New Yorker Theatre

The address for this theater is:
651 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1Z9

This theater will be called the Panasonic Theatre. This is a news article that I found.

"TORONTO, Jan. 17 — Panasonic Canada Inc. has announced a sponsorship agreement to support the structural and acoustical refurbishment of the New Yorker Theatre, now renamed the Panasonic Theatre.

Panasonic has entered into a deal with Clear Channel Entertainment, a producer and marketer of live entertainment events, to transform the theatre into a state-of-the-art theatrical and technological showpiece. The Panasonic Theatre lobby alone will be outfitted with up to $250,000 worth of Panasonic's next-generation audio-visual and display equipment, including its new 65-inch high-definition plasma TV.

Located at 651 Yonge Street, just south of Yonge and Bloor, the first production at the Panasonic Theatre will feature Blue Man Group, opening in June for an indefinite run.

Clear Channel Entertainment has invested close to $15-million to facilitate the theatre renovation, led by Vanbots Construction. Initial stages of refurbishment are well under way with a completion date scheduled for spring".

The facade has been saved, but from what I saw through the hoardings, the body of the New Yorker theatre was demolished.

J. Langdon
Toronto

This theatre was also owned for awhile by Cineplex Odeon in the late 80s/early 90s. It had the exclusive engagement of the Academy Award winning Best Picture of 1987 "The Last Emperor" which I saw there in full 70MM. It was a great location right at the Yonge/Bloor intersection when that was THE centre of moviegoing with the Uptown 5, Towne Cinema, Plaza Twin, Varsity Twin, University and Cumberland 4. Those were the days.

I forgot to mention that when it was owned by Cineplex Odeon it was called the Showcase Cinema.

The status of this theatre should be changed to "Demolished", and the new Panasonic Theatre should become a separate listing. As jLangdon notes above, the old building, except for the facade wall from the second floor up, was torn down. I walk past the site on my way to work every day and watched the process this past spring. Even what is left of the facade is barely visible behind a post-modern screen treatment. The new Panasonic Theatre is completely new construction literally from the ground up.

In spite of this, every review of the new show (or of the new theatre, for that matter) that I have read in the local press insists in referring to it as a "renovation" or "refurbishment" of the New Yorker Theatre. As with the January 17 article posted above, I suspect these words are from corporate press releases and not original research on the part of any of the writers. Calling this a "renovation" or "refurbishment" is the same as if someone were to refer to the parking lot that covers the site of Toronto's late-lamented Uptown Theatre as a "renovation". I think not.

This theatre had apparently had a number of other names during its lifetime. Its opening name may have been the Victoria (rather than the Victory); it became the Embassy in 1935, then the Astor in 1949.
Its first incarnation as the New Yorker started in 1962, may have been briefly an adult theatre called in the Tivoli in the early 70s.
It became the Festival in 1978, the Showcase in 1986, and gian give the name New Yorker in 1998.

Here it is as the Embassy in 1937:

http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/1128/4/7/12065?RECORD

Unfortunately that link to the picture of the Embassy is not working. You can see the picture by going to the Images database at the Ontario Archives site at:

http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/IMAGES?DIRECTSEARCH

and entering 'Embassy Theatre' in the search window.

Here's a direct link to the picture of it as the Embassy:

http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0012595.jpg

and here is is as the Astor:

http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0012596.jpg

Here is the "Panasonic" as it looks now.
I took this photo July 21st 2008.
You can see the old frontage under the "Mesh" but I think the frontage is all that is left I went around the back and it appears to be total modern.

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc34/william-mewes/year-2008/Toronto/031-6.jpg

Here it is from a different angle you get a better view of the old facade under that mesh netting.
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc34/william-mewes/year-2008/Toronto/034-5.jpg
And here it is from around the back.
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc34/william-mewes/year-2008/Toronto/036-5.jpg
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc34/william-mewes/year-2008/Toronto/035-5.jpg

When it was "The New Yorker" it had a massive model of "King Kong" climbing the building.

Does anyone know what happened to that?

When it was "The New Yorker" it had a massive model of "King Kong" on the building.

Does anyone know where I can find a photo of this?

.

Does anyone know where I can find a photo of this?

I was the senior projectionist at the Showcase between 1986 and the day it closed in 1991 and by far and away, this was the best booth I ever worked. It was a single with a platter, Vic-8 and CP-200 Sound, fully-manually operated, no automation of any kind. I vividly remember running The Last Emporer in 70mm for almost a year. Can't say it was a favorite movie of mine, but I got a lot of reading done that year and made a ton of OT!

This was a very odd place to work. You parked down at the back of a side alley, climbed up a steel staircase and walked across the roof by the back of the booth--which was a set into the roof of the theatre. The throw was very short and on about a 15 degree angle, IIRC. We ran mostly art films with low attendance numbers as well as being a key theatre for the Festival every September. We had a number of World Premieres there in my time, too.