Movie Theatre
The Stanley opened on December 15, 1930. Originally envisioned as a vaudeville venue, it was built by Frederick Guest, owner of a chain of theatres in Ontario, who reportedly fell in love with Vancouver and decided to build his dream theatre there. He hired Henry Holdsby Simmonds as the architect, who designed it with a neoclassical interior and an Art Deco exterior, with seating for 1,216 people. In order to make as high quality a theatre as possible, Simmonds used only the best materials he could find, including tindle stone from Winnipeg and tiles from Italy, along with chandeliers, carpets and furnishings from local merchants. Like the Stanley Cup and Stanley Park, the theatre was named after Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley.
The first film shown at the Stanley was One Romantic Night, starring Lillian Gish. Admission was originally between 10 and 40 cents. The vertical Stanley sign was added in 1940 and the stylized Stanley script came in 1957. The cinema, which had been part of the Granville Theatre Company, was bought by Famous Players in 1941 for $268,000.
The Stanley was originally built as a neighbourhood theatre, but gradually became more popular and attracted moviegoers from throughout the Vancouver region. From the 1950s onwards, progressively improved sound and projection systems along with refurbished seating added to the theatre's appeal. On July 8, 1954 the Stanley began showing films in stereophonic CinemaScope for the first time. By November 1958, the theatre had a DP70 70mm projector, which at the time was advertised as "the only Todd-AO in Western Canada." On October 18, 1978 the auditorium was equipped with Dolby Stereo, and in November–December 1985 its sound system was upgraded and certified to THX quality assurance standards.
The Stanley often showed blockbusters. Some movies shown at the theatre through the years included Duel in the Sun, Knock on Any Door, Ben-Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, Doctor Zhivago, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Exorcist, The Towering Inferno, The Muppet Movie, Apocalypse Now, The Empire Strikes Back, The Elephant Man, Poltergeist, The Right Stuff, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Top Gun, The Untouchables, Stakeout, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Goodfellas.
Revenues declined during the late 20th century, and Famous Players closed the Stanley, which was by then the oldest operating movie theatre in Vancouver, on September 25, 1991 after a final showing of the Stanley regular Fantasia (the theatre had previously shown Fantasia at least four times, in 1977, 1979, 1980–1981 and 1990). Its closure was part of a long trend: The number of Famous Players theatres had dropped from 419 in 1954 to 196 in 1969, and would fall to eighty, some in partnership with other companies, by the time it was taken over by Cineplex Galaxy Entertainment in 2005. Other Vancouver-area Famous Players movie theatres closed, sold or torn down in this period included the Regent (1958), the Strand (1973), the original Capitol (1974), the Orpheum (1974), the Fine Arts (1989), Denman Place (1989), Park Royal (1993), the Park (2005), and the Capitol 6 (2005).
Read more about this topic: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Famous quotes containing the words movie and/or theatre:
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—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Our instructed vagrancy, which has hardly time to linger by the hedgerows, but runs away early to the tropics, and is at home with palms and banyans—which is nourished on books of travel, and stretches the theatre of its imagination to the Zambesi.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)