Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 30 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Oct 30 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Oct 30, 1954)
Leaf #:
0006
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
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CCTOBER 30, 1954 aoe That Could hatter ! By MAX CHIC Dick Pitt’s article which we quote, is sage advice to all of us in the industry. He is TOA Director of Public Relations. We are always complaining about bad press notices, about the fact that the members of the Fourth Estate do not understand us—but—are you sure you understand them? Certainly, generally speaking, he knows very little about your business and your problems. But, just as certainly, you know very little about his business and his problems. The answer should be simple. Get acquainted. Know each other — understand each other. Understanding invariably means good press relations. It’s the nature of the beast, so to speak — and it’s his job — to gather news, whether it is in the field of entertainment, politics, sports, or what have you. You can wine and dine a newspaper man—and make him feel that possibly there is some compensation for his small salary after all—but, if you really want to get on the inside track with him, or his editor, provide him with news. Call him on news tips, even if they don’t concern your business. Remember also that yours is a long-range program. You cannot afford to be insidious. You must be honest and sincere. Don’t antagonize the critter. Try to educate him—help him get the “feel” of your paying customers. Treat him as an equal. Don’t plant resentment in him by putting him on the carpet because of a bad review. Sometimes he’s right. If he is, tell him so. And in a left-handed way, sometimes, if you know him well enough, you can tell him when he’s wrong. But for Pete’s sake don’t tell him how to run his business, even though frequently he tries to tell you how to run yours. Quote him in lobby displays and in newspaper ads. That’s a wonderful feeling to a critic. I don't care how big or how small he is. I know I used to get a big charge out of walking by a theatre and seeing a lobby display saying: “Dick Pitts says this is a must-see picture,” Or words to that effect. Although in recent years, other means of communication have taken slaps at the importance of newspapers in molding public opinion, the editorial pages should not be underrated. Cc fairly “piereT RCA Developes New Color Theatre TV A projection system developed by the Radio Corporation of America for the showing on theatre screens of television pictures in color as well as in black and white was described to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers meeting in Hollywood. The color images have “good resolution and brightness” when shown on an “embossed aluminized” screen measuring fifteen by twenty feet, according to the technical report prepared by L. L. Evans and R. V. Little, RCA theatre equipment engineers, and read by John Volkman. The projection system is in operation at the National Broadcasting Company Color Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Basically, the development is an adaption of the RCA monochrome TV projection equipment being used by “almost 100 theatres,” it was said. The new method has two additional optical systems, making a total of three, to accommodate the three primary colors. A decoder unit was described as being the “heart” of the system. It “extracts” the color information from the incoming video signal and combines it in proper proportion with the brightness information in the video signal to form the red, green and blue signals. These signals in turn operate the equipments three TV picture tubes. It was not indicated when the new projection system would be made available for theatre installation. Ws \_———— USE THIS | TORONTO IMPERIAL Broken Lance (20th-Fox) C’Scope and De Luxe Color with Spencer Tracy. SHEA‘S & NORTOWN Third week. The Caine Mutiny (Col.) Technicolor with Humphrey Bogart. —— UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON King Richard and the Crusoders (WB) C’Scope and WarnerColor with Rex Harrison. ODEON F Woman's World (20th-Fox) C’Scope ond Technicolor with Clifton Webb. HYLAND & CHRISTIE Eighth week. Doctor in the House (JARO) with Dirk Bogarde. