Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Mar 20, 1954)

Page scan 0009 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Mar 20, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Mar 20, 1954)
Leaf #:
0009
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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he Sah sie fc se 8 “Show CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST “The Odeon Big Show’ Drive David Griesdorf, General Manager, The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Limited, takes great pleasure in announcing the opening of the Odeon Annual Showmanship Contest for 1954, With a circus motif under the title “The Odeon Big Show,” and with the slogan “Odeon—The Greatest Showmanship on Earth!” the drive launches into a concentrated 13-week effort from Monday, March 29 until Saturday, June 26. $3,300 in cash prizes is available for competing showmen together with extra vacations with pay, trophies and certificates. Something new and different in contests has been added in the form of merchandise prizes for wives and mothers which can be won for them by Odeon Managers. This is being done because it will help to make the managers’ families more closely associated with the industry and they can supply assistance and moral support. Over the past several years Odeon has held many drives that have been widely acclaimed by the trade press, and has been successful in achieving the objective of raising the standard of showmanship across Canada. In the past, all Odeon drives have been held in honor of executives of the J. Arthur Rank Organization. This year, “The Odeon Big Show” is in honor ,of Business,” and __ particularly “Odeon Show Business.” For a full thirteen weeks, all Odeon managers across Canada will be conducting a concentrated showmanship and sales effort on behalf of all product from all distributors. Each manager must send in a fully documented showmanship campaign weekly. Big and little films alike will be given the treatment and every city and town in Canada will fee} the effect of this concentrated showmanship. The Janguage of the circus is being applied to Odeon showmen, with nine regional leagues known as “Big Tops” with the local supervisor as “Ringmaster.” Managers are “Barkers” and all theatres, “Rings.” All theatres in the circuit compete in the “Showmanship Tent” while a District Manager's prize is available in the “Ringmaster’s Tent.” Jim Hardiman, Assistant Director of Advertising and Publicity, has been appointed captain of the drive with the title “Circus Boss,” under the supervision of Wannie Tyers, Director of Advertising and Publicity. The accent is on Showmanship in Canada and all Odeon showmen have vowed that this is going to be the most successful drive ever conducted. FOX DECLARES DIVIDEND A quarterly cash dividend of 25 cents per share and a special cash dividend of 10 cents per share on the outstanding Common Stock of 20th Century-Fox has been declared payable March 31, 1954 to stockholders of record at the close of business on March 18, 1954, THREE FROM JARO The J. Arthur Rank Organization is now releasing in Canada three motion pictures which have been critically and publicly acclaimed. “Trouble in Store,” which introduces Norman Wisdom to the motion picture audience, has broken 25 all-time boxoffice records on its London release. Norman Wisdom is, in Chaplin's own words, Chaplin’s successor as a comedian, and “potentially the greatest living comic of the screen.” “Personal Affair,” praised by reviewers wherever shown, stars Gene Tierney and Leo Genn in a sincere motion picture with adult implications. Probably the first screen development of a theme that has been the basis of legitimate theatre presentations, ‘Personal Affair” treats the problem with simplicity, and is excellent screen entertainment. “The Million Pound Note” stars Gregory Peck in his first all-British film. This Technicolor adaptation of Mark Twain's famous story had recently a Royal Command Performance in New Zealand. EVERY ANGLE “ASTROLITE”’ IS SUPERIOR @ BRILLIANCE @ POLARIZATION @ COLOR RENDITION @ SOUND © TRANSMISSION DOMINION SOUND HEAD OFFICE: 4040 St. Catherine see “ASTROLITE MARCH 20, 1954 UNIVERSAL SETS 10 FILMS With the wind-up this week of Universal-International's first Technicolor CinemaScope production, “The Black Shield Of Falworth,” starring Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, David Farrar, Barbara Rush and Herbert Marshall, the studio will have {0 pictures in various stages of editing. Of the remaining nine pictures in the cutting rooms, seven are in Technicolor and two are black and white films. Technicolor productions being edited include “Magnificent Obsession,” starring Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson and Barbara Rush; “The Far Country,” starring James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet and Walter Brennan; “Black Horse Canyon,” starring Joel McCrea and Mari Blanchard; “Johnny Dark,” starring Tony Curtis, Piper Luurie and Don Taylor; “Tanganyika,” starring Van Heflin, Ruth Roman and Heward Duff; “Drums Across the River.” starring Audie Murphy, Lisa Gaye, Lyle Bettger and Walter Brennan; and “Rails Into Laramie,” starting John Payne. Mari Blanchard and Dan Duryea. Black and white films are “Playgirl,” starring Shelley Winters and Barry Sullivan, and “Fireman Save My Child.” LUCKY ME Emelene Heary and Arthur Gilmour are.in the cast of “Lucky Me,” CinemaScope musical at Warner Bros., starring Loris Day, Rober; Cummings, and Phil Silvers. The WarnerColor film is directed by Jack Donohue. 7 yee 75° Astrolite gives maximum return of projected light energy. Bonded layer construction provides very durable, lightweight damage-resistant and scratch-proof surface. Will not deteriorate nor change composition. Amazing brilliance lasts indefinitely —fabric can be washed to remove surface dirt and dust. EQUIPMENTS LIMITED Street West, Montreal. BRANCHES AT: Halifax, Saint John, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, DS-54-2 Hamilton, London, North Bay, Winnipeg, Regina, ‘ Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver.