Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 20, 1961)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 20, 1961
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 20, 1961)
Leaf #:
0000
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 Media Magazines Project, 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:
June 04, 2024
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Vol, 26, No. 49 VOICE of the CANADI AN MOTION PICTURE Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) INDUSTRY : z * * : : ; TORONTO, December 20, 1961 PRIVATE PRODUCTION UP, LABS DOWN At $9,972,151 the gross revenue of 66 firms primarily engaged in the production and printing of motion picture films and filmstrips in 1960 (12 more firms than in 1959) was $438,741 higher (5.7 per cent) than in the previous year. Our Producers Need Support “We have been working and selling in the international market-place as hard and as_ intelligently as we know how to do. We'll continue to do so. But we now suggest that the time has come ior the Government to take a long look at the possibilities of (Continued on Page 2) Australia Hit By Full Force Of TV : Austrattan television, now over . five years old, is-. still causing theatres. tolose and attendances to slump drastically, it is pointed out in the 26th annual cdition of the Motion Picture Directory 1961® of The Film Weekly of Sydney, a Australia. Published. by Eric Solo ea (Continued on Page 2) MPP Vs. Theatre Fronts; Says Censors Immune Theatre fronts were among the things complained about in the Ontario Legislature by Leo Troy, a Liberal member from Nippissing, who went after the Ontario Board of Censors for a number of reasons. He also wants TV films censored. “1 came from.a hockey game the other night and | saw an ad showing two, people in a clutch with one of them half undressed,” he told the House during consideration of the estimates for the Department of Travel and Publicity,, of which the censor board is a part. . ~ “Membership on the censor -seard Should rotate,-Troy contended, -because —os a ~ paper reported it—‘cfter years exposure, members’ senses become! calcified and corroded.” For Restricted pictures Troy wants the ads to be limited to the name of the picture and the times. r 21 Of 33 Plebiscites _ OK Sunday Movies| _ Sunday movies won a. marked victory in the recent plebisCites-a Ontario.on Dec. 4 and 5. Twenty-one of 33 communities ranging from townships to cities voted in favor of them. The j | ] atre »eople were surprised to. see Sarnia in and lated by the seven-tofour favorable vote in Fort illicm. Owen Sound voted against Sunday movies, 3,722 o 2:73 and also turnéd down Sunde sports. Pickerirlg Township, where Odeon is building a drive-in as the area’s first cinsay voted for Sunday movies 2350 to 1,223 and also okayed Sports, and Toronto Township favored Sunday movies 7,437 to 3,674. Winning plebiscites were also ~ held in the townships of Chapleau (Continued on Page 2) Paramount's 'My Six Loves’ pe Reynolds will star in aramount’s My Six Loves. Fisher First Ass‘t the losing column Loew's Canada Re-elects Board; $58,205.'60 Net Loew’s Yongé St., 1,164-s€at Toronto house operated’ by Marcus Loew's Theatres Ltd., a subsid‘jary of Loew's Theatres Inc., NY, showed a net profit of $58,205.86 for the year ending Aug. 30, 1960. Operating profit before depreciations and taxes of $98,400 was $156,605. The present board, headed by Preston A.. Tisch, was returned. John F. Murphy and Jacob Stillman, NY, are vice-president and treasurer respectively. G. R. Mackie, QC, Toronto, is secretary. Revenue from _ production, $7,038,810 was _ $1,224,120 over that of 1959’s $5,814,690. Printing and laboratory services, at $2,590,759, were down by $638,481 from the $3,229;240 of 1959. Income from other services, $342,582, was lower by $46,898. Employees numbered 1,181 — 11 more — and salaries and wages, at $3,475,118, reached $4,771 higher. These figures, for private productions, are only part of the story. The National Film Board spends millions of dollars on pro Continued on Page 4) _ ‘Period Of Adjustment" GeorgeRoy Hill will direct MGM's Period of Adjustment. Now 523 In FP 25 Year Club Those#Who have the right to join Famous Players’ 25 Year Club “have earned that right by loyal service, by giving a part of their lives to help make the company the organization it is today,” John J. Fitzgibbons, CBE, president, told the annual induction (Continued on Page 4) Johnston Vice-Chairman Wm. Johnston of Yorkton, Saskatchewan supervisor for Rothstein Theatres, is third vice-chairman of the National Committee of Motion Picture. Exhibitors Associations of Canada, and not Harry Prygrocki of Winnipeg, as stated here erroneously in our last edition. E. G. Forsyth of. Foronto is chairman. ~— STRATFORD DROPS FILM FESTIVAL ‘The Stratford Film Festival, which was begun in 1956 as part of the.Stratford Shakespearean Festival at Stratford, Ont., has been suspended by Michael Langham, artistic director, and the Board of _ Governors “until s uch: time..as the film_showings can’ match the » stdndard set by the drama and music seasons.” ; “The films are a very important aspect of * we hope to resume showings in some future year,’ the Festival and ’ said Langham. That the Stratford Board considered: the quality of the: films shown to be inferior is news to film industry people. The Film Fes tival was never presented ism in the press. Premier Operating, ed the theatres for the Film Festival, their comfort and appearance: Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Th will open the drama Section of the Fe: though not necessarily .. Cyrano de Bergerac will open on July the season. Christopher Plummer June ‘18-19-20, The 1962 15-week season will year. The music season, again Rose and Oscar Shumsky, Newman To Star In Para Film Paul Newman has been signed to star in an.as yet untitled film set in modern Texas, which will be made by the Salem and Dover production companies for Paramount release. successor to Frank Assistant Chief Ba Shopsy took over Strean is Frank rker is George ean Robert Rey rie Mast in the place of Chet F man ai ek 9 from Dr. Jack Egon with much color and this brought critic from which the Festival renthas done very little to increase e-Tempest-and-Taming_of the ‘Shrew e Festival on consecutive evenings, in that order. Rostand’s 30 and run until the end of ~ will head the actors. be a week longer than that of last directed by Glenn Gould, Leonard will also be expanded. WB To Release ‘Gay Purr-ee’ Warners has signed to distribute UPA’s musical cartoon feature, Gay Purr-ee, which stars the voices of Judy Garland and Robert Goulet and is now in produc tion. H. Fisher and Second as Dough Guy.