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA : Third week. Pickwick Papers (IFD) with Hermione Gingold. UPTOWN Bengal Briaade (EU) Technicolor with Rock Hudson and Arlene Dohl, LOEW’S Brigadoon (MGM) C’Scope and Color with Gene Kelly. ° DOWNTOWN Southwest Passage (UA) Patrol (UA). MONTREAL CAPITOL Second week. On the Waterfront (Col.) with Marlon Brando, LOEW'S Rear Window (Para.) Technicolor with James Stewort. PALACE Second week. Seven Brides for Seven Brothe-s (MGM) C’Scope & color with Jane Powell. PRINCESS Southwest Passage (UA) Color with Rod Comeron. KENT The Country Parson (Peerless) with John Beal. AVENUE Doctor in the House (JARO) Technicolor with Dirk Bogarde. VANCOUVER CAPITOL Third week. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (MGM) C’Scope ond Color with Jane Powell, ORPHEUM The High and the Mighty (WB) S’Cope and WarnerColor with John Wayne. VOGUE The Ccine Mutiny (Col.) Technicolor with Humphrey Bogart, and Khyber Trans Cauada oe NFORMATION AS YOUR GUIDE ON RELEASE DATES ~~~ STUDIO Second week. Julius Coesar (MGM) with Marlon Brando and James Mason. DUNBAR Seventh week. Doctor in the House (JARO) Technicolor with Dirk Bogarde. _ PLAZA Naked Alibi (E-U) and Toke it Big (Para.). PARADISE The Law ys. Billy the Kid Col.) ond Convicted (Col.). WINNIPEG CAPITOL Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (MGM) C’Scope and Color with Jane Powell ond Howard Keel. LYCEUM Princess of the Nile (20th-Fox) Techni color withr Debra Paget. MET Broken Lence (20th-Fox) C‘Scope and Color by De Luxe, with Spencer Tracy. ODEON Third week. Magnificent Obsession (E-U) Technicolor with Jane Wyman. GARRICK Third week. The High and the Mighty (WB) C’Scove and WeornerColor with Jos» Wavne, OSRORNE CINEMA The Living Desert (RKO) Technicolor. ST. JOHN STRAND On the Waterfront (Col.) with Marlon Brando. CAPITOL The Gambler from Natchez (20th-Fox) Te-4nicolor with Dale Robertson. KENT Broken Lance (20th-Fox) and Princess of the Nile (20th-Fox). PARAMOUNT Roaue Coo (MGM) with Robert Taylor and Janet Leigh, CALGARY CAPITOL Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (MGM) S'Cove and Color with Jane Powell. PALACE Third week, Rear Window (Para.) Technicolor with James Stewart. UPTOWN Draqnet (WB) WarnerColor with Jack Webb. GRAND King Richard and the Crusaders (WB) C'Seope and WarnerColor with Rex Harrison. Important lead role for Michael Redgrave in the latest Jaro production “The Night My Number Came Up” .. . United Artists have completed the filming in Venice, Italy of “Summertime,” film version of the Broadway hit “The Time of the Cuckoo,” picture features Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi . . . Martine Carol, French star, pens contract with 20th-Fox, and will make her first appearance in Hollywood adaptation of Cole Porter’s “Can-Can” . .. Robert Taylor and Jose Greco slated for M.G.M.’s “The Trial” . . . Husband and wife team of Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger to co-star in the Columbia release “Deadlock,” which is being shot in England Rosalind Russell signs Eddie Albert for her Independent Artists’ production “The Girl Rush” . . . It's Rock Hudson for the male lead opposite Anne Baxter in “Tacey Cromwell,” which Universal will start shooting next month . . . Robert Mitchum signs with the GregoryGoldman Enterprises for their first picture “The Naked And The Dead” .. . Jack Buchanan to star in Jaro’s “As Long As They're Happy,” his first British film in fifteen years, this adaptation of the stage play is to be filmed in VistaVision and Eastman Color ... Paramount announces first short subject in VistaVision, “VistaVision Visits Norway.” which will be released in time to play with “White Christmas” making an all-VistaVision program .. . Columbia’s “Creature With The Atom Brain,” went before the cameras October 26th, this sciencefiction thriller will be directed by Edward L, Cahn .. . Anne Fran. cis added to cast of Metro’s “The Scarlet Coat,” joining Cornel Wilde and Michael Wilding . Joy Page, daughter of Jack L. Warner set by Universal for “The Shrike” . . . Clifton Webb to do dramatic role for 20th-Fox in “Lord Vanity” Change of title for Universal's “Abbott And Costello Meet The Keystone Kops,” to “A. & C. As The Stunt men”... Deris Day has complet ed filming of “Young At Heart,” for Warners.