Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 27, 1961)

Page scan 00030 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 27, 1961
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 27, 1961)
Leaf #:
00030
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 08, 2024
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Christmas Number — ee C. R. B. SALMON, CA Took over as president of the Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd. following the retirement of L. W. Brockington, CMG, QC. January Report on the motion picture industry for 1959 by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics shows that fewer people were employed and that the boxoffice was down in every province except PEI. Drive-ins’ gross and attendance was up. Jack L. Warner is made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for his long service to AngloAmerican relations. UK admissions dropped 14 per cent to 520,000,000 in 1960, it is estimated by the British Board of Trade. Rise in accidents among theatre employees brings an increase in Workmen’s Compensation Board of Ontario’s rates from 35c per $100 to 50c. Canadian Film Weekly survey shows that eight theatres were completely destroyed by fire in 1960, pointing to a very bad year in that respect. Twentieth Century-Fox’ half-interest in Gaumont-British Ltd. is acquired by The Rank Organization Ltd., holder of the other half. Canada had 1,451 auditorium theatres and 231 drive-ins at the end of 1960, a Canadian Film Weekly survey shows. Phil Stone is installed as Chief Barker of Tent 28, Variety Club of Ontario, along with the other officers at a dinner-dance in the Park Plaza Hotel, Toronto. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Roundup of the News OY fA VOICE of tee CANADIAN YOTIOM PICTURE ImOUSIOF 1961 Theatre Poster Service acquires the poster department of The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd. President of Allied Theatres and an Independent leader among exhibitors, Benjamin Freedman, 60, dies in a Toronto hospital following a heart attack. He was a charter member of the Toronto Variety Club and an early member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers. His son, William (Billy), later succeeds him as head of Allied Theatres. Construction of Panorama Park, a $4,000,000 project near Vancouver to contain a completelyequipped motion picture studio, is begun by Commonwealth Film Productions. Veteran manager of the Capitol, Montreal and a member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, Bill O’Loghlin, 68, passes after a lengthy illness. A drop of 25,545 theatre chairs, bringing the total down to 781,082 in 1,451 theatres in Canada, is shown in figures gathered by the Canadian Film Weekly. A second toll-TV venture in Canada is announced. To be a joint effort by Rediffusion Inc. of Montreal and Superior Community Television of Sault Ste. Marie, the project is the centre of much controversy and later seems to be dropped completely. February The U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, upholds state and local film censorship, reversing the rulings in a number of previous cases in lower courts. Gaston H. Theroux is named executive director of Quebec Allied Theatrical Industries as successor to Paul Vermet. In Nov.. following the death in office of Mr. Doris Robert of Granby of a heart attack at 43, he is elected president and managing director. James A. Cowan is re-elected president of the Canadian Film Institute at the annual meeting in Ottawa, which also returns Charles Topshee as executive director. Opening of a Montreal branch is announced but towards the end of the year it is closed due to the economic situation. The National Community Antenna Television Association objects strenuously to the proposal put forth by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters that the Broadcasting Act include community antenna and toll TV operations and thus make them subject to the 55 per cent Canadian content regulation of the Board of Broadcast Governors. The BBG later states that it will not recommend any such move to the Government. Robert Hollier succeeds Jacques Nicaud as Canadian manager of Unifrance Film, Montreal. J. S. D. Tory, OBE, QC, is elected board chairman of The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd. C. R. B. Salmon, CA, is president and E. G. Forsyth, assistant general manager, is named a director. March Ontario Parliament passes amendment making it legal in communities so voting to hold movie presentations, theatrical performances and sports programs from 1.30 p.m. to midnight on Sunday. Famous Players and MGM sponsor a special showing of Ben-Hur at the University Theatre, Toronto for 375 deaf people. The dialogue is brought to them by Rev. R. L. Rumball, pastor of the Toronto Evangelical Church for the Deaf, who uses luminous white gloves under black light and phosphorous paint on his lips. Survey of production in Canada shows that two features were completed by outside interests and one is in work. Others are being planned both by outside producers and domestic ones. Amendments to the Ontario theatre act liberalize and broaden movie attendance by juveniles and make it okay for other than a Canadian citizen or a British subject to operate a motion picture theatre or be a projectionist. Louis de Gonzague Prevost is named to succeed Alexis Gagnon as chairman of the Board of Cine Page 31 HENRY A. MICHAUD Elected president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada, as successor to Gerald S, Kedey. ma Censors of the Province of Quebec. Canada’s ten best boxoffice cities, according to the DBS, during 1959 were Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton, Quebec and London, in that order. In 1952, in the pre-TV era, the order was exactly the same. Report on drive-ins in Canada staying open in the winter shows they are doing well and more of them are planning to do it in the 1961-62 season. President John F. Kennedy is presented with a gold card and becomes an honorary member of Variety Clubs International. The USA Federal Communications Commission approves a fullscale Toll-TV test by RKO General and Zenith Radio in Hartford, Conn. Survey by this publication reveals that since Sept., 1959 22 Canadian communities have lost their only 35 mm, theatre, bringing the total of such towns which became theatreless to 184 since 1953, In the latter year there were 1,202 communities with standard-gauge cinemas, as against 1,018 now. Parliament approves $4,988,112 for production of films by the National Film Board and praises its work, Film Academy Inc., a training school for film actors and_ technicians, is opened in Montreal with 18 teachers as a subsidiary of Montreal Cine Production.