Capitol Theatre

“The enthusiasm for urban renewal, combined with the television-inspired decline in attendance at the movies was bad for movie palaces and their vast auditoriums. Halifax and its unique showplace, the Capitol Theatre, was no exception. No expense had been spared by Famous Players in 1930 when they opened the Capitol, a castellated medieval fantasy created for them by the architect Murray Brown. The illusion was complete, and between 1930 and 1974, half the experience in going to the movies was the theatre itself…. Alas, the economics of a 1,980-seat auditorium just did not add up in the age of television. Proposals the Capitol be recast as a civic auditorium came to nothing, much to the regret of later generations ….”

William D. Naftel, Halifax: a Visual Legacy