Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 22, 1954)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
May 22, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 22, 1954)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
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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CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE RAY LEWIS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER HERMANT BLDG. 21 Dundas Squore TORONTO FORTIETH YEAR OF PUBLICATION 1915 54 Published by CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST COMPANY LIMITED VOL. 46, NO, 21 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA MAY 22, 1954 An Eye Full of White Christmas rt ‘on ae _ Ceoooeeose ° . On The diagram above, which shows a scene from Paramount's Irving Berlin film, ‘White Christmas," demonstrates the VistaVision principle of comfortable viewing for every member of the audience. "White Christmas" is the company's first motion picture to be filmed in VistaVision, tremendous new wide-screen process. The human eye, say experts, is constructed in such a way that it has the capability of seeing the object of direct interest. It also sees a surrounding balanced area called "the comfortable viewing area." Beyond this is still another area to which we refer when we say: “I saw it out of the corner of my eye.” All three areas are completely covered by the scope of VistaVision. GORDON LIGHTSTONE, Canadian General BARNEY BALABAN, President, Pp mount Pletures, weer pa: Manager, Paramount Pictures. | "The demonstration,” declared Mr. Balaban, “will show clearly the tremendous new and added clarity, brij. | fiance ond sharpness which VistaVision brings to the screen. With VistaVision, the screen takes on new meaning . | new dimension, new colors, new strength; it is so different and so much more reai than anything we have seen before that it is as though we were seeing reality on a screen for the first time in our lives.” ish