Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 8, 1954)

Page scan 0008 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
May 8, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 8, 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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MAY 8, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST PAGE NINE eee eo ~ | CAPITAL STORY 6y BILL McLAUGHLIN Manager Clare Chamberlain of the Glebe Cinema was fined $50 in City Court the other day when he was found guilty of neglecting to have a matron in the theatre to look after children. Chamberlain staged a special children’s show on the afternoon of April 3, expected about 100 youngsters and got a real big surprise when over 800 turned up. Taking into consideration that his regular matron had received an urgent call to visit a relative in hospital and that he aa: any Me Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Elephant Walk ; = Elizebeth Tavlos: (Para.) Technicolor with SHEA’S Phontom of the Rue Morguc (WB) W Color ond 3-D with Karl cise. Ht BRIVERSITY & EGLINTON on coy cummloncire (20th-Fox) Cincmaon echnicolor with Maril NORTOWN aaah Red i i Gen (Para.) Technicolor with Rosemary ODEON-CARLTON The Love Lott i i David Nien: See sce ae UPTOWN Tenth week. The Glenn Miller Story (E-U) Technicolor with James Stewart LOEW'S i Rhapsody (MGM) Taylor. cone CINEMA t . sll week. The Living Desert (RKO) TechniBee aP & CHRISTIE rd week. The Kid i Beet ter. idnappers (JARO) with Vin Technicolor with Elizabcth DOWNTOWN Jubilee Trail (E' Acte (E-U). (E-U) Trucolor and Hell's Half MONTREAL PALACE Rose Marie (MGM) Ci mith Ann. BIyth, ) nemaScope and Color LOEW’S Second week. Rhapsod MG with Elizabeth Taylor. Las epee PRINCESS aes (UA) Technicolor with Frank LoycCAPITOL It Should Hoppen to Y c Holliday. clio Msc meh eo IMPERIAL Second week, Public Enemy (WB) and Little Coescr (WB). ORPHEUM Second week. Quo Vadis with Robert Taylor. KENT Fourth week. Vincent Winter, SEVILLE-STRAND-SNOW DON-OUTREMONT Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (20th-Fox) Technicolor with Jane Russell. ALOUETTE Fourth week. Le Retour de Don Camillo. (MGM) Technicolor The Kidnappers (JARO) with SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Night People (20th-Fox) CinemaScope ond Technicolor with Gregory Peck. CAPITOL Rob Roy (RKO) Technicolor with Richard Todd. STRAND Beachhead (UA) Technicolor with Frank Love joy. WINNIPEG CAPITOL ; Hell and High Water (20th-Fox) CinemaScope end Technicolor with Richard Widmork, LYCEUM Escape from Fort William Holden. VALOUR Third week. Genevieve (JARO) Technicolor with John Gregson. MET Bravo (MGM) Color with Torch Song (MGM) Technicolor with Joan Crawford. ODEON The Kidnoppers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. GARRICK 1, The Jury (UA). VANCOUVER (20th-Fox) CinemaScope Richard Widmark. CAPITOL Hell and High Water and Technicolor with ORPHEUM Casanovo’s Big Night (Para.) Technicolor with Bob Hope. VOGUE Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (E-U) with Mar jorie Main. PLAY BALL The Toronto Motion Picture Softball League got off to a flying start last Sunday morning at Exhibition Park. A good turn-out of baseball fans from many of the Film Industry's offices in Toronto was evident, despite the early hour, to cheer and applaud their favorites. The Film Distributors’ team, managed by Harry Imperial won by a score of 4-3 over the Toronto Projectionists, managed by Harry Brooks. Theatre Confections Ltd., managed by Andy Rouse, took a close game from Famous Players, managed by Russ Moffatt. The score was 10-9. Games will be played every Sunday morning, starting at 10 a.m. at Exhibition Park, at the foot of the Dufferin Gate entrance. was unable to obtain a substitute on such short notice, Magistrate Strike said he would impose the minimum fine. The maxium penalty under the Ontario Theatres Act is a $500 fine. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Julius Caesar is now on its second week at the Little Elgin Theatre, and is getting a good play at increosed prices of $1.00 matinees and $1.50 evenings, with a special rebate for students, Mr, and Mrs. Antonio Tremblay, who have brought to Ottawa many of the world’s greatest artists during the past 25 years, were honored on their “silver wedding in concerts” at the Capitol Theatre following the final recital of the current season. The famous Ottawa impresario and his lady were presented with a cheque and a morocco bound scroll on behalf of their thousands of annual subscribers and friends. The JARO importation, The Kidnappers, turned out to be somewhat of a “sleeper” at the Glebe Cinema. The production starring a coup'e of talented youngsters—Vincent Winter and Johnny Whitely— is now on its third week and still going strong. The Long, Long Trailer was one of the best comedies seen here in several years and received oodles of favorable critiques from the local press. Operation Ivy, produced in color by the United States Joint Task Force during the H-bomb tests which destroyed an island in the South Pacific in November, 1952, was screened in the Victoria Memorial Museum during a meeting of the Civil Service Civil Defence Organization. Health Minister Paul Martin introduced the film, with Major General F. F. Worthington acting as chairman. Manager George Jordan of the O’Brien Theatre, Arnprior, has pepped up his exploitation. A Boy Scout parade was held to the theatre for “Mr. Scoutmaster’; passes were awarded to the 10 best cowboy costumes by a boy or girl at a nerformance of “Arena”, and there was also a guessing contest with passes for these who could guess what was under a hat in a men’s store window. Morris Berlin, owner and man ager of the Somerset Theatre, gave a private showing of Song of Bernadette for some 300 clergymen from Ottawa and Hull. Morris is advertising the production for an early opening at his popular subsequent-run theatre on Somerset St., near the corner of Bank, Those Reported Missing Dianne Foster, who has just completed a co-starring role with Dana Andrews and Donna Reed in Columbia's Technicolor Western, “Three Hours ty Kill,” will next team with Robert Francis as the feminine lead of “Those Reported Missing,” Bryan Foy production which Lew Seiler directs,