Category: Toronto Cinemas

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The Great Lloyd-Chaplin Popularity Contest of 1923

Eric Veillette

When silent film aficionados sit down in fine leather wing-back chairs to discuss silent comedy while indulging in fine brandy and cigars, the two contenders for greatest clown are invariably Chaplin and Keaton. But in April, 1923, Famous Players asked movie-goers to vote between Chaplin and another titan of comedy, Harold Lloyd. The results, posted below, show that Lloyd’s comedies were a force to be reckoned with. Here are the results, published in the Toronto Daily Star on April 9, 1923: 72, 087 theatre patrons voted in the Harold Lloyd-Charlie Chaplin Popularity Contest last week at the Hippodrome, Pantages and Regent … Continue reading The Great Lloyd-Chaplin Popularity Contest of 1923

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Valentine’s Day in the silent era

Eric Veillette

Chaplin’s The Circus, released at the tail end of the silent era, is arguably one of his funniest films, and was probably your best bet for a Valentine’s Day pick on Tuesday, February 14, 1928. If you and your date were feeling frisky, you could have opted for Gloria Swanson in Sadie Thompson at the nearby Regent — but either way, you’d want to catch an early screening, because the Valentine’s dance at Terrace Gardens (21 Richmond St. W) started at 9 o’clock sharp. Image source: Toronto Daily Star, February 14, 1928. Continue reading Valentine’s Day in the silent era

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The Canadian plays Loew’s Yonge St. Theatre

Eric Veillette

One of my favourites screened at last year’s giornate del cinema muto in Pordenone, William Beaudine’s The Canadian — based on W. Somerset Maugham’s play, The Land of Promise — premiered at Toronto’s Loew’s Yonge St. Theatre on January 10, 1927. Produced in 1926, The Canadian was released in a year that saw nearly twenty films, including another Famous Players-Lasky hit, Mantrap, set in Canada or involving aspects of the burgeoning Canadian identity. Far from the “gay and glorious romance” stated in the above ad, The Canadian depicts the harshness of the Canadian West in the early 20th century, in … Continue reading The Canadian plays Loew’s Yonge St. Theatre

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Talkies redux: The arrival of sound films in Toronto

Eric Veillette

With the surprising success of The Artist, a modern-day silent film dealing with the downfall of an actor at the on-set of the sound revolution, here are a few articles published here over the last few years dealing with the talkie transition in Toronto. Talkies the talk of Toronto! For the first time in the entirety of a feature film, they could hear the creaking of the stairs, the ghostly wind and the voices of all the characters. “Even the credits were spoken,” said the Daily Star. Other sound films had already played at the Tivoli, mostly Vitaphone shorts and … Continue reading Talkies redux: The arrival of sound films in Toronto

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Film projectionists in the digital age

Eric Veillette

Earlier this year, I wrote about how the advent of sound ended the careers of many silent film musicians who’d long been employed in Toronto movie houses. I expand on the sometimes turbulent history of labour relations in exhibition by looking at modern-day film projectionists and how they’re coping with the digital age. Originally published by The Globe & Mail in November, 2011. The lobby of the 97-year-old Fox Theatre in the Beaches is decorated with classic film posters. Its former coat check vestibule is now a box office. With the exception of sugar-free syrups and organic juices at the concession stand, … Continue reading Film projectionists in the digital age

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Restricted: Ontario film censorship in the 1950s

Eric Veillette

While rummaging through the Revue Cinema’s projection booth in preparation for a recent Silent Sundays screening, I found this old “Adult entertainment” sign buried under some obsolete  electronics. As we recently examined, Ontario was the first Canadian province to enact “Adult entertainment” film designations, reflecting the public’s reaction to the changing mores in Hollywood and European film-making. With their playful italics and authoritative bold type, these signs dangled underneath a theatre’s marquee or canopy — seen here at the Mavety Theatre showing The Tender Trap in 1956 — leading pre-pubescent boys to imagine what restrictive fun they were missing out on unless … Continue reading Restricted: Ontario film censorship in the 1950s

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The Fox Theatre in 1934

Eric Veillette

In this weekend’s Globe & Mail, I examined how the digital conversion currently underway in several Toronto cinemas is affecting film projectionists. The Fox Theatre in the Beaches recently converted to 2k digital cinema projection, but here it is in 1934 — simpler times — when it was known as the Prince Edward Theatre. On the bill that day was Wheeler & Whoolsey’s Cockeyed Cavaliers. The canopy shadowing Queen St., installed upon its opening in 1914 sadly no longer exists. Image source: City of Toronto Archives, series 0372, sub-series 0358, item 1370. Continue reading The Fox Theatre in 1934

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Canadian horror cinema turns 50

Eric Veillette

If a modern-day horror film were shot in the Royal Ontario Museum, a director might be inclined to set some action in the museum’s bat cave. But the revered exhibit didn’t exist 50 years ago when Julian Roffman directed The Mask, a psychological 3-D horror film which made use of the museum’s iconic totem pole. Premiering at Toronto’s Downtown Theatre on November 10, 1961, it ushered Canadian cinema into the horror genre established by Hollywood in the 1920s. Screened at TIFF Bell Lightbox this week, the film, a drug-use allegory in which an archaeologist blames an ancient mask for terrible … Continue reading Canadian horror cinema turns 50

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The Standard Theatre: Pasties & g-strings at the Victory Burlesque

Eric Veillette

Faced with declining attendance, films took a backseat at the Victory Theatre in September of 1961 when it became the Victory Burlesque, featuring striptease artists, Catskills comedians and musical acts. Despite competition from neighbouring burlesque houses like the Casino and the Lux Theatre, the Victory’s opening weekend still packed them in. Headliner Little Star, “the blazing gal from outer space” – whose stage-name and tagline sounded not unlike that week’s Lux headliner, the iconic Blaze Starr – played continuous shows from 1pm until closing. (A film, Portrait of a Mobster, was also shown. On Sunday, free hotdogs were served courtesy … Continue reading The Standard Theatre: Pasties & g-strings at the Victory Burlesque

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The Standard: Yiddish theatre & dissenting voices

Eric Veillette

It’s no secret that Toronto houses many old theatres, from the majestically restored Elgin & Winter Garden, the iconic, soon-to-reopen Bloor Cinema to countless others still flickering away. But many of them, long since closed, are dilapidated shells of their former selves. The former Standard Theatre, a three-storey structure housing a Royal Bank and a few Chinatown merchants on the north-east corner of Dundas and Spadina is one of the latter, but perhaps the most important surviving theatre in Toronto’s history. After opening in 1922 until the early 1990s, it catered to both Jewish and Chinese communities, and as the … Continue reading The Standard: Yiddish theatre & dissenting voices