The Paradise Theatre is a movie theatre located at 1006 Bloor Street West [1] in the Bloorcourt Village neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It first opened in 1937, closed in 2006, and then was to be turned into a pharmacy. [2] [3] [4] However, it was restored and re-opened on December 5, 2019. [5] The renovations included luxury features, such as an attached restaurant, bar, and table service to the premium patrons in the balcony. [6]
Architect Benjamin Brown designed the theatre in the Art Deco style. [7] As originally built, the theatre provided 643 seats, 177 of them in a small balcony. It also had a small stage, and two dressing rooms, for live acts.
According to local historian Doug Taylor, the theatre had multiple owners over the years. It showed erotic films in the 1980s that Taylor described as so mild they could be shown on broadcast television today. From the 1990s until its 2006 closure, it was one of a small network of Toronto repertory cinemas.
In 2007, the building was given a heritage designation which, in theory, would prevent it from being demolished. However, Taylor noted that Toronto's heritage designation bylaws were weak, and its designation was not a guarantee that it would not be torn down.
The building was bought in 2013 by Moray Tawse, [5] a co-founder of First National Financial Corporation. In a profile celebrating its re-opening, Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell wrote that Tawse was motivated to restore it by his love of a cinema of similar vintage, where his mother worked when he was a child.
After Tawse's renovations, the theatre now seats 186 patrons on the ground floor, while the balcony has just 22 seats. [5] His renovations include provision for live acts. [6] Tawse's renovations also included turning the small Italian grocery store next door into a restaurant, and adding a second storey to hold a bar - both to open in 2020.
On December 5, 2019, the night of the re-opening, the theatre hosted an instance of the Basement Revue, an ongoing series of live performances. [1]
Lee's Palace is a rock concert hall located on the south side of Bloor Street West east of Lippincott Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Ed Mirvish Theatre is a historic performing arts theatre in Toronto, Ontario, located near Yonge–Dundas Square. Owned and operated by Mirvish Productions, the theatre has approximately 2,300 seats across two levels. There are two entrances to the theatre, located at 263 Yonge Street and 244 Victoria Street.
The Uptown Theatre was a historic movie theatre in Toronto, Ontario which was demolished in 2003. The entrance to the theatre was located on Yonge Street just south of Bloor. Like many theatres of the time it was constructed so that only the entrance was on a major thoroughfare while the main building fronted on a side street. A bridge connected the two buildings.
The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is a movie theatre in The Annex district of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at 506 Bloor Street West, near its intersection with Bathurst Street and the Bathurst subway station.
The Runnymede Theatre is a historic building located in Bloor West Village, an affluent west end Toronto neighbourhood. The building has operated as a vaudeville theatre, a movie theatre, a bingo hall, and a Chapters bookstore. The building is now a Shoppers Drug Mart.
Old Mill is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the banks of the Humber River. It is located north and west of the intersection of Bloor Street and Jane Street. The area takes its name from the old grist mill ruins on the west bank of the river, now converted into a hotel. The City of Toronto includes this neighbourhood in the official "Lambton Baby Point" neighbourhood which includes the Baby Point enclave and former Lambton village areas to the north.
The Somerville Theatre is an independent movie theater and concert venue in the Davis Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Over one hundred years old, the Somerville Theatre started off as a vaudeville house and movie theater. The theater has since transitioned and now operates as a live music venue and first-run movie theater. As a music venue, the theater has played host to many historic concerts, including the first of the two Last Dispatch concerts, two shows by Bruce Springsteen in 2003, and a performance by U2 in 2009. Recent live performances have included Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cursive, Norah Jones, The Jonas Brothers, Joan Baez, and the John Butler Trio.
The Danforth Music Hall is a music venue and event theatre on Danforth Avenue in the neighbourhood of Riverdale in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is served by Broadview station on the TTC's Bloor–Danforth line. The building was designated as a property of historic interest under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1985.
The Prosserman Jewish Community Centre is a Jewish Community Centre for the Toronto area. It is located along Bathurst Street in the Bathurst Manor neighborhood of Toronto.
The University Theatre was for several decades one of the premier movie cinemas in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located at 100 Bloor Street West along the Mink Mile, just west of Bay Street in an area that was once home to a number of cinemas, most notably the Uptown Theatre, and was a centre for the Toronto International Film Festival. At the time of its closing it was the largest movie house in Canada.
The Standard Theatre is an inactive theatre in Toronto that originated as the city's main venue for Yiddish theatre, and later became the Victory Burlesque, which would be the last traditional burlesque theatre in Toronto when it closed in 1975. It is located at 285 Spadina Ave. the corner of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street.
The CAA Theatre, formerly the Panasonic Theatre, is a theatre located at 651 Yonge Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Mirvish Productions. On December 1, 2017, Mirvish Productions announced a marketing partnership with CAA South Central Ontario, which included renaming the venue that was known as the Panasonic Theatre.
The Joy Theatre was a small cinema on Toronto's Queen Street East. When built, during World War I the theatre had just 381 seats. In 1941 it was renovated, adding air conditioning, boosting the number of seats to 427, and changing its name from Rex Theatre to Joy Theatre.
The Metro Theatre was an adult movie theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located at 677 Bloor Street, it was open ten hours a day throughout the entire week before its closure in 2013. Built in 1938, it is one of the several Art Deco theatres built in Toronto in the 1930s by architects Kaplan and Sprachman. Metro Theatre opened in 1939 as a neighbourhood theatre showing second run films and B movies and in 1976 started to show adult films. The theatre is stylized for the 1940s, one of its screening rooms had 286 seats and another 320, there is also a snack bar. The entrance contained signed photos of notable pornographic stars, including Ron Jeremy.
The Casino Theatre was a live theatre, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located at 87 Queen Street West across the street from the current site of Nathan Phillips Square.
Roxy Theatre was the final name of a theatre that operated from 1935 to 2006 at 1215 Danforth Avenue, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada's east end. It was designed by the architectural firm Kaplan & Sprachman, which designed dozens of neighbourhood cinemas, and opened under the name Allenby Theatre.
The Hollywood Theatre was a movie theatre at 1519 Yonge Street in Toronto, Ontario. It opened in 1930 and was located on the east side of Yonge Street, north of St. Clair Avenue.
Humber Cinemas, originally the Odeon Humber Theatre, was a movie theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The theatre was operated by the Odeon and Loews Cineplex chains until 2003. The theatre re-opened as an independent theatre in 2011 and operated until 2019 when it closed permanently. The theatre was located on Bloor Street just west of Jane Street.
The Westwood Theatre was built in 1951 in Etobicoke, Ontario's Six Points intersection where Kipling Avenue intersects both Bloor and Dundas streets.
As is tradition, each night's line-up isn't revealed to the audience or participating talent until each performer takes the stage, creating an exciting atmosphere and adding an extra element of surprise to the evening. Paradise is thrilled to host the series in its thirteenth year, every Thursday night in December.
Tawse cut no corners and spared no expense to realize his vision, but he said he won't reveal any dollar amounts 'because it would be too embarrassing — I would be thought to be a stupid business person. It makes no economic sense whatsoever, and I'm OK with that.'
The entire space is also completely accessible for the seeing impaired: Paradise worked with the Canadian National Institute For The Blind to install Bluetooth wall beacons throughout the space, which allow people to manoeuvre Paradise in tandem with a handy app called BlindSquare.
