Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 9, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jan 9, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 9, 1954)
Leaf #:
0007
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Canada, Early Cinema, and Global Cinema
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:
May 18, 2024
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PAGE EIGHT ee SS CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST JANUARY 9, 1954 Ce ee aaa ee ne Ramanan CAPITAL STORY By BILL McLAUGHLIN Canadian film stars Raymond Massey and Walter Pidgeon are among eight other noted stage and screen actors who have been invited to present trophies to winners of the 1953 Canadian Film Foto-Nifes are still going strong in seven independently operated theatres in the downtown area and neighborhoods. The pot has been swelled to $2,650 in cash and merchandise and remained at the figure as we write these notes. All seven theatre managers report hefty business at the matinee and evening performances on Foto-Nite, Thursday each week. Charles Woodsworth, of the Citizen’s editorial department, has just completed publication of two long articles on the subject of the pending moye of the National Film Awards. Others invited to attend the ceremony are Charles Boyer, Humphrey Bogart, Alec Guinness, Charles Laughton and James Mason. The awards are for professional and amateur movies produced in Canada and will be presented in Montreal sometime next April. Board to Montreal. Though not all criticisms of the proposed Montreal site are justified, Mr. Woodsworth gave many good reasons why the NFB should remain capital city. in Canada’s TORONTO IMPERIAL Second Week. How to Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroc, SHEA‘’S Here Come the Girls (Para.) Technicolor with Bob Hope. UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Second Weck. Little Boy Lost (Para.) with Bing Crosby. TIVOLI & CAPITOL So Big (WB) and So This Is Love (WB) Technicolor. NORTOWN Second Weck. Calamity Jane (WB) Technicolor with Doris Day. ODEON-CARLTON Second Week. Paratrooper (Col.) Technicolor with Alan Ladd. HYLAND Second Week. A Day to Remember (JARO) with Stanley Holloway, LOEW'S Second Week. Easy to Love (MGM) Technicolor with Esther Williams. UPTOWN Kiss Me Kate (MGM) 3-D and Technicolor with Kothryn Grayson. TOWNE CINEMA Second Week. Marlon Brando, INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Ninth Week. The Holly and the Ivy (IFD) with Rolph Richerdson, Julius Caesor (MGM) with STUDIO Second Week, Sodko (Astral) Magicolor. MONTREAL PALACE How to Marry a Millioncire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. LOEW'S Second Week. Kiss Me Kate (MGM) Technicolor with Kothryn Grayson. PRINCESS Hondo (WB) Color and 3-D with John Wayne. CAPITOL The Caddy (Paora.) with Dean Martin ond Jerry Lewis, ORPHEUM Fort Algiers (UA) with Yvonne DeCarlo, STRAND-SNOWDON-OUTREMONT Walking My Boby Back Home (E-U) Techni color and Second Chance (RKO) Technicolor, KENT The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. AVENUE The Mon Between (IFD) with James Mason. Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates VANCOUVER CAPITOL How To Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. ORPHEUM All the Brothers Were Valiant (MGM) Technicolor with Robert Taylor. STRAND Escape From Fort William Holden. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Those Redheads from Seattle (Para.) Technicolor with Rhonda Fleming. STUDIO Eighth Week. The Captain’s with Alec Guinness. VOGUE Second Week. Walking My Baby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor with Donald O’Connor. PLAZA & HASTINGS War Arrow (E-U) Technicolor with Jeff Chandler. Bravo (MGM) Color with Paradise (IFD) SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Easy to Love (MGM) Technicolor with Esther Williams. STRAND War Arrow (E-U) Technicolor with Jeff Chandler, CAPITOL The Big Heat (Col.) with Glenn Ford. ANNUAL COMMUNION BREAKFAST AND MASS Jack Fitzgibbons has announced the date for the 3rd Annual Communion Breakfast and Mass, as Jan. 3l1st, in Toronto, with Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Breakfast at the King Edward Hotel. Clare Appel is acting as Chairman with Jack Fitzgibbons as Coordinator in Toronto. For the second year, cities across Canada will duplicate the Toronto event. Chairmen of the committees in cities who have already set their plans are, Montreal, Ton Cleary; St. John, Pat Hogan; London, Bill Trudell; Hamilton, John Owens and Windsor, Ed Lamoureaux. Mrs. Terry Lewis, widow of the Eastview business man and theatre owner who died some years ago, still retains an interest in the Eastview Theatre, located just outside the city on the Montreal Road. Mrs. Lewis is also president of the Capitol Carbon and Ribbon Company and was host to children of the company’s employees at a preChristmas party held in the theatre. With Christmas behind them and 4 bright new show season ahead, Ottawa theatre managers are announcing 4 series of top films, many of which were introduced during special pre-New Year midnight shows. The box-office took the usual terrific shellacking during the week before Santa Claus, but it’s ull over now and theatres everywhere were packed to the rafters to start the new year off with a bang. Incidentally, most of the chain-operated first-run houses were closed to the public until 3 p.m. on Christmas Day to permit managers and staffs to soend a few extra hours with their families. Tommy Gorman, owner and operator of the Auditorium, has turned over his artificial ice surface to the children during mornings and afternoons. This splendid gesture is greatly appreciated by the thousands of youngsters who were unable to skate on playground rinks because of mild weather and lack of ice. CINEMASCOPE IN 16 MM First Canadian exhibition of Cinemascope in 16mm. is planned for January 14 in the National Research Council Theatre, Ottawa, it was announced by Gerald Graham, Director of Technical Operation for the National Film Board. The NFB has invited representatives of the Bell and Howell company in New York to introduce their new 16mm. equipment at a special showing for members of the trade and press. The technique, identical to the 35mm. Cinemascope “depth” process now used in moviehouses across the continent, was introduced in the U.S. only three months ago and as yet is not in general use. The NFB also has invited George Lewin, chief sound recording director of the U.S. Army’s Signal Pictorial Sous on Long Lsland, N.Y., to demonstra : and lecture on post-synchronizatie.. techniques, and it is hoped his sae will coincide with the Cinemascope PF sentation,