Table Of ContentEMBATTLED
SHADOWS
A History of Canadian Cinema
1895-1939
Peter Morris
McGill - Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1978
ISBN o 7735 0323 4 (paper)
Legal deposit 4th quarter 1978
Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec
Reprinted in paper 1992
Design by Naoto Kondo MGDC, AIGA
Printed in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Morris, Peter, 1937-
Embattled shadows: a history of
Canadian cinema, 1895-1939
Includes bibliographical references
and indexes.
ISBN 0-7735-0323-4
I. Motion pictures— Canada— History. I. Title.
PN1993-5-C3M67 1992 79I.43'097I
C79-2639-2
Contents
Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Preface to the 1992 Reprint xi
1. Came the Dawn 1
Enter the Hollands 3
Movies at the Fair 7
Living Pictures Now Being Shown 11
Catering to the Refined 18
2. The Early Years 27
Images of Canada 29
"But No Snow or Ice Scenes" 33
Adventures in the Northwoods 39
"It Surely is a Good Beginning" 45
3. The Years of Promise 57
Hollywood of the North 63
Blooms in Innocence 82
4. Ten Percent Ernie 95
Search for a Dream 99
On to Ottawa 117
Dark Day's Morning 123
5. The State and the Movies 127
Civil Servants as Film Makers 131
Ontario—And Two Producers, Rampant 137
British Columbia et al.—And Trenton Again 149
How to Take Care of the Means—And Forget the Meaning 159
6. The Years of the Quota 17 5
North of 49 182
Victoria's Quota Quickies 188
All But Canadian 195
7. Supporting Program 217
Ben Norrish Again—With Gordon Sparling 222
An End and a Beginning 232
8. Postscript 237
Appendix I: A Chronology of Film in Canada, 1894-1913 243
Appendix II: Filmography: Select List of Canadian
Productions, 1913-1939 251
Notes 275
Film Title Index 327
General Index 335
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Illustrations
Andrew and George Holland. (National Film Archives) 4
Stage at West End Park, Ottawa, 1892. (Public Archives of Canada,
PA-27261) 16
A typical black tent Electric Theatre. (National Film Archives) 16
The Palace Theatre, Cardston, Alberta, 1907. (Glenbow-Alberta
Institute) 20
James Freer handbill, 1899- (National Film Archives) 31
The Bioscope Company of Canada. (National Film Archives) 34
Madeleine de Verchères. (National Film Archives) 49
Main title, Ernest Ouimet's newsreel. (Cinemathèque québécoise) 62
Trenton studios in the early Twenties. (Ontario Archives) 65
Technicians on the set of Carry On, Sergeant. (National Film Archives) 76
Why Get Married? (National Film Archives) 89
Nell Shipman. (National Film Archives) 102
Advertisement, Back to God's Country. (National Film Archives) 109
Ernest Shipman and Ralph Connor, 1920. (National Film Archives) 111
Cameron of the Royal Mounted. (National Film Archives) 114
Advertisement, The Critical Age (Glengarry School Days).
(Ottawa Journal) 122
Dick Bird. (Dick Bird) 139
Cameramen of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau,
circa 1925. (National Film Archives) 164
Film processing facilities, Canadian Government Motion Picture
Bureau. (National Film Archives) 168
Bill Oliver, Rudolph Ammer, and guide. (National Film Archives) 171
Front page cartoon in the Canadian Moving Picture Digest.
(National Film Archives) 178
Death Goes North. (National Film Archives) 190
Rita Hayworth in Central Films' Convicted. (National Film Archives) 193
The Silent Enemy. (National Film Archives) 203
Production of The Viking. (National Film Archives) 211
Studios and laboratories, Associated Screen News. (National Film
Archives) 224
Sound stage, ASN's studios, 1939. (National Film Archives) 227
Gordon Sparling and Roy Tash during production of Back in '23 •
(National Film Archives) 229
Advertisement, Rhapsody in Two Languages. (National Film Archives) 231
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Preface
Until recently, the heritage of Canadian film has been virtually ignored. It
was popularly assumed that Canadian film began with the founding of the
National Film Board of Canada in 1939, and that, if anything happened
prior to this, it was neither interesting nor relevant. Thus, for the period
covered here, there are no books and such other published material as exists
is both sparse and contradictory. Many of the films made before 1939 have
been lost. Even the history of the Canadian Government Motion Picture
Bureau (the predecessor of the National Film Board) has become obscured.
It might be interesting to speculate why we, as Canadians, have ignored
our own history; why, in the case of film, we have even assumed that there is
no history worth considering. But, whatever the reasons, the fact remains
that the history of Canadian film before 1939 is largely unknown.
