Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 13, 1970)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Mar 13, 1970
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 13, 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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PUBLISHED BY THE MOTION PICTURE INSTITUTE OF CANADA Toronto, March 13, 1970 On The Way Out? The money taken in at our box office windows is the primary support of the motion picture feature industry. There has never been an over-supply of box office hits, but there has seldom been a shortage of projection machine fodder. We have always assumed that “production” knew what to create. But, today, uncertainty besets producers all over the world. The present flood of “sex” and “permissive” movies has everyone, in our business, in a quandry. Will it continue or abate? Does it tend to alienate our so-called “regular audiences”? How far will it go and how much will the public buy? No one knows the answers, for sure. One can only observe that highly respected and_ respectable theatres throughout the U.S. and Canada are presently exhibiting a type of film which would have been disdained, not very long ago. The answer, of course, is that weekly overhead is a constant and expensive matter, and a_ theatre owner can’t bank “prestige”. A great deal has been said and printed on the subject. But socalled “sex” films continue to sell tickets while some very fine and well made films (“out-dated” by present standards) fail to attract even fair-sized audiences. And, in between, one which is in neither category comes along and scores socko. Anyones guess as to the future is valid today. So we toss ours into the ring. We think that before too long a large portion of the people we are presently attracting will become satiated with the flood of purely “sex” films, and interest will abate. However, the mushrooming of this new permissiveness will have served a very useful purpose. It will have brought the art of motion pictures to the same state of maturity that other art forms (Continued on Page 2) This is the $70,000 color film processor Film House in Toronto has installed to give film makers faster service for both 16 and 35 mm. negatives. Famous Players to revive 1920 Mary Pickford film Fifty years ago, when Famous Players, Canada’s largest theatre chain, was incorporated (January 23, 1920), a silent film called Pollyanna, starring Mary Pickford, was the feature attraction playing the circuit’s flagship house, the Regent, in Toronto. The Regent has long since disappeared but Monday night, April 20, another of Famous’ vintage houses, the Imperial (opened in September, 1920, as the Pantages), A scene from the 1920 Mary Pickford film, Pollyanna. will be the scene of a Pollyanna revival as Famous officially launches its Golden Anniversary Week from coast to coast. Miss Pickford will be unable to return to her home town for the special event — a benefit affair with total proceeds going to the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Association — _ but she'll be represented by her husband, Charles (Buddy) Rogers, who costarred with her in the 20’s, notably in My Best Girl (1927). A joint committee from CARS and Famous Players is mounting the event as much as possible in the spirit of the 20’s. One highlight will be the pit music of Horace Lapp, playing an organ prologue as guests arrive and piano accompaniment throughout the film, exactly as he did in the same theatre 50 years ago. Recently, following his musical backup of. a silent film program at the Ontario Science Centre, Lapp was given a standing ovation. Aside from Pollyanna, for which a special print is being provided from Miss Pickford’s own archives, Film House expands for Cdn. movie boost Film House, Canada’s largest post production company, has installed a new $70,000 color film processor in preparaton for an expansion of the Canadian feature movie industry. Film House’s president Bob Crone says that “we will be able to service the daily commercial industry wthout interrupting it for features and we’ll be able to give the feature producers unprecedented service, uninterrupted by the commercial flow. It means that the feature producer who delivers his negative to us in the evening will be able to get his dailies the next morning. “Producers can have a duplicating negative sent up to us for a few days, and we can strike them all the prints they need at 714 cents afoot. This is approximately $150 a print and most features require between 10 and 20 prints.” Post production for several Canadian movies has been done at Film House, including Flick, Explosion, Homer, The First Time. Crone estimates that a dozen features have been made in Canada within the last 18 months and he expects that as many as 20 more will be made during the next two years. A year and a half ago, Crone installed a 27-channel sound mixing machine, also for feature movie work. He also has a machine which is being used in only two countries — the US and England — for making duplicate prints from the original. It is a new invention which duplicates color more accurately. the film program will include short subjects from the 20’s, a part of the original Paramount (FamousLasky) film library now held by Sherman Grinberg Films of New York. Two nights later, April 23, Famous will stage a similar benefit showing of Pollyanna in Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, with Rogers again making a_ personal appearance.