Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 1921-Apr 1922)

Page scan 000743 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jun 1921-Apr 1922
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 1921-Apr 1922)
Leaf #:
000743
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Hollywood Studio System, Canada, and Early 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 Four CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST CAMERA CLASSICS NO. FOUR “THOSE WERE THE DAYS” Heyes successfully — launched three excellent issues of their one-reel wonder pictures, now being distributed in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba by Educational Films, Ltd., and supported by two of Canada’s leading daily newspapers, Filmcraft is ready with its biggest and best release “Camera Classics Number Four.” It will also be immediately apparent that in Camera Classics Number Four, all previous releases have been eclipsed. With the presentation of “Those Were The Days,” the company is introducing a type of feature that has not hitherto been attempted,—a type of comedy that is to be specialized in by the Canadian firm; and a type of picture that will register a hit with movie fans who have grown almost frantic in their demand for “something new.” “Those Were The Days” is a miniature comedy Canadian Releasing Corp. 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It features two honest-to-goodness children who wear their own hair and their regular faces. The hero—or victim— of the plot is just a plain ordinary every-day “dawg”—he would chase alley-cats if he got half a chance— however, every dog has his day, and fortunately our hero’s is only postponed. There’s a reason, and its all most satisfactorily explained in_ this captivating new comedy of childhood so ably titled “Those Were The Days.” Those who have seen it, claim that the comedy has the finesse of an eight-reel feature. It is being heralded as “A program picture in half a reel"—a rapid fire, life-like portrayal of mischievous childhood, crammed with action and humor( titled with uncanny skill, and photographed to perfection. Should The Grand National Be Stopped Is the Question “I earnestly protest against the spectacle at Aintree (where ‘Music Hall’ won the Grand National Steeplechase), this and last year. The fences are ridiculous. Some people go to Aintree to see accidents. ‘The Grand National is a cruel thing.”— Lady Warwick. “The suggestion that the Grand National is cruel is a very ridiculous one. I hope it will continue and that the fences will be in no way altered. Kliminate horses with no chance.”— Lord Derby. Famous Toonerville Trolley Returns to Screen in Comedies The Toonerville Trolley, the Skipper who pilots it, the Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang, the Powerful Katrinka, Cynthia Snoop and many others of the characters made famous through the cartoons of Fontaine Fox are coming to the screen again in a new series of moving picture comedies. The first of these Toonerville Comedies by Fontaine Fox is “The Skipper’s Last Resort,” which is being released in Canada through Canadian Educational. Dan Mason, as the Skipper of the trolley that meets all the trains, is the centre of the fun, heading a committee to investigate a nearby summer resort. When the committee is Google so attracted by the pretty girls that the object of the trip is forgotten they are trapped by the Skipper’s wife and Mrs. Bang. The Toonerville cartoons are known to many millions of readers of the approximately one hundred newspapers in which they are printed. William Russell Appears In A Wall Street Romance For Fox Film Corporation In “Money to Burn,” the Fox picture in which William Russell appears this rugged and popular star once more gets away from Western hills and ranches, and is found in a Wall street office, in the role of a young speculator whom fortune favors at every turn, despite any invitation his adventurous spirit gives for a wallop at his bank account. ‘The story is a fascinating one, as every one will recognize who has read Sewell Ford’s “Cherub Divine,” on which the picture is based. The love theme is most cleverly developed, and the photoplay should prove an unequivocal success on the local . screen. Sylvia Breamer, an excellent actress of very attractive personality, is Russell’s leading woman and Hallam Cooley, long a favorite in Fox pictures, also is in the cast. Irwin Proctor, President Filmcraft, Visits With W. R. Rothacker, Chicago Watterson R. Rothacker, who has been looking in earnest toward the Canadian Laboratory field, was visited last week by Irwin Proctor of Toronto. Mr. Proctor is president of lilmeraft Industries, Ltd. Mr. Proctor and Mr. Rothacker were in conference for a day. Before leaving Chicago Mr. Proctor made a detailed inspection of the Chicago Rothacker plant. Burlesque on “Ten Nights In a Barroom” Added Feature at Casino Theatre Manager Harold Vance, of the Casino Theatre, Ottawa, Ontario, caused quite a laugh during the week of April 24 when he offered a burlesque on “Ten Nights in a Barroom” as an added feature for his programme of pictures when the photoplay attraction bearing the same title was being screened simultaneouslv at the Centre Theatre, Ottawa. Both the picture and the burlesque were billed extensively throughout the city.