Early Development
Famous Players Canadian Corporation was founded in 1920 when Paramount Pictures bought Nathan Nathanson's Paramount Theatre chain, which he had established four years earlier. Nathanson became the first president of Famous Players Canadian Corporation. The Famous Players Theatres chain was always strongly linked with Paramount Pictures, and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Paramount Communications at the time that firm was acquired by Viacom in 1994. Some of the most high-profile and popular theatres in the Famous Players chain were the Imperial and the Uptown in Toronto; and the Capitol, Orpheum, Stanley, and Strand in Vancouver.
Nathanson resigned from his post as President of Famous Players Canadian in 1929, but after a government investigation into the new executives' plans to merge with Paramount-Publix Corporation declared this to be an illegal combine, violating anti-trust laws, Nathanson was re-elected as President in May 1933.
Odeon Theatres of Canada was started by Paul Nathanson, Nathan's son, as "General Theatre Corporation." The "Odeon Theatres of Canada" name was first used in January 1941. The elder Nathanson was rumoured to be involved in the chain, but it was not until early May 1941 that he once again resigned from Famous Players Canadian and acknowledged his position in forming and running Odeon. The chain, initially composed of independent theatres, was not originally affiliated with the British "Odeon Cinemas" circuit; it was sold to the British chain's owners, the Rank Organisation, in 1946. Following World War II, there was a wave of anglophilia in Ontario; Odeon emphasised their British ownership to capitalize on this sentiment, screening British films—particularly those made by Rank.
Odeon Canada merged with the Canadian Theatres chain in 1978, becoming known as Canadian Odeon Theatres.
On April 19, 1979, Nathan "Nat" Taylor, inventor of the multiscreen theater, and Garth Drabinsky opened the first Cineplex location, an 18-screen complex in the basement of the Toronto Eaton Centre. At the time, the theatre's 1,600 seats earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. After successfully challenging the Famous Players/Canadian Odeon duopoly and their exclusive contracts with major studios, Cineplex proceeded to purchase Canadian Odeon, forming Cineplex Odeon Corporation. The Bronfman family was a major investor in the purchase.
Read more about this topic: Cineplex Entertainment, History
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