Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr-Sep 1918)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Apr-Sep 1918
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr-Sep 1918)
Leaf #:
00075
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema, Canada, Hollywood Studio System, and Global Cinema
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
New York Public Library
Sponsor:
Google Books
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Editors: Merrick R. Nutting (1917-18), Raymond S. Peck (1918), Ray Lewis (1918-19 and 1920-54), Walter Greene (1919-20), Jay Smith (1954-57)

Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57) was initially a Montréal-based rival of the first film paper in Canada, Toronto-based Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18, edited by W.A. Bach 1915-17, J.W. Cambridge 1917-18, Raymond S. Peck 1918). The two periodicals were combined in 1918, keeping the Digest name, but moving production to Toronto with Peck as editor. Canadian Moving Picture Digest assumed The Bulletin’s volume numbering and always claimed 1915 as its year of origin. Ray Lewis (née Rae Levinsky) was a writer and playwright, who spent time in early Hollywood’s publicity departments. She briefly took the Digest helm in 1918, then long-term editor, later owner and publisher, from 1920 until her death in 1954. Under Lewis’s leadership, the trade paper claimed to serve as a voice for independent exhibitors and advocated for a Canadian cultural presence in cinema, particularly emphasizing British films as a way to keep a distance from Hollywood. Lewis's editorials were notable for their advocacy, wit, and critique of American dominance in the Canadian film market. While initially positioning herself as an outsider, she became integrated within the industry and a true insider. She even had an ongoing correspondence with Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, advocating for the industry as a whole and supporting British film imports. She was well-known at Toronto’s Dundas Square film row as well as in New York and Hollywood. Variety’s Sime Silverman called her “the Girl Friend in Canada,” and she delighted when U.S. writers not “in the know” presumed “Ray” was a man’s name. Lewis was later an inaugural member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, eventually the group’s first female president and Pioneer of the Year. After she died in 1954, her son Jay Smith took over editorial duties until Canadian Moving Picture Digest was bought by Nat Taylor’s Film Publications of Canada in 1957. Taylor incorporated the legacy journal into a joint masthead for Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70), which subsequently dated its roots back to the 1915 origins of the film press in Canada.

– Jessica Whitehead and Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Whitehead, Jessica, Louis Pelletier and Paul Moore, “‘The Girl Friend in Canada’: Ray Lewis and Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1915–1957).” In Daniel Biltereyst and Lies Van de Vijver, eds., Mapping Movie Magazines: Digitization, Periodicals and Cinema History, 127-52. London: Pagrave-Macmillan, 2021.

Date Added:
June 13, 2024
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Page Twenty THE ‘‘SOME’’ JUDGE. Miss Pearl White, the Pathe serial heroine, was watehing the military manoeuvres at the recent army and navy exhibition at Madison Square Garden. In the next box was a well-known judge. The eyes of the legal luminary wandered in the direction of the serial star. ‘*What a beautiful woman!" he remarked to a friend. Miss White heard. She turned and recognized the noted jurist. ‘*What an excellent judge,’ she remarked quickly, and gave him the benefit of one of her most charming smiles. Miss Wanda Hawley, who plays opposite Douglas Fairbanks in his newest Arteraft picture, was recently married to a prominent young Los Angeles business merchant. VIRGINIA PEARSON % DIRECTION WILLIAM FOX IT TODAY Enclosed please find $1.00 for one pear’s subscription to the Canadian Moving Picture Digest CUT THIS COUPON OUT AND MAIL INGING ..sc.cetadassitancnenyauek CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST. AN UNHONORED CRAFTSMAN Liddle WV? There is a man we never see, Given no publicity, Working on so you may view All the movies that are new, Without flickering or break, Though his tired arms may ache; Ever watching through his ““neep”’ Into darkness broad and deep, Save where penetrating ray Lights the sereen as bright as day ; Toiling, ever on his feet, In the blinding glare and heat, Threading film in a machine That projects it on the screen; Keeping carbon lights aglow, Cleaning after each show, Looking out for censor’s seals Or re-winding all the reels; Mending breaks by clever patches, m, cot ss Blamed for laboratory scratches; CLITA ty Unseen is the part that’s his, This unhonored craftsman is J\ARY GARDEN, The movie operator. Goldwyn Pictures Star. G; Gy J Z J G 2 Z Z Y % Z Y Z GZ Y ZY Z Z Y Z Z j Z J y WS Ww \ —By Alvin Richard Plough. a eee ee a © he Canadian Moving Picture Digest,Canada’s Film Trade Paper is rapidly forging to the front. Watch it grow! Special fea& tures are constantly being incorporated Office 326 Spadina Ave. Toronto, Canada Original from Digitized by (GO gle NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY