The Odeon Theatre Toronto was a

movie theatre A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

located at 20 Carlton Street in

Toronto, Ontario 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 ...

. Designed by architect Jay English and operating between 1949 and 1973, the theatre was the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

flagship of

Odeon Cinemas Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name of ...

and one of Toronto's best examples of

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

architecture.

History

was founded in 1928 by

Oscar Deutsch Oscar Deutsch (12 August 1893 – 5 December 1941)Allen Eyles, ‘Deutsch, Oscar (1893–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200accessed 29 April 2011/ref> was a British-Hungarian businessman. He was the fou ...

in Brierley Hill, England. In 1938, the company was bought by

J. Arthur Rank Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (22 December 1888 – 29 March 1972) was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation. Family business Rank was born on 22 or 23 December 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into ...

, and shortly after this time, a Canadian arm of the business was opened, called Odeon Theatres Canada. Toronto's first Odeon theatre was the Odeon Fairlawn, located at 3320

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

, and was also designed by Jay English. The Odeon Fairlawn opened on 14 August 1947. A year later, Odeon began construction on a new flagship theatre which was designed by English. The Odeon Theatre Toronto contained 2,318 seats, a restaurant, and Odeon's Canadian offices. The theatre opened on 9 September 1948 with the North-American premiere of ''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...

''. The screening was attended by

Patricia Roc Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only m ...

and

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...

, the posters and newspaper ads boasting that it was, “The Showplace of the Dominion.” It contained a restaurant on the mezzanine level, the first theatre-restaurant in Canada. In 1956, the theatre's name was changed to the Odeon Carlton, which it would remain until its closure. By the early 1970s, the cinema was struggling financially. For a brief period, the city of Toronto considered purchasing it as a home for the

Canadian Opera Company The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Cent ...

. However, this was deemed financially ruinous for the city, since it was already subsidizing the O’Keefe Centre, now named the Meridian Hall as of 2019. Odeon Cinema Carlton Street Toronto 1972

Odeon Cinema Carlton Street Toronto 1972

On the site of the Odeon Carlton today there is an office building that contains the Carlton Cinema, a small multiplex.

Carlton Cinema

In 1981, on the same site, the first multiplex in Toronto to focus on art-house content built. It ran continuously for 28 years before being closed in 2009 by

Cineplex Odeon Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian movie theatre and family entertainment centre chain headquartered in Toronto. The company was formed in 2003 via the acquisition of Loews Cineplex's Canadian operations (which included t ...

. In 2010, it was re-opened under new management, Rainbow and Magic Lantern Theatres, who ran the cinema until 2016, when it was acquired by

Imagine Cinemas Imagine Cinemas is an independently owned chain of cinemas, founded on February 2, 2005. The chain consists of 12 locations with a total of 90 screens in Ontario and British Columbia, making it the third-largest movie theatre chain in Canada, out ...

. The cinema is well known in Toronto for playing

foreign Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

arthouse An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

, and

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

s that are often ignored by larger chain theatres.

References

{{Theatres in Toronto Former cinemas in Toronto Streamline Moderne architecture in Canada Odeon Cinemas