Capitol Theatre
29 Second Street W.,
Cornwall,
ON
K6J 1G3
29 Second Street W.,
Cornwall,
ON
K6J 1G3
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 6 comments
Famous Players opened Cornwall’s Capitol Theatre on January 23, 1928 with Wallace Beery in “Now We’re In The Air” along with two shorts, “My Lady Of Victories” and “Beauty Spots Of Canada”, Capitol News, and two live solo performances, “A Song Of Canada” by J.J. Whittaker and “Niagara The Glorious” by Jean Heig.
During its final years, the Capitol Theatre was last operated independently before closing for the final time on January 1, 1986 with “Santa Claus The Movie”.
The Capitol Theatre in Cornwall is one of my favourite theatres, built in 1928 by the Palace Amusement Company, a Famous Players partnership situation. Clarence Markell was the spark behind this building and the Palace Theatre in Cornwall, Ontario — and during the twenties and thirties both these theatres did very well. Clarence Markell was extremely GOOD theatre operator!! During the first year or two of the Capitol Theatre’s operation — the Palace Theatre was kept closed, but later was re-opened and much later became the number one house when remodelled completely about `1949. Business was so good in Cornwall, that the Markells and the Whithams seriously considered building a third theatre in Cornwall, but it never happened!! The Capitol Theatre had a wooden floor and I remember hearing the crowds move on that wooden floor (it sounded very loud almost like a herd of elephants moving).
The change in policy at the Capitol to first-run movies in 1983-84 led directly to the demise of the Palace Theatres which Canadian Odeon could not find profitable when competing against a non-profit theatre.
Here are some updated links to two of the pictures of the theatre previously posted above as well as two others from the Ontario Archives:
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0011937.jpg
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0020938.jpg
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0020939.jpg
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0020940.jpg
The Capitol Theatre was a ‘sister’ theatre to the Runnymede Theatre, Toronto.
An article about the failed restoration of the Capitol is at:
http://www.cornwall-lacac.on.ca/Capitol.html