Imperial Theater

Imperial Theater

The Imperial Theatre opened on April 26, 1913 in downtown Montreal, Quebec. It had a seating capacity of 2,300.

In 1934, the Imperial Theatre was rented to Leo Ernest Ouimet and in 1936, RKO Radio Pictures sold the movie house to Consolidated Theatres.

In 1950, the Imperial Theatre was first renovated and was altered again for Cinerama in 1954.

In 1970, it was sold to Cinema International and was renamed the Cine Centre in 1974. The theater was twinned in 1975 and was renamed the Imperial Theatre in 1976.

In 1980, United Theatres (part of Famous Players) repurchased the Imperial and it was restored and reopened in 1981.

In 1986, the Imperial Theatre became the first cinema in Quebec to receive THX certification. It was donated to the Montreal Film Festival in 1995 by Famous Players.

The Cinema Imperial currently seats 819, and is still a true “Cinema Treasure”.

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Palace Theatre

Built as the Allen Theatre for movies in 1921 at what is now 698 Ste-Catherine, between McGill College Ave. and University St. Its architect, C. Howard Crane, designed other theatres in Canada and the U.S. Highly decorated interior with columns, marble stairways, crystal chandeliers and paintings. Redecorated by Emmanuel Briffa in 1928 when it became the Palace, with Greek-inspired statues, a central dome and tile mosaics. Showed the city’s first sound pictures. Gutted and subdivided into multiple cinemas in 1980. Most recently a hamburger restaurant.

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Bennett’s Theatre

Opened in 1907 on the north side of Ste-Catherine at City Councillors St. It was the first theatre in Montreal built specifically for vaudeville, by Bennett’s Theatrical Enterprises Ltd. Renamed the Orpheum in 1910. From its beginnings, the theatre also showed moving pictures. It became a double-feature film house in the 1940s, then was home of the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde company before it moved into the old Gayety Theatre. Demolished in the 1960s.

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Théâtre Français

Opened in 1884 on the south side of Ste-Catherine at St-Dominique St. Name changed to Billy Moore’s Lyceum, and Sara Bernhardt performed here in 1905. Loews chain in New York renovated the theatre in 1920 and renamed it Loews Court. Its name changed back to Français in 1924. In 1960, it began showing only French-language movies. Became Eros, a porno theatre, in 1970. Closed in 1981. Reopened as Club Metropolis in 1986.

On September 17, 2017 it reopened as a concert venue named M TELUS after a wireless provider.

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Gayety Theatre

The building which housed the Gayety Theatre, was designed by the architects firm of Ross and MacFarlane, for the Canadian Amusement Company. The building with its balcony and gallery gallery, featured seating for 1600 guests. It became one of Montreal’s first landmarks of public entertainment. Opening its doors on in 1912, the Gayety offered American Vaudeville, a popular form of entertainment at the time of the Great Depression. It saw packed crowds of not only men but women and children. Vaudeville disappeared around 1929 and the theatre became a movie house for a number of years, before becoming one of the most popular cabarets iin Montreal.

During Prohibition in the USA, Montreal businessman Samuel Bronfman, founder of Distillers Corporation Limited was the importer of Seagram’s Canadian Whiskey, and Montreal became the destination for Americans looking for a drink and other pleasures. Burlesque houses, variety theatres and jazz clubs thrived during this era. Gambling and prostitution, unrivaled in North America, earned Montreal the nickname “Sin City”. The Gayety Theatre featured burlesque artists like Gypsy Rose and exotic dancer Lily St-Cyr, considered the “Queen of Strippers” in the 1940s and 1950s. She often performed topless, and was one of Montreal’s main cultural attractions, taking in an average of $5000 a week, an amount unheard of at the time. Her performances included erotic versions of classical stories, oriental fantasies of harems and sex slaves, and scenarios set in bathrooms and bedrooms. She performed her last show in March 1957. By the late 1940s, the Gayety Theatre along with other clubs of Montreal’s red light district, became associated with organized crime and corruption.

In 1950, lawyer (and later Montreal mayor) Jean Drapeau and former police chief and lawyer Pax Plante along with other political and religious individuals formed “La Comite de Moralite Publique”, a morality squad that promised to rid Montreal of gambling, prostitution and corruption, much of which was centered around the red light district. They imposed harsh curfews and closing times, which caused many of the cabarets to shut down, including the Gayety Theatre which closed its doors in 1953. From 1953 to 1956, it was known as Radio City.

In 1956, Canadian author, playwright, actor, director, and producer Gratien Gélinas, who is considered one of the founders of modern Canadian theatre and film. bought the theater. It became the Comédie Canadienne, a French theater that featured shows with performers like Gilles Vigneault, Monique Leyrac, Claude Léveillée, Jacques Brel, Barbara and Serge Reggiani. In 1972, the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, bought the building and is the current owner. The TNM is a theatre company and venue, featuring national and international classic plays.

