Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 23, 1954)

Page scan 0009 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Oct 23, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 23, 1954)
Leaf #:
0009
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 23, 2024
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re PAGE TEN SKOURAS (Continued from Page 1) of the CinemaScope anniversary in Canada. In expressing our appreciation to the many exhibitors of Canada who have contributed to the success of CinemaScope, and in congratulating them on their vision and on the results that they have acheived, we of Twentieth Century-Fox can best observe this first anniversary of this new medium of entertainment by pledging the utmost that is in us to make the second anniversary an even more significant and happy event. Looking back, however, nothing can give us greater satisfaction than the prosperity and promise that has been brought to the outstanding theatres of Canada since “The Robe” in CinemaScope was opened at the Imperial Theatre in Toronto on October 22, 1953. That was a momentous day because it marked the turning point for the better in our industry and the restoration of the screen to its supremacy as a form of popular entertainment. Everyone knows that prior to the introduction of CinemaScope the most adverse conditions prevailed in our industry. Free television in the home had had a devastating effect in the United States, causing many theatres to close and endangering the ability of the producing companies to supply the world markets with fine productions. We of Twentieth Century-Fox felt that an improved form of motion picture presentation would result in an even better quality in motion pictures and _ bring patrons back to the theatre, Therefore we concentrated upon the development of CinemaScope, with its combination of revolutionary lenses, improved screens, and fourtrack magnetic stereophonic sound. We sought to create a system that would afford greater realism and therefore more audience participation through better depth of picture, color, and sound accompaniment, as well as wider story New!... FOR EXTRA XMAS PROFITS! Use our Xmas Merchant Greeting Trojler! Available in English and French. Write For Detoils att ORDER NOW! — FROM 250 VICTORIA ST. 157 RUPERT ST, TORONTO WINNIPEG S telling range. Today the impact that CinemaScope has had throughout the world is an accepted fact. It is written in the increased patronage at the box office, in the fact that 11,000 theatres throughout the world already have installed CinemaScope equipment, and in a worldwide theatre investment in CinemaScope equipment approaching a total of $85,000,000. This record is still being written. Only one CinemaScope motion picture had been released a year ago, but today approximately 100 CinemaScope pictures are in release, in production, or in preparation in the United States and in other countries. We are, therefore, grateful that ONE YEAR AGO Spyros Skouras, Canadian division being held this week, we had the opportunity to help bring this boom to our industry, but we are above all grateful to all those who like the exhibitors, of Canada, possessed the foresight to appraise the potentiality of CinemaScope. We rejoice that we can celebrate this anniversary with our Canadian friends on the basis of the added prosperity that this new medium has brought to exhibitors and the satisfaction it has given the public. As we begin the second year of CinemaScope we are hard at work at the development of even more technical improvements, while we are utilizing the new techniques of CinemaScope_production in order to provide finer screen entertainment. The advancing techniques of CinemaScope we believe are truly reflected in the array of current and forthcoming CinemaScope productions, not only from this company but from practically all of the major producing companies in Hollywood and independent producers in this country and throughout the world. In order to fulfill our desire to ~“BICECT adn . = President of 20th Century-Fox, accompanied Imperial theatre premiere of “The Robe” Canadian Corp. One year later Bill Gehring the first Anniversary of CinemoaScope. Arth produce only the best stories and meet the higher requirements of CinemaScope, our production department is concentrating more than ever upon selectivity of material, casting as flawless as possible, and production values worthy of CinemaScope at whatever budget outlays this will require. For the remainder of 1954, and during 1955, Twentieth Century-Fox alone will release productions like: “A Woman’s World”, “Black Widow”, ‘‘Desiree’’, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “Carmen Jones”, “Soldier of Fortune’, “Lord Vanity” , “White Feather’, “The Racers”, “Untamed”, “Prince Of Players”, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, “The King And 1”, “Daddy Long Legs”, “Can Can”, “Alexander The Great”, “The Tokyo Story”, “Katherine”, “The Enchanted Cup”, and “Queen of Sheba”. In addition there will be Twentieth Century-Fox releases of independent productions like “The Deep Blue Sea”, “That Lady”, and “The Oasis”. Among outstanding Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer CinemaScope productions there will be: “Brigadoon”, “Ben Hur", “Moonfieet”, and “Deep In My Heart”. Warner Brothers will have: “A Star is Born”, “Moby Dick”, “Silver Chalice” “Helen of Troy”, “Land of the Pharohs”, and “Drum Beat” among others. Universal-International has announced: “Black Shield of Falsworth”, “To Hell and Back”, “Sign of the Pagan”, and “The Spoilers”. From Columbia Pictures the CinemaScope productions include: “The Long Gray Line”, “Three for the Show”, and “Joseph and his Brethren”. Another outstanding CinemaScope production is Walt Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. From Allied Artists the Cinema ee by Bill Gehring arrived at Malton Airport for the in CinemaScope and was greeted by J. J. Fitzgibbons, President of Famous Players is visiting Toronto again, this time to celebrate with 20th-Fox’s Canadian organization, ur Silverstone and Clarence Hall accompanied Mr. Gehring for the sales mecting of the OCTOBER 23, 1954 Scope productions include “Black Prince”. Among other independent productions in CinemaScope there will be the Todd-AO production of “Oklahoma”, the Hecht-Lancaster production of ‘The Gabriel Hom” to be released by United Artists, and “The Conqueror”, the Leland Hayward production which RKO will distribute. We of Twentieth Century-Fox express Our appreciation not only to the producers who have adopted CinemaScope and helped to make it a household word throughout the world, but, of course, to the thousands of theatre-men everywhere , who likewise saw and appreciated the impact of this new medium as a means of providing matchless en Sent AS Ca we tertainment for the public. We rejoice in the thousands of telegrams and letters of a congratulatory nature that have reached us from every part of the free world on the anniversary of the introduction of the new medium, These messages from. exhibitors, producers, directors, equipment manufacturers, officials, and outstanding citizens in every country this side of the Iron Curtain, express gratification that a new era of prosperity for our industry has been inaugurated during the first year of CinemaScope. They point with optimism to even greater results for the welfare of the theatres and the industry in the future. We acknowledge these messages with hearfelt gratitude, and intend to live up to their spirit. Our one goal is to contribute all that we humanly can to the maintenance and improvement of this high level of entertainment for the theatres and the public of Canada and the rest of the world. With complete confidence in the future of our great industry, this is our promise on this, the first Canadian anniversary of CinemaScope,