Tag: now playing: moviegoing and the regulation of fun

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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

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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