Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 23, 1959)

Page scan 00034 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 23, 1959
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 23, 1959)
Leaf #:
00034
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 AT THE 1959 ANNUAL AWAR CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY An overflow crowd of over 400 watched the Canadian Picture Pioneers present the annual awards at a dinner in the Crystal Ballroom of the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. In the photo at the left R. W. Bolstad, CPP president and emcee of the dinner, is shown, left, receiving a cheque for $2,000 from the BC branch for the Trust Fund from Owen Bird, to whom Bolstad presented an ancillary award for Frank Gow, Vancouver. In the centre The Pioneer of the Year, Haskell M. Masters, is seen accepting the plaque from Leonard W. L D BANQUET OF TH E CANADIAN PICTURE PIONEERS IN TORONTO Page 35 Brockington, CMG, QC, while Bolstad looks on. At the right David Rothstein accepts the award to the Winnipeg branch from Frank H. Fisher, CPP v-p. Ancillary awards went also to Harold Pfaff, Toronto; Joshua Lieberman, St. John; P. W. Mahon, Prince Albert, Sask.; and W. O. Kelly of Calgary, with the first two accepting theirs in person and the last two through representatives. A surprise presentation was a silver tray to Masters from his USA colleagues at Warner Bros. announces that it will start shooting shortly on a pilot film for its North of 53 TV series. National Film Board annual report shows that total income from all sources in the 1958-59 fiscal year amounted to $6,273,008, of which the Government gave $4,285,905 and government departments and agencies paid $1,099,415 for production of films for them. NFB expenditures amounted to $6,116,216 and the excess of $156,792 was returned to the Government. It completed 368 productions and of these 188 were for itself and 89 were sponsored. Harold A. Bishop, 58, Famous Players Manitoba District manager, dies suddenly in Winnipeg of a heart attack. CBC annual report of its 1958-59 fiscal year gives $87,315,000 as the amount it spent, $16,000,000 of it for radio, which was almost $12,000,000 higher than the previous year. It estimates that it will require almost $100,000,000 for the current year. August Proposed regulation of the Board of Broadcast Governors that Canadian TV stations be forced to provide 55% Canadian content in its programming is seen as tremendous spur to Canadian production by those in that field but is looked on as liable to work great hardships on the stations themselves by their operators. Willard J. O’Neill, 69, secretarytreasurer of Paramount in Canada, dies of a heart attack at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Ralph M. Cohen, 45, president of Screen Gems and son of the late Jack Cohn, dies of a heart attack in New York. Services of Will Rogers Memor News Roundup ial Hospital at Saranac Lake, NY, are extended free to all newspaper and magazine critics and editors of all phases of showbusiness and their families. Canadian Film Weekly survey shows that premiums in theatres are almost a thing of the past. During the depression premium houses obtained almost 90 per cent of their business from theatres. Currently it is less than 5 per cent. Pioneer of the Year 1959 is Steve Broidy, AA head, it is announced by the USA’s Motion Picture Pioneers. Robert L. Dunsmore is elected chairman of the new ll-man board of directors of the CBC, replacing J. Alphonse Ouimet, who remains as general manager and chairman of the five-man management committee of the board of directors. E. L. Bushnell continues as aide to Ouimet. Films from the UK, Poland and Japan take down the three top awards at the Vancouver Film Festival. September In six years 162 Canadian communities lost their 35 mm. theatres and at present have none, a Canadian Film Weekly survey shows. There are 1,040 communities in which Canada’s 1,765 35 mm. situations are found, 31 of them having only a single drive-in. Gross billings of USA films in Canada amounted to $22,000,000 in 1958, states the new Film Daily Year Book. Fergus L. Martin is named assistant to E. E. Fitzgibbons, president of Trans Canada Telemeter, and A. E. Brown is appointed program director. Both are from Famous Players’ head office. Harold Joyal, Winnipeg branch feather your nest with the greatest thing yet ASI TRAILERS * are the best you can get. *ASSOCIATED SCREEN IND. 2000 Northcliffe Ave., Montreal 108 Peter St., Toronto manager for Sovereign Films, is promoted to Western Canada _ supervisor. IATSE foursome, for the sixth consecutive year, takes down the top trophy in the annual Canadian Picture Pioneers’ golf tournament in Toronto. Tiger Productions of Calgary completes shooting its Wings of Chance and outlines plans for its next feature, stating that it intends to move right along with feature production. Tommy Cleary wins the top individual prize in the annual golf tourney of the Quebec branch of the Canadian Picture Pioneers near Montreal. Leon Shelly, head of Shelly Films Ltd. of Toronto, is one of 15 honored with a Fellow Membership by the SMPTE. Kay Kendall, 33, wife of Rex Harrison and a stage and film star, dies in London of leukemia. Wishing Well at the Beverley Bedding booth at the CNE nets Variety Village $1,337. Roy Little is named assistant to Charles Topshee, executive director of the Canadian Film Institute. With Rothstein Theatres Ltd. since 1937, Wm. Johnston of Yorkton is promoted to Sask. supervisor for the circuit. Gross revenue of 53 Canadian producer-lab firms in 1958 was $7,729,703, a slight drop of five firms and $190,002 from the 1957 figures. Number of Canadian 16 mm. theatres shows a marked decline in 1958, dropping from 148 in 1957 to 110. ; Beaver Film Productions of Toronto and Ansa Produzione of Rome enter into a co-production deal on a film now under way, David and Goliath, starring Orson Welles and being shot in Cinema