Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 26, 1948)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jun 26, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 26, 1948)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
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:
April 11, 2024
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RAY LEWIS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER FILM BLDG. 277 Victoria St. TORONTO THIRTY-THIRD YEAR OF TORONTO, CANADA Vol. 40, No. 9 PUBLICATION 1915-48 Salt On The Wounds! IF Canadian Exhibitors believe, that they have troubles, let them take a look at what is happening, today, to the producer-distributors. In the United States there is the Federal Government's Anti-Trust Action which has involved the American Major ExhibitorProducer-Distributing Companies in legal actions for a decade, or more, and with which Five Major Companies, as defendants, are not yet finished. This has cost the defendants millions of dollars, in addition to legal fees, time spent in consultations, pleadings, reorganization of business policies, and may yet force a complete change in the machinery of film sales operation, production and exhibition in the U.S. The 75% Ad Valorem British Tax, the formulating of the new agreement between Britain and the United States in respect to this 75% tax, the new revisions, or interpretation of the new agreement, which still leave film trade, as between Britain and the U.S., as unsettled as it was when the 75% tax was first imposed. Britain's new 45% Film Quota Tax, an increase from 172% to 45% in the amount of playing time, that exhibitors must give to British-made pictures, adds salt to the wounds already inflicted, and may result in a complete withdrawal of American pictures from the British Film Market. Should such a decision be made, the American Film Industry will lose the approximate $17,000,000 yearly revenue, which it figured it would have left from its original $68,000,000 annual revenue on American pictures, from England. Whether English exhibitors can operate their theatres profitably without American pictures appears dubious to many English exhibitors, who are protesting against the 45% quota, but despite such protests, the American Film Industry will have to take it for granted, that this market may be lost to American Film Trade; and the British Film Industry will be obliged to take it for granted, that it will lose the American Film Market for its pictures. There are other countries in the world which have managed to get along without American, or British Films, countries in which the Governments control the film industry; and while we have no accurate reports, of how the film industries in these respective countries are progressing, we do know, that these countries seek a market in both England and the United States for their pictures. A bill before the French National Assembly, which would impose a 65% tax an American pictures, looks like more trouble for the American Producer-Distributors, and may mean the withdrawal of American-made pictures from France. While American producer-distributors have not been getting any money out of France, on account of the freeze” on such export of funds, a cessation of film trade is not a desirable development. There are other countries in which Film Export of Funds is impossible, because of Government regulations, but Showmen being of a hopeful disposition have always believed, that with a return to normal conditions, these regulations would be eased, or eliminated, it was just a matter of time, with the American Film Industry geared to wait. But conditions are not improving for the American Film Industry, they are growing worse. Add to this the statement, that seven major companies show a decrease in profits of 45%, covering lst quarter and a six months’ period of operation, in 1948, as contained in the first reports, and as compared with 1947, same periods, and we conclude, that the American Producer-Distributors, as well as the exhibitors, have plenty to worry about. —EDITOR. PUBLISHED BY CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST COMPANY LIMITED 277 VICTORIA STREET TORONTO CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE. <5 June 26th, 194@u@°°~