry for Jules Verne and 10-Yr. UK Variety Variety Total: £400,000 At its 10th anni celebration luncheon the Variety Club of Great Britain, with Prince Philip and Earl Mountbatten as guests of honor, a total of £68,000 was given away for the blind, spastic boys and girls, cancer research and playing fields. Its 10-year charity total is £400,000. Were With You, Jack L. Warner “The greatest, most productive and profitable years of the motion picture industry are here and just ahead. Motion pictures are reestablished as the foremost entertainment of people everywhere.”’ So Jack L. Warner, president of Warner Bros., said recently in reporting on his company. ‘Freedom of Enquiry’ & Film Censorship Proposals for stronger film censorship in several American states are “ill conceived” and such moves “are spearheaded by the uninformed and the uninquiring,’ Margaret G. Twyman, director of Community Relations of the Motion Picture Associa tion of America, Inc. told the Maryland Library Association during an address called “The Freedom of Enquiry” at its recent luncheon in Baltimore. Her views on the prior restraint represented by film censhorship, which was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court, are of interest in Canada, where the banning of films by Provincial boards has brought protests from newspaper writers and others interested in freedom of speech, enquiry and the press. “Another observation — and this is truly shocking, in my opinion — is that the word ‘freedom’ can (Continued on Page 5) Wilson Named BBG's Technical Adviser Technical adviser to the Board of Broadcast Governors is Wm. R. Wilson, 49, who was born in Indian Head, Sask., and is a 1934 McGill graduate in Electrical Engineering. He’s been with the Electronics Branch of the Department of Defense Production, Ottawa, for the past six years. He was its representative during the planning of the Dew Line project. Wilson was with Sir Hubert Wilkins in the Arctic in 1937 during the search for lost Soviet airmen. Mother Shipton, who didn’t live to see their predictions come true. Some years ago drive-ins in Alberta, where the weather goes ’way below zero, and British Columbia, where it hardly ever snows, began playing at staying open longer than the usual season. Last winter 20th Century Theatres, prompted by the continuing vitality of the drive-in dur (Continued on Page 5) Triton’s ‘California Street’ George Zuckerman has_ been signed by Triton Pictures to script California Street, which UA will release. Kodak $100,000 For Oscar Tab The Eastman Kodak Co., of which Canadian Kodak is a part, will contribute $100,000 of the $500,000 needed by the motion picture industry to sponsor the Oscar telecast on April 4. The company will have no plugs in publicity or during the show. The MPAA is handling the financing. U-I's "Four Fast Guns’ Universal-International has acquired from Phoenix Film Studio, the producer, the United States and Canadian distribution rights to Four Fast Guns, an action drama starring James Craig, Martha Vickers and Edgar Buchanan. An early release is planned for the film. Officers of the Maritime Exhibitors Association A. J. Mason of Springhill, NS was re-elected president of the Maritime Motion Picture Exhibitors Association at the recent annual convention in Saint John, NB. He is shown here with other officers and directors, Seated, from the left, are A, A. Fielding, v-p for NS; Mrs. Helen M, Nesbitt, treasurer; and Mason, In the back row are G. A. Walters, secretary; F. C. Leavens, director; F. Gordon Spencer, v-p for NB; and Bruce H, Yeo, PEI v-p, Alciona's ‘The Mad King' Yul Brynner has been signed to star in Alciona’s The Mad King, which UA will release. U-I's ‘In The Wrong Rain’ U-I has acquired newspaperman Robert R. Kirsch’s novel, In the Wrong Rain.