The Broadway Theatre was a burlesque live

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and cinema in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The theatre was opened under the name of Globe Theatre, in 1918. It was renamed the Roxy Theatre in the early 1930s and assumed its final name, the Broadway Theatre, in 1937. It was located on the southwest corner of

Bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

and

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

streets at 75 Queen Street West. The Broadway was initially a traditional

Burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

theatre. In 1933, it was renamed the Roxy and offered girlie shows. In 1935, the theatre's manager was murdered in his office. $378 appeared to have been stolen, but, according to author and cinema historian Doug Taylor, Toronto Police did not believe robbery was the motive. The shooter was never identified. Taylor wrote that when New City Hall was to be built on the north side of the street, politicians felt that the Broadway and the Casino Theatre, another Burlesque theatre just five doors west, pawn shops and the block's other businesses were inconsistent with civic dignity, and the whole block was expropriated and demolished in 1965. Following a two year construction, from fall 1972, the block became the site of the large Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel (since rebranded as Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel). At the far corner was an office block with a

Toronto Dominion Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (french: links=no, Banque Toronto-Dominion), doing business as TD Bank Group (french: links=no, Groupe Banque TD), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. ...

branch, which was also demolished and replaced with a low rise glass pavilion housing a TD Bank.

References

{{coord , 43.65156, N, 79.38268, W, display=title Broadway Theatres in Toronto Former cinemas in Toronto