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Royal, Revue, Kingsway Cinemas

Great news! Now if the Paradise and Roxy can be saved we'll have a spattering of great neighbourhood cinemas in the east and west ends of the city.
 
It would be nice to see something done with the Paradise, although I won't be holding my breath. The unfortunate news is that there seems to be declining interest in the "repertory" cinemas.

As for the Roxy, it hasn't been in business as a theatre for many years. It was actually sold to Imperial Oil a few years ago. Imperial owns the vacant property immediately to the west, which had been an old Texaco station years ago. The two combined properties would be a good site for a gas bar (I would have thought), but nothing seems to be happening there yet, and the poor old Roxy continues to sit there vacant.
 
And a Tim Hortons'....sigh

Yes Imperial Oil (better known as Esso) is the owner of the Roxy.

The plan calls for retaining the building for use as an On-The-Run store and a full-service Tim Horton's.

To get get the local councillor's blessing;

They agreed to retain the original ceiling, I'm told, and they also agreed to retain the raked (sloped) floor.

I've been trying to wrap my head around a store on a slope....(don't spill anything!) LOL

While I suppose saving the ceiling is something....I find the use of the building as a variety store and Timmie's to be rather sad.

I think it would be viable as a theatre run by the right group; but the guy who last owned it, the same guy who owns the Metro porn Cinema by Christie/Bloor) did not know how to market or program. He also made the balcony into 2 tiny squat little theatres, before later making it a banquet type facility.
 
The Roxy never had a balcony. I've seen painful photos of how the cinema was chopped up into those dreaded mini cinemas but I think they were either divided up on the main floor or they trashed the projection booth and the apartment above the lobby to make room for them.
 
Observer Walt said:
The unfortunate news is that there seems to be declining interest in the "repertory" cinemas.
Click to expand...

The Bloor seems to do very well. They do have a really good location and have a lot of festivals catering to diverse constituencies and theme nights. The Big Lebowski drew a ton of people last night.
 
Yes the Bloor has done well, and a big part of the reason as you point out is specialized festivals or nights. The Royal is doing well for a similar reason (festivals) and their willingness to premiere movies which the big boys (Cineplex, AMC, etc.) apparently don't want.

But quite a number of places have bit the dust in recent years. I'm thinking, most recently, the Paradise, the Music Hall on Danforth, and (until now) the Kingsway. There is less of an audience than there was 10 years ago.

I think it's important to patronize the places that are left, otherwise, they will be lost. I like going to the Revue, although they aren't doing as many "classic" movies as they used to.
 
I heard that the Music Hall is undergoing some renovations, including installing air conditioning (!) with plans to be used more as a live venue in the future.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I heard that the Music Hall is undergoing some renovations, including installing air conditioning (!) with plans to be used more as a live venue in the future.
Click to expand...

It was restored some time ago, and has been a live venue for awhile. I saw Crowded House there a couple of months ago. More recently, they turfed out the ground-floor retail tenants (the chocolate and niknak stores) and constructed a new box office and cafe.
 
Skeezix said:
It was restored some time ago, and has been a live venue for awhile. I saw Crowded House there a couple of months ago. More recently, they turfed out the ground-floor retail tenants (the chocolate and niknak stores) and constructed a new box office and cafe.
Click to expand...

That's great to hear. Hopefully A/C was added!
 
Phantom Cinema

FYI: There is a very large cinema on the northeast corner of Spadina and Dundas that is buried by streetlevel retail. Though not part of the cinema circuit, the fact that it has survived for so long with so little public recognition is intriguing; a bit like the Eaton Auditorium before it was saved.
 
rdaner said:
FYI: There is a very large cinema on the northeast corner of Spadina and Dundas that is buried by streetlevel retail. Though not part of the cinema circuit, the fact that it has survived for so long with so little public recognition is intriguing; a bit like the Eaton Auditorium before it was saved.
Click to expand...

Victory/Standard theatre as it was called. I think there were so many nabes back then, people don't think the structures have any historical significance in them. The Standard is different and it was a stage theatre for the Jewish community. The Standard begin to play films and it was ran by Nat Taylor the co-founder of Cineplex Odeon. Taylor was also an inventor of multiplex theatres. The Standard became a strip club and than ran by Golden Harvest as a Chinese theatre later on. A bank was added to theatre during the 80's.
 
Cast_Member said:
Victory/Standard theatre as it was called. I think there were so many nabes back then, people don't think the structures have any historical significance in them. The Standard is different and it was a stage theatre for the Jewish community. The Standard begin to play films and it was ran by Nat Taylor the co-founder of Cineplex Odeon. Taylor was also an inventor of multiplex theatres. The Standard became a strip club and than ran by Golden Harvest as a Chinese theatre later on. A bank was added to theatre during the 80's.
Click to expand...

Great info. CM. I remember it as the Golden Harvest, but only part of the building was used as a cinema then. I think they split it down the middle or something with the cinema on one side and retail on the other. I do remember that it was pretty small inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXSW3TXcO9o
 
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