Tag: grand opera house

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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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Ambrose Small & The Grand Opera House

Eric Veillette

In yesterday’s Toronto Star, I wrote about the 90th anniversary of the disappearance of wealthy theatre owner Ambrose Small. “On Dec. 2, 1919 the circuit-owner deposited $1 million – an advance on the previous day’s sale of his seven properties – spoke to his wife Theresa on the steps of the Bond St. Orphanage, and returned to the Grand, at Adelaide and Yonge Sts. From there he vanished.” For nearly a decade, Small’s name made sensational headlines, from his disappearance, the reading of his will in 1924 and the demolition of the Grand Opera House in 1928. The discovery of … Continue reading Ambrose Small & The Grand Opera House