Odeon Hyland
1501 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M4T 1Y9
1501 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M4T 1Y9
1 person
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This is where I saw “Back to the Future” 30 years ago today. Movie exceeded my expectations.
I worked at this theatre for years and have many fond memories. One of the most memorable was a cashier called Elizabeth who had also been there for years. One day someone came in at the box office pulled a gun and asked her to empty out the till or he’d shoot. She must have been in well into her late sixties if not older, she looked him straight in the eyes and simply said “Shoot”. The would be robber ran away :)
Another interesting fact is that Amanda. Marshall worked at this theatre when she was a teenager. She was very fun to work with and even then she had a fantastic voice.
If any of the old gang is reading a hello from Rob and Max ;)
My mother worked at the HYland Theatre for 35 years.I have a ton of great memories of the theatre. My brothers & i would play on the stage.Its just to bad that they tore it down . It was one of the most prestiges bldgs in Canada.
vic1964 has confused two theatres in London, Ontario I think, the Odeon London in the downtown built in 1948, twinned in the 70s and showed Amadeus in the 80s, but not in 70mm. The other was a mid-1930s neighbourhood house seating about 600 originally and called the Elmwood. The Odeon chain leased it for a few years in the 40s and then permanently in 1955 when it renamed it the Odeon Hyland. Around 1980 it was renovated with a new marquee, larger lobby and candy bar, air-conditioning and seating reduced to about 400. Back to the Future was one of many first-run films that had long runs there. The record setter was The Sound of Music which ran for 73 weeks at reserved seat prices. The Hyland was closed in the 90s a victim of newer multiplexes in the city. Later it was briefly used as a church. A few years ago a couple took it over and has devoted it to showing foreign and independent films that otherwise would have no chance of being seen in this area.
The sister theatre to the Odeon Hyland was in London Ontario called the Odeon and later Odeon 1&2 when the balcony was made into theatre #2.It was demolished to build a pathetic downtown mall in 1988ish!
I saw Amadeus at the Hyland in 70mm!
Back To The Future played here in 70mm 25 years ago today!
A picture of the Odeon Hyland:
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This was a very important theatre when Odeon and later Cineplex Odeon had it. During the 50s it showed many British films and then in the 60s premiered many Hollywood hits which ran for months. When Cineplex took over Canadian Odeon it still used the Hyland to showcase some of the top releases of their day including E.T., Tootsie, Backdraft, For the Boys and many, many others. It was always a pleasure seeing films here because it was very comfortable and had the best in sight and sound in both upstairs and downstairs cinemas. It was twinned in 1972 and with the Hollywood two doors to the north these four screens always had big releases. It’s too bad that theatre habits changed because with the Hyland and Hollywood at Yonge and St Clair it was always a great entertainment destination.
The architect of the Odeon Hyland Theatre was Jay I. English and Leslie H. Kemp. The Hyland had a long lobby, resulting from a distance of 120 feet between the street entrance and the auditorium, is viually shortened through a series of sweeping breaks to accommodate the boxoffice, manager’s office , candy counter, balcony stairway. The auditorium seats 884 on the main floor and 473 in the mezzanine for a total of 1357 people. The color scheme was coral with olive-green dado. chairs are upholstered in maroon and gray. The main curtain and wings are gold brocade and the inner curtain is silver.