Montreal Movie Palaces: Great Theatres of the Golden Era, 1884-1938

H. Graham Rawlinson teaches history at York University in Toronto.

Like most other North Americans, Montrealers fell in love with moving
pictures as soon as they appeared around the turn of the century. In the
first section of this elegant coffee-table book, Dane Lanken describes
the early days of the city’s movie theatres. The advent of
“talkies” in the late 1920s cemented the popularity of the cinema,
and by then an unprecedented building boom in movie houses was under
way. The enormous profits made by film distributors were partly ploughed
back into the theatres, resulting in an opulent luxury that has only
rarely endured to this day.

Section 2 takes the reader on a journey through space and time as the
author explores the insides and outsides of Montreal’s movie palaces
through their history. Wonders in their heyday, with massive balconies,
arches, and fantastic classical decorations, these theatres for the most
part ended up abandoned, subdivided into “shoe box cinemas,” or
demolished. Lanken’s regret at the loss, both to the city’s
architectural heritage and to the moviegoing experience, is palpable. In
Section 3, he laments the passing of the “golden age.” The
Depression, World War II, and, above all, the coming of television all
spelled the end of an era for the palatial movie theatre.

In what was no doubt a labor of love, the author spent 20 years
tracking down archival records in order to reconstruct the history of
dozens of theatres. Vintage and recent photographs provide a stunning
complement to the text. Montreal Movie Palaces artfully revives
Montreal’s business, cultural, and artistic past.