Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 16, 1954)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jan 16, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 16, 1954)
Leaf #:
0008
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, 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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JANUARY 16, 1954 = eae Another former local show man, Stewart G. (Stu) Gillespie was here with Mrs. Gillespie and their two children as guests of the former’s mother. Stewart was manager of the Elgin Theatre when last heard of in show business. He is now on the sales staff of the plastic division of the Canadian Chemical Company, Limited, with headquarters in Toronto. CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST CAPITAL STORY By BILL McLAUGHLIN The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is now on its second and final big week at the Little Elgin Theatre, where it has been playing to steady business at 90 cents top. Anotlier big hit over the holiday season was Jeanne d’Arc, French version of the Walter Wanger production. It was held over for several extra days to accomodate the crowds at the Francais Theatre. Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Third Weck. How to Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. i SHEA’‘S Second Week. Here Come the Girls Technicolor with Bob Hope, UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Third Week, Little Boy Lost (Para.) with Bing Crosby. NORTOWN Mogambo (MGM) Technicolor with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. ODEON-CARLTON Third Week. Paratrooper-(Col.) Technicolor with Alan Ladd, UPTOWN Second Week. Kiss Me Kate (MGM) Technicolor and 3-D with Kathryn Grayson. LOEW'S ; Third Week. Easy to Love (MGM) Technicolor with Esther Williams. TOWNE CINEMA Third Week. Julius Caesar (MGM) INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Tenth Week. The Holly and the Ivy (IFD) with Ralph Richardson. STUDIO Third Week. Sadko (Astral) DOWNTOWN Slaves of Babylon (Col.) Casanova Brown (Alliance). MONTREAL (Para.) Magicolor. Technicolor and PALACE Second Week. How to Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroc. LOEW'S Little Boy Lost (Para.) with Bing Crosby. PRINCESS Second Week. Hondo (WB) WarnerColor and 3-D with John Wayne, CAPITOL Second Week. The Caddy (Para.) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. STRAND-SNOWDON-OUTREMONT Second Week. Walking My Boby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor and Second Chance (RKO) Technicolor. KENT Second Weck. The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. AVENUE Second Week. The Man Between (IFD) with James Mason. ALOUETTE Caroline Cherie, WINNIPEG CAPITOL Third Week, How to Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe, MET Vicki ODEON Second Week. Genevieve (JARO) Technicolor with John Gregson. GARRICK Walking My Baby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor with Donald O’Connor. LYCEUM Second Week, Island in the Sky (WB) with John Wayne, GAIETY Second Week. The Captain’s with Alec Guinness. (20th-Fox) with Jeanne Crain. Paradise (IFD) VANCOUVER CAPITOL Second Week. How to Marry a Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. ORPHEUM Second Week. All The Brothers Were Yaliant (MGM) Technicolor with Robert Taylor. STRAND Flight To Tangier Jack Polance. STUDIO Eighth Week. The Captain's Paradise (IFD) with Alec Guinness. VOGUE Second Week. Walking My Baby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor with Donald O’Connor. PLAZA 1, The Jury (UA) 3-D with Biff Elliot. HASTINGS The Grand Concert (Astral) Magicolor. (Pora.) Technicolor with SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Mogambo (MGM) Technicolor with Clark Goble and Ava Gardner. STRAND Moulin Ferrer. CAPITOL So Big (WB) with Jane Wyman. KENT Seven Deadly Sins (Cardinal), Rouge (UA) Technicolor with Jose PAGE NINE Biggest hit of the holiday season was The Captain’s Paradise. The British-made film starring the always dependable Alec Guinness, was held over for a second big week at the Elgin Theatre. Rita Hayworth’s Miss Sadie Thompson is ready to take over this spot when the customers have had enough of Mr. Guinness. Sadie, incidentally, was given a New Year's Eve preview in 3-D at the Elgin at $1.00 for all seats and drew a large crowd of night owls. With Christmas and New Year's holidays behind them, movie theatre managers have now settled down to several months of keeping their patrons in line during the long Winter drag. Business has caught up to better than average for the first weeks of the new season and the fans are being treated to excellent bills of movie fare. Mr. and Mrs. Norton H. Payne, of Montreal, were among a number of show folks to visit friends in Ottawa over the Christmas and New Year season. Bunny Payne was well-known here years ago when he played the organ during intermissions and accompanied silent films on the piano at the Regent and Centre theatres. © Bunny has been residing in the Quebec metropolis during the past 20 years and now has his own radio and television agency. Austrian-made Eroica, the story of Beethoven, showing at the Globe The atre for one week. Local film reviewers favorable to the production, which is noted for the great-German’s music interspersed throughout the film, and the fine acting of Ewald Balser in the role of Beethoven. The death of Wilfred Pomeroy at the home of his married daughter shortly after New Year's recalled memories of show business in Ottawa shortly after the end of the First World War. The late Mr. Pomeroy specialized in advertising work, and, as a member of the Citizen advertising department, was a frequent visitor to the Flower Theatre, where his cousin, Walter, was manager for the late N. L. Nathanson. JAMES E. RAIBOURN Funeral services for James E. Raibourn, 83, father of Paul Raibourn, vicepresident of Paramount Pictures Corporation, were held Thursday, January 7, at the First Methodist Church, Eldorado, Ill. He died at Bradenton Memorial Hospital, Sarasota, Fla. on Sunday, January 3. Interment took place at Lynnville, Ind. Survivors also include his widow, Mrs. Ida C. Raibourn, and another son, Claude, of Sarasota,