Eglinton Theatre
400 Eglinton Avenue W.,
Toronto,
ON
M5N 1A2
400 Eglinton Avenue W.,
Toronto,
ON
M5N 1A2
7 people
favorited this theater
Designed by Kaplan and Sprachman, the Eglinton Theatre was opened on April 15, 1936 with Jack Oakie in “King of Burlesque”. It was operated by Famous Players throughout its cinematic life.
After the Ontario Human Rights Commission fought and won a lawsuit to make it wheelchair accessable, Famous Players decided to close this beautiful Art Deco style theatre in 2003.
The Eglinton Theatre has now been renovated into a rental hall for banquets and special events and has been renamed the “Eglinton Grand.”
Contributed by
Chad Irish, Griff Howe, Dave Thom, edward
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Recent comments (view all 31 comments)
Another photo of the Eglinton can be seen here.
According to fromscripttodvd.com, The Sound Of Music ran 146 weeks.
This is a 2008 close-up view.
Here is a recent view of the Eglinton at night.
A nice close-up photo is here.
Eglinton Grand at night
Still closed…
A favourite of mine when I worked as a projectionist and also as a movie-goer. The Eglinton’s magnificent auditorium is somewhat similar to the Zigfeld in New York (where most of NYC’s world premieres occur). Massive screen, and the best THX installation in the city by far.
Before the THX work was done, the booth had the most unique machines in the city – Bauer U2’s. Big old German workhorse 35/70mm projectors that put a picture on the screen and nailed it there. I forget what bulbs they were running (4.5kW @ 150A, IIRC), but the gates needed to be water-cooled, not unlike a drive-in! The few times I worked there it was after the Bauers had gone and, IIRC, were replaced by a pair of 35/70mm Simplex XLs running 6000' reels.
Here’s a post titled The Eglinton Theatre’s Elegant Neighbours.
The Eglinton was also, for several years, a Cinerama movie house. The Cinerama technology required adjustments to the house and removal of several rows of seats but it did successfully in showing Cinerama product.