New Yorker Theatre
651 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M4Y 1Z9
651 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M4Y 1Z9
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened as the Victoria Theatre in 1919, the New Yorker Theatre was remodeled in the 1960’s, but most of its interior was lost over time. The theater has since been closed and all but a portion of its facade demolished. The facade was incorporated into the new Panasonic Theatre which was built on the site of the New Yorker.
Contributed by
Jason R
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Recent comments (view all 26 comments)
I don’t think this theater was ever the Victoria. The Victoria (which opened in 1910) and the Embassy were in operation at the same time in the 1930s and 1940s, and the Victoria and the Astor were both in operation during the early 1950s. The Embassy did become the Astor, right around 1950. Also the Victoria was about twice the size of the Embassy or the Astor. I don’t know if the Victoria is listed here under a later name or not. If it is, it’s missing the Victoria aka. I’ve been unable to discover an address for it.
Here is a 1950 Boxoffice article about the reopening of the Victoria that year (lower right corner of page.) The Victoria was a Famous Players house. The Embassy/Astor was operated by Ben Ulster during this period.
The New Yorker was definitely known as as the Victoria – (there’s a picture of it here; you may have to scroll up or down to see the building as it was and later in 1994): View link
The confusion is due to the fact that there was another Victoria Theatre – specifically Shea’s Victoria – which opened in 1910 and was a very large vaudeville house at 83 Victoria Street, near Richmond, so apparently, at least for awhile, Toronto may have had two Victoria theatres. Shea’s Victoria closed for some years as a theater (possibly made redundant after Shea’s opened the even larger Shea’s Hippodrome in 1914, and vaudeville was fading). It was then re-opened by Famous Players as the Victoria. This indeed was the Victoria that showed “Samson and Delilah”. In the meantime, the Victoria on Yonge changed names at least twice.
I am doubtful, though that the New Yorker was ever known as the Victory; the only Victory Theatre I can find was on Spadina.
Thanks for clearing up the confusion.
Here is a snap I took on Monday February 8th 2010
http://i49.tinypic.com/hryctd.jpg
I figure it looks better in the dark when it is all lit up.
The 1947 Toronto Telephone book lists the “Victory Theatre” as being at “287 Spadina”
If you want to check performance times telephone ( WAverley 5006 )
The Victory theatre on Spadina already HAS a page here on Cinema Treasures.
Yes I posted that in response to the post five above this one.
I am sorry if I inadvertently triggered an off-topic discussion; At the time I posted the comment about the Victory above, I was primarily interested in the issue raised by Joe Vogel about the whether the New Yorker was or was not at one time the Victoria.
However, at the time of the posting, “Victory” was listed in the aka list for the New Yorker, and I could not find any support for that name. Quite possibly, Victory was confused with Victoria by someone in the past. It has since been deleted from the aka list above the headnote, but now my remark seems out of place. My attempt at killing two birds with one stone had an unintended result.
Actualy I apologize for posting on the wrong thread.
I was just quoting a source of reference to confirm the address of the “Victory Theatre”
With this I bid you farewell I have a plane to catch.
1935 photo as the Embassy via Toronto Public Library.
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=DC-PICTURES-R-1182&fbclid=IwAR2MXXnWObQh-CJRlD9YOIGcJMUDKsQ-OS11Spfoi652FM5-dv45-EoEwP8