Hyland Theatre
King Street,
Hamilton,
ON
King Street,
Hamilton,
ON
4 people
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The Hyland Theatre is located on King Street near Mary Street in downtown Hamilton. It had room for over 900 people. The Hyland had a great sound system with THX certification. The theater closed in the late 1980s.
Contributed by
Chad Irish
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
The Pawn Shop just takes up the lobby of the theatre. The auditorium and balcony from what I remember reading in the Hamilton Spectator were being used for storage by the owner of the building. Next time that I am downtown I will stop and ask if the seats and screen are still there. The Odeon and Century theatres which are both within walking distance are both boarded up but still standing.
Sad commentary on downtown Hamilton. In other cities old theatres are either redevolped or turned in to book stores, fitness clubs, music clubs or restaurants. In Hamilton they are just boarded up and sit there for years. Too bad, they were once nice, vibrant theatres, showing the finest in entertainment…and now there they sit.
That is the problem with downtown hamilton. In the seventies, downtown Hamilton was alive with theatres and one by one they closed with most of the being demolished into parking lots. The downtown is filled with boarded up building including Hamilton’s well known Lister Block. There is no reason to go downtown if you live up on the mountain. Also, it is not the safest place either.
The Hyland came into existence as a cinema with that name on November 11, 1955 after closing for renovations on November 5 for renovations. Before this, it was known as The Roxy, original opening date yet to be uncovered.
I was at this pawn shop yesturday trying to aquire some information on the theater. The guy I talked to was a young guy, he said that the theater was before his time. But, at the current time the theater is a pawn shop on the main floor but the upstairs is just storage for the pawn shop. The guy said that there is still a balcony, but due to it being a jewlery store as well, there are certain security measures that are causing them to not be able to tell me more about this theater.
Mike. Is the lobby of the Hyland the pawn shop with the auditorium and balcony seating area closed off to the public? From what I can remember, the upstairs leading the the balcony had its own lobby area with washrooms and refreshment stands. This is probably the storage area the young gentlemen was talking about. Mark.
I worked as an assistant manager at the Odeon-Hyland in Hamilton, Ontario from October 1974 to about July of 1975, after I was transferred in from Odeon Kitchener and before that, Odeon London.
At the time, Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd. transferred their assistant managers and manager trainees around the province so they could learn from different theatre managers.
When I worked at the Odeon-Hyland Theatre in 1974 and 1975, the longtime manager was a gentleman by the name of Gordon Gotts who lived in Stoneybrook. He was an ardent Hamilton Tiger-Cats' fan. Nice man.
When I first arrived at the Odeon-Hyland in October of 1974, the theatre was showing soft-porn movies, starting at 12 noon and running until about 11:30 pm.
That all changed in early 1975 or so when we premiered the blockbuster movie, Earthquake (with “Sensuround”), which subequently broke all house records and ran for about 20 weeks.
I remember the “Sensuround” cracked the retail store’s front plate-glass window next door (attached to the theatre). The entire theatre vibrated when this earthquake-replicating sound came on. It was produced by about 12 large speakers placed on the main floor of the theatre and the balcony.
1982 photo of the Hyland Theatre.
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1982 Night photo of the Hyland Theatre.
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1984 Photo