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Saturday Night at the Movies

Eric Veillette

In this week’s Sunday Star, I look at the launch of TVOntario‘s online Public Archive, which features 40 years of vintage broadcasting. The content is plentiful: from kids programming like Today’s Special, The Polka Dot Door, the years-ahead-of-its-time sci-fi/comics show Prisoners of Gravity, current affairs programs Realities and Studio 2 and some of the best interviews from the lit-interview show Imprint. If you grew up in Ontario, chances are one of these titles rings a ball. Take a day off work and let it all soak in. Also exciting are the hours of interviews hosted by Elwy Yost in Talking Film … Continue reading Saturday Night at the Movies

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Kodachrome slides, technicolor screens

Eric Veillette

The above Kodachrome slide (taken in 1987 by Alfred Holden) shows the terrazzo of the Danforth’s Roxy Theatre — originally known as the Allenby when it was built by Kaplan & Sprachman in 1935. Many Toronto theatres were captured in Kodachrome, some of the best residing at the City of Toronto Archives in the F. Ellis Wiley Fonds. Toronto has long held an interesting relationship with Kodachrome, something I examine in today’s Toronto Star. Astrid Idlewild, a McGill University urban planning student, has launched Kodachrome Toronto 1935-2010, a Masters project aimed at examining Toronto’s urban and cultural development through the warm … Continue reading Kodachrome slides, technicolor screens

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Buster Keaton, turntables and sound effects: The early days of cinema redux

Eric Veillette

In today’s Toronto Star, I interviewed Toronto-based turntablist duo iNSIDEaMIND on their upcoming project, Sherlock Jr. in Concert, which they’ll perform on Monday, February 21 at Bell Lightbox. Two turntables, effects processors and samplers will replace the pianos, organs or orchestras normally used to accompany Buster Keaton’s surrealist Sherlock Jr. During the interview, the “phonograph alchemists,” Cheldon Patterson and Erik Laar, spoke highly of both Keaton’s talents as a filmmaker as well as the rich, sparse palette offered by the silent visuals when creating an ambience-driven soundscape using beats and samples. What’s interesting about iNSIDEaMIND’s project is that although it’s … Continue reading Buster Keaton, turntables and sound effects: The early days of cinema redux

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Buster Keaton 1895-1966

Eric Veillette

Buster Keaton died forty-five years ago today, and Silent Toronto would like to offer posthumous thanks for all the laughter that has filled (and continues to fill) Toronto cinemas. Seven Chances premiered at the former Shea’s Hippodrome in October, 1925. Last year I was fortunate to attend a screening at Casa Loma where the film was accompanied by Clark Wilson at the helm of the mighty, rumbling Wurlitzer organ. As I wrote in the Toronto Star in March, 2010, this organ was no stranger to Keaton’s farce — it was in use at Shea’s Hippodrome when the film premiered. It … Continue reading Buster Keaton 1895-1966

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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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Parkdale’s Odeon Theatres

Eric Veillette

In Thursday’s Toronto Star, I looked at the history of the 52-year old Toronto Film Society, which continues to offer rarely-screened classics every month at Innis Town Hall. During my conversation with TFS president Barry Chapman, he shared memories of some of the Queen St. West cinemas of his youth, like the Parkdale, the Kum-C, and the Odeon. Although the Odeon name is usually associated with the mighty British cinema chain which settled in Canada in 1948, two other Queen St. cinemas shared its name. At 1558 Queen St. W, a silent-era, 700-seat house opened around 1919. The building still exists, housing … Continue reading Parkdale’s Odeon Theatres

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The Uptown Theatre

Eric Veillette

To cinephiles, the theatres we patronize are often just as important as the films they show. It might only be a building, but once an audience is at attention and the image is flickering, the place takes on an organic quality. Whether it’s a run-down rep house, a bicycle repair shop moonlighting as a cinema or the second floor of a restored hotel, these darkened spaces allow us to forget the outside world, and as Neil Gaiman once put it, let “others think of things of import and consequence.” A few days ago, I asked  our Twitter followers to share … Continue reading The Uptown Theatre

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Olsen & Johnson at the Odeon Carlton

Eric Veillette

Here’s a shot of the interior of the former Odeon Carlton, from September of 1948, featuring Vaudeville act Olsen & Johnson, some creepy clowns and a bunch of furries behind the Carlton’s fantastic mural. The comedy team and their perverted pals were in town performing on the grandstand at the CNE. A special benefit was held at the theatre, located near the corner of Yonge and Carlton. Days beforehand, on September 9, the mighty British cinema chain opened its finest Canadian movie house – dubbed “The Showplace of the Dominion” – with a premiere of Oliver Twist, starring Alec Guinness … Continue reading Olsen & Johnson at the Odeon Carlton

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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