Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr 1923-Apr 1924)

Page scan 000613 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 #:
000613
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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Page Fourteen CARL ANDERSON SECURES SEVEN BIG PRODUCTIONS Buys Work of Prominent Authors, Also Real Features in Deal With B. B. Hampton. Jt is announced by Anderson Pictures Corporation that Carl Anderson, President of the organization, has purchased outright Great Authors Productions, one of B. B. Hampton’s enterprises. This gives Mr. Anderson the ownership of seven successful features. In addition, he secures the rights to several outstanding stories and scenarios which have never been screened and which, it is understood, will be used by various production units now established under the Anderson plan. | Among the features which pass to -Mr. Anderson as a result of his nego tiations are: “The Westerners,” an exciting seven reel feature, based on a story by Stewart Edward White, and featuring Roy Stewart and Robert McKim. Also, “The Sage Brusher,” a western thriller by Emerson Hough, author of “The Covered Wagon.” Ince Force Spend Freely During Canadian Visit (Special to Digest) Winnipeg.—The visit of the Thos. Ince staff to the town of Wainright, Alberta, to take special scenes of buffalo and Indians for the big film “The Last Frontier,” added greatly to the flow of money in the town. Over $50,000 was expended the first week in supplies and wages and the town swarmed with spurred and chapped cowboys, dusty riders galloped down the streets, blanketted Indians squatted in the sun and partook actively in the filming. It was an old time western thriller which was staged. All the available ponies and automobiles in the district were hired. -All hotels were filled and there was. work for weeks for everybody. Producer’s Mother Visits Los Angeles From Danville, Quebec Mrs. Kathryn Sennett, mother of Mack Sennett, arrived in Los Angeles from Danville, Province of Quebec, Canada, Tuesday afternoon, to visit her son, the well known producer. It has been the custom of Mrs. Sennett over a period of several years, to spend the winter months in Callifornia, returning to Canada each year, late in April. Mrs. Sennett will make her home in one of the downtown hotels for a short while. Roy Stewart and Marguerite De La Motte are the feature players. Others include “The Dwelling Place of Light,” from the great novel by Winston Churchill which depicts a startling melodrama of life in a large manufacturing community. Robert McKim and Clair Adams do great work in this picture. “The Spenders” taken from Harry Leon Wilson’s great comedy-drama with Niles Welsch, Clair Adams, Robert McKim and Joseph Dowling. It is a tale of mining and the financial crooks of New York. Clara Louise Burnham’s “Heart’s Haven” is another. This six reeler presents Robert McKim and Clair Adams. ‘The list is completed with “The Gray Dawn,” another Stewart Edward White masterpiece, depicting a story of San Francisco just before the Vigilantes took a hand in the city’s affairs. The announcement is of direct importance to Canadian exhibitors who will secure the Anderson features through United Exhibitors of Canada. Do Better Business With Better Pictures The Rialto theatre, Winnipeg, has been doing big business the past month with better pictures and an orchestra. of 11 pieces, which after introducing the show leaves’ for a well known dance hall. The first of the pictures were: Nazimova in “Salome”; then came “The Fall of Babylon.” Charles Ray in “The Girl I Love” and Jack Hoxie in “Men in the Raw.” Walter Deering is the manager. “The Boy Balloonist” Alias “Capt. Goodale” A thriller taken in 1911, 12 years ago, on Long Island, is to be featured at Loew’s theatre, Ottawa, during the week of December 3rd. The important part about this presentation is that the hero of the picture is Capt. Frank Goodale, now manager of the Loew house. He was known at the time this picture was produced by Imp under the title of “Through the Air” as “The boy balloonist” and. his daily work consisted of flying in a 16-foot dirigible, having a mortorcycle engine, from Palisade’s Park, New Jersey. This airship was used in the picture, along with Capt. Goodale, Lucille Young. King Baggot and George Daly. A print of the original negative was secured by the Canadian Universal Films quite recently. CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEstt Thos. H. Ince 7 ’ Completes “Anna Christie” For First National This intensely dramatic play, the outstanding stage success of the past year, was one of the very few American plays of the last decade to be translated into French for production in Paris. It has been proclaimed the greatest American drama in years. Eugene O’Neill, the author, is considered one of the country’s foremost _dramatists. “Anna Christie” won the — Pulitzer prize as the best American — drama of last year. The top-notch price of $100,000 was paid by Thos. H. Ince for the screen rights to “Anna Christie.” John Griffith Wray directed this masterpiece. ~ Blanche Sweet has the greatest part of her whole career in her portrayal of the title role. George Marion, a member of the original stage company, will be seen in the powerful role of “Chris Christopherson.” Other talented players in the cast are William Russell and Eugenie Besserer. : The startling play, which offers a theme entirely new to the silver sheet, centres about a young woman, the daughter of a seaman, who, fearing for his daughter’s future, because of the rough environment of the waterfront where she is forced to live, obtains a home for her in society. He thus hopes that refinement and culture of her intellectual superiors will have a deciding influence on her life. How the girl goes into the life of the socalled “upper crust,” how she adopts their ways, customs and dissipations, and fares far worse than had she remained among her own people, 1s the plot around which this sensationally dramatic play is woven. It is said that Mr. Ince devoted more of his personal time to the ditection of “Anna Christie” than he has spent. on any picture in the past five years. We look forward to a preview of it with a great deal of interest and enthusiasm. | Splendid Pictures of New Dry Dock Pictures of the Dry Dock recently opened at St. John, the Largest Dry N Dock in the World were the attraction at the Imperial theatre, recently. The Governor General posed for the Movie men with his usual courtesy and excellent pictures of the boat breaking the silken cord to enter the dock were obtained by the St. John Movie man. Associated News of Canada also sent a camera man to view the event and he shot a number of splendid pictures. These pictures are now circulating through Canada, and are proving of unusual interest. hefded Bagg Pictures Read The Digest \Advertixing Pages.