The 1940s: Booming Attendance, a Burst of Construction — A Peterborough Movie-Going History

Looking south on George Street, south of Simcoe, in 1944. Trent Valley Archives (TVA), F50 5.259.

“As builders of real estate in the downtowns and neighbourhoods of almost every Canadian city, and, later, key tenants in suburban malls and big-box developments, Odeon, Famous Players, and hundreds of smaller independent entrepreneurs helped to shape the modern culture of Canadian cities and the viewing practices of Canadian audiences.” – Paul S. Moore, “Nathan L. Nathanson Introduces Canadian Odeon: Producing National Competition in Film Exhibition,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 12,2 (Fall 2003), p.40.

In May of 1947 the industry publication Boxoffice, published out of New York, took note: “Two theatres are going up side by side in Peterborough and the residents are interested in the unusual building race.”

Looking north on George Street, still in the age of two-way traffic, mid-1950s, a photo that to some extent shows the result of the building boom, late 1940s—early 50s. The theatre row marquees are in place on the right. Showing at the Paramount is *The Eddy Duchin Story* (with Tyrone Power and Kim Novak), released in June 1956. On the left, south of King St., among other businesses are Cherney’s department store (opened in a new building at that location in 1949) and the popular Foster’s Restaurant (moved to that location in 1952). The Centre Theatre was a block north on George Street, above Charlotte, adding to the effect of a “movie row.” Until 1949 the Regent Theatre drew crowds just a bit off the beaten track, on the south side of Hunter just east of George Street. The downtown enterprises, including the motion picture theatres, all fed into each other. PMA P-14-593-1 (Downtown Ptbo - colour).

Another movie theatre, or perhaps even two, appeared to be greatly needed at the time. After years of slow growth, Peterborough’s population had grown dramatically in the 1940s, from 25,703 in 1941 to an estimated 34,424 in 1948. Many of these people wanted to “go out to the show.” During the war years especially, attendance at motion pictures boomed everywhere in North America, including Peterborough. As one small news item in the Peterborough Examiner noted in 1942, for people walking around downtown Peterborough one evening and looking for amusement, there was simply no room at the movie theatres . . .

*Examiner*, Aug. 24, 1942, p.9. They just could not get in to see the movies.

Saturday evening, August 22, 1942. There they were, looking for entertainment in the midst of the Second World War: crowds of people thronging George Street. Around nine o’clock they all seemed to have the same idea – to go to a moving picture show.

While the war lasted, film historian Thomas Schatz writes, “The moviegoing experience remained the central, unifying wartime ritual for millions of Americans” – and he could just as well have been speaking for Canadians (after all, Canada was simply an almost borderless extension of the U.S. film industry market).

What was on? Lots to see — if you had a thirst for Hollywood movies. The city’s three theatres, the Regent, Capitol, and Centre — at the time serving a little over 31,000 people (including outskirts) — all had double bills with a main feature film and a shorter “B” movie – and the usual extras, including cartoon and newsreel.

*Examiner*, Aug. 21, 1942, p.7. What they wanted to see — when the city had three movie theatres — Regent (570 seats), Capitol (1,107), and Centre (602) — at times all crowded to the doors.

Howard Hawk’s Ball of Fire (released Jan. 9, 1942) was in its second run in the city (and in it you could see Gene Krupa playing “Drum Boogie”). Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) was in its first wide release (edited down somewhat from its original). Miss Annie Rooney (1942) featured once-child-actress Shirley Temple now as “a rug-cuttin’ jitterbug.” At the Regent too the “B” feature was a Hopalong Cassidy western, Twilight on the Trail (1941) — plus a serial of some sort.

On that Saturday evening, apparently would-be moviegoers attracted to these programs were milling about on the street with nowhere to go. As the Examiner reported, “A number were heard to say that no matter which theatre they went to there was such a lineup that they couldn’t get in.”

A response to the need soon appeared. The city’s only independent theatre, the Centre, would face withering competition from two corporate giants, Canadian Odeon Theatres and Famous Players. Little did the builders know that the audience boom of the 1940s would soon be over (although apparently the decline was not quite as bad in Peterborough as in other cities). Along with the drop in movie attendance in the late 1940s came another interesting twist: in 1948 one U.S. survey indicated that the audience for films at mainstream theatres was becoming younger — some 80 per cent of moviegoers were under thirty years of age. Critics opined that this trend represented the “less than adult” content of the bulk of the movies.

