Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 19, 1954)

Page scan 0003 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jun 19, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 19, 1954)
Leaf #:
0003
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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PAGE FOUR CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST JUNE 19, 1954 ~ Teronto and District By BILL PRESS Theatre managers of Peterborough combined their efforts in staging a benefit stage and screen show in aid of Variety Village which was conducted with much success at the Odeon Theatre Sunday night, June 13. Tickets were sold in advance at the different local theatres including the Peterborough Drive-in. The voice of President L. W. Brockington of Canadian JARO Companies was heard in a re-broadcast of his message from a Canadian warship on “D”Day, June 6, 1944, in the CBC network program for the 10th anniversary of the historic invasion of the Continent. At the re-union of war veterans in Normandy for the anniversary occasion were Rey. Ray McCleary, Protestant chaplain of the Toronto Variety Tent, and Gordon Sparling of Associated Screen News, who was an officer of the Canadian Army Photographic Unit at the time of the actual landings. At the McDonough Ferewell Festivities. Left to right: Jim McDonough and Dan Krendel. John R. Stocks, formerly an advertising manager, has been appointed to the sales staff of the Toronto branch of Crawley Films Limited. Christopher Chapman of Toronto, producer of “The Seasons’ which won the 1953 award of Canadian Film of the Year, has joined the Crawley organization as a producer of outdoor films. In the seventh week of the Canadian Odeon Managers’ Competition the winner of the special top showmanship award of $25 was none other than Don Gauld of the Odeon Theatre, Kort William. Gauld’s theatre stood third in the showmanship standing across Canada, close behind the Odeon at Trail, B.C.. and the Hastings, Vancouver. Lin Martyn of the Capitol Theatre, Niagara Falls, was in fourth place, a few points below the Odeon Theatre, Ladysmith, B.C. Seven features have been classified as Adult Entertainment by the Ontario Board of Moving Picture Censors including the much-discussed “The French Line.” The new list also. includes “Flame and the Flesh,” “Play Girl,” “Prisoner of War,” “Them,” “Witness to Mur der” and “Woman Is a Devil.” Theatres of Cornwall expect to share in the boom which will come in the now-assured construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway and_Hydro Projects for which Robert H. Saunders of the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission says 10,000 jobs will be created. Cornwall’s theatres include the Capitol and Palace, operated by Clarence G. Markell in partnership with Famous Players, the Roxy, a unit of Sam Fingold’s circuit, and the Cornwall DriveIn which is a link in the 20th Century Theatres chain, where Ken Musson is again the manager. VANCOUVER NEWS By JACK DROY The Provincial Government Tax Department “is planning to inspect buck nights” at B.C. Drive-in theatres to ascertain if there is any evasion of taxes in the system, Delegates from B.C., Washington, Oregon and Vancouver Island converged on Vancouver for B.C. projectionists union 40th annual banquet at the Flame Supper Club, Sunday June 13th. Mickey Stevenson, Paramount office manager who went to Toronto for a sales meeting bought himself a new car in Windsor and saved himself a few hundred dollars by driving it back the 3,000 miles to Vancouver. Jack Donnelly of the Strand is in military hospital for surgery on his leg from an old war wound. Bill Crossley and D. B. Simpson will build a second ozoner at Penticton in the B.C. fruit belt to cost $40,000 and accomodate 400 cars. It will be opposition to the Pines Drive-in which holds 324 cars. Mary Brown, Orpheum cashier on vacation South of the border. Nip Gowen of the Dominion away to Mexico for a months holiday, =~ Prairie News BRUCE PEACOCK Considerable damage was done to seats of the new Cinema Theatre in Swift Current, Douglas Burke, ownermanager, reported recently. Several of the seats had to be replaced because the backs were forced out of line. Lethbridge City Council are looking over plans advanced by local interests to build a $250,000 theatre in downtown Lethbridge, Alberta. THE CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST Entered as Second Class Matter RAY LEWIS Editor-in-Chicf Address all mail to the Publisher CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST COMPANY, LIMITED 21 Dundas Square Toronto Telephone: EMpire 8-8696 Cable: Raydigest Established 1915. Publication weekly. Subscription: $5.00 ycarly — Correspondents — BRUCE PEACOCK .Regina, Sask. JACK DROY... Rete Vancouver, B.C. WILL McLAUGHLIN Ottawa, Ont. BILL PRESS.. ...Toronto, Ont. HELEN CROWLEY .......... Saint John, N.B. Mawvritimme News HELEN CROWLEY Mr. and Mrs. M.S. Bernstein are receiving congratulations on their thirty-second wedding anniversary which they celebrated last Sunday. “ Mr. F. Maurice Griffin, shipper with the Paramount Films was_ re-elected President of St. Vincent’s Home and School Association at its annual meeting held in the High School Auditorium. The competition of Television continues to extend throughout the Maritimes — Halifax’s new C.B.C. Television Station CBHT on Channel 3 will commence broadcasts the latter part of this year. When the Florenceville theatre opened recently with CinemaScope — “The Robe” its opening picture played for an entire week although Florenceville is one of the smallest populations in the Maritimes. The ‘Gaiety’ theatre at Fredericton, N.B, is installing CinemaScope with Stereophonic Sound and is scheduled to open with “The Robe” on-June 30th. The ‘Andreleo’ theatre in St. Andrews, N.B. owned by J. A. Roy of Quebec City has been sold to the Canadian Legion and in future will be known as the “Legion Memorial Hall.” The theatre has already been closed and dismantled for pictures. Mr. Fred Hazel, proprietor of the Rialto theatre at Tatamagouche has opened a Drive-in theatre at Cambridge, Nova Scotia—near Kentville. REPUBLIC’S “TIMBERJACK” Republic cameraman Jack Marta, operator Herb Kirkpatrick and assistant cameraman Alric Edens are in Victoria, B.C. for pre-production filming of “Timberjack” in Trucolor by Consolidated, which starts this summer under the direction of associate producer Joseph I. Kane.