The interior was demolished only three months before the scheduled visit by the city officials who wanted to class it as historical building,thus protecting it from further destruction. The owner wanting to be able to sell it for anything but a theater rushed to destroy it. When the city clerks arrived, they only found an empty cube with four walls.
The Dominion Theatre was created by the architect Joseph-Arthur Godin (1879-1949) and built in 1913. On the original drawing, it was named Le Jovial but the name was never retained. It opened in April 1914 and was able to greet 1500 spectators. It was first a silent movie theatre at the beginning and it switched to talking movies in 1929. Then with the golden age of the burlesk, presentations varied from movies to live shows since 1932 until the late 50’s. Then it became again just a movie theatre until around 1965.
The civic address also varied as time went by. It opened at 820-822 rue Papineau, changed to 1676-78 rue Papineau in 1922 and became the 4530 rue Papineau in 1926. It still stands at this address today.
The interior was demolished only three months before the scheduled visit by the city officials who wanted to class it as historical building,thus protecting it from further destruction. The owner wanting to be able to sell it for anything but a theater rushed to destroy it. When the city clerks arrived, they only found an empty cube with four walls.
The Dominion Theatre was created by the architect Joseph-Arthur Godin (1879-1949) and built in 1913. On the original drawing, it was named Le Jovial but the name was never retained. It opened in April 1914 and was able to greet 1500 spectators. It was first a silent movie theatre at the beginning and it switched to talking movies in 1929. Then with the golden age of the burlesk, presentations varied from movies to live shows since 1932 until the late 50’s. Then it became again just a movie theatre until around 1965.
The building was then rented to the Jehovas Witnesses for a while and is listed in the phone book of the time as the “Emmanuel Church”. In 1967, Gilles Latulippe finally bought it and returned it to its root of movies and live burlesker shows. Under the name “Théâtre des Variétés”, it will be filled by laughter until it’s closure in 2000.
It was renamed “Théâtre des Nouveautés” afterward, but was closed within the same year. It’s now a cabaret named “La Tulipe” and it has gone under a lots of transformation. Noticeably, all the seats of the orchestra were removed. Only the balcony remains untouched. You can see current pictures of the interior on their site :(http://www.latulipe.ca/latulipe/visite/latulipe_visite.asp)
The number of spectators varied over the years. In 1914, it was announced at 1500, but in 1926 it was down to 908. In 1928, after new safety laws were implemented following the deadly fire at the Laurier Palace (which killed 78 kids), the number of seats was 829. Under Latulippe’s direction, the Variétés had 727 seats. The cabaret now claims 550 seated or 700 standing places.
The civic address also varied as time went by. It opened at 820-822 rue Papineau, changed to 1676-78 rue Papineau in 1922 and became the 4530 rue Papineau in 1926. It still stands at this address today.
You can see pictures on my website (in French) dedicated to this beloved theater at:
http://pattypatwebdesign.net/varietes/index.html