From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile, which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. The following was originally posted on December 30, 2011.
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| Opening ad for the Odeon Hyland. The Toronto Star, November 17, 1948 |
It was a dicey proposition: testing out a brand new movie theatre,
and the Shakespearian adaptation that was its opening attraction, by
filling the first showing with high school students. It was especially
dicey after rowdy teens had recently disrupted a recent festival
honouring the Bard at the Eaton Auditorium (now the Carlu). But Odeon
Theatres officials felt that filling the new Hyland theatre with
students from Northern Vocational High School (now Northern Secondary)
for the afternoon presentation of Sir Laurence Olivier’s version of
Hamlet on November 22, 1948 was worth any potential mishaps.
According to the Star, the kids were alright:
The kids at the showing were well-behaved, far from
rowdy, and occasionally spell-bound. But they also chose to laugh in the
wrong places and spoiled, for some of us, the complete beauty of many
performances…Incomplete understanding of the drama rather than any
intended rudeness was undoubtedly responsible for these unfortunate
outbursts.
We’re certain many other patrons laughed at the wrong time during the
Hyland’s half-century of operation at 1501 Yonge Street. When the
theatre closed in February 2001, the experience of moviegoing at Yonge
and St. Clair vanished with it.
Opening the Hyland faced greater challenges than pleasing teenagers.
During the fall of 1948, the city instituted daily blackouts due to
power shortages. As opening day neared, power cuts increased to twice
daily during the working week—one in the morning, and a 45-minute
blackout starting at 7 p.m. These cuts affected the final stages of
construction, including the installation of kitchen equipment and sales
of advance tickets to
Hamlet. With the front of the house not
ready, ticket sales were moved to a nearby drug store which, as the Star
reported, confused one customer:
A lady, who doesn’t believe in signs, joined a queue in
front of the theatre, in hope of getting reservations for Sir Laurence
Olivier’s screen masterpiece. Finally she got to the head of the line
and was most provoked to learn that she’d wasted a half hour to be
interviewed for a job as usherette.
Despite these problems, tickets for
Hamlet sold quickly. By the beginning of December, the house was booked solid through Christmas.
One of the Hyland’s greatest assets in its early years was manager
Vic Nowe. His promotional skills drew people to see both the feature
attraction and the award-winning tie-ins he devised. A lobby display of
Victorian wallpaper designs during the run of
Oliver Twist in 1949 was so popular that it toured other Odeon locations. To promote
Tight Little Island
the following year, Nowe saluted the film’s Scottish setting by
covering the theatre’s entrance in plaid and offering performances in
the lobby by highland dancers and bagpipers. When The
Lavender Hill Mob ran in late 1951, the Hyland let the first 50 men wearing bowler hats a la star Alec Guinness in for free.
As British cultural influences waned in Toronto, the near-exclusive
programming of films from the mother country at the Hyland gave way to
Hollywood blockbusters. When the theatre was split into two screens in
the early 1970s, it followed a trend that affected several of the city’s
remaining large single-auditorium cinemas.
By 1999, declining attendance led Cineplex Odeon to convert the
Hyland into a showcase for art films. The theatre was still capable of
drawing people—it grossed over $50,000 in three days in December 2000 as
one of a trio of cinemas that carried the initial run of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—but
the move was seen as a sign its days were numbered. When Cineplex Odeon
was granted interim bankruptcy protection two months later, the Hyland
was closed immediately. Anyone who attempted to phone the theatre for
the day’s bill on February 16, 2001 was greeted with a generic recorded
message: “We are honoured to have had the opportunity of serving your
community. Thank you for your patronage and support.” Those arriving at
the theatre in person were advised to head to the Varsity.
Demolished in 2003, the
site of the Hyland
is now the entrance to a Green P lot and a walkway named after another
former Yonge and St. Clair landmark, longtime CFRB morning show host
Wally Crouter.
Additional material from the November 19, 1948, November 23, 1948, and February 17, 2001 editions of the
Toronto Star.
