Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 30, 1954)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jan 30, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 30, 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 30, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST PAGE NINE Foto-Nite jackpot has reached the colossal sum of $2,850 at this writing. A tidy bit of cash for the lucky one who gets the call at the Centre, Eastview, Francais, Glebe, Linden, Somerset or Westboro theatres. Cashing in on the publicity surround ing the choice of Audrey Hepburn by the New York Film Critics Circle as the Best Actress of the Year, the Linden Theatre gave Roman Holiday an extraspecial advertising campaign. Result: the movie attracted large crowds and was held over for additional showings at Casey Swedlove’s popular East End neighborhood spot. The Science Film Group of Ottawa held a showing of interesting subjects at the National Museum before a large audience. Program comprised Can Machines Think? Radiosotope-Methodology and Web of Life. The Capitol Theatre held over its Botany Bay for further showings following a night of orchestral and violin music. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet due in for one performance on Feburay 3, according to present stage show bookings CAPITAL STORY By BILL McLAUGHLIN The government has not yet made its here believe the Cabinet is widely split decision to move the National Film 0m the issue but have to decide very Board to Montreal, Prime Minister St. shortly as whether to go ahead with the Laurent told the House of Commons the Mente PIO}EChs: ele eiie i Ottawa fs 5 ; only as a distribution centre for privately other day in replying to questions on the : made productions, or to remain in the subject by Opposition Leader Drew. The production field with the present inadegovernment gave no indication of which quate facilities and to build new studios way the decision would go. Observers here at some future date. Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Fifth week. How To Marry A Millionaire (20thFox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe, SHEA’S Hondo (WB) Warnercolor and 3-D with John Wayne. UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Fifth week. Little Boy Lost (Para.) with Bing Crosby. NORTOWN Here Come The Girls (Para.) Technicolor with Bob Hope. ODEON-CARLTON Dangerous Crossing (20th-Fox) with Jeanne Crain. HYLAND Second week. The Sinner (Astral) with Hildegarde Neff. UPTOWN Fourth week. Kiss Me Kate (MGM) Technicolor ond 3-D with Kathryn Grayson. LOEW'S Second week. Knights (MGM) CinemaScope Robert Taylor. TOWNE CINEMA Fifth week, Julius Caesar (MGM). All star cost. MONTREAL PALACE Fourth week. How To Marry A _ Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe, LOEW’S Mogambo (MGM) Technicolor with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. PRINCESS Take The High Ground (MGM) Ansco Color with Richard Widmark. CAPITOL Island In The Sky (WB) with John Wayne. ORPHEUM 99 River Man (UA). IMPERIAL Conquest of Cochise (Col.) Technicolor with John Hodiak. AVENUE Fourth week. The Man Between (IFD) with James Mason. KENT Fourth week. The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. AVON Enrico Caruso (Cardinal) with Gina Lollobrigida. ALOUETTE Second week. Spartacus. of the Round Table ond Technicolor with Strect (UA) and The Neanderthal WINNIPEG CAPITOL Second week, Little Boy Lost (Para.) with Bing Crosby. MET The Big Heat (Col.) with Glenn Ford, GAIETY Fourth week. The Capitain’s with Alec Guinness. OSBOURNE The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. VALOUR Macbeth (Rep.) with Orson Welles. ODEON Affair in Monte Carlo (AA) Technicolor with Merle Oberon, Paradise (IFD) VANCOUVER CAPITOL So Big (WB) with Jane Wyman. ORPHEUM Calamity Jane (WB) Technicolor with Doris Day. STRAND Appointment In Honduras (RKO) with Glenn Ford. STUDIO Martin Luther (IFD). VOGUE Moulin Rouge (UA) Technicolor with Jose Ferrer. PLAZA Wings of the Hawk (E-U) Technicolor and 3-D with Van Heflin, SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT How To Marry A Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. STRAND His Majesty O’Keefe (WB) Technicolor with Burt Lancaster, CAPITOL Flight To Tangier (Para.) Technicolor with Joan Fontaine. KENT Jack Slade (AA) with Mark Stevens, COLUMBIA’S FIRST IN CINEMASCOPE Columbia Pictures’ first Cinemascope production will be the Technicolor musical, “The Pleasure Is All Mine,” starring Betty Grable, Jack Lemmon and Marge and Gower Champion. Jean Negulesco has been borrowed from 20th CenturyFox to direct, executive producer Jerry Wald disclosed. Negulesco joined producer Joni Taps at Columbia January 5, when dance rehearsals started under the direction of Jack Cole. Negulesco recently completed the Technicolor CinemaScope production, “We Believe In Love,” and currently has on the screen the first Technicolor CinemaScope musical, “How To Marry A Millionaire.” on Manager Ray Tubman’s desk. MARK PLOTTEL Sales Manager, Empire-Universal Films = HERB MATHERS Empire-Universal, Toronto Branch Manager