Victory Theatre
287 Spadina Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M4J 1N4
287 Spadina Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M4J 1N4
3 people
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According to current Google Maps views and information, the gymnasium is no longer in the Victory Theatre building, which has since been converted into office and retail spaces, including a Rexall drugstore on the main floor which opened around 2017. The current Rexall space was also previously the location of a Royal Bank branch before that branch relocated prior to 2016.
Closed in 1994. Full chronological history with photos in below link.
https://tayloronhistory.com/2015/06/29/torontos-sinful-victory-theatrenew-photos/
@SandyDoodah … Good for you! Nice to hear someone say something nice about the Vic! My father owned it back in the early 70’s, although he changed it into a music venue … Buddy Rich, Kiss, New York Dolls, Spirit, Rush, and Peter Frampton. I was only a teenager back then, but I still saw some of the shows!
Apparently, the auditorium still exists and is in decent condition as of June 2015. Interior photos here
@Jon Lidolt…That “unattractive theatre” brought much joy to many ladies who worked there. I was one of them back in the early 70’s and I thought it was beautiful, what with all that history! Lots of exciting moments with the 3 ghosts too. Do you realize that many of those “rundown” ladies that you speak of were working their way through college or university. Some became doctors, teachers and other professionals (and no..I don’t mean hookers). Please watch who you look down your nose at. Most of those ladies were awesome women that would give you the shirt off their back…now THAT was funny!
Is / was it haunted? It was featured on TV today….one of those hauntings shows
Have fond memories of the Victory when I was a young man in the sixties. Still have fantasies of ‘Terry Darnell’’s erotic performance.Wonder where she is now? Would have to be about 75 but still sexy I bet.Loved the comics?emcee’s who I think passed about 10 recycled jokes between themselves.
Scroll down on this webpage to see a 1941 picture of the Victory before it became a burlesque house.
I was in this unattractive theatre once in the late 60’s. The place was rundown and so were the ladies of burlesque gracing the stage. But I do remember that they had great hot dogs.
A recent photo can be found here.
Click Here
the address was:
285 Spadina Avenue
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For the last years of its life, this theatre operated as a Cantonese language venue under different names. It was known as The Mandarin when it finally closed in the fall of 1994, a victim of disinterested local audiences and rampant video piracy in Chinatown stores (The Far East Theatre, located almost diagonally across the street similarly faltered and closed up for good in 1999). Double features were the order of the day (the Jet Li vehicle THE BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING and A TASTE OF KILLING AND ROMANCE were the final program, and the posters for the movies stayed up for over a year after the theatre was shuttered).
The auditorium was located on the second floor of the building and was designed in a steep, stadium seat style with a balcony. The theatre was in somewhat of a state of disrepair (I attended a double feature there in the spring of 1994 during a downpour and there was a pronounced leak in the roof in the balcony section), but was pleasantly retro. The lobby was on the main floor and that is the only section of the building still currently in use (by a low grade Chinese retail store). It is not operating as a bank, as stated at the top. In the picture Brian Morton linked to, The Mandarin can be seen next door to the bank, with the Mandarin marquee visible on the left side of the picture. What Brian stated about the division of the building happened before my time, though I don’t remember there being anything more than the snack bar on the main floor when I patronized the place in 1993/94.
And here is a modern view
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There is a vintage image of this theatre here.
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Nope. Those pictures are of a theatre with the same name in Toronto, Australia.
There is an interior picture of this theatre in John Lindsey’s book TURN OUT THE STARS BEFORE LEAVING.It was originally known in the 1920’s as the Standard Theatre, and was home to Yiddish Vaudeville, as Spadina was the garment district of TO.
In the 40’s it became the Victory Theatre, and then later on the Victory Burlesque – which was quite the landmark in 1950’s Toronto, as it was the only legal place in the city where one could see (mostly) naked females.
In the 70’s it was subdevided, the balcony became the Golden Harvest Cinema, while the mainfloor and old stage house became restaurants and retail.