The draw of the major motion picture

*Examiner*, Jan. 22, 1942, p.14. “Theatre parties” were common occurrences during the 1940s. Better than a sleigh ride? Refreshments later on at a home.

During the years of the Second World War (1939–45), moviegoing attendance across North America boomed, with theatres experiencing their best box-office period ever. Peterborough was no exception.

Not many days went by without the Examiner making note of a “theatre party” heading off to see a moving picture show. The local theatres all participated in supporting the war effort, doing whatever they could to help raise funds, and those worthy endeavours, too, drew audiences. The existing theatres still had stage shows from time to time.

*Examiner*, Feb. 20, 1942, p.9. Theatres support the war effort.

The product on screen was almost entirely from Hollywood (estimated at 95 per cent of all features screened in 1945), but the attraction – and the distraction — proved irresistible. The programs changed twice a week, so there was always something new to see. By 1946 the relatively new radio station CHEX (est. 1942) was presenting a “Children’s Story Hour” on Saturday mornings at the Centre Theatre — broadcasting a “Safety Club Program” — and was pulling in about 700 children, filling the theatre.

*Examiner*, Feb. 10, 1944, p.9. The theatres offer a draw that contributes to the sale of war stamps.

*Examiner*, Aug. 19, 1947, p.14. One in a constant stream of “theatre parties” — this one for children — in the 1940s.

A column in the Examiner in April 1947 lamented that the “new generation” of the Canadian public had little interest in the actual, live “theatre” — “For them the motion picture — and to some extent, radio — supplies the principal form of entertainment.”

The draw of the motion picture was everywhere. Far, far away, in Southend, England, in the summer of 1946 the punishment for four boys caught throwing stones at passing trains was “no movies for a month.”

The opposite could also happen. In December 1944 in Peterborough the children of the public schools were guests of the three theatres one Saturday morning — as a reward for collecting 35 tons of paper in aid of the war effort: “Twenty-three hundred of them converged from all parts of the city, jamming the buses and finally arriving noisily for the entertainment they had so well earned. They filled three cars with the papers and magazines which they had gathered up from homes and stores, and carried to points of collection.”

*Examiner*, March 23, 1946, p.12. In the 1940s, for just about everyone with a few cents to spare, going out to the movies was the thing to do.

An early-evening 36-minute power stoppage in August 1946 — believed, at the time, to be the longest on record — disrupted the city no end, but especially notable was the effect on ardent moviegoers. “Patrons stirred restlessly in their seats and some were seen to leave the theatre in disgust only to be greeted by a George St. dimout.” After power was restored the theatres resumed their schedules — “but patrons were forced to remain until well after midnight to see the whole of the last performance.”

Life with three theatres. *Examiner*, Feb. 28, 1947, p.7. Amongst their attractions these theatres did not, as yet, have snack bars.

The local motion picture business in Peterborough, as in other centres, was about more than simply going to the movies. Since their beginnings early in the century the theatres had positioned themselves downtown amidst the most constant traffic streams in order to benefit from the flow day and evening.

Now, as a 1946 industry article asserted, the theatres themselves, with their “allure of lights and gay display” – bright marquees, colourful posters, and gift of attraction – were themselves creating traffic streams.

Thus it was that “other businesses, especially retail specialty shops, came up to nestle alongside and sell things to the picture customers as they came by” – all of this not just satisfying needs for leisure and entertainment but also benefiting both the economy and culture of the city as a whole. In this new phase the theatres also introduced a busy sideline in their lobbies and foyers – selling candy, popcorn, peanuts, and drinks in a snack bar movement.

*Examiner*, Jan. 20, 1942, p.5. The Comstock’s furniture store (and funeral service) makes sure to point out that it is located next to a landmark: the Capitol Theatre.

Transforming the downtown

At the centre-bottom, between Comstock’s and the Turner building on the corner of George and King streets, both the Odeon and Paramount are under construction — representing the shaping of downtown culture and viewing practices for the 1950s to 1980s. The area between Comstock’s and the Odeon (owned by Comstock) would remain empty until after Comstock’s decided to build on it in 1949. Detail from a Peterborough aerial photograph, 1947, PMA P-12-667-3.

Two new theatres

The corporate response to the need for more motion picture seats in the city was relatively quick in arriving.

As early as 1941 rumours had begun circulating about business deals involving two properties on George Street in the block between Charlotte and King.

