Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 5, 1954)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jun 5, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 5, 1954)
Leaf #:
0002
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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JUNE 5, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST Keay Presents — AST Monday, May 24th was a | er oun ie y, May Holiday for Canadians, Queen Victoria’s Birthday, and in this part of the country, at least, a beautiful long week-end for thousands of families, with the sun shining brightly, and the rain holding off until Monday night. This Monday, May 31, is being celebrated as Memorial Day in the U.S., and a long week-end has been enjoyed by millions of American families. For myself, however, Wednesday, May 26th, was a bigger holiday than the Queen’s Birthday, Memorial Day, or even New Year’s Eve; for on that day I returned home from a sojourn in the New Mt. Sinai Hospital. As it happened, the sun was shining on that day, also, but I am sure it shone brighter for me than for anyone else, at least so it seemed. The new Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto is a magnificent structure, a credit to the community, and a tribute to the people of Toronto who contributed so generously to make it the most modern, in equipment and facilities, that moncy could buy. However, you can take my word for it, there IS no place like home, and am I ever glad to be there. I would like to thank all those who were so kind to me, with flowers, cards, and good wishes, while I was in the hospital. I know that it was your prayers, with an assist by the doctors and medical science, that have started me back on the road to recovery, and I am very grateful. ie a special 21-minute CinemaScope subject, Jack L. Warner, executive producer of Warner Bros., outlines the company’s forthcoming productions and presents highlight sequences from several Warner Bros. pictures now on the way to Canadian theatre screens. This production trailer which was screened for the trade throughout the United States on April 24th and was recently viewed by Canadian industry leaders in Toronto and Montreal, has met with such unanimous acclaim that Haskell Masters, general manager for Warner Bros. in Canada, has announced that this outstanding two-reeler will be made available to all Canadian exhibitors for showing to their patrons. Stressing pre-sold value, Warner Bros. current production schedule is based largely on best-selling novels, long-run hit plays and widely-known classics. Among the properties for which Mr. Warner revealed producer and director credits and, in some cases, cast names, were: “Helen of Troy,” the Homeric spectacle narrating one of the first and best-known classic love stories being filmed in CinemaScope and WarnerColor, starring Rossana Podesta, fiery young Italian actress whose selection as the beauty whose face launched a thousand ships ended a year-long, two-continent search for the most beautiful woman in the world, and an array of international favorites including Jacques Sernas and Sir Cedric Hardwicke; ‘Land of the Pharoahs,” being filmed in Egypt in WarnerColor with Howard Hawks producing and directing the original screenplay by Nobel-prize-winner William Faulkner, starring Jack Hawkins, voted England's number one boxoffice personality for 1953; “Dragnet” in WarnerColor, full-length screen story based on the award winning TV and radio program of the same name, starring Jack Webb who is directing the picture; “The Silver Chalice” in WarnerColor, adapted from Thomas B. Costain’s classic novel, being produced and directed by Victor Saville with a cast of thousands including such stars as Jack Palance, Pier Angeli and Virginia Mayo; “Strange Lady In Town” in WarnerColor being produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Greer Garson and Dana Andrews; John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” in WarnerColor to be produced and directed hy Elia Kazan and starring Julie Harris, James Dean and Raymond Massey; Edna Ferber’s “Giant” being produced and directed by George Stevens in association with Henry Ginsberg; the Thomas Heggen all-time Broadway hit, “Mr. Roberts” in WarnerColor, starring Henry Fonda and James Cagney in the Leland Hayward production under the direction of John Ford, four times Academy Award winner; Andrew Geer's “The Sea Chase,” starring John Wayne under John Farrow’s direction; Charles Lindbergh’s Pulitzer prize-winning “Spirit of St. Louis;" Gary Cooper as “Daniel Boone; Tenessee Williams? “Mississippi Woman;” “Duel In The Jungle” in Technicolor, starring Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain; “Daniel And The Woman of Babylon;? “Drumbeat,” starring Alan Ladd and Audrey Dalton; “The Last Train West;" and Agnes Sligh Turnbull's “Gown of Glory.” HE film report offers sequences from “THE COM MAND,” in WarnerColor, starring Guy Madison and Joan Weldon; “A STAR IS BORN,” in Technicolor, starring Judy Garland and James Mason; “THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY,” in WarnerColor, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Larraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, Robert Newton and David Brian; “KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS” (formerly titled “THE TALISMAN” from the best-selling book of the same name) in WarnerColor, starring Rex Harrison, George Sanders and Virginia Mayo; “BATTLE CRY,” in WarnerColor, starring Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone and Anne Francis; “LUCKY ME,” in WarnerColor, starring Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker; and “RING OF FEAR,” in WarnerColor, starring Clyde Beatty, Pat O’Brien, Mickey Spillane, and the entire Clyde Beatty circus. The climax of this imposing film report is provided by Mr. Warner summing up and stating, this is a “blueprint of our thinking—the shape of things to come from our studio” and reiterating the theme that “great books, great plays and great stories make great motion pictures.” “THE scenes you have just witnessed from forthcoming productions, as well as the impressive list of story properties we have purchased for immediate production, are an indication of the continuous flow of motion pictures which you will receive from Warner Bros. We have shown you only glimpses of this program. Soon you will see these pictures in the full glory of color and CinemaScope. “We have confidence in the future of motion pictures. Our program consists of the greatest effort we have ever undertaken. Yes, we have confidence, or we would not at this time be making the most important and the highest budgeted productions in the history of our company. It takes vision, experience, and huge investments to make a program like this come true, With these ambitious plans already underway, we here at the studios are looking forward to the brightest future that lies before all of us, And I don’t mind telling you that we are excited about the future. 1 hope that our excitement is contagious, and that it has been conveyed to you in some degree. ; E have shown you a glimpse of our future because it is your future, too, | Know that you share with us our faith in motion pictures as the world’s greatest entertainment. We shall continue to demonstrate this faith to vou to our industry, and to the public,” ty (Continued on Page 11) PAGE THREE eee eee eee a