Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 1924-Apr 1925)

Page scan 000234 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
May 1924-Apr 1925
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 1924-April 1925)
Leaf #:
000234
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:
August 07, 2025
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TORONTO, ONTARIO. Jack Dempsey’s Record Gives Great Publicity Universal Series “Fight and Win” Pictures are a Knockout—Dempsey surprises His Followers—Screens like a hero—and Acts Like a Real Actor. ACK DEMPSEY who is starring in a series of ten two-reel pictures for Universal, breathed a sigh of relief when the series was completed. “Hardest Battle of My Career,” said Dempsey. After looking over the champion’s career, what do you think of it? But take a look at the series before you pass judgment—Dempsey screens like a hero, and acts like an honest-to-good actor. Born, June 24, 1896, Manassa, Colo. Height, 6 ft. 1% in. Nationality, Trish-Scotch-American. —_—~ KNOCKOUTS 1915-1916—Kid Hancock, 1; Billy Murphy, 1; Chief Gordon, 6; Johnny Person, 7; Anamas Campbell, 3; Joe Lyons, 9; Fred Woods, 4; George Copelin, 7; Andy Malloy, 3; TwoRound Gillian, 1; Jack Downey, 2; Boston Bearcat, 1; Battling Johnson, 1; George Christian, 1; Jack Koehn, 4; Joe Bonds, 10; Dan Ketchel, 5; Bob York, 4. 1917—Al1 Norton, 1; Charlie Miller, 1. 1918—Homer Smith, 1; Jim Flynn, 1; Bill Brennan, 6; Bull Sadee, 1; Tom Riley, 1; Dan Ketchell, 2; Arthur Palky, 1; Kid McCarthy, 1; Bob Dever, 1; Porky Flynn, 1; Fred Fulton, 1; Terry Keller, 5; Jack Moran, 1; Battling Levinsky, 3; Porky Flynn, 1; Carl Morris, 1; Gunboat Smith, 2. 1919—Big Jack Hickey, 1; Kid Harris, 1; Kid Henry, 1; Eddie Smith, 1; Tony Drake, 1; JESS WILLARD, 3; (For Heavyweight Championship. ) Auditorium at Ottawa Lines Up Big Four Manager T. P. Gorman of the Auditorium, the great new music hall and sport palace of Ottawa, Ontario, has announced that four super-productions have been booked for presentation in the Auditorium starting in September. The four features lined up include “The Ten Commandments” “The Thief of Bagdad,” “Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall” and “The Covered Wagon.” The Auditorium seats 10,000 people easily and facilities are being installed for the proper presentation of the pictures with special music and effects. The Auditorium has a fully equipped stage. 1920—BILLY MISKE, 3; BILL BRENNAN, 12. 1921 — GEORGES TIER, 4. KNOCKOUT BY 1917—Jim Flynn, 1. NO DECISION CONTESTS ‘ 1918—Billy Miske, 10; Billy Miske, CARPEN DRAW 1915-1916 — Jack Downey, 4; Johnny Sudenberg, 10; Andy Malloy, 20 : 1917—Willie Meehan, 4. LOST 1915-1916—Jack Downey, 4. 1918—Willie Meehan, 4. WON FROM 1915-1916—Johnny Sudenberg, 10; Terry Keller, 10; Andrew Anderson, 10; Wild Burt Kenney, 10; John Lester Johnson, 10. 1917—Willie Meehan, 4; Bob McAllister, 4; Gunboat Smith, 4; Carl Morris, 4. 1918—Carl Morris (foul), 6. EXHIBITION 1918—Clay Turner, 4. 1920—Terry Keller, 3. 1923—July 4: TOM GIBBONS, Shelby, Montana, won, 15; Sept. 14: LUIS FIRPO, New York City, K.O., 2. RECAPITULATION Matches engaged in, 69; knockouts, 47; won, 11; knocked out by, 1; no decisions, 2; draw, 4; lost, 2; exhibition, 2. WELCOME STRANGER Our London Letter By F. W. FIELD, H.M.T.C. A change is occuring in the United Kingdom film industry in the gradual disappearance of the smaller film-renting firms. As the organization of the industry becomes more specialized there is a tendency for the distribution of films to pass into the hands of a few large and highly cap italised firms. As the big producers are now doing their distribution either through such firms or through their own distributing organizations, there are comparatively few independent producers left whose pictures canbe handled -by--the--small filmrenter. It is a movement which is also becoming marked in America, where the tendency is to endeavour to cut down the overhead expenses of distribution’ by amalgamating the branch offices of two or more firms under one management. Reference has from time to time been made to the tendency of the big United States film-producing concerns to come to Europe as a producing centre. It seems that the San Francisco neighborhood is, photographically, almost exhausted, and experience has proved that it is cheaper to take a scene actually, for example, in Monte Carlo rather than to build up a highly expensive setting of Monte Carlo in Los Angeles. To meet the difficulties of the summer season,there is a tendency for exhibitors to take more active measures to attract patrons to their theatres.One of these measures is to show a greater proportion of British films, which have lately proved to possess greater drawing power than has been commonly been accorded them. For one thing the unintelligible titles of many foreign films are absent, and there is none of that excessive lavishness in production which in many cases in foreign films impedes the action of the story. Another point in favor of the British film is that the whole picture is not dominated by the commonly supposed necessity, as shown in foreign films, of jettisoning dramatic values for the sake of starring one performer. Before Buying Pictures Read The Digest Advertising Pages. Google SS Se ee ee a ee 2 es Se ee ee ee