The Elgin Theatre was a historic

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 the corner of Lisgar and Elgin Street in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The 750 seat cinema opened in 1937, with the first film shown being '' Stand-In.'' This is a famous American comedy about Hollywood, with parodies of many components of the film industry.https://ottawa-trend.com/uk/eternal-759-zabuti-kinoteatry-ottavy For several decades it was one of Ottawa's premier theatres, and in 1947 it was the location of the world premiere of

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

's ''

Sleep, My Love ''Sleep, My Love'' is a 1948 American noir film directed by Douglas Sirk. It features Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings and Don Ameche. Plot Alison Courtland, a wealthy New Yorker, hasn't a clue how she ended up on a train bound for Boston. W ...

''. Owner

Nat Taylor Nathan A. Taylor (1906 – February 29, 2004) was a Canadian inventor and film producer. He co-founded Cineplex with Garth Drabinsky. Biography Taylor was born and raised in a Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario and began his business career in 191 ...

, of 20th Century Theatres, opened a second screen on an adjacent patch of land in December 1947. It earned the nickname of "Little Elgin". This makes Elgin the second such dual-screen theatres in Canada, a few months after the Hollywood Theatre in Toronto. In 1957, Taylor became frustrated of having to replace still-profitable films with new releases. For this reason, he put older releases on the second theatre while keeping new releases for the first one. This was the first time a choice was offered at a North American cinema box office, and Taylor is credited as the inventor of the multiplex. Taylor would go on to build ever larger multiplexes, and eventually form the

Cineplex Odeon Corporation Cineplex Odeon Corporation was one of North America's largest movie theatre operators and live theatre, with theatres in its home country of Canada and the United States. The Cineplex Odeon brand is still being used by Cineplex Entertainment at ...

. The Elgin eventually became part of the Famous Players cinema chain. In 1994 the company announced that it would be closed. The building was in disrepair, and ironically small downtown theatres were of little use in the era of

megaplex A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into s ...

es that the Elgin had launched. Despite community efforts and a petition signed by 3,500 to get the company to reconsider, the cinema was shuttered in November 1994. The final film shown in Theatre 1 was '' Quiz Show''. The final film shown in Theatre 2 was an adaptation of the novel '' Whale Music''. There was considerable debate about what to do with the building. The Great Canadian Theatre Company expressed a desire to move into the location, but Ottawa City Council did not support this idea. Eventually the theatre was redeveloped into a cluster of restaurants. The theatre is closed and now accommodates multiple restaurants: * Harvey's * Shawarma Andalos (previously Teriyaki Experience/Quiznos/Prince Shawarma) * Starbucks (Previously Second Cup) * Johnny Farina's

References

*McQueen, Ann Marie.
City's role in film history secure
" '' The Ottawa Sun'' Tue, June 28, 2005 *Tam, Pauline. "That's all, folks." ''

The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

.'' Nov 18, 1994. pg. B.3 *Darcy, Steve.
The Elgin Theatre
" ''Heritage Ottawa.'' Volume 22, No. 1, June/July 1995. {{coord, 45.418885, N, 75.691590, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title Theatres in Ottawa Former cinemas in Canada Cinemas and movie theatres in Ontario

See also

References