BLOOR DANFORTH 'Nabes' Cinemas, by Jamie Bradburn
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:08 pm
You’ve seen the romanticized images of moviegoing in mid-20th century North America. On every major street, whether in a downtown theatre district, a cluster around a major intersection, or in the middle of neighbourhood, the night would glow from the flickering lights rolling around the cinema’s name or marquee. Children and adults lined up at the ticket booth, where a teenager hands out a passport to a full evening of entertainment which, depending on the type of theatre, may be headlined by the latest blockbuster or a double/triple bill of B-movie excitement.
Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue were no exception. Depending on the year, up to 35 cinemas were located along or close to both streets. Every size and type of cinema operated at one point, from cheaply assembled theatres during the silent era to premiere-quality palaces like the University and the Uptown.
Most cinemas along Bloor and Danforth could be classified as neighbourhood theatres or “nabes.” These theatres relied on a steady diet of B movies, serials, and re-releases, and kept the customers coming by changing their bills up to two or three times per week. What they may have lacked in opulence compared to the grand downtown theatres was compensated by the vitality they brought to their communities. “You usually walked to the theatre,” John Sebert noted in his book The Nabes, “and very seldom went to one outside your own neighbourhood. This made the manager a very important person locally. His main job, of course, was to get people into the theatre by promoting it visibly, and by doing this he became a local public figure. Part lawyer, confessor, policeman, banker, and other babysitter, he was referred to as the mayor of the district.” Or, in the case of Donald Summerville, who managed the Prince of Wales at Danforth and Woodbine, would become the city’s mayor.
Regular promotions boosted attendance, especially giveaways and special offers provided during the depths of the Great Depression. One example of a popular gimmick used by theatres along the Danforth was “plate night,” where each week patrons could get pieces to build their kitchen collections. One week a salad plate would be available, a soup bowl the next.
These theatres began their decline during the 1950s partly due to declining attendance as television sales rose, partly due to the cost of technological upgrades the major studios and theatre chains introduced to stay competitive, such as widescreen films and stereo sound systems. Competition also arose from new suburban theatres, which offered multiple screens and free parking.
Staying in business meant new approaches or picking up on passing trends. The city’s growing cultural diversity created a market for foreign language films during the late 1960s and early 1970s, which saw several theatres along Danforth convert to Greek programming, while the Paradise briefly catered to the Italian community. Following wider trends across North America during the 1970s, porn was seen as a salvation by both chains and independent operators, which also saw theatre names changed to sound more titillating, such as the Eden and the Eve at Bloor and Bathurst. As that market waned, the final routes were to become rep houses, convert to other businesses, or face the wrecking ball. The few surviving cinemas—Hot Docs, Kingsway, Paradise, Revue, Varsity—have carved out their niches and continue to serve their communities with variations on the classic movie-going experience.
Here are some of the theatres that have graced the Bloor-Danforth corridor, going from east to west:
Allenby/Roxy (1215 Danforth at Greenwood)
Opened in June 1936, the Allenby was designed by the architectural firm of Kaplan and Sprachman, whose work dominated Canadian cinemas from the 1920s to 1940s. It included many of the Art Deco touches and detailing found in theatres of this era and, according to its opening ads, was “scientifically air conditioned.” After a brief run showing Greek films around 1970 as the Apollo, it became the Roxy rep house. Originally offering 99 cent admissions, it offered a mix of art films and revivals for older customers and, for a younger weekend pot-smoking crowd, a mix of rock music features like Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same and live novelty acts. For several years, it presented packed screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show, drawing fans from as far as the upper Midwest. It also boasted one of the first optical Dolby stereo sound systems in the country.
After spells as a trouble-prone afterhours club, a vacant building, and an Indian cinema/banquet hall, Imperial Oil purchased the site in 2006. Planning to convert the property into a gas station, convenience store, and Tim Horton’s, it consulted with ERA Architects on how to work with the building’s heritage elements. The result, after consulting plans and vintage photographs, was a series of restorations that include recreating the marquee and ticket booth to go along with the original doors on the Danforth entrance. It remains a busy neighbourhood hangout.
