The O'Brien Theatre is a historic cinema in the town of Arnprior, Ontario. Arnprior's first cinema opened on the site in 1906, and the current building dates from 1919. It was originally both a cinema and venue for vaudeville performances. With the growth in popularity of films the building renovated and became a full time cinema in 1929. It was owned by the O'Brien Entertainment Corporation, which owned a number of cinemas in the Ottawa Valley. Several other towns in the area had O'Brien cinemas. The equally historic O'Brien Theatre in Renfrew, Ontario is the only other still open, and both theatres are today again owned by the same company. Not part of any of the major theatre chains, the O'Brien has been owned by several small businesses over the last decades. In 2000 the theatre was completely refurbished and restored to its 1930s appearance.
Famous quotes containing the word theatre:
“Mankind’s common instinct for reality ... has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever.”
—William James (1842–1910)