Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 26, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jun 26, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jun 26, 1954)
Leaf #:
00012
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Canada, 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 23, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Bilt oy CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST PAGE THIRTEEN JUNE 26, 1954 New Impetus Given To 3-D Despite the fact that several major Hollywood producers are still a bit skeptical about future 3-D film production, wide public acclaim has heralded a new 3-D projection system which has done much towards renewing public interest in 3-D films. Pola-Lite’s new single-track 3-D projection system, having already established Li : hei P : its commercial value in both large and small theatres throughout the U.S., has had ay Pune ASS ee Ce RSE an astonishing effect upon 3-D film fans, theatre boxoffices and those exhibitors who iGoe UE SOU cs Ri ase eoe ae That this public acclaim was vitally heeded by other companies is evidenced : by a a recent announcement to the effect that 20th Century-Fox will have PolaLite prints available on their forthcoming thriller “Gorilla At Large” and United Artists Corp. is preparing Pola until now have shied away from 3-D film exhibition. Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Second week. Three Coins In A Fountain (20thFox) CinemaScope and Technicolor, with Clifton Webb. SHEA’‘S Them (WB) with James Whitmore, UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Night People (20th-Fox) CincmaScope and Technicolor with Gregory Peck. NORTOWN Rhapsody (MGM) Technicolor with Elizabeth Taylor. ODEON-CARLTON The Long Wait (UA) with Anthony Quinn. UPTOWN Beachhead (UA) Technicolor with Tony Curtis. LOEW'S The Student Prince (MGM) CinemaScope and Color with Ann Blyth. HYLAND & CHRISTIE Tenth week. The Kidnappers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. TOWNE CINEMA Third week. Marlag O (IFD) with Anthony Steel. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Sixteenth week. Hobson’s Choice (IFD) with Charles Laughton. DOWNTOWN Duffy Of San Quentin (WB) and Tennessee Champ (MGM) Color. MONTREAL PALACE Prince Valiant (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with James Mason. LOEW‘S Fiame And The Flesh (MGM) Technicolor with Lana Turner. PRINCESS Rails Into Laramie (E-U) Technicolor with John Payne. CAPITOL Second week. Dial M For Murder (WB) WarnerColor with Ray Milland. IMPERIAL The Yellow Tomahawk (UA) Color and Algiers Racing Blood (20th-Fox) Color and Bitter Creek (AA). KENT Eleventh week. The Kidnoppers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. AVENUE Personal Affair (JARO) with Gene Tierney. SEVILLE-STRAND-SNOWDON-OUTREMONT Salome (Col.) Technicolor with Rita Hayworth. ALOUETTE Le Banni Des Iles (IFD) with Ralph Richardson. WINNIPEG CAPITOL Rob Roy (RKO) Technicolor with Richard Todd. LYCEUM . Terror On A Train (MGM) and The Greot Diomond Robbery (MGM). MET Second week. Executiyce Suite (MGM) with William Holden. ODEON Back To God’s Country (E-U) Technicolor with Rock Hudson. GARRICK The Miami Story (Col.) with Barry Sullivan. GAIETY Second week, The Living Desert (RKO) Technicolor. OSBOURNE CINEMA The Intruder (IFD) with Jack Hawkins. DOMINION Top Banana (UA) Color and I, The Jury (UA). VANCOUVER CAPITOL Second week. River Of No Return (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe. ORPHEUM Flame And The Flesh (MGM) Technicolor with Lana Turner. STRAND The Best Yeors Of Our Lives (RKO) with Fredric March. STUDIO Ninth week. Hobson’‘s Choice (IFD) with Charles Laughton. VOGUE New Faces (20th-Fox) CinemoScope and Technicolor with Eartha Kitt. PLAZA The Wild One (Col,) with Marlon Brando. PARADISE Highway Dragnet (AA) with Richard Conte. DUNBAR Sixth week. The Kidnoppers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. RIO & VARSITY The Maggie (JARO) with Paul Douglas. CALGARY CAPITOL Rhapsody (MGM) Technicolor with Elizabeth Taylor. GRAND Creature From The Black Lagoon (E-U) with Richard Carlson. PALACE Second weck. The Living Desert (RKO) Technicolor. UPTOWN The Miami Story (Col.) with Barry Sullivan. STRAND Dangerous Mission (RKO) Technicolor and Rachel And The Stranger (RKO). SAINT JOHN PARAMOUNT Three Coins In A Fountaln (20th-Fox) Cinema Scope and Technicolor with Clifton Webb, CAPITOL Alaska Seas (Para.) and Cease Fire (Para.) STRAND Lucky Me (WB) CinemaScope and WarnerColor with Doris Day. With distributors already aboard the Pola-Lite bandwagon — Hollywood producers are now weighing the facts—and from the evidence thus far achieved it is the opinion of veteran producers that 3-D film production will shortly undergo a full schedule of productions. The Pola-Lite 3-D System, consists of a two-eyed attachment which can be connected to the lens barrel of a regular projector and permit the showing of 3-D films on a single strip of 35mm film, thus assuring perfect synchronization. Dr. Leon W. Wells, inventor of the Pola-Lite single-track 3-D projection system, explains that by using only one strip of film the two images projected on the screen will be in perfect alignment in spite of any film editing. This, he claims, will alleviate eye-strain and headaches caused by bouncing or jigging images often produced when two different prints and projectors are used. Prior to his development of the PolaLite System, Dr. Wells attended the New York University Graduate School in applied mathematics where he did research for the U.S. Navy. Born in Lwow, one of the largest cities in Eastern Poland, he studied in Munich and then came to the United States under a Bethlehem Steel Corporation fellowship and studied at Lehigh Unniversity. JARO’S TRADE SHOWS JARO, whose successful trade showings have been held for the past five weeks, will continue to run special exhibitors’ screenings every Monday afternoon at the Odeon Theatres screening room, third floor, 20 Carlton Street. Exhibitors and circuit bookers have welcomed the opportunity to formulate promotional plans well in advance of playdates and to discuss the product with other showmen and the JARO representatives present. All local exhibitors, and any out-oftown ones visiting Toronto, are invited to these regular trade shows. To arrange to attend, call Branch Manager Joe McPherson at EMpire 3-5251. THE STARLITE Over 500 cars were turned away on the opening night of Cornwall's newest Drive-In theatre, reports John Assaly, its manager. The Starlite, which opened on June 15th is situated 4 miles east of Cornwall on No. 2 Highway facing the St. Lawrence river. Features of this latest addition to open air presentation, is a large Panoramic Screen 35 by 58 and a modern concession room with an all glass front.