Allen’s Danforth/Century/Titania/Music Hall (147 Danforth, east of Broadview)
Capitalizing on an expected development boom along Danforth Avenue following the opening of the Prince Edward Viaduct in 1918, and successfully fending off an attempt by three smaller theatres to block its license, Allen’s Danforth welcomed its first patrons in August 1919. The Allen brothers, who created Canada’s first national cinema chain, believed their theatres classed up neighbourhoods. “We are never afraid to establish a moving picture theatre in a neighbourhood that already has a theatre,” Jule Allen told Maclean’s in a 1920 interview, “if the other house shows only Wild West thrillers and such trashy pictures, because we know that everybody wants to see good pictures, and if they go see poor pictures it is because there are no others for them to see.” Early ads proclaimed that Allen’s Danforth was “Canada’s First Super-Suburban Photoplay Palace.”
After the Allens went bankrupt in 1923, the theatre was briefly independent before it was purchased by a Famous Players subsidiary in 1927. Renamed the Century during the 1930s, it acquired its present curved marquee in 1940. Over time, its importance decreased, as Famous Players placed more prestigious fare at the Palace, located just east of Pape. As the Titania, it showed a mix of Greek and B-movies during the 1970s. That decade ended with its conversion to a live performance venue as the Music Hall. Apart from a couple of brief closures and a few years as a rep cinema, it remains a top concert venue. But its roots are still in evidence whenever you look up to the “AT” logo carved into its façade.
University (100 Bloor West)
With nearly 1,400 seats, the University was among Famous Players’ showcase cinemas, where roadshow blockbusters played in 70mm prints and films such as The Empire Strikes Back received their Toronto debut. But only the curving façade and ticket booth remain, as the rest of the building was demolished in the 1980s and later used as a parking lot and Pottery Barn. The closure of the University was part of a line of closures around Yorkville (including the Cumberland, Plaza, Towne, and Uptown) that precipitated the Toronto International Film Festival’s eventual shift further downtown.
Midtown/Capri/Eden/Bloor/Hot Docs (506 Bloor West)
A chameleon of a movie theatre, and the lone survivor of a cluster of cinemas that once existed around Bloor and Bathurst, all of which have either been demolished (such as the Alhambra, which boasted a design inspired by the Spanish palace) or converted to other uses (such as the Metro, which, when it closed in 2013, was one of Toronto’s last adult cinemas). Theatres have occupied the site since 1913, with the current building opening as the Midtown in the early 1940s. As the Eden it presented porn in the 1970s, then became one of the city’s major rep houses as the Bloor in the 1980s. The Hot Docs Festival took over programming in 2011 and, coupled with renovations, turned the cinema into the city’s premier showcase for documentary films.
Bloor (529 Bloor West)
The other major contribution of the Allens to Bloor and Danforth, Allen’s Bloor (not be confused with the later Bloor cinema across the street) opened a few months ahead of their east end cinema in 1919. Later operated by Famous Players, it closed in the 1950s, though the name was later used by the cinema across the street. During the late 1960s it was revamped as the Blue Orchid, a cabaret/dinner theatre specializing in lounge singers, burlesque, and musical comedy revues. In 1974 it became the Oriental Palace, which was . It assumed its current identity as Lee’s Palace in 1985, became one of the city’s premiere rock music venues and dance spots.
Paradise/Eve’s Paradise (1006 Bloor West)
Like the Midtown, the Paradise opened in 1937 on a site previously occupied by other theatres. Like the Allenby, it was a neighbourhood cinema with art deco touches, in this case designed by Benjamin Brown, who is best known for his work on historic buildings in the Garment District. It passed through numerous owners and formats, including Italian films in the 1960s, porn in the 1980s, and a rep cinema in the 1990s. After closing in 2006, it sat unused for years before it was purchased by Moray Tawse in 2012. A long renovation process followed, which included a replica of the original theatre sign (which had been replaced by a thin, unimpressive strip). It reopened in 2019 as a combination cinema, performance space, bar, and restaurant.
