Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jul 17, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jul 17, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jul 17, 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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JULY 17, 1954 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST VANCOUVER NEWS The annual Calgary Stampede is having a record-breaking attendance for 1954. Glen Peacock, owner of the Isis Theatre, Calgary, was elected a governor of Rotary International at the 45th annual convention held in Seattle. Sucha Singh has opened his 450car Sun Down Drive-in near Kamloops in the B.C. interior. Shirl Wilson, manager of Perkins Electric back from Edmonton, where he installed equipment in the new Belmont ozoner in South Edmonton. Use This Information As Your Guide on Release Dates TORONTO IMPERIAL Fifth week. 3 Coins In The Fountain (20thFox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Clifton Webb, SHEA’S Second week. Dial M For Murder (WB) WarnerColor with Ray Milland. UNIVERSITY Second week. The Royo! Tour CinemaScope and Technicolor, EGLINTON Knights Of The Round Table (MGM) CinemaScope and Color with Robert Taylor. NORTOWN Executive Suite (MGM) with William Holden. ODEON (20th-Fex) Johnny Dark (E-U) Technicolor with Tony Curtis. UPTOWN Second week. Prisoner Of War (MGM) with Ronald Reagan. LOEW'S Fourth week. The Student Prince (MGM) CinemaScope and Color with Ann Blyth. HYLAND & CHRISTIE Thirteenth week. The Kidnappers (JARO) with Vincent Winter. TOWNE CINEMA La Ronde (IFD). INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Nineteenth week, Hobson’s Choice (IFD) with Charles Laughton. DOWNTOWN Arrow In The Dust (AA) Technicolor with SterlIng Hayden. MONTREAL PALACE New Faces (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Eartha Kitt. LOEW'S Knock On Wood (Para.) Technicolor with Danny Kaye. PRINCESS Secret Of the Incas (Para.) Technicolor with Charlton Heston. CAPITOL Princess Of The Nile (20th-Fox) Technicolor with Debra Paget. IMPERIAL The Golden Mask (UA) Technicolor, and Go, Man, Go (UA). ORPHEUM The Golden Idol (AA) and Pride Of The Blue Grass (AA) Color. KENT Thirteenth week. The Kidnapper’s (JARO) with Vincent Winter. VENUE 2 The Intruder (IFD) with Jack Hawkins. L = Mea week. You Know What Sailors Are (JARO) Technicolor with Donald Sinden, STRAND SNOWDON OUTREMONT Hell’s Half Acre (E-U) and Flight Nurse (E-U). oN week. Women Without Manon (CARDINAL). Nomes and ALOUETTE Troques Dans La Ville. WINNIPEG CAPITOL Rose Marie (MGM) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Ann Blyth. LYCEUM Conquest Of Cochise (E-U) Technicolor and China Venture. MET Dial M For Murder (WB) WarnerColor with Ray Milland. ODEON Second week. The Eddie Cantor Story (WB) Technicolor with Keefe Bresselle. GARRICK Lucky Me (WB) CinemoScope and WarnerColor with Doris Day. GAIETY Jubilee Trail (E-U) Trucolor with Vera Ralson. DOMINION Sabre Jet (UA) Color and Juggler (UA). VANCOUVER CAPITOL Second week. Lucky Me (WB) CinemaScope and Worner Color with Doris Day. ORPHEUM Knock On Wood (Para.) Technicolor with Danny Kaye. STRAND She Couldn’t Say No (RKO) and The Ringer The Reluctant Casanova (IFD) Technicolor with George Cole. VOGUE Second week. The Long Wait (UA) with Anthony Quinn. PLAZA Playgirl (E-U) with Shelley Winter. PARADISE Dragonfly Squadron (AA) and Pride Of The Blue Grass (AA) Color. DUNBAR Ninth week. The Kidnapper’s (JARO) with Vincent Winter. VARSITY Sixth week. The Maggie (JARO) with Paul Douglas, CALGARY CAPITOL Third week. River Of No Return (20th-Fox) CinemaScope and Technicolor with Marilyn Monroe, PALACE Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (20th-Fox) Technicolor with Jane Russell. UPTOWN Tangonyike Roman. STRAND Gorilla At Lorge (20th-Fox) Technicolor and The Forty-Niners (AA), (E-U) Technicolor with Ruth PAGE NINE Harry Howard, head of Theatre Equipment Supply and Cecil Steele, Northern British Columbia exhibitor, are planning a standard type 450-seat theatre at Kittimat, the new 20-million mining community, near Prince Rupert. Dave Borland, manager of the Dominion Theatre, has a complete file of publicity covering his 37 years in show business at Regina, Victoria, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Vancouver, way back to the silent film period. Borland is a Canadian Picture Pioneer and a member of Famous Players 25-year club. Doug Stephenson, assistant manager at the Odeon-Plaza and his wife Virginia, formerly of the LUX, are the parents of an 8 pound, 4-ozs. boy, born in North Vancouver Hospital. Two members of the floor staff at the Orpheum, John Walters and Irene Egilson, will be married in September and will make their home in Australia. Frank Marshall of the eastside LUX,. was the winner of the top showman award for the 11th week in the Odeon Canadian contest. The 13-week drive finishes this week. Micky Isman, Montreal manager of Empire-Universal Films, was here visiting his parents. Bob Eaves, general manager of FPC Western Division, in on a short trip from Toronto. Motion picture advertising in the Vancouver province reached an_ all-time peak of 16 columns over the holiday weekend issue. The Vancouver Sun had 14 columns. The Alberta government is building 3,000-seat auditoriums, costing about $1,250,000 each in Calgary and Edmonton as part of the celebrations for the oil province's 50th anniversary to be held in 1955, DOMINION SOUND INSTALL CINEMASCOPE The Montreal office of Dominion Sound Equipment Limited installed CinemaScope equipment recently at the Centre Paroissial, Thetford Mines, which is managed by Father DeBlois and also the Regent Theatre, Hawkesbury, which is owned by Oscar Legault. Both of these theatres opened with “The Robe.” A new Astrolite Magniglow screen with completely invisible seams was installed at the Montrose theatre, Montreal by Dominion Soung Equipments Limited on June 24th, The Sky-Hi drive-in theatre, operated by Ottawa Valley Amuseme opened on Saturday, June 26th, with equipment supplied and installed by Dominion Sound Equipments Limited, wt Company