Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Feb 6, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Feb 6, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Feb 6, 1954)
Leaf #:
0008
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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FEBRUARY 6, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST CAPITAL STORY By BILL McLAUGHLIN Civil servants with offices in the old Supreme Court building at the north end of Bank Street, had to step through a maze of power cables and cameras when they arrived at work the other morning. Director Victor Stoloff, his technicians, and Hollywood’s Lloyd Bridges, are using the government building for interior scenes of the RCMP-TV series. The en tire 13 films of the series—each running 30 minutes—will be produced in different centres from factual RCMP case histories. After visiting Toronto and Montreal, the company will return here next April to make an RCMP spy story. Supporting players will be engaged in each of the cities where stories are to be filmed. The Ottawa cast included art Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Terry Moore. SHEA’S Second week. Hondo (WB) Warnercolor and 3-D with John Wayne. UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON The Man Between (IFD) with James Mason, NORTOWN Vicki (20th-Fox) with Jeanne Crain. ODEON-CARLTON Moulin Rouge (UA) Technicolor with Jose Ferrer. HYLAND Third week. The Sinner (Astral) with Hildegarde Neff, UPTOWN Walking My Baby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor with Donald O’Connor. LOEW’S Third week, Knights Of the Round Table (MGM) CinemaScope ond Technicolor with Robert Taylor. TOWNE CINEMA Sixth week. Julius Caesar (MGM) all star cast. DOWNTOWN Tumbleweed (E-U) Technicolor with Audie Murphy, MONTREAL PALACE The Actress (MGM) with Spencer Tracy. LOEW'S Second week. Mogambo (MGM) Technicolor with Clark Gable. PRINCESS Cease Fire (Para.) 3-D. CAPITOL All The Brothers Were Valiant (MGM) Technicolor with Robert Taylor. ORPHEUM Second Week. 99 River Street (UA) and Neanderthal Man (UA). IMPERIAL Thunder Over the Plains (WB) Warnercolor with Randolph Scott. AVENUE Malta Story (JARO) with Alec Guinness. KENT Innocents in Paris (Cardinal) with Alastair Sim. AVON Second Week. Enrico Caruso (Cardinal) with Gina Lollobrigida. ALOUETTE Furia with Rossano Brazzil. WINNIPEG CAPITOL The Actress (MGM) with Spencer Tracy. MET The Big Heat (Col.) with Glenn Ford, GAIETY Decameron Nights (RKO) Technicolor with Joan Fontaine. OSBOURNE The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. GARRICK Vice Squad (UA) with Edward G. Robinson. ODEON Calamity Jane (WB) Technicolor with Doris Day. VANCOUVER CAPITOL Kiss Me Kate (MGM) Technicolor with Kathryn Grayson. ORPHEUM The Big Heat (Col.) with Glenn Ford. STRAND Kiss Me Kate (MGM) Technicolor and 3-D with Kathryn Grayson. STUDIO Martin Luther (IFD). VOGUE Second week. Moulin Rouge (UA) Technicolor with Jose Ferrer, PLAZA The Conquest of Everest (JARO) Technicolor. SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Second Week. How to Marry oa Millionaire (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe, STRAND Walking My Baby Back Home (E-U) Technicolor with Donald O’Connor. CAPITOL Kiss of Death (20th-Fox) with Victor Mature. KENT Drums of Tahiti (Col.) with Dennis O'Keefe. MONTREAL MONITOR REPORTS ASSOCIATED TO PRODUCE IN COLOR Tracy ,8. Ludington reports in the Montreal Monitor, on the deal recently made, which gave Paul Nathanson, President of Sovereign Film Distributors and Vice-President of EmpireUniversal, the controlling interest in Associated Screen News Limited. He states that Associated Screen wiil soon be manufacturing prints in color, and that important developments are in progress concerning the productions of pictures for TV, PAGE NINE ists from the Little Theatre, Saturday Players and the Canadian Repertory Theatre, with Dorothy Bangs of the Little Theatre acting as casting adviser. CinemaScope films in your own living room is not a dream but a proven fact. At a special showing at the National Research Council, Karl Stauff, of the Bell-Howell lensmakers in Chicago, presented a CinemaScope movie made on 16 mm film. An entire new field is now open to the new medium, Mr. Stauff said. The curved screen for homes measures about 10 feet in width and 4 feet in height. For halls, a 16 feet by six is recommended by Mr. Stauff. Ray Tubman, Famous Players District Supervisor and Resident Manager of the Capitol Theatre, was in Toronto for the induction ceremonies of the Canadian Motion Picture Pioneers. BUSINESS TAX WINNIPEG Exhibitors, operating theatres in Winnipeg, Manitoba, will this year pay a Business Tax of 10 percent of their Annual Rent. Where theatres are circuitcontrolled, the Manager will report on cost of caretaker and cleaning, cost of light, heat and power, water, cost of repairs and annual average cost of decorating, cost of insurance, following which the Assessment Commissioner will determine the rental on which the tax will be fixed. Failure to comply with furnishing the information requested, will subject the theatre to a fine of $20.00 per day for every day in default. The exhibitor will be given one week from notice received, to reply. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES Eighteen dates in key first-run houses throughout the United States and Canada have been set for Samuel Goldwyn's “The Best Years of Our Lives.” The picture, which is being released through RKO Radio, had its formal premiere at Keith’s, Washington, February 3rd. ; In Canada it will open Feb. 21 at the University and Eglinton, Toronto; Feb. 18 at the Palace, Calgary; Feb. 5 at the Century, Hamilton, and Regent, Ottawa; Feb 8 at the Lincoln, St. Catharines, and Feb. 10 St. Johns. WANTED PROJECTIONIST For New Northern Ontario Theatre, Single Man Preferred. Write stating age, qualifications and persons of recommen dation. BOX C CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST 21 DUNDAS SQUARE TORONTO