Revue (400 Roncesvalles)
Not far south of Bloor sits Toronto’s oldest operating cinema, which, with a couple of brief breaks in the 21st century, has served its community since 1912. The Revue faced initial backlash from Toronto Board of Education trustees who felt it was too close to a school and would corrupt innocent children, but neighbours and the city’s police board felt otherwise. Remodelling by Kaplan and Sprachman in 1938 brought with it the theatre’s longtime marquee. It remained a cozy space, reaching a peak of 543 seats before two rows were removed in the mid-1950s to install a snack bar.
The Revue switched to rep house programming in 1972, which it has continued to the present. Among the many series it has run over the years are Designing the Movies, Kung-Fu Friday, and Silent Revue. It became part of the Festival rep house chain, but closed with its remaining theatres in 2006. While efforts were underway to save the theatre, heavy snow caused the marquee to crash to the sidewalk (it would be replaced with a flat front reflecting the longtime style of the theatre).. Community fundraising resulted in its resurrection as a non-profit cinema in 2007, and would mark its 100th birthday by receiving a grant to convert to digital projection.
Runnymede (2223 Bloor West)
“Throughout the premier performance of the theatre hundreds lined the pavements, thrilled by the excitement of the hour, while police remained on guard,” the Globe observed on the Runnymede’s opening night in June 1927. “Strings of coloured lights twinkled like brilliant stars at the entrance of the theatre ad gay banners and the Union Jack contributed to the street decoration.” When Ontario Lieutenant-Governor William D. Ross arrived inside the theatre, the audience rose and sang “God Save the King.” Designed by Alfred Chapman, whose other significant works include the Royal Ontario Museum, the Runnymede was known as “Canada’s Theatre Beautiful” for its use of the Atmospheric style of employing large murals of stars amid a night sky.
The space was used as a bingo hall for most of the 1970s before reverting to a cinema in 1980. When the theatre closed a second time in 1998 to be converted into a Chapters bookstore, 1,600 people signed a petition to protest the big box chain’s arrival. Restoration was undertaken to respect the heritage elements of the building, ensuring that it could easily be reverted back into a theatre in the future. For 15 years the bookstore became part of the neighbourhood, and its departure in 2013 was greeted with an uproar from those who’d grown to love the book store. Two years later, the building reopened as a Shoppers Drug Mart.
Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue were no exception. Depending on the year, up to 35 cinemas were located along or close to both streets. Every size and type of cinema operated at one point, from cheaply assembled theatres during the silent era to premiere-quality palaces like the University and the Uptown.
Most cinemas along Bloor and Danforth could be classified as neighbourhood theatres or “nabes.” These theatres relied on a steady diet of B movies, serials, and re-releases, and kept the customers coming by changing their bills up to two or three times per week. What they may have lacked in opulence compared to the grand downtown theatres was compensated by the vitality they brought to their communities. “You usually walked to the theatre,” John Sebert noted in his book The Nabes, “and very seldom went to one outside your own neighbourhood. This made the manager a very important person locally. His main job, of course, was to get people into the theatre by promoting it visibly, and by doing this he became a local public figure. Part lawyer, confessor, policeman, banker, and other babysitter, he was referred to as the mayor of the district.” Or, in the case of Donald Summerville, who managed the Prince of Wales at Danforth and Woodbine, would become the city’s mayor.
Regular promotions boosted attendance, especially giveaways and special offers provided during the depths of the Great Depression. One example of a popular gimmick used by theatres along the Danforth was “plate night,” where each week patrons could get pieces to build their kitchen collections. One week a salad plate would be available, a soup bowl the next.
These theatres began their decline during the 1950s partly due to declining attendance as television sales rose, partly due to the cost of technological upgrades the major studios and theatre chains introduced to stay competitive, such as widescreen films and stereo sound systems. Competition also arose from new suburban theatres, which offered multiple screens and free parking.