The properties, as it turned out, were side by side in the middle of the business district – and word spread that the spots would be taken up by movie theatres. “When post-war projects really start popping,” the Examiner reported towards the end of 1945, “it has been rumored that Peterborough may draw two theatres.” The following April Arch Jolley of the Motion Picture Theatres Association came to town to speak to the Rotary Club and announced: “In the near future two super-deluxe theatres will be erected in Peterborough.”

One of them, the Paramount, was going to be constructed beside the Turner factory building, just north of King – “approximately on the foundation” of the old Grand Opera House, “of which only the outline of its base walls” remained.

The other project, the Odeon, right next door, would be pinched in between the Grand Opera House site and the Comstock & Sons property – “furniture and home furnishings, funeral directors and embalmers, and private ambulance service.” (The funeral service was at the back, facing Water St.) The Odeon would be the first theatre to move into construction.

“Alpha” column, *Examiner*, July 30, 1948, p.4. Giving “eyes the flicks,” at least for a short time: 5½ movie houses, including a drive-in.

Awaiting its chance to build, by autumn 1944 Odeon had purchased the property at 290 George St. N. As Motion Picture Daily reported out of New York, Odeon would be joining the city’s two already existing Famous Players theatres (the Capitol and Regent) and one independent (the Centre). Famous Players already owned the site of the old Grand Opera House, and was awaiting its turn to build. The new Odeon opened in December 1948 and Famous Players’ Paramount a year later, in December 1948. Meanwhile another relatively novel phenomenon, a drive-in theatre, opened on the northeastern edge of the city in August 1948.

*Examiner*, Aug. 7, 1948, p.7. Entertainment aplenty — and this was before the Paramount opened. The Regent would close in 1949.

The Regent would soon be gone, and the city’s only independent theatre, the Centre, would face withering competition from the two corporate giants, Canadian Odeon Theatres and Famous Players.

Little did the builders know that the audience boom of the 1940s would soon be over — although apparently the decline was not quite as bad in Peterborough as in other cities. A theatre manager in Peterborough remarked in July 1948 that the city was still “a boom town” compared to other cities. He attributed this to industrial and employment conditions that were “better than average.”

Along with a drop in movie attendance in the late 1940s (even before television became a factor) came another interesting twist: in June 1948 one U.S. survey (reported in the Examiner) indicated that the audience for films at mainstream theatres was becoming younger — some 80 per cent of moviegoers were under thirty years of age. Critics suggested that this trend represented the “less than adult” content of the bulk of the movies.

*Examiner*, editorial, Nov. 14, 1950, p.4.

As reported in that June 1948 article, Hollywood actor Joseph Cotton was declaring that the “pictures” had become too “easy”: “You can sit and watch them in a half-awakened state. Everything is too obvious. Adults resent this and so stay away from the movies.”

His fellow actor Van Johnson blamed the lengthy programs, and the snacking: “I think popcorn and double features have done a lot to keep the old folks away. And they don’t want to sit for hours and hours looking at two pictures. The seats get too hard.”

As yet another article published in the Examiner put it in November 1948 (this one republished from the London Sunday Times): “Hollywood can still produce films of tension, lightening action and, sometimes, brisk screwball comedy. But it does so more and more rarely.”

Much closer to home, an Examiner editorial of April 1949 remarked on how the hard times for “the movie business” owed much to the reality that “movies have been sillier than usual.”

Around that time Examiner editorials (most likely written by editor Robertson Davies) were regularly examining various developments in the motion picture industry — from questions of censorship and an “amusement tax” on theatres to the arrival of better than usual films such as Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) from England. A December 1948 editorial noted: “Hollywood is suffering from a painful awakening; the public simply will not go to bad movies.” For Davies, hope rested in foreign films, film societies, smaller theatres, and the possibilities of more “adult” fare coming from Hollywood.

In the following years motion pictures — at least to a degree — did become more “adult,” foreign pictures became slightly more common, and audiences (if in smaller numbers) continued to come. Indeed, the late 1940s saw a burst of “race dramas and social problem films.” The film noir genre presented a less than silly view of life, too, with (in the words of historian Thomas Schatz) its unrelenting “mood of anxiety, alienation, and despair and general distrust of legitimate social authority and institutions.” On the other side of life, Saturday mornings for “kids” and Saturday matinees, mostly for the young, would thrive through the 1950s. And the two new theatres planted themselves firmly on the main street. The Odeon would be the first to open, in December 1947.