Starland Theatre

Demolition has begun today. :–(

I find all this information very interesting. The other day I was working in one of Winnipeg’s historical hotels right in the area of the Starland. I have never paid much attention to what used to be “theatre strip”. This is very fascinating! It seems as though more and more interesting historical facts are comming to light. I cannot beleive how much history is right here in my home town!

Once comments have been submitted there’s no way of editing them unfortunately.

As far as changing the status of the theatre, the site administrators review comments periodically and will eventually change it from ‘Closed’ to ‘Closed-Demolished’.

By the way, apparently the Starland went out in a blaze of glory with the front facade collapsing onto Main Street. The west side of Main is temporarily closed to traffic in the vicinity.

This I find very sad. My mother is from Winnipeg and her dad was in the movie business there, working for Rothstein theaters, which booked movies into the theaters in much of Canada. His offices were on the 2nd floor of the Marlborough Hotel, I always remember going there as a kid and seeing tons of posters , pressbooks and promotion materials he was sending out to the theaters.

My Uncle Sammy (my grandfather’s brother) was manager of the Starland and Regent (next door) for many years. In 2007 my mother and I went to Winnipeg and we spent 3-4 days touring her old homes, synagogues and other places she grew up and we went by these 2 theaters and told me my uncle managed these theaters for more than 40 years. I went to show these to my brother on Google maps today and couldn’t find them, and came here and saw they were demolished. How sad, family history and 2 classic theaters gone.

April Fool’s Day, 1926, was a bad day to attend the evening performance at the Starland Theatre, judging from this item in the April 17 issue of The Moving Picture World:

“One of the worst theatre accidents to occur in Canada took place at the Starland Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, during the evening show on April 1 when the ceiling under the balcony suddenly collapsed, burying the people on the ground floor, causing injury to over 20 persons, 14 of whom had to be removed to the hospitals in ambulances which were called out.

“The mass of debris fell in such a manner as to block the main exits leading to the theatre lobby and there was immediately every indication of a panic. An emergency call was sent in to police headquarters and every available officer was rushed to the scene. The theatre employees and police quickly restored order, however, and led the unnerved people to rear and side exits while others attended the wounded.”