Category: Toronto Cinemas

Toronto Cinemas3 Comments

Lecture on Toronto Theatres at the Revue Cinema

Eric Veillette

Above image from January 1929 shows Yonge St. facing north from Queen St. On the bill at the Loews Yonge St. is a Buster Keaton film, probably Steamboat Bill. Source: Toronto Transit Commission. Ten-cent admission, newsreels, adventure serials and slapstick. That’s what you would find if you could return to the early days of movie-going. As this site, dedicated to preserving the stories of our varied theatres, nears its first anniversary, I am partnering with Toronto’s Revue Cinema on a new lecture series chronicling the history of local movie theatres. On August 22, the first lecture, “Toronto Movie Theatres: Palaces … Continue reading Lecture on Toronto Theatres at the Revue Cinema

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Oh to be Shocked and Awed on Yonge Street

Eric Veillette

In today’s Toronto Star, your humble editor writes about the dearly departed, sleazy dens of cinematic iniquity which lined Yonge St in the 1970s. The strip from Gerrard to Queen marked the city’s Red Light District. Amidst the drugs, strip clubs like Starvin Marvin’s and over 75 body-rub parlours were the bright lights of the Biltmore, Downtown, Cinema 2000, Coronet, Rio, Imperial Six, Yonge/Elgin, among many others. Compared to the seediness of the era, which culminated in the grisly death of 12-year old shoeshine boy Emmanuel Jaques, it’s all pretty sanitized now; and there’s certainly no trash cinema to be … Continue reading Oh to be Shocked and Awed on Yonge Street

Toronto Cinemas13 Comments

The Yonge Street Strip

Eric Veillette

In the late 1970s, you could venture down a five block strip of Toronto’s Yonge St. — from Gerrard to Queen — and find several cinemas offering the kind of trashy celluloid fare you could only dream of seeing in a theatre nowadays. By Eric Veillette Today, the city’s flagship street and main tourist destination is oddly devoid of street-front cinemas. On Dundas, across the street from the former Downtown Theatre is this massive crypt of a multiplex known as the AMC, but it barely holds a candle to the cinematic landscape one could find a few decades ago. Starting … Continue reading The Yonge Street Strip

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Talkies the Talk of Toronto!

Eric Veillette

by Eric Veillette Eighty years ago, on Dec. 28, 1928, the talkies came to Toronto. Despite the freezing weather that winter evening, over a thousand movie-goers ventured out to the Tivoli, located at the intersection of Richmond  and Victoria Sts. to see a midnight preview of The Terror, a haunted-house whodunit. This was more than a year after a New York City audience watched and listened as Al Jolson got down on one knee and sang “My Mammy” during The Jazz Singer premiere on Oct. 6, 1927 at the Warner Bros. Theatre.  Contrary to popular belief, that wildly successful “photo-dramatic … Continue reading Talkies the Talk of Toronto!

Toronto Cinemas8 Comments

The Downtown Theatre

Eric Veillette

The Downtown Theatre by Hal Kelly “Going to the movies is my hobby. I go to other theatres, but the Downtown is my favorite. I like westerns, especially ones with Audie Murphy, but ANY good action or adventure picture usually gives me my money’s worth.” – Irvine Exley, 55, war pensioner The Downtown Theatre was located one short block south of Dundas at the north east corner of the largely vacant Yonge and Dundas Square right across from the Hard Rock Café. The closest thing to movie theatre in those parts now is that craptacular celluloid-free, all digital AMC 24 … Continue reading The Downtown Theatre

Toronto Cinemas5 Comments

The University Theatre

Eric Veillette

by Eric Veillette With the construction of the city of Toronto’s latest and tallest skyscraper set to begin at the south-east side of Yonge and Bloor, it’s safe to say that intersection will never be the same. Not that it’s anything to write home about at the moment, either; when walking west on Bloor, you’re hit with Yorkville shops selling designer wear and other overpriced junk. But in the late 1940s, the only thing people were lining up to see on that street was the city’s latest and possibly most luxurious movie house, The University. Dubbed “Famous Players Finest Post-War … Continue reading The University Theatre

Toronto Cinemas7 Comments

Hollywood Dreams at the Loew’s Theatre

Eric Veillette

by Eric Veillette In the early days of the movie palace, it didn’t take much to get people into the theatres. The seats were always filled with beaming eyes staring at the latest antics of Mary Pickford or Buster Keaton. Despite jam-packed attendance, theatre managers liked to spruce things up a bit, and give patrons a little more than just a film and a newsreel. How about offering up a prize for grabs? A Saint-John, New Brunswick newspaper clipping I have from November of 1916, promoting Chaplin’s film Shanghaied, asks: “Boys and girls! Have You Sent Your Chaplin Essays in Yet? … Continue reading Hollywood Dreams at the Loew’s Theatre