Cast_Member
Active Member
The Odeon Humber is set to reopen on Oct 29 and here is the link:
www.cinematreasures.org/theater/4830/
www.cinematreasures.org/theater/4830/
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Movie Theatres in Toronto - Old and New
- Thread starter Benjamin Hemric
- Start date
Towered
Senior Member
What the hell?? I thought the whole block was going to become a condo...
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
My longtime friend Jon, who managed the Roxy cinema on the Danforth in the 70's & 80's, forwarded the link below to me.
I was a 'Roxy regular' from around '77 until the mid 80's. Rocky Horror was on both mine and my friends agenda most weekends but it was also Sunday night double bills & scattered programming throughout the week where I discovered the bizarre and the macabre inside these magical walls. From Pink Flamingos, Mad Max, Harold & Maude to Susperia, I first saw them all on the Roxy's giant screen.
In the early 80's Jon discovered that there was an inventory of Sensurround speaker cabinets piled in a theatre supply warehouse in Don Mills, he purchased two of these monsters for next to nothing, added more power amps. and began to regularly run classic run rock and roll films (Pink Floyd The Wall, The Song Remains the Same, Let There Be Rock etc.) as the Rocky Horror phenomena was beginning to fade. The volume for these films was played at concert level and when combined with the additional Sensurround speaker cabinets the sound pressure levels in the cinema was truly astounding (though nowhere near the true Sensurround effect for films that were released in that format in the during the 1970's). The group who operated the Bloor, Fox & Kingsway cinemas picked up the Roxy in the late 80's, spruced it up a bit, tried to run it as a "respectable" rep. house but pulled out within a year as there was no audience for those types of bookings anymore. VHS had now securely killed off most of the repertory cinemas plus the neighbourhood was in transition.
Some of my greatest movie memories were in the Roxy, I was heartbroken to hear it was coming down as I always hoped that as the neighbourhood eventually gentrifies the cinema could also get a second lease on life, but it wasn't meant to be. It was converted into a nightclub which ended shortly after someone was shot and killed in there, chopped up into 3 mini cinemas but nothing worked, it eventually sat empty for most of the new millennia rotting away. The auditorium was demolished this summer but the front 1/4 of the building remains and the restoration looks really good. At least there's a respectful marker now for what was once a great cinema for many decades and where so many people did the time warp, hundreds of times over.
http://torontoist.com/2010/10/from_double_bill_to_double-double.php#more
A few Roxy memories of a program around 1983/84 + lineups, the lobby and the auditorium in the late 70's
After an evening of Rocky Horror screenings...
I was a 'Roxy regular' from around '77 until the mid 80's. Rocky Horror was on both mine and my friends agenda most weekends but it was also Sunday night double bills & scattered programming throughout the week where I discovered the bizarre and the macabre inside these magical walls. From Pink Flamingos, Mad Max, Harold & Maude to Susperia, I first saw them all on the Roxy's giant screen.
In the early 80's Jon discovered that there was an inventory of Sensurround speaker cabinets piled in a theatre supply warehouse in Don Mills, he purchased two of these monsters for next to nothing, added more power amps. and began to regularly run classic run rock and roll films (Pink Floyd The Wall, The Song Remains the Same, Let There Be Rock etc.) as the Rocky Horror phenomena was beginning to fade. The volume for these films was played at concert level and when combined with the additional Sensurround speaker cabinets the sound pressure levels in the cinema was truly astounding (though nowhere near the true Sensurround effect for films that were released in that format in the during the 1970's). The group who operated the Bloor, Fox & Kingsway cinemas picked up the Roxy in the late 80's, spruced it up a bit, tried to run it as a "respectable" rep. house but pulled out within a year as there was no audience for those types of bookings anymore. VHS had now securely killed off most of the repertory cinemas plus the neighbourhood was in transition.
Some of my greatest movie memories were in the Roxy, I was heartbroken to hear it was coming down as I always hoped that as the neighbourhood eventually gentrifies the cinema could also get a second lease on life, but it wasn't meant to be. It was converted into a nightclub which ended shortly after someone was shot and killed in there, chopped up into 3 mini cinemas but nothing worked, it eventually sat empty for most of the new millennia rotting away. The auditorium was demolished this summer but the front 1/4 of the building remains and the restoration looks really good. At least there's a respectful marker now for what was once a great cinema for many decades and where so many people did the time warp, hundreds of times over.
http://torontoist.com/2010/10/from_double_bill_to_double-double.php#more
A few Roxy memories of a program around 1983/84 + lineups, the lobby and the auditorium in the late 70's
After an evening of Rocky Horror screenings...
adma
Superstar
Wow, the 70s-style Texaco logo.
Cast_Member
Active Member
Cineplex and Empire have announced recently they will be joining forces to convert all their theatres into digital and no longer use 35 mm prints. Here is the link of the news release:
www.sys-con.com/node/1793293
www.sys-con.com/node/1793293
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
This was inevitable but I never would have expected it to happen so soon. I'll miss 35MM film but I've got to admit, digital looks and sounds so much better. I hope that whatever equipment they purchase are 4K or 4K upgradable. It will be interesting to see what the indie cinemas do in the next couple of years.
JasonParis
Moderator
The Humber is re-opening on Friday!
More here...
http://www.blogto.com/film/2011/04/the_humber_cinema_to_re-open_april_29th/
More here...
http://www.blogto.com/film/2011/04/the_humber_cinema_to_re-open_april_29th/
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
The Humber, the York (now the "Yorkville Club" spa at Eglinton & Dunfield), the Danforth (now a fitness centre at Danforth near Pape) and the Coronet (now the jewellery exchange at Gerrard & Yonge) are the only four remaining original Odeon Theatre buildings left in Toronto. All others have been demolished. It's cool to see someone giving this building a chance again, though it's rather unremarkable inside since they twinned it in the late '70's.
adma
Superstar
And doubly unremarkable externally, since they removed the ODEON lettering in the late 90s.
Northern Light
Superstar
While I will def. check out the 'new' Humber........
Its well west of my stomping grounds.
I would really love to see even 1 of the old cinemas that still more or less in tact brought back ( I mean the palace type ones, more than the 'nabe's)
I think the Eglinton might be the best candidate, though it would need its risers and sloped floor restored...
It would be great to see the Bloor properly restored too......(bring back the Art Deco ceiling lights and white ceiling)
Its well west of my stomping grounds.
I would really love to see even 1 of the old cinemas that still more or less in tact brought back ( I mean the palace type ones, more than the 'nabe's)
I think the Eglinton might be the best candidate, though it would need its risers and sloped floor restored...
It would be great to see the Bloor properly restored too......(bring back the Art Deco ceiling lights and white ceiling)
taal
Senior Member
Actually say bye bye to the Eglinton one ... it's being demolished for the 'madison' condos very soon. I think they're going into sales now.
Northern Light
Superstar
"The Eglinton" one being demolished is the former "York Cinema" ...and not nearly as important a venue as "The Eglinton" which is on Eglinton West, just west of Avenue Road.
taal
Senior Member
Oh sorry, that's well used actually.
BTW - isn't there also one on Yonge north of Eglinton (a couple blocks north) ? It's also heavily used.
gmania
Active Member
That's the Capitol Theatre at Yonge and Castlefield. Still around, used for events.
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taal
Senior Member
There's also one on mout pleasent just south of Eglinton as well