The building is located at 84 rue Sainte-Catherine West in Montreal.

courtesy – Montreal Times

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

The Theaters of Ste. Catherine St.–His Majesty’s Theatre

Guy St., just north of Ste-Catherine, where Concordia University’s engineering, computer science and visual arts complex stands today. Built as Her Majesty's Theatre in 1897-98 during the reign of Queen Victoria, the name changed to "His" in 1901 under a new king of England, and the name would change once again in 1952 with the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. A stage theatre with vaudeville, opera, ballet and theatre and that also showed movies at least as early as 1918. Sarah Bernhardt performed here, as did Lon Chaney. The theatre was demolished in 1963.

©2017 The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

The Theaters of Ste. Catherine Street

In the early 20th century, Ste-Catherine St. was abuzz with cinemas, concert halls and theatres. Today, most of them have vanished, and many of the original buildings have been razed and replaced with not so much as a plaque to mark this vanished era. From west to east, here are some of the theatres that once lined the street.

Seville Theatre

The theater, designed by Cajetan L. Dufort (full name Louis-Joseph Cajetan Dufort, also the architect of the Corona Theater), was built in 1929 - just five years after the nearby Montreal Forum - in a then -bustling part of downtown Montreal. Its interior was designed by Emmanuel Briffa.

The Seville was a single-screen, 1148 seat theater and one of only 15 atmospheric theaters ever built in Canada. Its exterior had a Spanish theme (hence the name Seville) with its ceiling painted to resemble a night sky with sparkling stars. There was an additional mechanism in place that could be turned on to give the appearance of clouds moving across the sky. The theater was built with shops in the front, including an ice cream parlor on the east side and a drugstore on the west.

Opened in 1929 at Ste-Catherine and Chomedey Sts. One of the United Amusement chain’s neighbourhood double-bill movie houses.

Interior decorated by Emmanuel Briffa. Became a concert hall in the 1940s, with performers including Tony Bennett, Nat “King” Cole and Harry Belafonte.

Operated as a repertory theatre for a decade before its developer-owner shut it down in 1984. It was left to fall into ruin. Its carcass was razed to make way for condos in 2010.

(c)2017 The Past Whispers

All Rights Reserved

100 years of Ouimetoscope

 

On 1 ^st  January 1906, Montrealers flock to the entry of a new institution of "moving pictures", the Ouimetoscope. Located in the Poiré room, on the corner of Montcalm and Saint-Catherine streets, the new attraction brings home a hundred dollars to its owner, Léo-Ernest Ouimet, in the first week.

 

Born in Saint-Martin on Île Jésus (today Laval) in 1877, Ouimet leaves the family farm to move to Montreal. He learned the trade of electrician and became a theater lighting designer. Strongly interested in the new medium of cinema, he takes care of projections at Sohmer Park, produces short films and creates a company, the Ouimet Film Exchange. The projection device he conceives, the Ouimetoscope, even influences the work realized by Thomas Edison. As part of his documentary achievements, Ouimet will appeal to Lactance Giroux as a cameraman. The latter became, in 1920, the first photographer hired by the City of Montreal.

In 1907, Léo-Ernest Ouimet demolished the building he occupied and began construction of the "Grand Ouimetoscope" which opens these doors in August. The following year, several cinemas opened their doors and the competition became more fierce. The American film distribution monopoly created Canadian branches and thus eliminated Ouimet from this market. At the same time, the Montreal Church began its campaign against Sunday cinematographic performances. At the end of the summer of 1908, Mayor Louis Payette, yielding to the pressure of the League for the observance of Sunday, caused contraventions to the various cinemas. Due to lung problems in two of his children, the Ouimet family settled in California each winter from 1913.

During the First World War, Ouimet withdrew from the projection to redo the distribution again and especially the realization. Among other things, he was given a film about the opening of the Bibliothèque de Montréal by Marshal Joffre in May 1917.

Following the death of two of his children, Ouimet settled down in Los Angeles in 1921, Produced the feature film Why get married that will have little success. His financial situation degraded, he accepted a position for a distribution company in Toronto but returned to Hollywood in 1930. Ruined, he returned to Quebec in 1933 to become a year later manager of the Imperial cinema. Since his financial situation had not improved, he accepted a position as manager of a branch of the Commission des liqueurs. At the time of his retirement in 1956, he was a store clerk. He died on 2 March 1972 at the age of 94 years.

 

In 1978, Léon H. Bélanger's nephew, Léon H. Bélanger, published a book on the life of his uncle and the beginnings of the Quebec cinema, Les Ouimetoscopes. In May 1979, the author handed over his manuscript to the city's archives. This document and its printed version constituted the Fonds Léon H. Bélanger ( P55).

 

- courtesy Archives of Montreal

©2016 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved