Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1963)

Page scan 0003 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 2, 1963
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 2, 1963)
Leaf #:
0003
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Page 4 News Clips Luis Bunuel’s Mexican film, The Exterminating Angel, was given the Fipresci Award by the 10 international critics at the recent fifth Annual Review of World Film Festivals at Acapulco, Mexico. The festival is non-competitive and no other awards were made ... Jack Labow, one-time RKO chief in Canada and now manager of the American Motion Picture Export Co. (Africa), Inc., helped arrange the ceremonies for the opening of the Suru-lere in Lagos, Nigeria, the first new deluxe theatre to be opened in West Africa . . . Overseas consultant and European co-ordinator of production for Entertainment Corp. of America is Charles Smadja, formerly United Artists’ vice-president in charge of production on the continent .. . Dr. Cc. B. Lumsden, 67, of Wolfville, NS has replace Charles W. Leeson of Islington, Ont. as vicechairman of the CBC board. Famous Players offered to pay $26.50 per share for the stock of Eastern Theatres Ltd., which owns the Imperial Theatre, Toronto, originally the Pantages. Famous Players, which has been operating the Imperial for many years, already owns 96 and onehalf per cent of the 32,000 outstanding shares, which have a book value of $14.67 each. The offer expired on Dec. 17... Toronto Globe and Mail announced on the front page of a recent edition that it would no longer accept news announcements on a hold-for-future-release basis .. . Twentieth Century Theatres intends altering and refurbishing its Century Theatre, Hamilton. This will be the second time this has been done in recent years. The Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Stratford, Ont. will present four plays for its 11th season, Michael Langham, artistic director, has announced. Three will be by Shakespeare and the fourth will be Langham’s restaging of last season’s great triumph, Cyrano de Bergerac. The Shakespearean plays to be offered are Troilus and Cressida (Langham to direct and costuming by Desmond Heeley), The Comedy of Errors (Jean Gascon, director of the Theatre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal, to direct and design by Robert Prevost and Mark Negin) and Timon of Athens (Peter Coe to direct and design by Brian Jackson). They will be the 24th, 25th and 26th Shakespearean plays presented at the Festival. Coe directed Oliver! in London and Macbeth at Stratford last season and Langham will direct Andorra for Broadway this winter. Pe “RED SHOE3” “HAMLET” gu Moira Shearer Laurence Olivier . Anton Walbr 0k Jean Simmons 100 — some WEEKS MORE— OF OUR CANADIAN CONTENT FEATURE FILMS ARE TELECAST EACH AND EVERY WEEK —YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT—OVER CANADIAN TELEVISION STATIONS ! “THE KIDNAPPERS” Jon Whitley Duncan McCrae ATTENTION * ADVERTISING _@ AGENCIES! yh Ask Television stations ie Ww if your clients’ products are advertised utilizing outstanding quality Entertainment such as this! as “ROMEO AND JULIET” Laurence Harvey Flora Robson ® MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR MOTION PICTURES! © TOP RATINGS! “OLIVER TWIST” ® CANADIAN CONTENT Alec Guinness QUALIFICATION! Robert Newton ® THESE ARE BUT A FEW OF OVER 1,000 FILM GREATS! “GENEVIEVE” Kenneth More Dinah Sheriden EXECUTIVE OFFICES: 160 BLOOR STREET EAST. TORONTO 5, CANADA © WA. 5.6315 "THE WORLD'S LARGEST DISTRIBUTORS OF BRITISH x FEATURE MOTION PICTURES FOR TELEVISION !" : a January 2, 1963 ART HOUSES (Continued from Page 1) and the New Yorker and Christie of Bennet Fode. Toronto also has such part-art houses as Curly Posen’s Kent and the Odeon Hyland. The first of these, the International Cinema, was opened by Yvonne Taylor in 1946. (Advertisements for another art house, the Fine Arts Theatre, formerly the Bayview, appeared in Toronto papers. It appears that Bennet Fode has added this house to his operations. Opening picture was Sisi, starring Romy Schneider.) Distributors say that Canada today has from 25 to 30 art and part-time art houses. “It all depends what you call an art house,” is the inevitable reply as to a query about the number. Are houses that play English pictures art houses? Some say no, others say that depends on the part of the country. English pictures are art-house pictures in the USA, even such _ highly-commercial ones as the Carry On series. The art houses don’t tell the whole story on the rise of the foreign film in Canada, says Martin Bockner of Astral. Many such films are finding playing time in general-run theatres, though not enough to get the house a ranking as a part-time artie. MGM is perhaps the first of the top majors to offer a complete program of art-house product. Among the films are The Counterfeiters of Paris, Arturo’s Island, Rififi in Tokyo, The Golden Arrow, Today We Live, Two Are Guilty and Vice and Virtue. The foreign film is winning an increasing share of the American market and MGM’s _ offering should quicken its earning pace. MGM Acquires ‘Attong' MGM has finalized a deal to release the A. C. Lyles production, Attong, which will star Rory Calhoun and William Bendix and go into production soon. Warners’ "Dead Pigeon’ Warner Bros. has signed Bette Davis to star in Dead Pigeon, which Al Beich will script. MGM's 'Moon Walk’ ; Carolyn Jones has been signed to star in MGM’s Moon Walk. ‘The Ceremony’ Shooting Shooting has started on UA’s The Ceremony, which will be Laurence Harvey’s debut as 2 producer and director. Starring with Harvey are Sarah Miles and Robert Walker. Casino Theatre, Toronto, available for rent. Call WA. 1-8931