A quick break to visit our neighbours in la belle province: this Kodachrome postcard from 1952 shows the south side of Montreal’s rue Ste-Catherine in all its post-war, neon-lit glory. In the distance you can see the Loew’s, Capitol and Palace Theatres. Source: Silent Toronto Archives; postcard printed by the Photogelatine Engraving Co. Ltd., Toronto. Continue reading Neon lights on Montreal’s rue Ste-Catherine
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
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
Those ’50s biblical epics keep popping up on this site. Last weekend, while rummaging through letters and postcards in a Southern Ontario flea market, I found a pile of ticket stubs, mostly from the 1970s, but among them was a reserved-seating ticket to Cecil B. De Mille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), at Hamilton’s Century Theatre. Interesting timing, really, because the Century was demolished in January, 2010. The Century was originally named the Lyric and opened as a Vaudeville house in 1913. It was purchased by the Keith-Albee circuit the following year and operated as a cinema until 1989. Its final … Continue reading Century Theatre, Hamilton
Today we look at the tragic Laurier Palace Theatre fire, which claimed the lives of 78 Montreal children in January of 1927. Many local parents considered the Laurier Palace Theatre a firetrap. Situated between a cafe and a bar, there were no lateral exits; the only way out of the theatre was through exits on either side of the ticket wicket and two rear exits on both sides of the stage, which led out onto a lane at the rear of the building. Few parents were aware their children had lined up to see a movie that cold and sunny … Continue reading The Laurier Palace Theatre Fire
This week we continue our recent examination of the historic Atmospheric theatres that once existed in this fair country. We now leave Toronto and look to la belle province to the east. by Eric Veillette While walking in the Notre-Dame-De-Grace area of Montreal on a particularly cold winter night in January of 2007, I looked up and noticed a massive structure spanning most of the block. Noting the intersections of Sherbrooke and Old Orchard, I realized this must be the Egyptian theatre a friend of mine had just mentioned. Despite the darkness, it was a marvelous sight. Overlooking Girouard Park … Continue reading Canada’s Atmospheric Theatres – The Empress
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