Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr 1923-Apr 1924)

Page scan 000208 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Apr 1923-Apr 1924
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (April 1923-April 1924)
Leaf #:
000208
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, Early Cinema, and Canada
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
New York Public Library
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 31, 2025
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. PUBLIC FAVOR DEMANDS FILMING OF POPULAR NOVELS Numerous Fox Specials of Exceptional Interest to CanadiansWorks of Widely Read Authors Translated to Screen in ~ Commanding and Artistic Terms. Of outstanding interest to all Canadian theatregoers is the fact that among the great array of big entertainment special productions, twentyfive in all, announced by the Fox Film Corporation for the season 192324, are many that contain exceptional points of appeal to Canadians, and are certain to arouse unusual curiosity and interest throughout the Dominion in these fine pictures that range from screen versions of the most widely read works of famous authors and the outstanding stage successes of ‘the day, to massive spectacular dramas of world-wide appeal, thrilling melodramas, delightful comedies of modem life and dramas of high society. Heading the list is “IF WINTER COMES,” a literal screen transcription of A. S. M. Hutchinson’s sensational literary success, the most popular “best seller” of all time, which has broken all records for fiction sale in the Dominion and abroad. Directed by Harry Millarde, it has been a year in the making, and enlists a. notable cast headed by the most famous English actor on the screen today Percy Marmont, who is the living counterpart of the lovable, whimsical Mark Sabre. The greater portion of the picture was taken in England, against backgrounds of century old English villages, historic castles and ancient cathedrals. “Mightier than the book” is the opinion of critics who have had the privilege of previewing this master photoplay. ' Another of Hutchinson’s great successes “THIS FREEDOM” has been produced in photoplay form by Fox, with an all-star English cast, headed by that most popular English actress ay Compton. There are numerous splendid scenes of London and of English countrysides. The sale of os we = Canada is said to be pidly equalling that is 3 TER COMES. piieaRiii A magnificent special production with a tremendous appeal to every Canadian man, woman and child, is NORTH of HUDSON BAY,” with Tom Mix in the biggest role of his Career. Here is a dynamic, thrilling petite, every scene ‘of which has een taken in those vast spaces of the Canadian North where the first Gentlemen Adventurers” established the historic posts of the Hudson Bay Company. What promises to be the most stupendous and spectacular production in the annals of the screen is “MONNA VANNA,” adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck’s famous literary masterpiece. This is probably. the greatest soul-stirring drama ever written by “The Belgian Shakespeare,” revolving as it does around a beautiful woman who controls the destinies of two great cities, and who is called upon to save her people from starvation. “Monna Vanna” has been the theatrical sensation of numerous European capitals, but despite this, statistics prove that Maeterlinck’s great work has been more widely read it Canada, England and the United States, than in hts own country, or in any other country in the world. Ever since 1919, Canadian newspapers throughout the Dominion have periodicallly featured the ambitious efforts of that great Canadian explorer, Vilhaljmur Stefansson, to establish a vast reindeer ranching industry in the so-called Baren Lands. Everyone knows that with the support of the Canadian Government that gigantic project is already meeting with success in Baffinland—and now comes a screen epic of the North and its huge herds of reindeer, “THE BLIZZARD” from the novel by Dr. Selma Lagerlof, the famous Scandinavian writer, who twice won the Nobel prize for liteature. This is a bloodtingling story of the great outdoors, with numerous scenes taken in the Canadian North, and ‘containing a thrilling climax in the form of a terrorising stampede of thousands of reindeer. A beautiful Canadian girl, Miss Helen Morgan, who took a most prominent part as “Miss Mount Royal” in the . Montreal Winter Carnival, has been chosen by the Fox Film Corporation for screen honors, and takes a leading part in “SIX CYLINDER LOVE,” the delightful comedy which has proved the biggest stage success jn twenty years, and bids fair te’ outrival its theatrical popularity in the ‘William Fox Screen presentation of the story. That great English stage success, “HOODMAN BLIND,” by Henry Arthur .James and Wilson Barrett, has been made by Fox into a thrilling screen drama the story of which takes place in the shadow of London Bridge. Numerous scenes in this picture are taken in and around London. “THE GOVERNOR’S LADY,” one of David Belasco’s prominent stage successes, is by Alice Bradley, Page 103 well known English author, and in its screen form constitutes a Fox special that will unquestionably win great in| terest throughout the Dominion. Few writers have equalled the record made by Augusta J. Evans, whose great novel “St. Elmo” has been a steady seller for fifty-seven years. “ST. ELMO” is one of the big specials in which John Gilbert will appear. Records of the public libraries in all English speaking countries for the past twenty-five years, proves this work to have been the most. popular piece of fiction ever written in the English language. J. Gordon Edwards, the greatest Canadian personality in the motion picture world, is the director of “THE, SHEPHERD KING,” a screen version of the stage success by Wright Lorimer and Arnold Reeves. This great Fox special combines the elements of historical drama with the high lights of dramatic and pictorial display. It was photographed in Egypt, almost in the identical location where the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen has been unearthed. The entire company was taken to Egypt by Mr. Edwards where, augmented by a mob of Egyptians, they went to the Pyramids and the Sphinx and thence up the Nile, where was enacted the prologue to the principal story, showing Moses leading the tribe of Israel out of Egypt. Subsequent scenes were taken in and near Jerusalem. In obtaining the rights to “THE SHA DOW OF THE EAST,” Fox has purchased motion picture material of a writer who scored an astounding success through Canada. M. Hull wrote “The Shiek” it was believed that she had reached the zenith of her career, but sales in every corner of the country are proving that “The Shadow of the East” is this brilliant writer’s best book. “AROUND THE TOWN WITH MR. GALLAGHER AND MR. SHEAN” features those two inimitable characters whose song has found its way into every Canadian home, and holds the record for number of sales over any other song ever distributed in the Dominion. “CAMEO KIRBY” and “GENTLE JULIA” two of Booth Tarkington biggest best-sellers will make a wide appeal ii picture form to that vast Canadian audience who already love this gifted author’s works, and read him wherever there is a bookstall or a public library. _ Other Fox specials that give promise of proving excellent entertainment are “SOFT BOILED,” with ‘Tom Mix, “THE ELEVENTH HOUR,” an up-to-the-minute melodrama of love and pirates; “HELL’S HOLE,” a fighting, filled-with-action dramatic (Continued on Page 104.) Before Qe Sithires Read The Digest Advertising Pages. When E.