Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 11, 1947)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Oct 11, 1947
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 11, 1947)
Leaf #:
0002
Language:
English
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, Early Cinema, and Global Cinema
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:
April 11, 2024
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.

October 11th, 1947 ER AA a ot er: Ah SAA ae the Royal Alexandra, road show % legit theatre, “New. Wine”, the stream lined version of “Wine, features Schubert’s melodious songs, is held over for a second week. Star is Ilona Massey, and also featured are Alan Curtis, Binnie Barnes and Albert Basserman. Picture release. “4 os Booked for the week, beginning Monday, Oct. 13th, is Joe E. Brown in the Pulitzer-Prize play, “Harvey”. Top price, evenings is $3.60 and matamees, $2.40 including tax. 2, At the Hollywood Dual Auditorium, “S‘tairway To Heaven’ with David Niven, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Roger Livesay, also, Robert Mitchum, Laraine Day, Brian Aherne in ~~ “The Locket’, is being held over for a‘ second. week. The following attraction at the Hollywood, which is getting plenty of inquiries, is Beniamino Gigli and Alida Valli, in Leoncavallo’s opera, _ “Paghacci”’, with the La Scala Symphony Or_ chestra and Chorous. 7 ORONTO is to enjoy a week of Opera with the First Annual Grand Opera Festival, presented by the Phil__ adelphia La Scala Opera Co., Inc. Madame Butterfly, Il _. Trovatore, Carmen, Rigoletto, Tosca and Lucia Di Lam-._mermoor will be the operas presented at Massey Hall, during that week. — ase : The season is off to a good start and Torontonions, who claim that there are only Moving Pictures to see, should look at this list of attractions for a beginning. This week the Don Cos sack Chorous and Dancers, with Serge~Jaroff, Conductor; Mischa Elman, Oct. 16th; De Paur’s Infantry Chorous, 35 Singing Veterans, Oct. 9th; Rubinoff and his Violin, Oct. 15th; King Cole = _. Trio, Oct. 13th; Bob Morton’s Circus, Oct. 6th to 11th, Rameses Shrine Auspices; “The Antigone of Sophocles’, Hart House Theatre, Oct. 8-9-10; Play Society, Museum Theatre, “Macbeth”, Oct. 9-10-11; Promenade Symphony Orchestra, eS Percy Grainger, Guest Artist, Oct. 9th. The Tor onto Symphony Orchestra will present twentyfour concerts, two weekly, Tues. and Wed. and on Friday Night, the “Pop” concerts, plus The Children’s Concerts; among the guest artists, Malcuzynski, Jan Peerce, Zara Nelsova and Jeanne Gauthier,. Dame Myra Hess, Rudolph _ Serkin, Robert Casadesus, Frances James, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern, William Kapell. fare Master Piano Series will present Nov., Dec., Feb., March, and April, Luboshutz and Nemenoff, considered the most brilliant two-piano team ever to perform before the public, Guiomar Navaes, the world’s foremost _ woman-pianist, Benno Moiseiwitsch, C.B.E., Britain’s master pianist, Alexander Brailowsky, Artur Rubinstein, and, also, at Eaton’s Auditorium, in Jan., 1948, Lotte ~ Lehmann. In March, Joseph Szigeti, etc., etc. But Motion Pictures have, also, some big attractions to offer. Coming is Cecil B. DeMille’s “Unconquered”, starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard, and which opened at the Rivoli, New York, this week. This is one of Para_mount’s big pictures. Coming, is the MetroGolwyn-Mayer, “Green Dolphin Street’, with ~ _ Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Donna Reed, Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Gladys Cooper, _ directed by Victor Saville and which has its os ~~. world premiere at Loew's Criterion, Oct. 15th. _ Another big M-G-M picture is “Song Of Love’, ay < eX A i: CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST _ RAY PRESENTS Women And Song”, a re-issue, which This is an Astor , Disney gets the lollipop. a Clarence Brown Production, starring Katherine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker, with its world -prenuere, this week, at Radio City Music Hall. The music is tops and again “Kathie” has shown them she is box-office. {(OMING are Walt Disney’s “Fun And Fancy Free” with Edgar Bergen, Dinah Shore, Donald Duck, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd and Mickey Mouse, an RKO Musical Cartoon with color by Technicolor; “The Foxes of Harrow” 20th Century-Fox, with Rex Harrison, Maureen O’Hara; Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” with Ferruccio Tagliavini, Metropolitan Opera Star, Tito Gobbi. This Italian picture, with the libretto spoken by Deems Taylor, is an Alliance Films release, and is now. playing in its third week to “smash business” | -at the Appollo, New York, and Atlantic, Brooklyn, Brandt's Theatres, at popular prices, after.a long run at advance prices at the Golden Theatre, New York City. Coming also is Warner Bros. “Life With Father”, with Irene Dunne, William Powell, Edmund Gwenn, Zazsu Pitts, Elizabeth Taylor, directed by Michael Curtiz, and now in its second month at the Warner Theatre, Broadway, New York. Soon to be seen here is “Crossfire” an RKO sensational picture, dealing with a worldwide question and problem, now in its third month on Broadway. I KNOW that Bosley Crowther, whom you have heard me quote several times, since he writes an important Motion Picture Column, or two, in the New York Times, will not enjoy my referring to him as a “Sour Puss”. However, since he is brilliant enough to be quoted, he may not object to the “Sour Puss” designation. With the exception of a few pictures, there are few pictures which he has praised, and dominant, among the few, have been British pictures. : Fis opinion of Hollywood, has never been a flattering one, but nevertheless, he is a journalist and it 1s better to be praised than damned by him, since he does both exceedingly well. In referring to Walt Disney's latest RKO feature, “Fun and Fancy Free”, the “Sour Puss” has this to say, and I am glad to hear him, at last praise Walt Disney, for whom I have, as you may have previously noted, an enthusiastic appreciation, for to me, Walt Disney is a rare perSON, @ genius. UT let us listen to Crowther, “As one who had painful occasion to lay a critical board across the figurative pants of Walt Disney when he came out with “Song of the South”, this particularly watchful observer is now happy to bestow a big lollipop on Mr. Disney. for his current, “Fun and Fancy Free” — it is gay and unpretentious, it hurts no social sensibilities, and it gives us a happy reunion with a lot of old cartoon friends”. Good enough, we can dispense with the rest of the dissertation as‘to why NFB’s most recent release, through Columbia Pictures, “Careers and Cradles’ looks like a most — popular addition to the “Canada Carries On” sertes. Reports from various theatres, where it has played, are that the audience like the idea and the production. ~