Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1970)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 21, 1970
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1970)
Leaf #:
0002
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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January 21, 1970 ITS MY BAG By Ed Hocura There seems to be a lack of communication between Canadian newspapers and the motion picture industry. At least I get this inmapression when I get news releases from New York and Hollywood stating that things are looking up on the production front, while I read in newspapers that “the film industry is dying.” It’s happened too often of late that newspapers have gone out of their way to paint a black picture of the state of the film industry. Which leads me to believe that they are trying to sensationalize news that is detrimental to film distributors who pour thousands of dollars into newspaper coffers every week for expensive advertising. Honest critical reviews of movies is one thing; running stories that don’t tell the full truth is another. But some newspapers seem to go out of their way in printing only one side of stories, and thereby neglecting they appear to be. A good example of this was a story carried in The Specator in Hamilton last week, written by Sheilah Graham. What The Spectator may not have realized in publishing this story was that Miss Graham has an axe to grind against the film industry, and now that she has fallen on hard times she is selling stories that intimate that she knows “where it’s at” today. But she’s only kidding herself. White: there was a time that Louella Parsons, the late Hedda Hopper and Sheilah Graham had the power to make the film industry tremble with their syndicated columns, things have changed today. Where once the Louis B. Mayers, the Harry Cohns and the Jack L. Warners dared not make a move without first consulting the “Big 3,” studio heads today have nothing to fear from people like Sheilah Graham. And why should they? It took many years for Hollywood to realize that they could survive without the journalistic support of a trio of highly-paid “sob sisters” who gave their readers the impression that no studio decision was made unless they were consulted first. And the new breed of studio heads in Hollywood today have shown little signs of catering only to syndicated gossip columnists. Which is the way it should be. Since last year was the first since 1957 that movie theatres in the U.S. topped the one billion dollar mark, it makes Sheilah Graham’s claim that “the film industry is dying” seem all the more ridiculous. But since sensational news is what most Canadian newspapers are only interested in publishing, I expect that Sheilah Graham will continue to sell her one-sided stories. I also feel that the news releases I get from New York and Hollywood almost always end up in newspaper wastebaskets. Can’t have good news cluttering up entertainment pages. It might give readers the wrong impression. * * * NAMES THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT: My apologies to Bill Morland for misspelling his name last week. The least I could have done for the genial advertising and publicity director of Astral Films Ltd. is misspell it only once, instead of twice. . . . Kurt Russell will be the first Hollywood star to visit Toronto in 1970 on a publicity tour. Just turned 18, Russell has his first starring role in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and he’ll be in town next week to talk about the Walt Disney Productions pre-Easter release. . . . Genevieve Bujold has come in for some nice praise from the New York critics for her performance in Universal’s Anne of the Thousand Days. Now if she could cop an Academy Award nomination next month, this should pave the way for some nice beaucoup publicity for The Act of the Heart, another forthcoming release from Universal, written, produced and directed by Paul Almond. Who happens to be Miss Bujold’s husband, the talented exCBC producer who hit the international film scene with Isabel, and hopes The Act of the Heart will make it two hits in a row for Canadian productions starring his lovely wife. . . . Orval Fruitman of Cinepix has good reason to be smiling these days. His company is distributing Z in Canada, and the French-made film with the odd title was chosen as the best film of the year by the New York Film Critics’ Circle. . Beg, borrow or steal a copy of the Jan. 21 issue of the Toronto Telegram to read Clyde Gilmour’s hilarious review of the Cassius Clay-Rocky _ Marciano computerized fight. . . . And speaking of humorous writers, did you know that Harry Purvis has gained national recognition with his contributions to TV Guide, Variety and Mad*Magazine but has gone CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 3 ANNIVERSARY PARTY — Famous Players in Montreal held a pre-Christmas movie party for 2,170 members of its Golden Age Movie Club at the Palace and Chateau Theatres. Maurice Phaneuf, general manager of United Amusement Corp. Ltd., and Mrs. Sonia Levi, of the B’nai B/rith women, are shown above surrounded by members of the Golden Age Club in the lobby of the Chateau to inform their readers that things are not as bleak as Theatre at the sixth anniversary party. 40,000 senior citizens. Membership in the club now totals Canadian Film Co-operative gets CFDC financial help The Canadian Film Development Corporation has announced in Montreal a grant of $4,110 to the Canadian Film Co-operative, a newly-organized national association of film co-operatives from Montreal, Toronto, Londan and Vancouver. The grant will be applied to the cost of printing and distributing a bilingual catalogue listing feature films and short films made by film-makers. Through its decision to aid the Canadian Film Co-operative with the publication of a catalogue, the CFDC, a Crown corporation mandated to promote the development of a feature film industry in Canada, is providing some practical help to film-makers, especially fea _ture film-makers working in the area of low-budget productions, in solving the problem of distributing their films. The catalogue will be sent to every potential film user in Canada and a substantial part of the revenues accruing from film rentals through the Film Co-operative will be passed on to the film-maker. Film-makers wishing to distribute their films through the Canadian Film Co-operative a non-profit organization, should send technical data, film synopsis, and a brief biography to the Canadian Film Co-operative, % Kirwan Cox, 1128 rue Cheneville, Montreal 128, Que., before Feb. 1, 1970. A copy of the film must be de independent Canadian posited at that address, or at: Intermedia, 1972 West 4th Ave., Vancouver 9, B.C.; Canadian Film Makers Distribution Centre, Room 201, 341 Bloor St. West, Toronto 181, Ont.; Co-operative Cinéastes Isdépendants 2026 est, rue Ontario, Montréal 133, Que.; London Film Co-op., 1055 Lombardo Ave., London, Ont. Film-makers with suitable films are urged to get in touch with one of the above organizations as soon as possible to ensure inclusion of their films in the proposed catalogue. Crawley-Volkswagen to team on arts film The performing arts in Canada will star in their own multi-language motion picture to be released world-wide next November. Crawley Films Ltd. has been commissioned by Volkswagen Canada Ltd. to produce a film portraying the current high stature of Canada’s theatre, music, opera, ballet and other performing arts, for distribution throughout Canada and abroad. This is the second major film to be produced for the company by Crawley. The award-winning film Global Village depicting Canada’s significant place in international trade was released as a centennial project in 1967. unrecognized in his home town in Hamilton? A quiet, unassuming guy, Purvis has been sweating it out lately waiting for director Michael Sarne to pay him for submitting special dialogue for 20th Century-Fox’s forthcoming release, Myra Breckenridge. All he keeps getting is letters from Sarne telling him that the stuff he submitted was “great.” . . . I don’t count any day wasted when AI Iscove drops in for a chat. The newlyappointed Toronto sales manager for United Artists is welcome at all times, and I admire him for his candor in talking about his years in the film business.