Staying in business meant new approaches or picking up on passing trends. The city’s growing cultural diversity created a market for foreign language films during the late 1960s and early 1970s, which saw several theatres along Danforth convert to Greek programming, while the Paradise briefly catered to the Italian community. Following wider trends across North America during the 1970s, porn was seen as a salvation by both chains and independent operators, which also saw theatre names changed to sound more titillating, such as the Eden and the Eve at Bloor and Bathurst. As that market waned, the final routes were to become rep houses, convert to other businesses, or face the wrecking ball. The few surviving cinemas—Hot Docs, Kingsway, Paradise, Revue, Varsity—have carved out their niches and continue to serve their communities with variations on the classic movie-going experience.
Here are some of the theatres that have graced the Bloor-Danforth corridor, going from east to west:
Allenby/Roxy (1215 Danforth at Greenwood)
Opened in June 1936, the Allenby was designed by the architectural firm of Kaplan and Sprachman, whose work dominated Canadian cinemas from the 1920s to 1940s. It included many of the Art Deco touches and detailing found in theatres of this era and, according to its opening ads, was “scientifically air conditioned.” After a brief run showing Greek films around 1970 as the Apollo, it became the Roxy rep house. Originally offering 99 cent admissions, it offered a mix of art films and revivals for older customers and, for a younger weekend pot-smoking crowd, a mix of rock music features like Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same and live novelty acts. For several years, it presented packed screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show, drawing fans from as far as the upper Midwest. It also boasted one of the first optical Dolby stereo sound systems in the country.
After spells as a trouble-prone afterhours club, a vacant building, and an Indian cinema/banquet hall, Imperial Oil purchased the site in 2006. Planning to convert the property into a gas station, convenience store, and Tim Horton’s, it consulted with ERA Architects on how to work with the building’s heritage elements. The result, after consulting plans and vintage photographs, was a series of restorations that include recreating the marquee and ticket booth to go along with the original doors on the Danforth entrance. It remains a busy neighbourhood hangout.
Allen’s Danforth/Century/Titania/Music Hall (147 Danforth, east of Broadview)
Capitalizing on an expected development boom along Danforth Avenue following the opening of the Prince Edward Viaduct in 1918, and successfully fending off an attempt by three smaller theatres to block its license, Allen’s Danforth welcomed its first patrons in August 1919. The Allen brothers, who created Canada’s first national cinema chain, believed their theatres classed up neighbourhoods. “We are never afraid to establish a moving picture theatre in a neighbourhood that already has a theatre,” Jule Allen told Maclean’s in a 1920 interview, “if the other house shows only Wild West thrillers and such trashy pictures, because we know that everybody wants to see good pictures, and if they go see poor pictures it is because there are no others for them to see.” Early ads proclaimed that Allen’s Danforth was “Canada’s First Super-Suburban Photoplay Palace.”
After the Allens went bankrupt in 1923, the theatre was briefly independent before it was purchased by a Famous Players subsidiary in 1927. Renamed the Century during the 1930s, it acquired its present curved marquee in 1940. Over time, its importance decreased, as Famous Players placed more prestigious fare at the Palace, located just east of Pape. As the Titania, it showed a mix of Greek and B-movies during the 1970s. That decade ended with its conversion to a live performance venue as the Music Hall. Apart from a couple of brief closures and a few years as a rep cinema, it remains a top concert venue. But its roots are still in evidence whenever you look up to the “AT” logo carved into its façade.
University (100 Bloor West)
With nearly 1,400 seats, the University was among Famous Players’ showcase cinemas, where roadshow blockbusters played in 70mm prints and films such as The Empire Strikes Back received their Toronto debut. But only the curving façade and ticket booth remain, as the rest of the building was demolished in the 1980s and later used as a parking lot and Pottery Barn. The closure of the University was part of a line of closures around Yorkville (including the Cumberland, Plaza, Towne, and Uptown) that precipitated the Toronto International Film Festival’s eventual shift further downtown.
