Boston Globe Archives reports:
* Summer 1982: opened, the theatre had the top selling engagement for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"
* April 4, 1999 the Boston Globe reports that a new 20 screen complex to replace the 14-plex will be built over 1999-2000. It will have 4,515 seats
* 2000 20-plex completed, old theatre demolished
It was never seen in Canadian theatres as the biggest chain, Famous Players had an pay-tv system called International Telemeter. It was in use 1959-1966 in the Minco bay area of Toronto. This system eventully became Rogers.
http://www.spectrumdemontreal.ca
March 6,1952-1976 (Movies)
* March 6, 1952 opened by Famous Players’s Consolidated Theatres. The policy was French first-run movies.
* May 11, 1956 Switched to English Language roadshow movies
* July 1970 roadshow policy ends
* January 11, 1974 became an French adult theatre called Le Pigalle. It was shortly renamed Eden and shown English adult movies.
* 1976 taken over by Odeon theatres and renamed Carrefour. It closed July 30, 1976
* 1980 reopened as a popular nightclub called Le Spectrum, performers include Sting, David Bowie, U2
* 2001 There was plans to include this theatre in the Complexe Spectrum project but fell through.
* January 10, 2007 La Presse reports that this theatre is to be demolished in the summer for an office tower.
Last call at The Spectrum
CFCF:
A Montreal entertainment landmark that has hosted superstars such as U2, The Police and Peter Gabriel is on its last legs.
The Spectrum club on Ste. Catherine street will be demolished to make way for an office tower.
Relocation plans fell through
The developer says negotiations to relocate the Spectrum to another part of the lot fell through.
If the city gives the go-ahead, the Spectrum and several businesses next door will be demolished by summertime.
This was one of the typical Cineplex Odeon “Jewelbox” theatre built in the late 1980’s.
Typical Cineplex Odeon carpet, the same carpet is used in the Montréal area’s Langelier 6 (now Guzzo) and Cote des Neiges 7 (now Foutune)
I have uploaded parts of 1945 (showing theatres) at my website at www.movie-theatre.org/1year/1945.zip It weights in at 45 MB
other years on request
View link
The Paramount Montreal sign started to come down on April 24
The theatre is being renamed Cinéma Banque Scotia.
This theatre has closed today. It was the 3rd theatre to be closed by the Cinemas Fortune circuit. It was playing second-run movies in the last year.
More info on this cinema on page 4 of
View link .
a picture can be found here at View link
This cinema opened in 2004
View link show the center of the theatre. The Cineplex Odeon14 is on the top left.
This theatre was built on the site of this drive-in at /theaters/7487/
Boston Globe Archives reports:
* Summer 1982: opened, the theatre had the top selling engagement for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"
* April 4, 1999 the Boston Globe reports that a new 20 screen complex to replace the 14-plex will be built over 1999-2000. It will have 4,515 seats
* 2000 20-plex completed, old theatre demolished
Jimpiscitelli, Cinema Treasures the last i heard is this website…
Catherine DiM, That website at http://www.villagetheaters.com/ is for an circuit in Southern California. not Chicagoland.
View link
Picture ia here
Picture here
View link
Drive-Ins.com has the theatre catalogs uploaded. The Cinema can be found in the 1953-1954 edition starting with Page 30.
It was never seen in Canadian theatres as the biggest chain, Famous Players had an pay-tv system called International Telemeter. It was in use 1959-1966 in the Minco bay area of Toronto. This system eventully became Rogers.
Picture of the theatre can be seen at
View link
View link
has an picture of the theatre.
There is still an Cinéma Paramount in Rouyn-Norada,QC and an Paramount 3 in Amhurst NS. These were built by Famous Players in the late 1940’s. Also the Paramount in Montreal will be renamed Cinémas Banque Scotia. Theatres in Edmonton SilverCity ?, Paramount in Calgary and Vancouver.
Schmadrian, The Forum has been renamed Pepsi Forum (The AMC cinema inside serves Coke.)
Theatre renamed Scotiabank Theatres on January 24, 2005, Others Paramount to be converted by April.
This cinema is going to get harder to find in Internet searches, The Paramounts in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary will be called Scotia Cinema or in Montreal Cinémas Scotia as Cineplex sold the nameing rights to the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Contre la destruction du Spectrum – Against the destruction of the Spectrum
An online petition is at
http://www.petitiononline.com/abc456g8/
http://www.drive-ins.com/dbtcdet.htm/tc=53/pga=56 has 1953 pictures of the theatre. (PDF document)
an history from my web at www.movie-theatre.org
http://www.spectrumdemontreal.ca
March 6,1952-1976 (Movies)
* March 6, 1952 opened by Famous Players’s Consolidated Theatres. The policy was French first-run movies.
* May 11, 1956 Switched to English Language roadshow movies
* July 1970 roadshow policy ends
* January 11, 1974 became an French adult theatre called Le Pigalle. It was shortly renamed Eden and shown English adult movies.
* 1976 taken over by Odeon theatres and renamed Carrefour. It closed July 30, 1976
* 1980 reopened as a popular nightclub called Le Spectrum, performers include Sting, David Bowie, U2
* 2001 There was plans to include this theatre in the Complexe Spectrum project but fell through.
* January 10, 2007 La Presse reports that this theatre is to be demolished in the summer for an office tower.
This theatre is to close
Last call at The Spectrum
CFCF:
A Montreal entertainment landmark that has hosted superstars such as U2, The Police and Peter Gabriel is on its last legs.
The Spectrum club on Ste. Catherine street will be demolished to make way for an office tower.
Relocation plans fell through
The developer says negotiations to relocate the Spectrum to another part of the lot fell through.
If the city gives the go-ahead, the Spectrum and several businesses next door will be demolished by summertime.
La Presse
Le Spectrum vit ses derniers mois. Il était prévu que cette institution du showbizz montréalais soit détruite tôt ou tard pour faire place à un nouveau complexe qui aurait abrité le nouveau Spectrum. Ce n'est plus le cas. Le nouveau propriétaire des lieux va de l'avant avec un projet de 70 millions, commerces et tour de bureaux, qui exclut la salle de spectacle.
«Jusqu'à preuve du contraire, il n'est plus question d'une salle de spectacle. On avait des délais à respecter. On a travaillé avec Spectra depuis mai 2006 pour relocaliser le Spectrum à l'arrière de l'édifice, mais malheureusement, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, rien ne se passe, on est obligés d'aller vers une autre option», a confié à La Presse Sam Benatar, président de la société immobilière SIDEV.
Si la Ville l'autorise, le Spectrum et les commerces avoisinants seront rasés l'été prochain après la tenue des FrancoFolies, organisées par Spectra, aussi responsable du Festival international de jazz. La nouvelle construction devrait commencer sans plus tarder.
View link
Aerial view, you can see the red and blue building.
I uploaded the grand opening ad at
http://flickr.com/photos/30943004@N00/329611978/
This theatre inspired Cinemas Guzzo in Montreal to build their Mega-Plexes.