In early November 2020, the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce launched a public consultation on the future of the Empress Theatre. This theatre is not the only one to have suffered the damage of time and to have to find new uses. In this article, we take a look back at Montreal's movie theatres, from their emergence to today.
From Scopes to Neighbourhood Palaces: The Emergence and Prosperity of Cinema in Montreal
From the end of the 19th century, the culture of leisure and entertainment began to penetrate cities, multiplying and diversifying places of amusement. Among the new popular leisure activities are the " vues animées ", the old name given to cinema and popularised in Paris in 1895, following the invention of the Lumière brothers. A few months later, on June 27, 1896, these forerunners held the first film projection in North America in theRobillard Building in Montreal. Apart from this first screening, indoor screenings remained marginal, with most of the screenings taking place outdoors with travelling projectionists in parks such as Sohmer, Dominion and Riverside parks. Screenings are also offered during intermissions of vaudeville and other popular plays.

It wasn't until January 1, 1906, that the first permanent movie theatre in Canada was built: the Ouimetoscope, at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Montcalm Streets. Named after its founder, Léo-Ernest Ouimet, the Ouimetoscope inaugurated the era of scopes in Montreal. These spaces take the form of a long, undecorated room that can accommodate 200 to 400 seats.
Over the years, the Nationoscope, the Readoscope, the Bourgetoscope, and the Mount Royaloscope have appeared. Faced with competition, Léo-Ernest Ouimet demolished the Ouimetoscope and had a new building rebuilt in 1907, on the same site, which housed the very first luxury projection room in North America, with a capacity of 1,200 seats. Montreal then became the first city in North America to build a projection venue with more than 1,000 seats.
Taking advantage of the new craze for the 7th art, theatres and concert halls are also showing more and more films, such as the Monument National built between 1891 and 1893 by the architects Maurice Perrault, Albert Mesnard and Joseph Venne. This association of the performing arts and cinema then gave rise to a new type of building: film theatres.

Scopes and film theatres were followed, from the 1910s onwards, by palaces and super palaces, entertainment establishments set up in buildings with specific and unique architectural features. Designed to attract spectators from the pavement, the palaces stand out with their imposing luminous canopies and the exuberant ornamentation of their façades. The super palaces, meanwhile, can accommodate an even greater number of spectators, such as the Impérial, which opened on April 13, 1913 on De Bleury Street.

Loew's, which opened in 1917, also belonged to this category and remained the largest movie theatre in Canada until the 1960s. The Laurier Palace, built in 1912 on Sainte-Catherine Street East, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, quickly passed to posterity following a tragic fire in 1927 that killed 78 children. This event reinforced the clergy's condemnation of cinema as an unhealthy and debauched leisure activity. The fervour for cinema in Montreal was not diminished.

Montreal was, at the time, the only city in North America to open its screening rooms on Sundays. The growing popularity of cinema motivated the opening of new theatres in the old suburbs under the name " palace de quartier ". Among these were the Saint-Denis theatre (1916), the Rivoli theatre (1926) and the Papineau (1921), which had as its slogan " Tout the luxury of the theatres of the lower town near vous ". The working class population thus had places of entertainment of a quality similar to those of the inhabitants of the centre; all the theatres and palaces weave a wide network through ville : the golden age of cinema was announced at the dawn of the 1930s.
The Golden Age of Montreal Cinemas

In 1937, cinema was living its golden age in the metropolis. At that time, there were 59 movie theatres in Montreal, each one bearing witness to the era through its architecture, both interior and exterior. The flashy facade is equalled only by the richness of the interior decorations, most of which were the work of artist-decorator Emmanuel Briffa (1875-1955). Briffa designed the sets for no less than 150 rooms in North America!
Among his great Montreal works is the Rialto Theatre (1924), whose remarkable sets evoke a baroque atmosphere of gilding, stained glass, marble and woodwork - all in paint, plaster and faux finishes! -The Empress Theatre (1929) and the Outremont Theatre (1929). The latter two are referred to as " atmosphériques" in reference to the projections of starry skies or clouds on the ceiling, and the trompe-l'oeil painted architecture and courtyards on the side walls, whose style was popular between 1927 and 1931. Briffa also decorated the Le Château theatre (1931) on Saint-Denis Street and the Snowdon theatre (1937) on Décarie Boulevard, both in the Art Deco style.

Movie theaters are running out of steam...
The attraction for these palace settings, marked by wealth and overabundance, eventually faded in favour of less exuberant neighbourhood rooms. The year 1938 also marked the year of the construction of the last palace, the York, in Art Deco style, also decorated by Briffa. Thus, for another ten years or so, as the craze for cinema continued, new neighbourhood cinemas opened, reflecting a more populist image of cinema. In 1952, technological innovations took over from large screen projections with the arrival of television in the home. From then on, public cinemas saw their attendance decline and several of them were forced to close their doors.
In order to maintain them, the theatres use several stratégies : improvement of the sound and image systems and reorientation of the programming in particular. This is the beginning of the period of art cinema and erotic cinema. Thus, the Regent Theatre on Avenue du Parc, built in 1915 according to the plans of architect Daniel John Crighton, first turned towards the Greek community in the 1960s, before becoming, from 1973, an erotic cinema under the name of Beaver cinema. In 1986, for a few months, the theatre took the name Laurier and presented repertory films. In the same years, the Outremont theatre's programming turned to repertory films and offered music concerts with Quebec artists.
Unfortunately, the multitude of efforts undertaken is not always enough, and many of the cinemas that had made Montreal famous in the first half of the 20th century are disappearing or being disfigured to make way for new uses. In the latter case, their presence is only revealed to curious passers-by who are able to raise their gaze above the modern signs.
Theatres and film palaces today: between disappearance, transformation and rebirth