Midtown/Capri/Eden/Bloor/Hot Docs (506 Bloor West)
A chameleon of a movie theatre, and the lone survivor of a cluster of cinemas that once existed around Bloor and Bathurst, all of which have either been demolished (such as the Alhambra, which boasted a design inspired by the Spanish palace) or converted to other uses (such as the Metro, which, when it closed in 2013, was one of Toronto’s last adult cinemas). Theatres have occupied the site since 1913, with the current building opening as the Midtown in the early 1940s. As the Eden it presented porn in the 1970s, then became one of the city’s major rep houses as the Bloor in the 1980s. The Hot Docs Festival took over programming in 2011 and, coupled with renovations, turned the cinema into the city’s premier showcase for documentary films.
Bloor (529 Bloor West)
The other major contribution of the Allens to Bloor and Danforth, Allen’s Bloor (not be confused with the later Bloor cinema across the street) opened a few months ahead of their east end cinema in 1919. Later operated by Famous Players, it closed in the 1950s, though the name was later used by the cinema across the street. During the late 1960s it was revamped as the Blue Orchid, a cabaret/dinner theatre specializing in lounge singers, burlesque, and musical comedy revues. In 1974 it became the Oriental Palace, which was . It assumed its current identity as Lee’s Palace in 1985, became one of the city’s premiere rock music venues and dance spots.
Paradise/Eve’s Paradise (1006 Bloor West)
Like the Midtown, the Paradise opened in 1937 on a site previously occupied by other theatres. Like the Allenby, it was a neighbourhood cinema with art deco touches, in this case designed by Benjamin Brown, who is best known for his work on historic buildings in the Garment District. It passed through numerous owners and formats, including Italian films in the 1960s, porn in the 1980s, and a rep cinema in the 1990s. After closing in 2006, it sat unused for years before it was purchased by Moray Tawse in 2012. A long renovation process followed, which included a replica of the original theatre sign (which had been replaced by a thin, unimpressive strip). It reopened in 2019 as a combination cinema, performance space, bar, and restaurant.
Revue (400 Roncesvalles)
Not far south of Bloor sits Toronto’s oldest operating cinema, which, with a couple of brief breaks in the 21st century, has served its community since 1912. The Revue faced initial backlash from Toronto Board of Education trustees who felt it was too close to a school and would corrupt innocent children, but neighbours and the city’s police board felt otherwise. Remodelling by Kaplan and Sprachman in 1938 brought with it the theatre’s longtime marquee. It remained a cozy space, reaching a peak of 543 seats before two rows were removed in the mid-1950s to install a snack bar.
The Revue switched to rep house programming in 1972, which it has continued to the present. Among the many series it has run over the years are Designing the Movies, Kung-Fu Friday, and Silent Revue. It became part of the Festival rep house chain, but closed with its remaining theatres in 2006. While efforts were underway to save the theatre, heavy snow caused the marquee to crash to the sidewalk (it would be replaced with a flat front reflecting the longtime style of the theatre).. Community fundraising resulted in its resurrection as a non-profit cinema in 2007, and would mark its 100th birthday by receiving a grant to convert to digital projection.
Runnymede (2223 Bloor West)
“Throughout the premier performance of the theatre hundreds lined the pavements, thrilled by the excitement of the hour, while police remained on guard,” the Globe observed on the Runnymede’s opening night in June 1927. “Strings of coloured lights twinkled like brilliant stars at the entrance of the theatre ad gay banners and the Union Jack contributed to the street decoration.” When Ontario Lieutenant-Governor William D. Ross arrived inside the theatre, the audience rose and sang “God Save the King.” Designed by Alfred Chapman, whose other significant works include the Royal Ontario Museum, the Runnymede was known as “Canada’s Theatre Beautiful” for its use of the Atmospheric style of employing large murals of stars amid a night sky.
The space was used as a bingo hall for most of the 1970s before reverting to a cinema in 1980. When the theatre closed a second time in 1998 to be converted into a Chapters bookstore, 1,600 people signed a petition to protest the big box chain’s arrival. Restoration was undertaken to respect the heritage elements of the building, ensuring that it could easily be reverted back into a theatre in the future. For 15 years the bookstore became part of the neighbourhood, and its departure in 2013 was greeted with an uproar from those who’d grown to love the book store. Two years later, the building reopened as a Shoppers Drug Mart.