Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 21, 1960)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 21, 1960
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 21, 1960)
Leaf #:
0002
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 15, 2024
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Vol. 25, No. 49 VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE Christmas, 1960 Avra INDUSTRY TORONTO, December 21, 1960 ARE OLD FRIENDS THE BEST MAYBE — BUT TEEN-AGE TRADE BIG BOXOFFICE BULWARK Christmas may be the time to think about old friends but today in the movie business it isn’t the old friend that’s cherished but the young one. A survey by the Motion Picture Add Workshop To Variety Village Progress in techniques and an increase in types of machines for sheet metal work, along with the popularity of the course, has caused the Variety Club of Ontario to plan a $25,000 addition to the present workshop at Variety Village, its vocational guidance and residence school for handicapped boys in Toronto. This will also increase safety. A good number of Variety Village graduates are making their living at sheet metal and welding work. Press, Industry Interdependence A nation-wide campaign should be undertaken to convince publishers of the interdependence that should exist between newspapers and motion pictures, C. J. Appel, executive director of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, told the recent annual meeting in Toronto of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry Council. ‘Motion pictures need newspapers to advertise their attractions and newspapers need the advertising of theatres,’ he said. Association of America made 52 per cent of moviegoers are under 19. Another survey, this one by the Theatre-screen Ad Bureau, placed the percentage of drive-in attendance from the under-19 group at 47, Although a number of Canadian newspapers have separate departments for teen-agers, a recent survey printed in Editor & Publisher showed that amusement news is their favorite reading. Ninety-nine per cent read newspapers and 82 per cent are interested in amusement news. The USA’s Council of Motion Picture Organizations, Inc. dealt with teenagers, newspapers and movies in a recent ad in Editor & Publisher. After quoting the leading figures, the ad said: “Teen-agers also make up the biggest percentage of motion picture theatre patrons. The relationship between their attendance at movies and their interest in their newspapers’ amusement news is obvious. “We have pointed out several times in this space that motion picture theatre patrons and newspapers’ readers are the same people. This latest survey gives some years ago showed that eloquent testimony that, so far as teenagers are concerned, we have been correct. “Recognizing the interest of their readers in movies, most newspapers give excellent coverage to motion picture activities. There are some, however, that for one reason or another neglect this profitable field of reader interest. To these we commend a serious contemplation of the figures quoted above.” SG PEE RE EEE EEL LE EEE EE ELE LE ELE DEEL ELE LETS, EEE Seas @nre s Greetings to all our fellow exhibitors FRIENDS? Film-Theatre Folk To Aid Red Cross The Canadian motion picture industry will again be active participants in 1961’s Red Cross Month, March, through personal and firm donations, service on local committees and the exhibition of trailers in all theatres without charge. More than 2,000,000 Canadians serve the Red Cross in a voluntary capacity, with more than 100,000 women giving time regularly. Patron of The Canadian Red Cross Society, founded in 1909, is Her Majesty The Queen. OUR FRONT COVER DELEGATES AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY COUNCIL OF CANADA FRONT ROW, left fo right: Craig Hughes, counsel of The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd.; Hye Bossin, editor, Canadian Film Weekly; H. C, D. (Dick) Main, Sutton West, Ont., secretary-treasurer; Ken Beach, Winnipeg; Harry Prygrocki, Winnipeg, president of the Manitoba Motion Picture Exhibitors Association and second vice-chairman of the Council; and Arthur Bahen, Montreal. CENTRE ROW: A, J. Mason, Springhill, NS, president of the Maritimes Motion Picture Exhibitors Association; F. Gordon Spencer, St. John, NB; E. G. Forsyth, chairman of the National Committee of Motion Picture Exhibitors Associations of Canada; Charles S. Chaplin, immediate past president of the Council; Douglas Miller, Taber, president of the Alberta Theatres Association; F. J. Lundholm, Swift Current, Sask.; Harry Howard, Vancouver; and Doris Robert, Granby, president of the Quebec Allied Theatrical Industries. TOP ROW: Gaston Theroux, Asbestos, Que.; Wm. Lester, Montreal; Myron McLeod, Powell River, president of the British Columbia Motion Picture Exhibitors Association; Clare J. Appel, executive director of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association; Arch H. Jolley, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario; Wm. Summerville, Toronto; Wm, Johnston, Yorkton, Sask.; Al Turnbull, Toronto; and Ted Hayes, Toronto, British Columbia Exhibitors Association MYRON C. MeLEOD, President YER LE RE ELLE EE EEE ELE SELLE ELSIE LE EEE EEE LEE LEE Sb bh bbb beh bbb bbb bb bbb be bebe be bbb bbe bebe babe be be bebe te SAAS PAA SS PAPA PARA SA PE RAPA BAS RA PS BAP PR RA PR PR PR PA Cur Werp Best Wishes