Category: Toronto Cinemas

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Ontario Film Censorship: Then & Now

Eric Veillette

In case you missed it, I wrote about the history of film censorship in Ontario for the Toronto Star last weekend. I was surprised to learn from a few friends who didn’t know we still had censors (nowadays known as the Ontario Film Review Board), but the truth is that Ontario has had constant film censorship, certification, review — whatever you want to call it — for nearly a century. I originally set out to contrast the puritanical outlook on film exhibition from the board’s inception in 1911 to its latter days in the 1980s with today’s “hands-off” approach, but … Continue reading Ontario Film Censorship: Then & Now

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Death Wish IV at the Rio, 1987

Eric Veillette

Since that gang of upstarts at the Toronto Underground Cinema are showing Death Wish III as part of their Seven Deadly Sins Film Festival tonight, I thought I’d share one of my favourite photos from the Silent Toronto archives. The Rio, no stranger to this site (here and here), in late 1987, three or four years before it flickered out altogether, showing Death Wish IV, The Lost Boys, Robocop and No Man’s Land. Admission, $4. Oh, Yonge St., where art thou? Continue reading Death Wish IV at the Rio, 1987

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Always Cool and Comfortable at the Pantages

Eric Veillette

“Always cool and comfortable,” claims this ad for the Pantages Theatre in July, 1928, and on this ridiculously hot night (it’s a staggering 86F in Toronto), sitting in a cool movie theatre sounds like a great idea. As we recently examined, air conditioning was an early attraction in both movie palaces and neighbourhood theatres, and both its advertising and marquees often capitalized on the public’s desire to chill out. Lady Be Good, based on the  musical by George and Ira Gershwin, was directed by Richard Wallace, who spent years directing comedy shorts under Mack Sennett and Hal Roach. Although the … Continue reading Always Cool and Comfortable at the Pantages

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Extreme Usher: The Imperial Six

Eric Veillette

by Gerry Flahive I was a teenage usher. I don’t think anyone is going to make a feature film, a la FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, based on my early 1970’s adventures at the somewhat-forgotten, and largely-underrated palace of guilty pleasures, Yonge Street’s Imperial Six. But if they did, it probably would be called USHERETTES GALORE, or EXTREME USHER, or even MATINEE IDLE. And it would be the kind of movie that probably would have played at the Imperial Six. The kind of movie that wouldn’t even get made for the straight-to-video market today. On Friday, June 29, 1973, at … Continue reading Extreme Usher: The Imperial Six

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The Eaton Centre Cineplex

Eric Veillette

This week, we take a break from our usual musings over Art Deco and Atmospheric palaces and instead concentrate on a more recent phenomena — the multiplex cinema! by Jesse Hawken They knocked down the above-ground parking lot at the Eaton Centre a few years ago and with it, the late, not particularly lamented Cineplex theatre that was situated at the base of the parkade. The Eaton Centre Cineplex was the first mega-multiplex theatre in the world. There were 18 screens when it opened in 1979, expanding to 21 a few years later. When the place first opened it was … Continue reading The Eaton Centre Cineplex

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Holiday greetings from Odeon Theatres

Eric Veillette

Odeon Theatres had much to be thankful for in 1948, as their flagship theatre, the Odeon Toronto, was built near the corner of Yonge and Carlton. The mighty British cinema chain opened its new theatre – dubbed “The Showplace of the Dominion” – on September 9 with a premiere of Oliver Twist, starring Alec Guinness as Fagin. The Odeon Toronto, with 2300 green and gold seats, was an unconventional beast built at a time when most of the new theatres were modest in both size and extravagance. Its development signaled a near-renaissance of the Movie Palace, not seen since the … Continue reading Holiday greetings from Odeon Theatres