Ridiculous Things: Canon Theatre, Toronto

Filed under Ridiculous!History Lessons

A.K.A. The Absolutely Ridiculous History of the Canon Theatre in Toronto, Canada

A very typical day for me includes the repeated “researching” of random things I have come across: companies, products, events, and you get the drift.

So, back to the article, about a week ago, I was stumbling upon the history of the Canon Theatre in Toronto (previously called the Pantages Theatre). I never realized how a theatre in Toronto could have such a ridiculous story behind it.

A Brief Pre-history

It all started in 1920 when Nathan L. Nathanson (check out the name) decided to build a theatre for vaudeville and movies, and at the time was Canada’s largest and most elegant. Nathanson was the founder of Famous Players, a (former) theatre company in Canada. It was one of a number of theatres named “Pantages” after Alexander Pantages. This Pantages circuit ended in 1929, when Alexander Pantages was convicted of the rape of a 17-year old chorus girl and sentenced to 50 years in prison, which was later successfully appealed.

In 1930, The Pantages was renamed Imperial, and became solely a cinema, and came under ownership of Famous Players. In 1972, the Imperial closed after a 9 month run of The Godfather, and was divided until 6 seperate cinemas, utilizing the balconies and lower floors. It was “re-decorated” into 1970s styling of yellow, red, blue, black, and silver, covering up the marble and gold leaf. Right through until the early 1980s, the theatre was a major cash grab for Famous Players.

Egregious!

Now, for the ridiculous bit. The next bit of history is hard to explain. But, for the gist of it, the theatre closed. It had a “landlord”, an elderly woman from Michigan, but the main lobby was leased out to Famous Players. Famous Players wanted to renegotiate the lease, wanting a more favourable lease rate. She threatened to approach Famous Player’s rival, Cineplex Odeon. Famous Players dared her to, saying that Cineplex Odeon cannot possibly make use of half a theatre. They were wrong. Cineplex Odeon, that day, seized control of the north half of the Imperial, essentialy locking Famous Players out. Cineplex now had control of the theatre offices, all the lobby space, 4 of the 6 projection booths, all of cinema 2, and the back half of cinemas 5 and 6. Walls were erected to keep Famous Players out of Cineplex Odeon’s space. Isn’t this ridiculous enough yet? It gets even better.

Cineplex Odeon drew up plans to completely gut their half, and build 3 new cinemas. This was scrapped to just build a large one screen cinema. The new Pantages Cinema opened up in December 1987. On the gala performance at the new cinema, Famous Players organized a construction crew to stand by with jackhammers on their half on the other side of the drywall partition, 5 feet behind the Pantages screen. Famous Players also called the Toronto Fire Department complaining that there wee not adequate fire exits for safe public occupancy. The inspection was carried out a half hour before the gala, and found wet concrete and were incomplete, which cancelled the event. Crews worked around the clock to finish the fire exits, and showed the movie the next night. After the opening, Famous Players removed all the doors on the fire exits on their side, allowing cold air to fill their side. Because the partition was drywall, the cold air entered the Pantages Cinema, too. Finally, Famous Players sold their half to Cineplex, but with a contract that Cineplex Odeon must never use the cinema again for movies.

A (Summarized) Happy Ending

Eventually, the theatre eas restored to it’s 1920s look and opened with the Canadian premiere of the Phantom of the Opera musical. In 2001, Canon Canada, Inc. pledged to the theatre, and it was renamed to the Canon Theatre. And on June 13, 2005, Cineplex Odeon gobbled up Famous Players from Viacom. Literally.

Whew. Talk about ridiculous.

Sources: Canon Theatre, Cineplex Entertainment
Photo Sources: Canon Theatre