Witnesses to the golden age of cinema in Montreal suffered greatly from the decline in movie theatre attendance in the second half of the 20th century. Several disused theatres and movie palaces were destroyed to make way for new construction, often ignoring the site's past. The Strand, York and Seville cinemas were destroyed in 1973, 2001 and 2010 respectively. Other buildings, more fortunate, were transformed to house new vocations.
The Regent Theatre, for example, closed its doors in 1988. Its new owner quickly destroyed the interior sets (designed by Hubert B. Tomkins) in order to avoid a heritage classification. The Renaud-Bray bookstore moved there in 1993. Its vertical facade covered with white ceramic tiles was preserved and now recalls the building's past.
The Rivoli Theatre, which opened in 1926, was also transformed into a commercial theatre in the 1980s, its majestic sets and thousand seats giving way to neon-lit aisles of merchandise. In the case of the Papineau Theatre, opened in 1921 on Papineau Avenue near Mount Royal Avenue and designed by architect Crighton, some of the interior decorations, particularly the mouldings, were partially preserved despite a major change in the site's vocation. For several years, the site was used as a bingo hall, but in 2013 it was transformed into a climbing site, offering climbers who have reached the top of the routes an unprecedented view of the plaster decorations, which recall the splendour of its former settings.

In addition to these more or less successful transformations, several cinemas have been converted into performance venues or rented out for private events. Among the most notable is the Rialto theater, a former neighborhood palace built between 1923 and 1924 by Joseph-Raoul Gariépy. Having ceased its cinematographic activities in 1988, this venue had a number of vocations before being purchased in 2010 by Ezio Carosielli, who then set about restoring it to make it a cultural and entertainment venue, available for rental to private groups and organizations. The interior and exterior decorations have been restored to their former glory, restoring the building's triple status of recognition, having been listed as a historic monument by Ville de Montréal in 1988, classified as a heritage building by the Ministry in 1990 and designated a National Historic Site in 1993. The exemplary nature of this conversion, which contributes to the cultural vitality of the Mile-End district, is highlighted by one of our InspirActions.
The Corona Theatre, the former Family Cinema opened in 1912, is another example of the rehabilitation of a palace as a place for the creation and dissemination of performing arts, also offered for rent on an occasional basis. Bought by the non-profit performing arts organization in 1997, it is undergoing two phases of restoration: in the late 1990s and between 2003 and 2004. Recognized in 2001, it is classified as a heritage building in 2012, following the coming into force of the new Heritage Act. A major cultural site on Notre-Dame Street West, in the Sud-Ouest borough, it houses one of the last wooden reception counters, dating back to the time when it was one of Montreal's palaces. The Granada Theatre - opened in 1929 and renamed Denise-Pelletier at the end of the 1990s - is also a case of rehabilitation, today enlivening the cultural and theatrical life of the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood.

In addition to these rehabilitation successes, there are the historic screening venues that have continued their activities to the present day, such as the Outremont theater. Built in 1929 by architect René Charbonneau and decorated by Briffa, this Art Deco-inspired theater has never ceased to offer shows and screenings, while adapting its programming. The building is listed by Ville de Montréal (1987), classified by Ministère de la Culture and des Communications (1994) and designated a National Historic Site (1993).
The same is true of the Imperial Cinema, which has offered a programme of performances and screenings since its opening in 1913. The building will be classified as a heritage building in 2012 by the Quebec government. In 2017, the Québecor company is involved in financing the maintenance and renovations of the theatre to ensure its sustainability as a venue. Finally, the Cinéma Beaubien, a neighbourhood cinema of another generation, has been delighting moviegoers since its inauguration in 1937.
Theatres and movie palaces are still very much a part of the Montreal landscape, even if their conservation conditions suffer from major disparities from one building to another. The future of several projection venues from the golden age of cinema in Montreal is still uncertain, whether we think of the Snowdon Theatre, only the façade of which will be preserved in a new condominium project, or the Empress Theatre, whose future is currently taking shape. Many of the theatres featured in this post are on our Memento platform and are waiting for your ideas and mobilization projects to bring them back to life in Montreal's urban landscape!
Special thanks to Justin Bur for proofreading this article.
This article was first published in 2017 and again in 2019 as part of the 90th anniversary of the Outremont Theatre. On that occasion, we presented special tours organized in partnership with the theatre.
Sources / more information :
- Manon DUMAIS, "L'esthétique d'Emmanuel Briffa", Le Devoir, September 27, 2016.
- Jérôme LABRECQUE, "Emmanuel Briffa, l'homme des théâtres", Continuité magazine, no.129, Summer 2011, https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/64381ac
- Pierre PAGEAU, "Cinémas d'après-guerre", Continuité magazine, no.129, summer 2011, https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/64383ac.