Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr 1923-Apr 1924)

Page scan 000274 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 #:
000274
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
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TORONTO, CANADA. Burr Commences on Elaborate Productions for Constance Binney C. C. Burr, who is producing a series of star pictures with Constance Binney for distribution through Associated Exhibitors is sparing no expense to make the initial release now in production a note-worthy and elaborate feature, indicative of the scale upon which the entire series will be made. To guide Miss Binney in this Mann Page-Gerald Duffy story, Mr. Burr engaged Kenneth Webb, who directed the petite star in “The Stolen Kiss,” her previously most successful screen effort, both from an artistic and boxoffice angle. Richard Thorpe will be her leading man. Universal Live Wire Visits Eastern Office (Special from St. John, N.B.) Mr. Clair Hague, Toronto, general manager of Canadian Universal, was in St. John recently in conference with Mr. Taylor, manager here. Mr. Hague is starting on a coast-to-coast tour and began at St. John. It was a pleasure to his many friends here to meet Mr. Hague again, and wish him a successful trip. Page Five VITAGRAPH WILL DISTRIBUTE SIX SHERMAN PRODUCTIONS In Addition to Their Own Special Program Vitagraph Secures Flattering Contract. Albert E. Smith, President of Vitagraph, has announced that arrangements have been completed under which Vitagraph will distribute a series of six special productions to be made by Harry Sherman. The camera work on the first will begin immediately and the first production completed in ample time for distribution early this fall. The entire series will be released during the coming season. The acquisition of the Sherman pictures to the Vitagraph output for the coming season insures the addition of productions based on excellent motion picture subjects as Mr. Sherman has a contract with Harper & Bros. that gives to him the motion picture rights to many of their most successful books. It already has been decided that the first production under the contract with Vitagraph will be an adaptation of Basil King’s famous novel, “Let No Man Put Asunder,” and that the second will be “Borrowed TWO BRILLIANT NEW STARS IN MOVIE FIRMAMENT THIS FALL Mary Philbin, Who Has Created a Furore in “Merry-Go-Round” and Reginald Denny, Handsome New Screen Hero—Each Prominently Featured by Universal. WHEN the moving picture season opens this fall, September 1st to be exact, two new stars will be seen in the movie firmament. They are Mary Philbin and Reginald Denny. Universal made them both. ’ Mary Philbin has won her stardom through a rigorous course of movie ee It started when Carl ovals saw her photograph in a hen contest in Chicago and sent ¢r to Universal City, even though she didn’t win the first award. And it ended when she repaid all of his confidence and all of the training by @ Superbly played role in “Merry Go Ree which recently opened at the ea en New York. Every critic has brill ull of praise for this new and nat young actress. On_ the Uh gt | of her performance as Agnes . an in “Merry Go Round,” Unia will star her in four Jewel ae the coming year. The. Scenaut eae ent is busy picking them at the present time, but a Gre EEE i 7 Dalaun Ruaina Pictures Read The Digest Adare te it Pence — that “Morality” and “Beauty at Bay” will be two of them. Reginald Denny made his big hit with Universal and with the moving picture going public through his remarkable work in “The Leather Pushers.” Yet it was not until they tried him out in a _ longer feature that Universal felt reasonably certain of his ability as a Jewel star. Jack London’s “The Abysmal Brute” furnished this proof, however, and now Universal is announcing four Reginald Denny Productions for next year. These productions include “The Man About Town” and “Spice of Life.” It is interesting to observe that almost all of the stars on the Universal roster are Universal-made. They include Priscilla Dean, Virginia Valli, Gladys Walton, Herbert Rawlinson and Hoot Gibson, who, by the way, is stepping into a stardom of a much hi ‘a3 candle-power this year. Husbands,” from the successful novel by Mildred K. Barbour. The list of stories submitted to Mr. Smith by Mr. Sherman includes fourteen novels published by Harper & Bros., and from this list the subjects will be chosen. In addition to “Let No Man Put Asunder” and “Borrowed Husbands,” which will be. the first and second productions, respectively, the list includes “The Fruit of Desire,” by Will N. Harben; “A Successful Life,” by Marie Van Vorst; “The Rising Tide,” by Margaret Deland; “The Road That Led Home,” by Will E. Ingersoll; “Between Two Worlds,” by Philip Curtis; “The Cat and the Canary,” by Margaret Cameron; “Steps of Honor,” by Basil King; “Wanted A Fool,” by Philip Curtis; “The House of Happiness,” by Kate Langley Bosher; “Crater’s Gold,” by Philip Curtis; “The Supreme Surrender,” by A. Maurice Low, and “The Garden of Charity,” by Basil King. The Harry Sherman productions will be six of the twenty-six specials Vitagraph will release during the coming season. Vitagraph already has announced that J. Stuart Blackton would produce a series of special productions during the coming season, the first of which will be “On the Banks of the Wabash.” David Smith has completed “The Midnight Alarm” and “Pioneer ‘Trails’ at the West Coast studios. President Albert EF. Smith personally will direct at least one special and negotiations are now pending with several prominent directors to produce other specials. Mr. Sherman has been negotiating with another prominent distributor as well as Vitagraph for several months and it was in view of the fact that Vitagraph would limit its productions for the coming season to twenty-six, and that these would be of the highest calibre, that he decided that his most satisfactory contract would be with Vitagraph. Everybody Knows Jake and Likes Him, Too Mr. R. K. Evans, General Manager, Canadian Exchanges, United Artists Corporation Limited announces he has been able to secure the services of one of the best known film men in Canada for the position of Special Sales Representative and takes pleasure in announcing to the trade that hereafter Mr. Jacob Berman will visit his many friends in Ontario in the interests of United Artists Corporation Ltd. Everybody, knows Jake!