Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Mar 20, 1948)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Mar 20, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Mar 20, 1948)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Hollywood Studio System, Canada, and Early 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
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CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE 9600 RAY LEWIS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER FILMA BLDG. 277 Victoria St. TORONTO THIRTY-THIRD. YEAR’ OF. PUBLICATION 1915-48 Vol. 39, No. 47 TORONTO, CANADA March 20th, 1948 Up Came McGinty From The Bottom Of The Sea. Down went McGinty To the botiom of the sea, Fer he was the original rover, Up came McGinty From the bottom of the sea, Dressed in a mantle of clover, No sea-weed was there, No coral, nor pearl, Twas a shamrock he held As a man his best girl; There was green in his hair, A green light in his eye, There was green in his hat— I would not tell a lie. He beckoned me to come, Then danced an Irish Reel, While the waters kissed his feet— And then I saw him kneel, Said McGinty, “Dear St. Patrick, ‘Tis the Seventeenth of March, The sea is green, but underneath Green trees of pine and larch, The moss is green, the fish are green, And shamrocks grow a-plenty, There are no snakes, green eels are there, Green as my name, McGinty”. St. Patrick laughed and blest the man, But winked his other eye, At me, who stood there open-mouthed— The truth I'll not deny. McGinty tossed the clover, And the clover flew to me, A four-leaf clover on the wing, I rubbed my eyes to see, It looked just like McGinty From the bottom of the sea. —RAY LEWIS. —S>>>>E>E>E»m__>E>~"™_ i ™™»™»™~_~»”_—~—L_——_—_—L_—_]—q————————_——L=L~—[—=[=[ [___]_]l][[]]SSSSS===__=__qo rg, PUBLISHED BY CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST COMPANY LIMITED 277 VICTORIA STREET . TORONTO