Unconfirmed rumours are circulating that the plug has been pulled on Atom Egoyan’s Camera Bar-slash-repertory cinema on Queen Street just east of Ossington (update at BlogTO: still open but scaled back). A shame if true as it was a lovely place. It got me thinking about the idea of going to the movies in the city. I have this image of big cities, on Saturday night, with people filling the sidewalks on their way to see a show. Toronto had lots of neighbourhood cinemas, built before television took over (in fact, there’s a nice book called Nabes about them), many of which now house convenience stores or other less glamourous things — though some, like the Bloor, Royal, Fox and others still endure.
They’re great, but I miss the little theatres that were tucked away in the modern buildings. In the 60s and 70s there was a trend to jam cozy little theatres into parts of different developments. The Eaton Centre had them, as did the Bay building at Yonge and Bloor. Perhaps the one I miss the most, even though it closed in the 1970s, long before I had a chance to see it first hand, is the one Mies van der Rohe designed in the TD Centre. Imagine going to see something like Kubrick’s 2001 in a theatre that looked like it belonged in the movie. And of course, “The Cinema” sign in the unique font designed specially for the TD Centre.
What I like(d) about these little theatres, and why I don’t mind going to the Carlton, is the lack of crap there is to wade through to get to the screen. The picture and sound might be bigger and better at places like the Paramount, but passing through the screaming plane crash that is the lobby and the food-that-comes-in-pails kiosks is unpleasant at best (though the bar at the Paramount has a super view of downtown — but it might be the bar’s confections that make sitting there tolerable).
The picture above is found on the Reading Toronto site — currently they’re doing Proust Questionnaires of various architects at the firm ERA (who we threw the Toronto the Good party last May – and will again this year). Lindsay Reid was asked “If there was one Toronto place that no longer remains that you could visit for an afternoon what would it be?: and she said “I’d like to go see a matinee in the Mies van de Rohe designed cinema formerly located in the basement of the TD Centre.” That sounds nice. Toronto had so many good places. Like the Camera.
6 comments
i laugh when i think about it but the cinema that’s now one of ottawa’s only repertory cinemas, The Bytowne, was once owned by Famous Players. They closed it and replaced it with a 5-screen shopping mall theatre in an east end suburb. a few years ago, they closed that theatre and replaced it with a Silver City. i laugh because who would have thought these small, single screen, neighbourhood theatres would ever grow like this?
of ottawa’s other single screen cinemas, one is now filled with fast food joints, one is a church, another got torn down and replaced with apartments. the mayfair is the only one that i think is still standing.
Oh man, that cinema looks freakin awesome. Totally Kubrickian. It’s the signage that makes it.
I remember the day when malls and public spaces enforced signage regulations. I remember when I was a kid, Sherway Gardens mall had tight rules about signage for its stores and it really tied the mall together. I remember thinking of it (when I was like seven) as a mysterious extension of the airport, and wickedly futuristic in how all the stores were similar signed except for color backgrounds on white Helvetica, it was like something out of Logan’s Run. Now, companies put up whatever their branding calls for, and malls in need of clients can’t say no.
Nowadays you see signage restrictions in strip malls in some wealthy communities but it’s always like gold painted logos on dark brown wood or some such and looks tacky and gilded. Not urbane and slick.
That might be a good topic for Spacing to cover. Do any public spaces still have unified signage? Love the site btw.
I applaud the recent addition of comments to the site. However, I do not understand limiting comments to certain posts. This effectively means that the authors of this site decide what is worthy of debate, something that to me goes against the implicit principles behing spacing and its affiliates. Everything I have seen from you and your associates thus far promotes civic engagement and democratic principles. As such, I believe that all posts should be open for comments. Let your readers decide what is worthy of debate.
We plan to use it almost all of the time. But there are posts for things like events or Spacing-specific announcements that don’t really need comments. We’re not going to stifle debate on certain topics. We just want to keep the flow comments manageable for the editors.
In that case, why moderate every comment? I have visited several blogs and forums that let comments/postings go up straight away without moderation and rely on offensive posts being flagged by other users. This seems to be a good way to encourage discussion while reducing the workload for your staff.
Back to subject at hand.
I fondly remember the cinema under the TD centre. I grew up in East York in the 60’s and my grade 3 teacher took us there to see Chitty Chitty Bang I believe.
It was quite wild to make the trip “downtown” with our class and I remember this being a cinema unlike most of the converted vaudeville houses of the time.
40 years later I’ve led field trips for other suburban classes coming “downtown” – my favourite being a trip to Union Station where I asked the kids what the names (of stops across Canada) might refer to. One child put up his hand and looking at “Saskatoon”, said “Are they the sponsors of this place?”
: )