Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 24, 1948)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jan 24, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 24, 1948)
Leaf #:
0000
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 Picture Pioneers, 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:
August 14, 2025
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RAY LEWIS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER FILM BLDG. 277 Victoria St. TORONTO THIRTY-THIRD YEAR OF CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE 9000 PUBLICATION 1915-48 Vol. 39, No. 39 TORONTO, CANADA January 24th, 1948 “Round and Round and Round We Go” E captured the quotation from the witches’ scene in Shakespeare's tragedy, “Macbeth”. For this we should be grateful to Donald Wolfit, currently playing, at the Royal Alexandra, Toronto, a repertoire of Shakespearean plays; scheduled for eleven days, it was extended for an extra week, with the much debated, much opposed, “Shylock”, presented, as advertised, “because of numerous requests”. Always being a generous critic, we do not attempt herein to present a critical review of the Wolfit Shakespearean productions, having in our time, through The Grace of Our Lord, been permitted to see some of the finest Shakespearean actors and actresses of our stage history. This much we permit ourselves to state, Canada evidently is eager and hungry for stage shows, and our Industry should reckon with this hunger, should make provision for travelling companies and for concert artists. Some concerts, some stage shows, will be “hammy’”, but it is not for us to pose as critics. If the fare is palatable, it will eliminate the idea that motion pictures, like a cancer, eat up living players. As for the production of “Shylock”, you may depend on it, no Motion Picture Censor Board would pass a production of “Shylock”, which learned men and women have said is historically incorrect, and is as false as “the protocols of Zion” which incite Anti-Semitism. In Toronto, there were three events, all upon the silver heels of each other. We use ‘silver heels” since the events were distinctive, they were highly polished, they were enjoy able and they did not step upon anybody’‘s toes. First was the reception for Mary Pickford, who will always remain a symbol in our Industry of a great enterprise, motion pictures. Mary Pickford came to Toronto from Ottawa and was the guest of the Toronto United Artists office, which invited the press and members of our Film Trade to meet Mary, renew old acquaintanceships and _friendships and to pay homage to a great little woman. Mary made an appeal for the care of children, the underprivileged ones. Her picture, “Sleep, My Love”, is currently playing at the Uptown Theatre, Toronto. The second event was the Famous Players’ 25-Year Club Fourth Annual Birthday, which has 131 members, including 42 new members, who became eligible this year. Famous Players Canadian Corporation were hosts, and it would be difficult to find hosts anywhere, who gave such meticulous attention to the reception and entertainment of their guests and the 25-Year Club members. The third event was Audio Pictures’ reception, at which approximately 1,200 guests were in attendance, inaugurating the opening of the new Film Laboratories and Audio Pictures Studios on the Lake Front, Toronto. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Gottlieb, assisted by production-manager, Hans Tiesler and Mrs. Tiesler, received the guests. Those who came to this event, from New York, from the Coast, from various cities in Canada, as well as the film home-guard, will agree, with your reporter, that this event was “the party of parties”. —EDITOR. ees PUBLISHED BY CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST COMPANY LIMITED 277 VICTORIA STREET TORONTO