Totem Theatre
200 3rd Avenue W,
Prince Rupert,
BC
V8J 1L1
200 3rd Avenue W,
Prince Rupert,
BC
V8J 1L1
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Famous Players
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News About This Theater
- Mar 2, 2010 — Happy 45th, "The Sound Of Music"
This was a Famous Players theatre, opening on April 12, 1951 with Gene Tierney in “The Mating Season”. The other Famous Players theatre in town was the Capitol Theatre. The Totem Theatre was still open in the early-1980’s. The building was still standing in a derelict state in 2023.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
My brother worked at the Totem Theatre and I worked at the Capitol Theatre when we were in our teens. I don’t recall the exact number of seats, but it was between 500-600 seats. They don’t make theatres like this anymore. When ET came out in the theatres, the Totem Theatre would sell out on both showings of ET for months. This was before the VCR and at a time when the popcorn was popped with coconut oil…. those were the days.
Yeah Wayne,the coconut oil,we used that back in the day too.Good stuff and expensive,made great popcorn.
The Totem Theatre was located at 200 3rd Avenue West and its postal code was V8J 1L1. It was also a Famous Players theatre throughout its existence (as noted in the article above) and opened on April 12, 1951.
A newspaper article from the April 13, 1951 edition of the Prince Rupert Daily News on the opening of the Totem the previous night is now uploaded to the photo section. The opening night feature was the 1951 Gene Tierney film The Mating Season. More articles announcing the opening of the Totem have also been added to the photo section, including the opening night ad. In the accompanying article, it mentions that the Totem had 640 seats and was prominently decorated with Haida artwork in the lobby and auditorium.
According to the link below (showing a recent Google Street view as of September 2023), the Totem Theatre building is still standing but has long since been boarded up and allowed to deteriorate.
Totem Theatre building in September 2023