Bloor Theatre
529 Bloor Street W,
Toronto,
ON
M5S 1Y5
529 Bloor Street W,
Toronto,
ON
M5S 1Y5
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 6 comments
This was an Allen Theatre that Famous Players acquired control from the receivers of the Allen Theatres Limited. One of our veteran pioneer lady managers, Miss Dorothy St. Edward, was the Manager at this theatre for a while. Although I have never been inside this theatre, I have been told that are the old-fashioned cathedrals around the ceiling just like in the Adam style of decor used in so many movie palaces!!!
The Bloor also figures in this article at Silent Toronto — You’re fired: Silent film musicians and the talkie revolution.
Thanks Christopher. There’s a new post (with a fancy slide-show) about the Allen Bloor over at Silent Toronto.
The November 26, 1919, issue of the trade journal Engineering and Contracting featured an article about the construction system used for the roof the new theater. There are four line drawings, one of which (a longitudinal section of the building) was unfortunately printed upside down.
Allen’s Bloor Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Hynes, Feldman & Watson, also designers of Allen’s Downtown Theatre (later the Tivoli) and associate architects for Allen’s Danforth Theatre, now the Danforth Music Hall.
Loren Ruth Lerner and Mary F. Williamson’s book “Art and Architecture of Canada” calls the exterior style of the Bloor Theatre “somewhat Italian” and describes the interior as “…a modern development of Louis XVI style….”
According to Eric Veillete’s Silent Toronto, the architect of the Bloor was none other than C. Howard Crane. Eric’s page about the Allen Theatre chain includes a picture of the Bloor from 1921: http://silenttoronto.com/?tag=bloor-theatre.
Right you are Jlangdon, the OLD Bloor theatre is now Lee’s Palace, NOT the Midtown…THAT is now the Bloor. I hate when people keep mixing up the old Bloor and the Midtown (the current Bloor)