Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Aug 10, 1929)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Aug 10, 1929
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Aug 10, 1929)
Leaf #:
0002
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, Early Cinema, and Canada
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Media Magazines Project, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
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:
June 13, 2024
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i } / Canadian Movino Picture Published by Canadian Established in 1915 for Moving Picture Digest Exhibitors Company, Limited Subscription: $5.00 yearly 259 Spadina Ave. Toronto Telephone: Trinity 1481 London Office Cable: Ontocanada RAY LEWIS 80-82 Wardor St., W 1 Editor and Managing Director Vol. 21, No. 15 TORONTO 2, CANADA August 10th, 1929 ‘“Dumb Doras”’ E HAVE HEARD about the promise of about 400 W silent pictures as compared with a little over 500 “Talking Pictures” for the new season. According to present film tendencies and public interest, these Silent pictures will certainly be “Dumb Doras” as far as the box-oflice is concerned. Every theatreowner, who credits himself with be ing a Showman, is making arrangements for a line-up 99 with “Talking Equipment. The only deterrent appears to be a query of whether the theatreowner, we are here referring to the smaller exhibitors, can stand the expense. Some of the arrangements remind you of the procedure in buying furniture on the installment plan. If you can’t meet your payments the company takes back the furniture, you lose your deposit and the payments which you have made! However, furniture companies which advise couples to get married and let them “feather the nest” find that “a feathered nest” furnishes a nest in which “the goose that laid the golden egg” can keep on laying; and it is much better to keep the nest intact than to disturb the possibilities of the “laying” process. Equipment companies which advise exhibitors to let them install, will quite likely co-operate with theatreowners on the matter of payments. : Theatreowners, however, know the capacity of their house. How much that house can earn at its best; and what to expect from the presentation of “Talking Pictures” by way of increased business. Taking these things into consideration, no theatreowner should assume a liability unless the odds to win are in his favour. Making a survey of the suburban theatres in Toronto, I have noted that those theatres which are presenting “Sound” and “Talking Pictures,” even after the pictures have enjoyed runs at the First Run Houses, are being blessed with that glorious sight, namely lengthy queues waiting for admission. These same houses, when presenting the best in Silent pictures, were minus this kind of business. If I were an exhibitor I certainly would not feel encouraged to remain “Silent,” because there is a promise of plenty of “Silent” features. This Industry of film making, “Sound Reproducing and Recording,” theatre building, is undergoing so many changes; and introducing so many innovations, that no exhibitor can afford to lag behind the “Big Fellows” in the Realm of Showmanship. It is not a question of continuing the same as usual, that is being satisfied with a living, or small profits, it is this very small profit, this “living” which is being endangered. The Big Fellows are never so big that they throw any money away on anything that will not pay them a dividend, that is, earn them a profit. These “Big Fellows” have long ago ceased to discuss whether “Talking Pictures” are only a “passing phase,” or a “novelty” which will die out. The “Big Fellows;” and by this term I mean the Showman of our Industry are wiring their houses as fast as Equipment Companies will let them. Go you and do likewise! There is a saying that with a wise man one has a chance to win, but that one always loses with a fool! Play with the “wise ones” always!