Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 19, 1954)

Page scan 0008 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 #:
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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JUNE 19, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST PAGE NINE CAPITAL STORY By BILL McLAUGHLIN The French Line, originally out of RKO Studios in the added dimension, is now showing at the Odeon Theatre in the regular medium. Manager Jimmie Chalmers, however, is using this controyersial movie to publicize his newly-installed wide-vision screen. Manager Ray Tubman got MGM's Executive Suite off to a grand start at the Capitol with a full page of cooperative advertising, reading matter and pictures in the Evening Journal which appeared one day before the premiere Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Three Coins In A Fountain (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Clifton Webb. SHEA‘S The Wild One (Col.) with Marlon Brando. UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Give A Girl A Break (MGM) Technicolor with Merge and Gower Champion. NORTOWN Carnival Story (RKO) Technicolor with Anne Boxter. ODEON-FAIRLAWN-HUMBERDANFORTH-COLONY The French Line (RKO) Technicolor with Janc Russell, UPTOWN Second week. Johnny Guitar (E-U) Color with Joan Crawford. LOEW’S Men Of The Fighting Lady (MGM) Color with Van Johnson. HYLAND & CHRISTIE The Kidnappers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. TOWNE CINEMA Second week. Marlag O (IFD) with Anthony Steel. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Fifteenth week, Hobson’s Choice (IFD) with Charles Laughton. DOWNTOWN Drums of Tahiti (Col.) Technicolor and The Nebraskan (Col.) Technicolor. MONTREAL PALACE Second week. Lucky Me (WB) CinemaScope and WornerColor with Doris Day LOEW’S Second week, Executive Suite (MGM) with William Holden. PRINCESS The Miami Story (Col.) with Barry Sullivan. CAPITOL Diol M For Murder (WB) Color with Ray Milland. IMPERIAL Drive A Crooked Road (Col.) with Mickey Rooncy. ORPHEUM Bad For Each Other (Col.) with Charlton Heston. KENT Tenth week. The Kidnappers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. AVENUE The Heart Of The Matter (IFD) with Trevor Howard. SEVILLE-STRAND-SNOWDON-OUTREMONT Johnny Guitar (E-U) Trucolor with Joan Crawford. ALOUETTE Second week. La Danseuse De Mexico and Ville D‘Enfer. WINNIPEG CAPITOL Rhansody (MGM) Technicolor with Elizabeth Taylor. LYCEUM Racing Blood (20th-Fox) and Miss Robin Crusoe (20th-Fox) Pathecolor. MET Executive Suite (MGM) with William Holden. ODEON Beat The Devil (UA) with Humphrey Bogart. GARRICK Prince Valiant (20th-Fox) CincmaScope and Technicolor with James Mason. GRAND Dragonfly Squadron (AA) and Highway Dragnet (AA). GAIETY The Living Desert (RKO) Technicolor. OSBOURNE CINEMA The Heart Of The Matter (IFD) with Trevor Howard, VANCOUVER CAPITOL River Of No Return (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroc. ORPHEUM Carnival Story (RKO) Technicolor with Annc Boxter, STRAND Three Young Texans (20th-Fox) Technicolor and Broken Arrow (20th-Fox) Technicolor. STUDIO Eighth week. Hobson’s Choice (IFD) with Charles Laughton. VOGUE Second week. The Maggie (JARO) with Paul Douglas. PLAZA Taza, Son of Cochise (E-U) Technicolor ond Jennifer (AA). DUNBAR Fifth week. The Kidnappers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. PARADISE Charge Of The Lancers (Col.) Technicolor with Paulette Goddard. CALGARY CAPITOL Night People (20th-Fox) CincmaScope and Technicolor with Gregory Peck. GRAND Battle Of Rogue River (Col.) Technicolor with George Montgomery. PALACE The Living Desert (RKO) Technicolor. UPTOWN Second week. The Maggie (JARO) with Paul Douglas. STRAND Duffy Of San Quentin (WB) and Little Caesar (WB). SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Carnival Story (RKO) Technicolor with Anne Baxter, CAPITOL Phantom Of The Rue Moraue (WB) 3-D and WornerColor with Karl Malden. STRAND The Sinae At Red River (20th-Fox) Technicolor with Van Johnson. The Maggie, which had its first showing at the Odeon Theatre to average business, is now playing the neighborhood Elmdale (NTS). The management is using a paragraph from Jack Karr’s favorable review from the Toronto Star in all its newspaper advertisements. The Regent Theatre, second to the Capitol as a first-run spot on Famous Players circuit, has been doing good business with return engagements of the bigger productions at regular prices. Latest of these is Samuel Goldwyn’s Hans Christian Anderson. Danny Kaye in the title role is especially pleasing to the younger element now flocking to the Busy Corner theatre. Hold-overs at the moment are Walt Disney’s The Living Desert (4th week) at the Little Elgin Theatre, and The Kipnappers (8th week) at the Glebe Cinema. Digest of Trade Press Reviews LAUGHING ANNE REPUBLIC Drama — 90 Minutes Stars: Wendell Corey, Margaret Lockwood, Ronald Shiner. Producer-Director: Herbert Wilcox. Hollywood Reporter: “. . . written by Joseph Conrad, that masterful writCa ist Exhibitor: “. . . and a yarn that holds interest . . . Harrison’s Report: “. . . action is fast ... plenty of sex...” Boxoffice: “. . . suspenseful and engrossing...” Showmen’s Trade Review: “. . and colorful .. .” Motion Picture Herald: “. . . strong entertainment .. .” THE LONG WAIT UNITED ARTISTS Dromo — 93 Minutes Stars: Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn. Producer: Lesser Samuels. Director: Victor Saville. Exhibitor: “. . . takes in sex, blondes, swinging fists, and attempts and succezses at murder.” Harrison’s Reports: *. . . tension-packed story ... torrid. . .” Boxoffice: “. . . has a plentitude of sexy situations . . .” Showmen’s Trade Review: * pense is galore .. .” Motion Picture Herald: “. . | more beautiful blondes than you can shake a sfickcatey... sparc mat » guts, broads and ” gore... action, romance .. . ” . exotic + » + SUS —————~