Toronto’s Local Movie
Theatres of Yesteryear
By Doug Taylor
Dundurn Toronto
Softcover, 208 pages
www.dundurn.com
This book chronicles the history of movie theatres around Toronto, and there were surprisingly many. Author Doug Taylor is a historian who was a member of the faculty of Lakeshore Teachers’ College (York University) and through this book, he explores the city’s past and its architectural heritage. He breaks the theatres in geographical areas across Toronto, like theatres located on Yonge Street and other theatres located along Bloor Street West. Black and white historical photos accompany many of the sections on each theatre.
In one section, he talks about The Tech Theatre, which boasts one of the shortest life spans of Toronto’s movie houses. This theatre opened in 1931 and he concludes the Great Depression led to its early demise. The two brothers, Jerry and Michael Shea from St. Catharines who opened the theatre, eventually moved to Buffalo, New York. However, it was the Shea brothers that built Shea’s Victoria at Richmond and Victoria Streets in 1910 and then Shea’s Hippodrome on Bay Street in 1914, so people were surprised by the sudden closing of The Tech. There are lots of tidbits on the many other theatres that dotted the city of yesteryear.
