Ouimetoscope
1204 St. Catherine Street East,
Montreal,
QC
H2X
1204 St. Catherine Street East,
Montreal,
QC
H2X
3 people
favorited this theater
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Alternate name for this theatre. It was called the FESTIVAL for a time in the 1960’s.
Septembre 7th, 1963 annonce grand opening pour le 2e écran, Festival peut être trouvé dans la section photo.
September 7th, 1963 grand opening ad for the 2nd screen, Festival can be found in the photo section.
Nice 1908 photo.
Nice 1908 photo.
I’m not so sure about this language: “In Montreal, Canada, on August 31st 1907, the world’s first and largest cinema theatre, the OUIMETOSCOPE, was inaugurated.”
The Electric Theatre in California (purpose-built) predates it by 5 years.
Correct link to the 1908 photo:
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Accoring to an article in the Montreal Gazette this is not the original builkding – that was demolished and rebuilt some years ago – from the photos above, the current building appears to date from the early 1960s.
There are plans to reopen this theatre as Avant-Garde http://www.youtube.com/user/AVANTGARDETHEATRE
Lost Memory, All address has been re-numbered in Montreal in the 1920’s. Gerald, The Festival was in the same building, it later became Ouimetoscope 2 in later years. Most old nickelodeons in Quebec had the word scope at the end of the name.
A recent view of the Ouimetoscope (closed since early 90’s) and the commemorative plaque placed to the left of the entrance. <hr>
http://www.tighsolas.ca/page467.html
Newspaper article announcing opening of the first theatre in the world devoted exclusively to showing movies. Opened January 1, 1906 and replaced the following year by a larger theatre by the owner, Leo-Ernest Ouimet. <hr>
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I found out that I saw these two movies there on August 23, 1983. One was La terrazza by Ettore Scola. It was dubbed in French, as was their preference here. The other was Carlos Saura’s Blood Wedding, which I believe is wordless and a ballet. Don’t any Montrealers remember or care about this respected place? Why am I, someone from Providence, Rhode Island, the only one to post?
Was this place ever known as the Cinema Festival? I have an ad from the 1960s for the Bertolucci film “Before the Revolution” playing at the “Cinema Festival” at 1206 St. Catherine East. 1206 & 1204 sound like they might be the same place. If not, what was the Cinema Festival?
I remember admiring the repertory programming of the Ouimetoscope from afar. I’m from Providence. The cinema often showed films that were hard to see elsewhere, although virtually everything non-French was dubbed in French. I believe I went here only once. Don’t remember what I saw. Here is a photo I took around 1989.
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