Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May-Oct 1922)

Page scan 000182 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
May-Oct 1922
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May-October 1922)
Leaf #:
000182
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, Early Cinema, and Canada
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:
July 26, 2023
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

TORONTO, CANADA, SEASONS” Distributed in Canada by VITAGRAPH Page Five Comment in United States Philadelphia “Evening Ledger” said: An innovation, so very praiseworthy and likely to be so far reaching in effect as “The Four Seasons.” which was shown last week at the Stanley Theatre, is worthy of more than passing mention in review. There is an appeal in this novel film that passes far beyond the regular fans and fannettes . . . It is to be devoutly hoped that the makers of “The Four Seasons’ will come again—and soon . Columbus, O., “Citizen” said: Urban’s “The Four Seasons” is one of the best excuses for the movies that has been here for some time .. . At the Southern all week. Pittsburgh “Press” said: Those persons unfortunate enough to miss “The Four Seasons” shown at the State Theatre last week had better hunt up where it is being shown this weck and see it... It is instructive and of the greatest entertainment. The Los Angeles “Times” said: Wonders new and unrevealed, wonders of sky, water and carth, wonders of a life that hold you enthralled . . serve to captivate you in the unusual feature . . . “The Four Seasons” at Grauman's Theatre this week. The Cincinnati “Times” said: “The Four Seasons” at the Strand Theatre all week is the finest thing of the kind this reviewer has ever seen . . . Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld of Rialto Theatre, N. Y., said: “ As a nature feature it is unique. It is beautiful and above all intensely interesting! The audience really loved it “Exceptional Photoplays” said: . “Ihe Four Seasons” is a distinct invention . . . It opens up a whole new field of possibilities . . For it is a real photoplay. more thrilling than mest of the “thrillers.” Ernest L. Crandall, Director of Lectures and Visual Education of the Board of Education, New York City, said: “Who would have believed, a few years since, that a picture which is crammed full of scientific interest and scientific information could be featured!” The “Billboard,” said: “It places the motion picture far above the artist's brush.” Comment in London The “London Daily Graphic” said: “Advocates of the educational film should insist on secing ‘The Four Seasons’ shown privately yesterday at the New Oxford Theatre. “They showed ‘The Four Seasons’ which illustrates a yearly cycle of Nature in motion pictures. Charles Urban, in England, many years ago, was ene of the pioneers in Kinematography on this side. He is now back in America and with the Curator of the New York Zoological Society he has made this picture—Rus in Urban—which has given Nature a plot and shows you in one hour a living and beautiful story of the life of a year. “At Lord Beaverbrook's suggestion, the film was shown Mr. Lloyd George one night after dinner and he expressed himself as enthusiastically as I do. ‘The Four Seasons’ is one of the most beautiful moving photographs I have ever seen,’ Lord Northcliffe’s papers, particularly the “Daily Mail” and the “London Times” equal the enthusiasm of the critic of the “Daily Graphic.” The “Daily Mail” man began his review by saying: “Phe Four Seasons,’ a nature film, is perhaps the most fascinating and original of its kind ever produced . . .” He then goes on to analyze the production and conveys his astonishment at the wonderful result saying: “How it is all done I don’t know, but Mr. Charles Urban and Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, Curator of the New York Zoological Society, who have supervised the production, are to be congratulated . The “Morning Post” in a lengthy review of “The Four Seasons” said: “Here we have the cinematograph in one of its most useful and, at the same time, beauty-reflecting spheres. There is nothing pretentious in this film, nothing highly technical which might destroy its entertainment value. It is the simple result of patience and its record is a fascinating study of gentle nature in its growth, its persistence, its optimism and its transcendent beauty.” The critic of the “London Daily News” makes a point that: “Here is at any rate a film to which children can be taken with advantage to their minds.” Every Canadian Theatre should give its Patrons that rare treat---‘ THE FOUR SEASONS” Google