Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 1, 1961)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Feb 1, 1961
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 1, 1961)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Greig Dymond in memory of David Dymond, 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:
May 23, 2024
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a Vol. 26, No. 5 VOICE of the CANADWAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) TORONTO, February 1, 1961 THEATRE SEATS DOWN 25,000 IN ‘60 TWO-YR. DROP OVER 50,000; DRIVE-INS' CAPACITY UP Canada’s auditorium exhibition facilities at the end of 1960, 781,082 chairs in 1,451 theatres, represent a reduction of 25,545 in chairs and 72 in theatres during the year, according to a Canadian Film Weekly survey. The addition of the 1959 decline to Production Study By Non-Canadian “Canadian film? But we have never seen a Canadian film!’ This remark is familiar to the Canadian film producers.” That’s the beginning of an article which appeared recently in Filmvilag, a Hungarian periodical, which says that ‘‘there is flourishing high (Continued on Page 5) Wide Celebration For Variety Week Celebration of Variety Week (Feb. 13-18) by the Variety Club of Ontario, as set up by Barker Bob Hall and his committee, will certainly be one of the finest of its kind in the 46 cities or areas where tents of the Variety Clubs International operate. The high (Continued on Page 3) Favors CBC, NFB Being Under Same Minister Placing of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board under a single minister with responsibility for all crown corporations was suggested in the House of Commons by L. J. Pigeon, a Government member from Joliette, Quebec. The fear of political interference is no real reason for avoiding a move that would unite them under a_ single authority, Pigeon said. The suggestion came when the Hon. J. W. Pickersgill, now an Opposition member, spoke on the vagueness of the motion under which a special committee on broadcasting will be appointed to examine radio and television. Pickersgill favored “bringing the CBC as well as the private stations under the jurisdiction of the Board of Broadcast Governors,” so that there would again be “insulation” between the CBC and the Government. Three-Pronged Attack © In Artie Campaign Specialized distribution of offbeat films, booking and buying for art houses and a “Curtain at 8.30” program of distinctive films for communities of all sizes are the three facets of the operations of the recently-revived International Cinema Guild of Canada. The company, which has been dormant for almost ten years, is again under the directorship of Yvonne Taylor, who operates three Toronto theatres using a foreign and art film policy, the International, Towne and Little cinemas, and is being managed by Barney Simmons, supervisor of the two lastnamed houses. Initial program of the Curtain at 8.30 plan is a series of six award (Continued on Page 4) WB's ‘Splendor In The Grass’ Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty will star in Warners’ Splendor in the Grass. | coke New Fox Projection Astral To Distribute Four Geo. Minter Productions Four George Minter productions will be distributed in Canada by Astral Films as part of an agreement with Trafalgar Pictures Corp., rep for Minter in the Western Hemisphere. The quartet of films are Dentist in the Chair, starring Bob Monkhouse and Peggy Cummins and which will preem in Toronto Feb. 16; Portrait of a Sinner, with Nadja Tiller, Wm., Bendix and Tony Britton; Beat Girl, with Noelle Adam and David Farrar; and Jessy, a dramatic featurette. these figures shows that in two years Canada’s auditorium seating capacity was reduced by 51,767 and the number of theatres by 117. The number of drive-ins was the same in 1960 as in 1959, 231, because two closed and two opened. The new ones had slightly greater car capacities than the closed ones and during the year several expanded, so that the national car capacity rose by 1,354 to 90,486. Since some Provincial licencing (Continued on Page 3) Paramount's "The War Story’ Fess Parker and Harry Guardino will star in Paramount’s The War Story. Week LUNCHEON MEETING Rediff'n, C-A-V In Sault Pay-See TV Rediffusion Inc. of Montreal and Superior Community Television of Sault Ste. Marie have joined as Rediffusion Superior Community to operate what will be Canada’s second toll TV venture, the present one being the year-old Telemeter project in Toronto. The (Continued on Page 4) Ont. Night Racing OK Night harness racing will soon provide competition for Ontario motion picture theatres. It is expected that Premier Leslie M. Frost will announce the extension of the legal operating period to 10 p.m. In Toronto the Old Woodbine will have 52 nights of harness racing this summer. TUESDAY Feb. 14, 61 Royal York (ONTARIO ROOM) 12.30 P.M. VARIETY CLUB OF ONTARIO NOTE: This will be the highlight of the Variety Week celebration and it will be a meeting to remember! The beautiful new Ontario Room — just the right size and without any posts — will be specially decorated. AMONG OUR GUESTS will be Mayor Nathan Phillips, who will be presented with a plaque for Variety by — get this! — Metro Mayor Fred Gardiner. GUESTS will be mayors of Ontario communities which have contributed to Variety Village through special Sunday shows staged by their local entertainment community. FORTY STARS of Canadian radio, TV, films and theatre will be our special guests and they will share the tables with you. BRING A FRIEND who is not a Variety member to this luncheon if you wish. It will be a real treat. BUT COME YOURSELF! OTHER An improved motion picture process, Grandeur 70, has 5 perception and clarity and color of unsurpassed beauty.” been announced for 20th Century-Fox by Spyros P. Skouras, president. The 70 mm. process, in work since 1941 Also ready is a lens able to focus images on a print area of twice the width of standard 35 mm. film. The King and developed by Earl Sponable, affords “greater depth and | will be the first film to be reissued in Grandeur 70. Ge