The Roxy Theatre is 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 ...

(cinema) in the Riversdale neighborhood of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

, Canada, built during the onset of the Great Depression. The interior is decorated in a Spanish Villa style with the walls covered with small balconies, windows and towers, giving the impression of a quaint Spanish village. The ceiling was painted dark blue, with twinkling lights set in the plaster, to give the impression of a night sky. It was built for sound pictures ("

talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

"), and was Saskatoon's first air-conditioned building. It is one of the last remaining atmospheric

movie palaces A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 192 ...

in Canada.

Naming, history

The New York Roxy, the largest cinema ever built in North America (demolished in 1960), was named after its manager, noted radio personality and impresario "Roxy" Rothafel. The word came to mean the latest and best in showmanship, inspiring hundreds of similarly named but unrelated theatres across North America. Rothstein Theatres of Winnepeg, who built the Roxy in Saskatoon, used the name for many of their locations. In 1974 the theatre was sold to Rokemay Theatres, which owned it until 2005. It was leased to Odeon for a period in the 1960s and early 1970s when it was named in the Coronet. When Rokemay began operation, it was called the Towne Cinema. A second screen was added on May 30, 1980, in a separate building. It was leased to and operated by Cineplex Odeon from 1986 to 1995. The Towne then closed in 1995, and sat vacant until it was purchased by Rainbow Cinemas.

Restoration

The theatre was purchased and restored by

Rainbow and Magic Lantern Cinemas Magic Lantern Theatres is a chain of 11 movie theatres in Canada. Three of these locations are Rainbow Cinemas discount theatres. Magic Lantern Theatres was founded in 1984 in Edmonton, Alberta, while Rainbow Cinemas was founded in the early 199 ...

, and reopened under its original name in 2005. It currently shows first-run art and alternative movies, and is a venue for concerts, lectures, and a variety of community events.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Saskatoon Theatres completed in 1930 Cinemas and movie theatres in Saskatchewan Spanish Revival architecture Atmospheric theatres 1930 establishments in Saskatchewan