Princess Theatre

rivest266 on September 12, 2018 at 2:52 pm

Reopened as Klondike on December 24th, 1971. ad posted.

rivest266 on September 9, 2018 at 11:03 am

This opened on March 8th, 1915.

Princess theatre opening Sat, Mar 6, 1915 – 15 · Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) · Newspapers.com

TKHutchinson on April 19, 2006 at 4:14 pm

The Princess was operated during most of its first period of life by Famous Players. The Mckernans did operate it initially but not for long. Famous closed the Princess in 1957 because its “nickelodeon” design with a very long, narrow auditorium and minute screen could not be brought up to date to compete with TV (it was never converted to cinemascope under the Famous Players operation).

There are several theatres in Edmonton that have claims to the first sound exhibition…..and I would doubt that any claim the Princess makes is credible.

When Famous Players closed the theatre (they closed several Edmonton theatres about that time; victims of TV) it was converted to a store; a TV store in fact. Much of the balcony was demolished, and the interior was gutted.

In 1968 Hector Ross and his Town Cinema Theatres Ltd bought the Princess and did a complete renovation, following a historic theme but anything but historically accurate. They reconstructed a new balcony (in a different place from the original), reconfigured the lobby, and equipped the building to pass the codes of the day. This required closing the rooming house on the third floor and cutting into that space to put the new projection room, to shoot over the top of the newly reconstructed balcony. Offices on the second floor were demolished to make way for rest rooms (funny how no one had to go to the toilet in 1914). The only thing original in the building as it is now is the procenium arch (now widened for CinemaScope) and the mural above the procenium. A plasterer was brought from Europe and a large crystal chandelier was bought from France to enhance the look of the theatre. The new theatre was called the Klondike, after the “Klondike Days” celebration that Edmonton had in the summer. Towne Cinemas Ltd morphed into Landmark Cinemas and they tried to use the Princess as their flagship theatre. However, the neighborhood was disreputable and run down; the theatre had no parking and a very small screen and poor acoustics, and it didn’t ever “take off”. It did play first run product, but first run product that was available to a smaller cinema company at the time, with Odeon and Famous Players controlling the best Hollywood fare. It never showed “porn” but it did show some pictures like the English “Carry On” series that featured women with large breasts.

Because soft core porn was successful in several theatres, Landmark discussed running such pictures. The residents of the area felt that if the theatre were to operate with soft core porn, it would further drag the area down. So “saving the theatre” became a rallying cry which eventually formed a very vital revitalization organization, the Old Strathcona Foundation. The Foundation operated the re-named Princess Theatre, rented from Landmark, as a very successful repertory cinema. They eventually bought the building.

By and by videos came and wrecked the repertory operation, so it shifted to mostly Hollywood. Then a 12 plex discount theatre was built in Edmonton, and even the Hollywood pictures didn’t make any money. The theatre, instead of supporting the Old Strathcona Foundation, was costing it money. It was sold to a private investor.

This private company attempted to operate the theatre as first run art/alternative, but they were unsuccessful. They leased it to Magic Lantern Theatres (the current operators)in the late 1990s.

Magic Lantern built a small screening room in what was originally a pool hall under the theatre. It is totally separate from the main Princess Theatre, and is called Princess II. Both the Princess and Princess II (as well as the Garneau Theatre, nearby) currently show first run art/alternative product.

Tom Hutchinson