Hollywood Theatre (Toronto)
Toronto's Hollywood Theatre opened on 1930, at 1519 Yonge Street.[1][2] It was the first cinema in Toronto specifically designed to show talking pictures – movies with sound. It was designed by architect Herbert George Duerr, who designed it with a Moorish facade. As built it contained 1,321 seats.
The venue was operated by the Famous Player's chain.[3] The Odeon chain built the Odeon Hyland immediately south of the Hollywood.[2]
The building was renovated multiple times, adding a second auditorium, seating 800 patrons, in 1946.[1] According to author Doug Taylor, it became the first cinema in Canada to have more than one auditorium.
In 1964 the film Mary Poppins played, at the theatre, for 44 weeks.[4] 500,000 tickets were sold.
Famous Player's closed the theatre in February 1999, and it was demolished later in 1999.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Doug Taylor (2016). Toronto's Local Movie Theatres of Yesteryear: Brought Back to Thrill You Again. Dundurn Press. pp. 28, 32, 38–40. ISBN 9781459733428.
- ^ a b
Derek Flack (2015-12-24). "The lost movie theatres of St. Clair West". Blog TO. Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
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Janice Bradbeer (2016-04-14). "Once Upon A City: When Hollywood came north". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2016-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
Famous Players shuttered the Hollywood at Yonge and St. Clair in early February 1999.
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Nicholas Gergesha. "Change and Transgression: A case study of Deer Park and the Hollywood theatre". Local film cultures. Archived from the original on 2013-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
In autumn of 1964 Leonard N. Bishop, manager of the Hollywood theatre on Yonge Street north of St. Clair, booked a new Disney production called Mary Poppins. The picture, which ran for a record 44 weeks and brought in more than 500,000 patrons, marked a watershed moment for not only the theatre but also for the residents of the suburban area it occupied.
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