Author: Eric Veillette

Toronto Cinemas6 Comments

Toronto cinema memories

Eric Veillette

One of our readers reminisces on the movie theatres of his youth: “My childhood-adolescent theatres were all the downtown palaces, the Towne, University; nabes Victory on Spadina (pie eating contests Saturday matinees), Garden at College & Robert, Bellevue on College & Brunswick (Superman serials). When we moved north:  the Vaughan, Radio City, Nortown, Eglinton, Christie, St.Clair, Paramount (small house on St. Clair near Dufferin)… plus others. I was a very precocious kid and started taking streetcars every Saturday by myself or with my younger sister when I was about 6 or 7. Distinct memories of which pictures I saw at … Continue reading Toronto cinema memories

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Aftershocks of Montreal’s Laurier Palace Theatre fire

Eric Veillette

The Laurier Palace Theatre fire which claimed the lives of 78 Montreal children in January of 1927 made headlines all over North America. The above front page from the Arizona Daily Star was recently added to our collection. Like many newspapers who reported the tragic event, it also pointed out other infamous theatre disasters. Among them: the Gillis Theatre, Kansas City (1925); Knickerbocker Theatre Washington, D.C. (1922); Rialto Theatre, New Haven, CT (1921); Catherine St. movie house, New York City, (1920). As mentioned in an earlier post about the Laurier Palace, at the time, nobody under 15 was allowed into … Continue reading Aftershocks of Montreal’s Laurier Palace Theatre fire

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Talking pictures in the silent era

Eric Veillette

Before the pictures learned to talk, they stuttered. Talking pictures settled permanently in Toronto in late 1928, but it was far from the first time Hogtown movie-goers were exposed to the concept that the flickers needn’t be silent. In November of 1924, four years before the Tivoli and Uptown Theatres were wired for all-talking pictures, those attending the premiere of Elinor Glyn’s His Hour at Shea’s Hippodrome were treated to short subjects from radio pioneer Lee de Forest‘s Phonofilm, a sound-on-film process. On the screen, an orchestra performed “Come on, Spark Plug,” the sound modestly filling the auditorium while the … Continue reading Talking pictures in the silent era

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Zardoz lobby card from Imperial Six

Eric Veillette

I’m not sure where a Zardoz lobby card from the former Imperial Six on Yonge st. figures in the annals of Sean Connery memorabilia, but it will make a welcome addition to the office wall. If you stare closely enough, you can see the tear-splash of a minor who was denied entry into Cinema 3 by a power-hungry usher when it premiered at the Imperial Six on March 15, 1974. Continue reading Zardoz lobby card from Imperial Six

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TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

Eric Veillette

In today’s Toronto Star, I preview TIFF’s latest exhibit, Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star, based on the collection of Rob Brooks. Over the course of three decades, Brooks, a Toronto native, amassed thousands of items including lobby cards, posters, correspondence and several personal items once owned by Toronto’s own Mary Pickford. In the article, I mention Pickford’s long-held ties to Toronto. In an early 1920s visit, Pickford was so enamoured by the patients and staff at the Christie St. Military Hospital that they received private screenings of all her forthcoming films. When Sparrows was released in … Continue reading TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

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Newspaper ads & the Timmins Cinema Six

Eric Veillette

Editor’s note: We take a break from our usual diet of Hogtown Hard-tops and head north to Timmins, Ontario. Growing up in Northern Ontario, where there wasn’t much to do, I would often rush home after school on a Thursday, grab the Timmins Daily Press and see what films were premiering the next day at the Victory, a Famous Players house built in the 1940s. Once a vibrant city with several large movie theatres, the Victory was all Timmins had to offer by the mid-1980s. My family went to the drive-in more often than the cinema, but my earliest movie-going … Continue reading Newspaper ads & the Timmins Cinema Six

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Tales from the Downtown Theatre

Eric Veillette

With the awful blaze that decimated the former Empress Hotel at 335 Yonge St. over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about the evolution of the Yonge and Dundas area — the former Yonge Street Strip. One of the most noticeable changes over the past decades is the disappearance of store-front movie theatres and their sky-jutting, neon-lit pylons. In the above day-and-night photos taken by John Wallington in March of 1972, behold the long-forgotten Downtown Theatre, located on what is now the south end of Dundas Square (Streetview shot here). The Downtown opened in 1948, but is featured here on the … Continue reading Tales from the Downtown Theatre

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Silent Sundays presents The Thief of Bagdad

Eric Veillette

The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Directed by Raoul Walsh Written by Achmed Abdullah & Douglas Fairbanks Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Anna May Wong, Julanne Johnston 16mm | 140 min. Silent Sundays, our long-running celebration of silent cinema, returns to the Revue Cinema with Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad on Sunday, January 16 at 4:00 p.m.  Douglas Fairbanks produced and starred in the 1924 silent fantasy based on an Arabian Nights tale. The movie is rich in special effects: flying carpets, monsters, a cloak of invisibility, the lithe and athletic Fairbanks as well as a brief appearance by Anna May … Continue reading Silent Sundays presents The Thief of Bagdad

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Merry Christmas from Shea’s Hippodrome

Eric Veillette

“He loved to fight and fought to love. His dames, like his flags, were many and soon forgotten.” Ladies and gentlemen — my future epitaph. The above ad is from the Toronto Star, December 22, 1930. Also playing in Toronto that week: Lon Chaney in The Unholy Three at the Royce (Edwin/Dupont); John Barrymore in Moby Dick at the Palace (Danforth/Pape); Amos & Andy in Check and Double Check at the Belsize (still around, as the Regent on Mt. Pleasant Rd.); Bebe Daniels in Dixiana at the Runnymede (Bloor/Runnymede). As the year comes to a close, I’d like to thank … Continue reading Merry Christmas from Shea’s Hippodrome

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Broken Blossoms at the Colonial Theatre

Eric Veillette

“The pinnacle of art expressed on the silver sheet,” proclaimed an ad for D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms on November 4, 1919. The film opened on November 10 at the regal Regent Theatre on Adelaide St., which N.L. Nathanson and partners had purchased in 1916, before the formation of Famous Players Canada Corporation in 1920. Weeks later, the film was playing in several other theatres, including the Colonial, located across from Old City Hall (pictured above, to the left, on a particularly snowy day). One of Toronto’s first picture palaces, the Colonial predates the construction of the Loews/Winter Garden and Madison … Continue reading Broken Blossoms at the Colonial Theatre