Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 10, 1970)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 10, 1970
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 14, 1970)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
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:
April 11, 2024
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p Vol. 1, No. 1 PUBLISHED BY THE MOTION PICTURE INSTITUTE OF CANADA Toronto, January 14, 1970 _ | EDITORIAL Beginning with our first issue of 1970, this magazine will E spruce up and call around twice as often as before. The name of the magazine has been changed to Canadian Film Weekly. It will function under the direction of the Motion Picture Institute of Canada, but will continue to be completely impartial, reporting events as they occur, providing varied services for all sections of the industry and advocating that which is just and helpfu!. The Canadian Film Weekly will be issued each week, thus providing a more complete coverage of the Canadian and American film scene. Canada has a right to have its own trade press recog_ nized by all as an entity of its film industry. Instead of being a paper devoted to exhibitors, or the voice of a particular branch of the film trade, it will cover the entire industry. Times are changing, and so are we. an exciting decade for the Canadian film industry. The 70s promise to be That’s why we wanted to start off a new year by coming out every week. Glad to have you with us. T ~ GURSTON S. ALLEN Pioneer Gurston Allen | dies in Toronto at 59 Gurston Sidney Allen, Q.C., executive director of Premier Operating Corp. until last year, died _ recently in New Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto. He was 59. His father, Jule Allen, who died in 1964, pioneered in the film industry in Ontario and formed Pre mier in 1922, 16 years after he opened his first theatre in Brant ford. The company now operates about 50 theatres in Ontario and Quebec. Gurston Allen, a lawyer, was also secretary of Toronto Bowle rama, chairman of the board of trustees of the Nightingale School of Nursing, treasurer of the New Mt. Sinai Hospital, member of the advisory board of the United Community Fund of Greater Toronto, life director of the Jewish Home for the Aged and the YMHA, and a director of C. N. Hincks Treatment Centre and of the Canadian Scholarship Trust Fund. He leaves his wife, Laya, of Rosedale Heights Dr., daughters Rose, Judith, Karyn and Mrs. Jo Ann Fried, and a son, David. Avco Embassy Executive, Kenneth Hargreaves Dies Kenneth N. Hargreaves, managing director of Avco Embassy Pictures (U.K.) Ltd., died in a London hospital recently after a long illness. He was 60. He started in 1935 with 20th Century-Fox as a director and secretary, and later assistant managing director. From there he went to the Rank Organization, becoming managing director of Rank Film Distributors and later going to New York to take charge of their American distributing company. Returning, he became managing director of Columbia Pictures in Britain from 1959 to 1962. At the end of that time he represented Dino de Laurentiis before joining Avco Embassy in 1963. An active participant in the commercial and charitable affairs of the film industry, he served the interests of many organizations. RONALD EMILIO as MGM s.m. Ronald F. Emilio has been appointed sales manager of Canada for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer succeeding Hillis Cass who is retiring after 46 years with the company. Emilio joined MGM in 1962 as ‘ Toronto branch manager and the following year was appointed Canadian sales manager. In 1967 he assumed the duties of assistant general manager of sales, a position he has held until his recent promotion. ‘Charlie Brown’ hits all-time b.o.record A new worldwide boxoffice record for any film, any place in the world, was established when the Cinema Center Films presentation, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, completed its fourth week at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, according to James F. Gould, president and managing director. The gross for the four weeks totalled $1,133,433 bettering the theatre’s previous high by $79,170. This was accomplished despite snow, rain and sub-freezing weather. The fourth week at the worldfamed showplace was also a record for the seven-day holiday period with a gross of $315,254. HILLIS CASS Emilio succeeds Cass for Canada Active in the Canadian film industry, Emilio is vice-president of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributers Association. Wolfe Cohen joins CFDC as consultant The Canadian Film Development Corporation has announced that it has retained Wolfe Cohen as its ‘consultant on the distribution of Canadian feature films in world markets. His task will be to advise Canadian producers in obtaining distribution for their feature films. Cohen, who was born in Belfast, Ireland, and raised in Canada where he spent the first 25 years of his career in motion pictures, retired in 1969 from the position of president of Warner Bros. / Seven Arts, international division. He brings to the corporation a wide knowledge of international motion picture distribution in theatres and on television, acquired over many years in this field in New York and around the world. Cohen attended school in Toronto and entered the motion picture business there in 1919. In 1944, when he was their Canadian General Manager, he was _ promoted to Warner Bros.’ head office,