Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 5, 1960)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Oct 5, 1960
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 5, 1960)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, and Global Cinema
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 08, 2024
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Vol. 25, No. 38 VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY <9 ESS ¥ Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) TORONTO, October 5, 1960 Exhibs Re Safety In PQ Theatres A motion picture exhibitor’s view of “the recent re-enforcement of the law forbidding under-sixteens from seeing movies’’ was offered in a letter to the The Montreal Star by Joseph H. Strauss, operator of the Empire Theatre and president of the Theatre Owners Association (Continued on Page 7) John Wayne HitIn PreAlamo Visits Wonderful idea of UA’s Archie Laurie to have a press luncheon for John Wayne, here with Russ Birdwell ahead of The Alamo, at Fort York, Toronto. There in 1813 British troops and Canadian militiamen, badly outnumbered and outgunned by a navy and army (Continued on Page 3) Stein To Be BAR ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ECHOES 1944 CONTENTION Validity of motion picture censorship in Canada, challenged legally in 1944 before Quebec courts, was questioned again recently in the report of a three-man civil liberties sub-committee of the Canadian Bar Association, which was holding its annual Minister Vs. Churchman In Sunday-Show Issue Position of Dr. W. G. Berry, United Church leader who is prominent in opposition to Sunday movies in Toronto, was attacked sharply in a Sunday sermon by Rev. Shaun Herron of St. Columbus United Church. Said Mr. Herron, preaching in St. Clair Avenue United Church: “Dr. Berry obviously has no notion that with patronizing condescension to God and the poor he said that he was right to decide what the poor can afford and that Sunday movies are not necessary because people can always worship God as an alternative. "God, offered as an alternative to Miss (Marilyn) Monroe, is neither good theology nor good public relations.” Mr. Herron said that nothing in Christian history or scripture makes . valid interference with the Sunday pleasures of others. The minister was criticized by other clergymen. Honored As Pioneer Of The Year Morris Stein, ‘who was general manager of Famous Players’ Eastern Division until he resigned early in 1958 to open his own auto sales agency, was selected Pioneer of the Year for 1960, it has been announced by Frank H. Fisher, president of the Cana dian Picture Pioneers. Stein, along with four Pioneers chosen to receive ancillary awards, will be honored at the annual banquet in the Crystal Ballroom, King Edward Hotel, Toronto, on Oct. 26. Stein was selected by a committee chaired by Oscar R. Hanson and comprised of John J. Fitzgibbons, CBE, N. A. Taylor and Haskell M. Masters. All four members are previous winners of the award. (Continued on Page 3) Col.'s ‘Two Rode Together' James Stewart and Richard Widmark will star in Columbia’s Two Rode Together. fix Wording For Approval of a Dec. 5 plebiscite on Sunday movies has been given by the Toronto City Council. The ballot question: “Are you in favor of the City of Toronto seeking legislation to’ legalize the showing of motion pictures and the performance Toronto Ballot Telemeter Livening Up; Davis, CEA, To Visit With the return of people from their summer cottages Telemeter, Paramount-Famous Players’ toll TV system in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, is livening up again. “We're seeing a lot more. activity,” said E, E. Fitzgibbons, head of Trans Canada Telemeter. Earle B. Harris has been appointed aide to Jean Dalrymple, producer, who will tape NY plays, etc. for Toronto viewing this fall and winter. Alfred Davis, president of the UK’s Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association, will visit TM soon. meeting in Quebec City at the time. The committee, made up of three Regina lawyers, called for an end to motion picture censorship, which had been declared undemocratic and illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952. Every effort by states and municipalities to reinstitute film censorship since has been defeated in court. The sub-committee report, which criticized exercise of book censor (Continued on Page 7) Variety To Preem ‘Alamo’ Variety Club of Toronto will sponsor the premiere of UA’s The Alamo at the Tivoli, Toronto, on Nov. 9. CAN. FILM CENSORSHIP: IS IT VALID? CPP To Honor Four Old-Timers The four old-timers chosen for ancillary honors from the Canadian Picture Pioneers in 1960, who are spread across the country, enjoy great affection from the theatre-picture people in their areas. One hears constantly of their devotion to the benevolent work of (Continued on Page 6) Ross SMPTE Nominee Rodger J. Ross, technical supervisor for CBC film operations, is among those nominated as an east coast governor of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which is tantamount to election at the meeting in Washington Oct. 16-22. Next president will be John Servies. BROCKINGTON RETIRES AS JARO HEAD L. W. Brockington, CMG, QC, president of the Rank Organization of Canada, announced his intention of retiring from the presidency of that and the other Rank companies in Canada at a recent meeting of the directors of The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd. The move was effective at the end-of September. He will remain a member of the various boards of directors. Closely associated with the Rank Organization since 1943, when that company decided to acquire interests in this country, he was president of its Canadian group for the past ten years. Mr. Brockington will continue in the practice of his profession in Toronto, and in the performance of the public and semi-public duties with which he has been entrusted. He also intends to devote some of his time to writing. No successor has been indicated. Vice-president of The Rank Organization is C. R. B. Salmon, CA. "SPARTACUS' FOR UPTOWN, TORONTO Between 1,300 and 1,400 of the Toronto Uptown’s present 2,743 seats will be used for the hard-ticket engagement of Universal’s Spartacus, which is to premiere on December 22. The $12,000,000 production will be offered eight times weekly, with two of the performances matinees. The orchestra and loges only will be used, with the balcony seats screened off and the boxes put out of service. The seats in the orchestra, which were refurbished previously, are being respaced to 38 inches — the same as what the loges are. The total house capacity, counting used and unused seats, will drop from 2,743 to 2,463. The screen on which the 70 mm. Super-Technirama production will be seen was extended from 40 to 48 feet two months ago. of concerts and plays in theatres and halls on Sundays?” Controller Donald Summerville, an exhibitor, abstained, None was opposed. Mayor Nathan Phillips and one of his opponents, Alan Lamport, former mayor, both favor Sunday movies.