This book, then, is a first attempt to chronicle film activities in Canada
before the establishment of the National Film Board. As such, I have inten-
tionally leaned towards trying to encompass as much of these activities as
possible in the text while using the chapter notes not only to give references
but also to amplify the text or raise questions on which further research is
necessary. Though the text is essentially descriptive, I have also attempted
to situate events within their social context and distinguish between partic-
ular approaches to film making. Most of the material in the book is original
and has never been published before. It is based on interviews with the sur-
viving film makers of the period, searches through contemporary docu-
ments, archival records, and film trade papers, together with an extensive
viewing of the (too few) surviving films that have been gathered and pre-
served in public collections.
Though most of the material published here is original, I make no
claims for the book's definitiveness. It would be arrogant to do so in view of
the fact that the study of Canadian film history is still in an embryonic state
of development. Embattled Shadows is the first attempt to examine compre-
hensively the early period of Canadian film, to bring certain events and
activities to light, and to suggest the significance of those activities. As such,
I hope it will serve as a useful point of departure for future research. If it
succeeds in stimulating further serious inquiry into film as an aspect of Cana-
dian culture, it will have served its primary purpose.
With the exception of the first chapter, the emphasis throughout is on
film production. While there is a need for a study of the distribution and
exhibition aspects of the industry, it seemed most useful at this point to con-
centrate on film making itself. I have, however, included comments de-
signed to illuminate the economic context of the industry and the chapter
notes should enable the interested reader to pursue further research.
The genesis of this book lies in some years of personal research paralleled
by a professional concern for the preservation of Canadian film while I was
curator of the Canadian Film Archives. More precisely, it was made possible
through the research undertaken for the production of the film Dreamland,
for which I was director of research. Barbara Sears was the principal re-
searcher for this project and her painstaking collection of information was
essential to its success. Without her contribution, this book could not have
appeared in its present form.
I would also like to pay tribute here to two other film historians whose
work in the past did much to stimulate my own interest in and concern for
the history of film in Canada. The late Hye Bossin who, while editor of
Canadian Film Weekly, did much to bring together the reminiscences
of many film pioneers; and Gordon Sparling, himself a film maker of the
period, who has always been a tireless champion of Canadian film and the
importance of its heritage.
Several people have read and commented on all or part of versions of
this book at various stages: Kirwan Cox, Louise Dompierre, Piers Handling,
and Bill Nichols. Each made helpful suggestions on the content and struc-
ture of the text and I am indebted to them for assistance so freely given.
Other friends and colleagues have contributed, knowingly and unknow-
ingly, to the views expressed in these pages. They all have my gratitude as
does the editorial staff at McGill-Queen's University Press, especially Joan
Harcourt. Most especially, I am indebted to Kirwan Cox, who first urged
on me the importance of writing this book, and to Louise Dompierre who,
throughout its preparation, was both my best critic and best friend. Finally,
I should like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council's Explora-
tions Program, firstly for a grant which made the research possible and,
secondly, for a grant which helped defray the costs of typing the manuscript.
Peter Morris
Preface to the 1992 reprint
I am pleased that it has proved possible for McGill-Queen's University Press
to reprint this book. At the same time, I regret that current financial con-
straints have eliminated the opportunity to revise and update the text. This
Preface, then, must stand as substitute for those emendations and additions
I would otherwise have made. It is perhaps obvious that I would not now
write this book as it was originally written some fifteen years ago. That aside,
however, the intervening years have seen the publication of additional in-
formation by other historians of the period. I will draw attention here only
to more significant work, primarily books. A revised edition could take full
and proper account of these, and other, contributions.
The most fundamental correction would necessitate re-writing the first
eleven pages of the book. Germain Lacasse has persuasively documented
and demonstrated that the first public film screening in Canada took place
in Montreal on 2 8 June 1896 and involved the Lumière Cinématographe.
Lacasse's article "Cultural Amnesia and the Birth of Film in Canada" was
published in Cinema Canada, 108 (June 1984): 6-7. A translation of the
original report in LaPresse,June 29, 1896, is included in Douglas Fetherling,
Documents in Canadian Film (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1988). This
useful volume also includes several other articles relevant to pre-1939 Ca-
nadian film history. Lacasse has also written an account of the first itinerant
projectionists in Quebec: L'historiographe: les débuts du spectacle ciné-
matographique au Quebec (Montreal: Cinemathèque québécoise, 1985 [Les
Dossiers de la Cinematheque, 15]).
I did not attempt to discuss the economic structure of the film industry
in Embattled Shadows. This gap has now been filled, especially for the
exhibition and distribution aspects, by Manjunath Pendakur in Canadian
Dreams and American Control: The Political Economy of the Canadian
Film Industry (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1990). Similarly, the issue of cen-
sorship has been discussed in detail by Malcolm Dean in Censored! Only
in Canada (Toronto: Virgo Press, 1981).
The history of Quebec cinema has been extensively studied in recent
years. Yves Lever (Htstoire générate du cinéma au Quebec [Montréal: Boreal,
1988]) provides a detailed study of the pre-1939 period as well as an ex-
tensive bibliography. Statistics relating to Quebec production, distribution
and exhibition are analyzed in Yvan Lamonde and Pierre-Frangois Hébert,
