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Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Feb 20, 1954)

Page scan 0007 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Feb 20, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Feb 20, 1954)
Leaf #:
0007
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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Cite PAGE EIGHT CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST FEBRUARY 20, 1954 Hughes Offers to Buy All Assets of RKO Howard Hughes has offered to buy all the assets of the RKO Pictures Corporation for $23,489,478 in cash, an offer which, if accepted, would pay every stockholder $6 a share for his holdings. The stock closed on Friday Feb. Sth, on the New York Stock Exchange, at $2.87 a share. There are 3,914,913 shares of RKO stock outstanding. O Personalities In the News An announcement by New York representatives of the Los Angeles industrialist and Motion-picture producer said the offer is subject to acceptance by a duly constituted officer of RKO by Feb. 15, and approval by a vote of a majority of the RKO stock, other than shares held by Mr. Hughes, at a stockholders’ meeting not later than March 30. Mr. Hughes was reported to have said in a letter to the company explaining his offer: “I would like to feel that I have given all the stockholders of RKO Pictures Corporation an opportunity to receive for their stock an amount well in excess of its market value at the time when I first became connected with the company, or at any time since.” BOARD ACCEPTS HOWARD HUGHES OFFER OF $6 Howard Hughes offer to buy the assets of RKO Pictures Corp. for $23,489,478 at $6 per shore on the outstanding stock, wos accepted by the Board. The Board called a special mecting of stockholders to be held in Dover, Delaware, at noon, Thursday, March 18th, to vote on the proposal, Howard Hughes’ avowed aim to see that none of his fellow shareholders in the RKO Picture Corporation lost any money on his account was fulfilled— with an eight of a point to spare. In the wake of his offer to buy all the company’s assets for the equivalent of $6 a share, the stock sold above $5 for the first time in history. Of the 487,200 shares of the stock traded during Feb. 8th on the New York Stock Exchange, the lowest price at which any share changed hands was 5%. Mr. Hughes has been the controlling stockholder of RKO Pictures since May, 1948, when he bought control—929,020 shares, or 24 per cent of the stock— of the old Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation from the Atlas Corporation. At the end of 1950, pursuant to an agreement with the Attorney General, Radio-Keith-Orpheum was split into two companies — RKO Pictures and RKO Theatres. Under the agreement Mr. Hughes had the choice of placing his holdings in either company in trusteeship. He elected to do so with the theatre shares, and last November he sold them to David J. Greene, New York investment counselor, for $4.75 a share, A year earlier Mr Hughes sold the control of the picture company for $7 a share to a syndicate headed by Ralph Stolkin and Abraham L, Koolish of Chicago. But as a result of considerable unfavorable publicity the group turned the stock back to Mr. Hughes four and a half months after entering the deal, for feiting a $1,250,000 down payment and intefest and fees on the balance. Mr. Hughes now owns 1,262,129 of the company’s 3,914,913 shares of stock. MacKAY TO A.S.N. ONTARIO POST cote, ERIC JOHNSTON, President of MPAA was named official U.S, Representative at the Brazilian International Film Festival, Feb. 12th. —s Rg ive po be as S. ALEX MACKAY " LeO, THE LION, world-famous screen personatity, created by MGM, placed on his feet severa) desades ago, by Howard Dietz, and now celebrating MGM‘s Jubilce 30th Birthday, on S. Alexander MacKay has been apPress, Radio and TV, of the world. pointed Ontario Manager for Associated Screen News Limited, replacing J. J. Chisholm who moved to head office in Montreal. This new appointment is recognition of the demonstrated ability of one of the company’s most active younger members. Since the war, his career in films has gained him distinction in nearly every province of the Dominion. As Educational Director of Associated Screen News, he championed the use of visuil teaching methods in schools and colleges. Tat RIE Pe f with Warner-Bros. after an absence of many years, aos producer with MGM, MERVYN LeROY, back STAR OF UA’S “WICKED WOMAN” VISITS TORONTO, Standing Icft to right: George Helber, UA; Irving Siegal, UA; Mortin Simpson, Downtown Theatre; Bill Curly, Mayfair Theatre; Barney Fox, 20th Century Theotres; Myer Axler, 20th Century Theatres; Jack Cottingham, State Theatre and Raoul Auerbach, Vice-Pres., 20th Century Theatres. Sitting, left to right: Bill Heinitz, Glendale Theore; Charles S. Chaolin, Canadian General Manager, UA; Beverly Michaels, Star of “Wicked Woman” and Beryl Goodwin, Scarboro Theatre.