I too am sad to see these venues closing, though I understand how hard the business is. When I lived in High Park, I frequented the Revue and Odeon, and they were always empty. I used to take the College Car to work every day and watched excitedly as the Royal was restored in the Mid-90's, so it's a double pisser that it's closing. Who else is going to show a "Kung fu Fridays" series?
There's a great book, if you can get your hands on it, called
The Nabes; Toronto's Wonderful Neighbourhood Movie Houses, by John Sebert
Here's a review that includes some fun history:
Quote:
The "Nabes" - book review
TAKE ONE, Dec, 2001 by Chris Blakeman
The "Nabes": Toronto's Wonderful Neighbourhood Movie Houses, by John Sebert, Mosaic Press, Toronto, 145 pages, $25.00
The "Nabes" is a Toronto-centric look at independent movie theatres that dotted the urban landscape from the 1920s, the golden era of silent cinema, to the 1950s when fierce competition from the larger chains, television and cinemascope killed off many of the "nabes," or neighbourhood theatres. Photographer John Sebert has done a fine job tracking down these 86 time capsules, all reproduced with fine archival photographs and accompanied with a photo, by himself, of the existing building as it stands today. Remarkably, most of the original structures still exist, merely converted into another use - a bank, a McDonald's, a computer shop.
One prime example of this transformation is the Victory Theatre at the northwest corner of Spadina and Dundas. Built in 1922, on the rubble of an older theatre, the Victory began life as the Standard producing Yiddish theatre. In 1935, it became the Strand showing Hollywood fare. Then 20th Century, an independent chain operated by Nat Taylor, took over in 1940 and, being the early days of the Second World War, logically renamed it the Victory. It morphed into an upscale strip joint in the 1960s and 1970s, and eventually became the Golden Harvest Theatre in 1975, catering to the large Chinese community that had grown up around it. What Sebert leaves out of his account is that the Victory was the best place to hear the early punk bands, including the legendary night Rush played on a double bill with the New York Dolls
|
It's now a Royal Bank Branch.