Empire Theatre
451 Avenue Ogilvy,
Montreal,
QC
H3N 1R5
451 Avenue Ogilvy,
Montreal,
QC
H3N 1R5
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On August 23, 1959, with a group of friends, we saw two films here: “First Man into Space” and “The Crimson Pirate.” Good adventure matinee program.
The Empire Theatre was in operation prior to 1939, when a photo of its auditorium served as one of the illustrations to an article about parabolic reverse slope theater auditoriums in the January 7 issue of Boxoffice. The article doesn’t specifically say so, but I believe the architect of the Empire was the author of the article, Henry E. Greenspoon, partner in the Montreal firm of Eliasoph & Greenspoon.
The theater would have been designed in association with Benjamin Schlanger, developer of the parabolic reverse slope auditorium concept. Another of the article’s illustrations is a photo of the 1936 Jewel Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, one of Schlanger’s designs.
This is the first page of the article, with the photo of the Empire Theatre at bottom left.
This is the second page of the article, with the photo of the Jewel, and drawings showing how a parabolic reverse slope floor was configured.