Victory Theatre
287 Spadina Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M5T
287 Spadina Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M5T
3 people
favorited this theater
Located in the Chinatown section of Toronto, the Standard Theatre was opened in 1921. Renamed Victory Theatre in the 1940’s, the balcony was later converted into the Golden Harvest Cinema. It has unfortunately been converted into a bank.
Contributed by
Jason R
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
There is a vintage image of this theatre here.
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And here is a modern view
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This listing needs alot of updating. BrianMorton already gave most of the information necessary. The architect for the Standard Theater was Benjamin Brown. It opened in 1921. The seat count given for the Golden Harvest Cinema is 700.
For the last years of its life, this theatre operated as a Cantonese language venue under different names. It was known as The Mandarin when it finally closed in the fall of 1994, a victim of disinterested local audiences and rampant video piracy in Chinatown stores (The Far East Theatre, located almost diagonally across the street similarly faltered and closed up for good in 1999). Double features were the order of the day (the Jet Li vehicle THE BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING and A TASTE OF KILLING AND ROMANCE were the final program, and the posters for the movies stayed up for over a year after the theatre was shuttered).
The auditorium was located on the second floor of the building and was designed in a steep, stadium seat style with a balcony. The theatre was in somewhat of a state of disrepair (I attended a double feature there in the spring of 1994 during a downpour and there was a pronounced leak in the roof in the balcony section), but was pleasantly retro. The lobby was on the main floor and that is the only section of the building still currently in use (by a low grade Chinese retail store). It is not operating as a bank, as stated at the top. In the picture Brian Morton linked to, The Mandarin can be seen next door to the bank, with the Mandarin marquee visible on the left side of the picture. What Brian stated about the division of the building happened before my time, though I don’t remember there being anything more than the snack bar on the main floor when I patronized the place in 1993/94.
the address was:
285 Spadina Avenue
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A recent photo can be found here.
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I was in this unattractive theatre once in the late 60’s. The place was rundown and so were the ladies of burlesque gracing the stage. But I do remember that they had great hot dogs.
Scroll down on this webpage to see a 1941 picture of the Victory before it became a burlesque house.
Have fond memories of the Victory when I was a young man in the sixties. Still have fantasies of ‘Terry Darnell’’s erotic performance.Wonder where she is now? Would have to be about 75 but still sexy I bet.Loved the comics?emcee’s who I think passed about 10 recycled jokes between themselves.
Is / was it haunted? It was featured on TV today….one of those hauntings shows