Le Parisien

480 rue Ste. Catherine O.,
Montreal, QC H3B1A6

Unfavorite 2 people favorited this theater

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Consolidated Theatres, Famous Players

Architects: D.J. Spence

Previous Names: Princess Theatre, Princess Cinema

Nearby Theaters

Le Parisien

Opened in 1917 as the Princess Theatre, it replaced an earlier Princess Theatre. It had 2,184-seats located in orchestra level balcony and upper balcony levels. It presented vaudeville and live theatre. In 1926 Harry Houdini appeared here. The cinema was renamed Le Parisien on January 26, 1963 and underwent a renovation in which its upper balcony was closed off, reducing the seating capacity to 1,000-seats. It was operated by Consolidated Theatres.

In 1974, the movie house was closed for renovations and gutted. It reopened in 1975 as a five-screen theater, and in 1989, it was split again into seven screens.

In February 2002, the cinema was slightly damaged by a fire. One auditorium in the now seven-screen theater was completely destroyed, while six others suffered damage.

The cinema, which is owned by Famous Players reopened and continued to show French language films and lastly second run movies when it closed on 12th April 2007 .

Contributed by Mike Rivest

Recent comments (view all 13 comments)

dorseyland
dorseyland on August 3, 2007 at 7:40 am

It’s always sad to see an old haunt closed, but this one takes the memory of Harry Houdini with it. The Princess was where he performed in 1926 and took those infamous body blows from a McGill student that inflamed his (apparently already) ruptured appendix. He died soon after in Detroit.

Brian Morton
Brian Morton on March 6, 2008 at 9:46 pm

Info on the Houdini connection is here

View link

Also a nice picture of the exterior from the 1920’s is here

View link

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on June 17, 2008 at 5:52 pm

A 1917 picture of an artist working on the mural that once occupied the space over the proscenium at the theatre when it was the Princess from he Ontario Archives:
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0010651.jpg

rivest266
rivest266 on December 29, 2009 at 7:21 pm

Princess grand opening ad from October 3rd, 1908 is at View link

rivest266
rivest266 on August 26, 2011 at 1:59 am

Downstairs is being converted, Cinemas 4-7 upstairs remains except for seats and projectors.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on November 13, 2011 at 12:04 pm

The architect of the Princess Theatre was D.J. Spence. The artist in the photo CSWalczak linked to earlier is most likely F.S. Challenor, who painted the mural on the theater’s sounding board. A brief article about the Princess Theatre appeared in the February, 1918, issue of the Canadian trade journal Construction.

From the description above, it seems unlikely that any trace of the original decoration of the 1917 Princess remains. The 1917 house was itself a replacement for an earlier Princess Theatre. The photo to which mortonbg linked earlier must depict the front of the pre-1917 Princess, as the facade as designed by Spence was as tall as that of Le Parisien.

cmbussmann
cmbussmann on February 7, 2013 at 9:40 pm

I am utterly dismayed to read this place has closed. It had one of the coolest exterior lay-outs ever. There’s a photo in the photos section that shows the way the marquee recessed and all the flags hung around it. I always thought it was breathtaking. I only ever saw one film here (Tom Tykwer’s Heaven — part of the Montreal World Film Festival in 2002) but I really enjoyed it. The place showed French films on the regular, often without subtitles, so I never made it back.

What a shame to read that it is closed and in decay. Maybe someone will rehabilitate someday.

rivest266
rivest266 on October 26, 2024 at 6:51 pm

Leased to Secure Cinema Investments in 1971 along with the Imperial, Bijou, Midi-Minuit, Pigalle (olde Strand) etc. The chain tried to open a theatre in Calgary.

Secure Cinema InvestmentsSecure Cinema Investments 12 Nov 1971, Fri The Montreal Star (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.