Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Dec 18, 1954)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Dec 18, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Dec 18, 1954)
Leaf #:
0006
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, Early Cinema, and Canada
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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ee EE eR, an, A. Se An That Ceuld Satter ! By MAX CHIC The fellewing cre excerpts from the speech delivered by Mr. John Bassett, publisher cf the Terente Telegram ct a luncheon tendered the motion picture industry lest Monday at the Royal York Hotel. Over 150 leading exhibition and distribution executives attended. Mr. Bassett’s words speck fer themselves. “First of all, on behalf of myself personally and on behalf of The Telegram, I want to thank you all very much for taking the time in your busy lives to come and have lunch with us today. The purpose of this luncheon, as you all know, is to introduce to you Stan Helleur and Clyde Gilmour. It is also my purpose to allow them to have a look at all you ladies and gentlemen in the movie industry. Most of you, I believe, know Stan Helleur from the days when he wrote the column “Fun Fare” in The Telegram and I am sure, also, that from his writing, if not in The Vancouver Sun, at least in a competing medium which shall not be necessarily mentioned Maclean’s Magazine . the C.B.C. .. . you know Clyde Gilmour by his works, at least. “I hope that already most of you have become aware of what The Telegram is trying to do to promote interest in the entertainment industry generally and particularly in the movies. I want to, however, make it perfectly clear to you that great as is the enjoyment I get personally from going to the movies, and great as is my Tespect for the movie industry, I don’t want you to be under any misunderstanding that this development of the Entertainment Section of The Telegram is primarily for anybody’s benefit except The Telegram. I don’t know how many of you see regularly a publication called Editor and Publisher which deals largely with newspapers and the publishing business, but those of you who do will know that durIng this past Fall period the movie industry in the United States has been running a series of advertisements in that publication to call to the attention of editors and publishers across the United States the Importance of movies in their own communities. It has been my intention for a long time to try to improve and enlarge the Entertainment Section of The Telegram, but these advertisements pointed up the importance of the movie industry in the community very definitely to me. F, -. “Now, es Lb osaid, the main purPose of the new and improved and enlarged Entertainment Section in our newspaper was for the benetit of The Telegram, and 1 just want to take one minute to spell out What L mean by that, We hope that through this section of the newspaper more and more people will be induced to buy and read our newspaper, [also must tell you frankly that I feel that the movie industry generally have been responsible not only for a great deal ot very welcome and very good advertising business in the newspapers of this country, but that they have created a relationship with the Press which, to my best belief is certainly true as far as The Telegram is concerned, is a very good one. You must be, at times, as concerned as I am to see a newspaper such as The Telegram give away columns of free space every day without any advertising return to speak of at all to Radio and Television, I hope that none of you will act on what I am about to “piercer tell you because I think obviously that you would suffer as we would, but there is no question that if the movie industry decided that they no longer were going to advertise in the daily newspapers, the daily newspapers would, nevertheless, still have to list movies and times for the benefit of their readers, because the readers of the newspaper are the first and by far the most important responsibility of a newspaper. I have always felt, therefore, that the movie industry is in a good and strong and very, very friendly position with regards to newspapers because over the years you have for your own very good and sufficient reasons advertised your product strongly and I am sure, and hope and believe, that this has paid off substantially for you. Nevertheless, I am not unaware of the fact that if you did not follow this policy that we would still have to do within the bounds of our own good judgment . . . we would have to do some of that advertising for you for which, of TrausCauada ‘a TORONTO IMPERIAL 6th week. White Christmas (Par.) VistaVision and Tech. with Bing Crosby, SHEA’S Pushover (Col.) with Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak. ODEON 4th weck. The Barefoot Contessa (UA) Tech. with Humphrey Bogart. HYLAND & CHRISTIE 4th week, Father Brown, Detective (Col.) with Alec Guinness. LOEW'S 3rd week. The Last Time |! Saw Paris (MGM) Tech. with Elizabeth Taylor. UPTOWN 2nd week. The Glenn Miller Story E-U Tech. with James Stewart. UNIVERSITY & EGLINTON Passion (RKO) Tech, with Cornel Wilde. TOWNE CINEMA Sth week. Modern Times Charlie Chaplin. DOWNTOWN The Law Vs Billy The Kid (Col.) and The Iron Glove (Col.). MONTREAL CAPITOL King Richord and the Crusaders (WB) C’Scope and color with Rex Harrison. LOEW'S 3rd week, White Christmas (Par.) VistaVision and Tech. with Bing Crosby. PALACE BEAU BRUMMELL (MGM) Color with Stewart Granger. PRINCESS Ring Of Fear (WB) C’Scope and color with Mickey Spillane. (UA) with AVENUE Three Cases of Murder (IFD) with Orson Welles. KENT Out of This World (Alliance) Tech. with Lowell Thomas. WINNIPEG CAPITOL 2nd week, Demetrius and the Gladiators (20th-Fox) C/Scope and Tech. with Victor Mature. LYCEUM Duel in the Jungle (WB) Tech. with Jeanne Crain. USE THIS INFORMATION AS YOUR GUIDE ON RELEASE DATES MET Rogue Cop (MGM) with Robert Taylor and Janet Leigh. ODEON 3rd week, Doctor in the House (JARO) Tech, with Dirk Bogarde, GARRICK 3rd week, Woman's World (20th-Fox) C’Scope and Tech. with Clifton Webb. CALGARY CAPITOL Beau Brummell (MGM) color with Stewort Granger and Elizabeth Taylor. PALACE Hajji Baba (20th-Fox) C’Scope and DeLuxe Color with John Derek, UPTOWN Fire Over Africa (Col.) Tech. with Binnie Barnes. GRAND Track Of The Cat (WB} G’Scope and WarnerColor with Robert Mitchum. VANCOUVER CAPITOL Beau Brummell (MGM) color with Stewart Granger. VOGUE 2nd week. On The Waterfront (Col.) with Marlon Brando. PLAZA & FRASER Bengal Brigade (E-U) Tech, with Rock Hudson. ORPHEUM Hajji Baba (20th-Fox) C’Scope and De Luxe Color with John Derek, STRAND Act of Love (UA) with Kirk Douglas. STUDIO The Holly and the Ivy (IFD) with Ralph Richardson. ST. JOHN PARAMOUNT : Passion (R¥O) Tech. with Cornel Wilde. STRAND Sitting Bull (UA) C’Scope and Eastman Color with Dale Robertson. CAPITOL Hajji Baba (20th-Fox) C’Scope and De Luxe Color with John Derek, KENT Southwest Passage ((UA) Color with Rod Cameron. course, there would be no financial return to us. “Now, it is my belief that Clyde Gilmour's column, which will deal specifically with movies, and Stan Helleur’s column which will deal more generally with entertainment in the broadest sense, will create new readers for The Telegram. Along with these two columns which will be personal columns, columns of opinion, and already you have perhaps seen that there will be broader coverage both through pictures and what I would call straight news from the News Associations such as Canadian Press and Associated Press. I spoke before lunch to the representatives of Odeon Theatres here and suggested that they get in touch with the United Kingdom Office of Information at Ottawa, Mr. Monserrat, and also with Reuters in London so that there can come an even flow of news of what is going on in the industry in the United Kingdom. This, we believe, will be of tremendous interest to the readers of the newspaper. This effort, this interest, will be co-ordinated by Ken Johnson, whom most of you know, who will be responsible for the Section as a sub-editor of that Section. “Now, having said all that just so that you will know what we are trying to do and what our objectives are, before I introduce our two guests I want you also to know that while Mr. Gilmour, particularly, will have the completest freedom of comment in his column, he will criticize or praise as he judges it to be which, of course, I know you recognize is the right of any critic, and he is a movie critic. He is not there to simply write sweet nothings or to say something is good which he thinks is not but, nevertheless, having said that I want you all to hear it from me and to believe that we feel that we too have a responsibility regarding the movie industry . . . we want to encourage people to go to your theatres because we think it is in our benefit as well as yours, and the main underlying policy with regards to our Entertainment Section on The Telegram will be one of cooperation.” MARCH OF DIMES The U.S. March of Dimes will be sponsors for the American invitational premiere of JARO’s great spectacle production “Romeo and Juliet,” at the Sutton Theatre, New York, Dec. 21st. In Canada the March of Dimes, slated for January 3-31, has lined up with a number of film companies in joint ventures to make this year’s cam paign the best yet.