Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Nov 13, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Nov 13, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Nov 13, 1954)
Leaf #:
0008
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:
June 13, 2024
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4g | NOVEMBER 13, 1954 That Could batter Y By MAX CHIC The film industry continues to support the Ontario Hurricane Relief Fund . this week the Toronto branch office of JARO reports $38; Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd., $1,000; a benefit show at the Odeon Humber $700 and the Odeon Brampton $1750 mate industry has not forgotten the Community Chest Drive and has done a splendid job in its support under the leadership of Charles Chaplin . . . Leonard Brockington was the guest speaker at the Chest’s wind-up luncheon. A number of managers of Sam Fingold’s National Theatre Services have, we are informed, acquired the theatres on a leasehold basis . . . Tom Daley, Co-ordinator of the Pioneer Of The Year Award Dinner lists his committee as follows: Ralph Dale, Archie Laurie, Dave Ongley, Stan Helleur, Chet Friedman, Jack Hunter, Max Chic and with Dan Krendel, Ticket Sales chairman, Hye Bossin, Publicity chairman and Jackie Ray as Entertainment chairman. Foto-Nite started Wednesday, November 3 in 13 Montreal thea tres and now has 10 Vancouver theatres, 7 Ottawa theatres, 19 Winnipeg theatres, 19 Toronto theatres as well as hundreds of others throughout the country... Jack Bridges, manager of Famous Players Victory theatre, Timmins placed first in the Quigley third quarter showmanship judging . . . other Canadians mentioned for special honors were, Jim Cameron, Capitol, Fort William and Bob Harvey, Capitol, North Bay. The big week in the Industry will be November 22-27 . . . with all the big guns aiming for a bigger and better industry .. . with many of our compatriots down in Chicago for the USA Trade Show and Industry meetings, the sessions up here should be full of interesting information . John Davis head man for J. Arthur Rank companies will visit Toronto for a few days, arriving here on November 28. | The Main Event Of The Week .. . the visit of Jan Sterling and our meeting her for lunch . . . with ambassadors like this our Industry can’t fail to stay on top. PETE SMITH SHORTS Roster of ten Pete Smith Specialties will be on M.G.M.’s short subjects for 1954-55, all will be narrated by the humorist himself, and two will be in Technicolor. having captured the hearts of the Canadian public, film to be made by Meridian Productions, a new Canadian film will now appear in a production company. O “DIGEST film and prime figure in Meridian Productions. Ne TORONTO IMPERIAL White Christmas (Para.) VistaVision and Technicolor with Bing Crosby. SHEA’S Rear Window (Para.) Technicolor with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. ODEON Third week. Woman’s World (20th-Fox) C’Scope and Tech. with Clifton Webb. HYLAND AND CHRISTIE Tenth week. Doctor in the House (JARO) Technicolor with Dirk Bogarde. UPTOWN Second week. Betrayed (MGM) color, with Clark Gable and Lona Turner. LOEW’S Third week. Brigadoon (MGM) C’Scope and color with Gene Kelly. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA Fifth week. Pickwick Papers (IFD) with Hermione Gingold. DOWNTOWN The Human Jungle (Allied Artists) and Security Risk (Allied Artists). TOWNE Third week. Julius Caesar (MGM) with Marlon Brando. HUMBER-FAIRLAWN-DANFORTH-SAVOY The Rainbow Jacket (JARO) ond The Unholy Four (Cardinal). MONTREAL CAPITOL Second week. Sabrina Humphrey Bogart, LOEW'S Third week, Rear Window (Para.) Technicolor with James Stewart. PALACE The Egyptian (20th-Fox) C’Scope ond De Luxe Color with Jean Simmons. PRINCESS Ducl in the Sun (IFD) Tech. with Jennifer Jones. AVENUE Third week. Doctor In the House (JARO) Technicolor with Dirk Bogarde. ORPHEUM The Black Dakotas with Gary Merrill, KENT The Red Shoes (JARO) Technicolor with Moira Shearer and Anton Walbrook. (Para.) with (Col.) Technicolor TrausCauada ‘a USE THIS INFORMATION AS YOUR GUIDE ON RELEASE DATES ~~~ WINNIPEG CAPITOL Third week. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (MGM) C’Scope & Color with Jane Powell and Howard Keel. LYCEUM Men of the Fighting Lady (MGM) Color with Van Johnson. MET About Mrs. Leslie (Para.) with Shirley Booth. ODEON The Caine Mutiny (Col.) Tech. Humphrey Bogart. GARRICK The Block Shield of Falworth (E-U) C’Scope & Tech, with Tony Curtis. OSBORNE CINEMA The Green Scarf (IFD) with Michael Redgrave. VANCOUVER CAPITOL Second week. The Egyptian (20th-Fox) C’Scope and De Luxe Color with Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. ORPHEUM White Christmas (Para.) VistaVision and Technicolor with Bing Crosby. VOGUE The Block Shield of Falworth (E-U) Technicolor and C’Scope with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, DUNBAR Magnificent Obsession (E-U) Technicolor with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, PLAZA Operation Manhunt (UA). ST. JOHN STRAND From Here to Eternity (Col.) with Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. CAPITOL Broken Arrow (20th-Fox) ond Racing Blood (20th-Fox). KENT Lucky Me (WB) C’Scope and WarnerColor with Doris Day. PARAMOUNT Crossed Swords (UA) Pathecolor with Errol Flynn and Gina Lollobrigida. with PAGE NINE 29th-Fox to relcase 26 Terrytoon cartoons during 1955, these will be suitable for standard, wide screen and CinemaScope . . . latest assignment in Aaron Spelling’s brief but busy career in Hollywood is the important role of “Pinky” in the Warner production “Giant” ... Virginia Grey added to cast of Hal Wallis’ Jatest for Paramount, “The Rose Tattoo,” with Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani, before the cameras at Key West... Edmund Purdom in New York on his way to MGM's Hollywood studios, star of two forthcoming releases: “Athena,” and “The Prodigal” . . . “The Barefoot Contessa,” keeping United Artists busy with hold-overs, TV programs and spectacular premieres . . . Producer Sam Katzman signed William Castle to direct Patricia Medina in Columbia’s “Duel on the Mississippi’ . . . January set as the release date for one of EmpireUniversal’s most important pictures “So This is Paris” with Corinne Calvet starring . . Impressive cast for JARO’s “The Sea Shall Not Have Them” includes Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Steel and Michael Redgrave, to be premiered in London shortly . . . 20th Century-Fox features make successful bow in New York, “Black Widow,” with Ginger Rogers and Van Heflin; and “Carmen Jones” with Dorothey Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and J. Adams... Seventeen magazine and Louella Parsons in Cosmopolitan select Warners “A Star Is Born” as picture of the month . . . Big doings at Paramount with 11 major films in the cutting room, four before the cameras and one in rehearsal... WB's “Mister Roberts” on location on Midway Island . . . Cast of Republic’s “The Admiral Hoskins Story,” back on the lot after shooting scenes aboard aircraft carrier enroute to Honolulu . . . JARO acquires new Monsarrat story, “The Ship That Died of Shame,” to be produced shortly . . . New. names added to cast of Allied Artists “High Society,” now before the cameras with stars Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall . . . Stewart Granger enroute to London to start work on his assignment in Columbia’s “Deadlock.” a)