The Newly Renovated Paradise Theater, Bloor St, Toronto

Tonight I went to the Paradise Theatre to see the 1998 movie, Last Night, a fabulous, apocalyptic film with Sandra Oh, Don McKellar and Sarah Polly. Not only was I excited about seeing this movie, which I haven't seen for years, but also for being able to see this newly renovated theatre.

The Paradise originally opened in 1937. The venue had 643 seats with a smoking area in the balcony. In 1966, the theatre was sold to the Giacominis family who showed non-subtitled Italian movies direct from Italy. It was then sold in the 1980s to an owner who showed soft porn.

In the 1990s, the theatre became part of the Festival Cinemas chain, which included the Bloor Cinema (now the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema), The Revue, The Kingsway and The Fox Beaches. The chain closed in 2006 and the theatre was shut down.

For awhile it was in danger of becoming a drug store but was saved by Moray Tawse who purchased the theatre in 2013 and spent years and millions to restore.

The entrance has the old fashioned front entrance ticket booth.

Inside there is a nice oval snack bar area. Plans are in store to expand this area in the next year into the building next door. The bartender moves so fast behind the bar that he blurs the shot.

Popcorn comes from this old style popcorn maker.

The theatre reduced the seating to 183, all of which are leather fold up seats with drink holders and lots of leg room. The theatre will house movies, special events and live performances. I must say the inside is spectacular! Movies are shown through their high tech system. Tonight was the first showing of Last Night, having been restored to this format, of which I forget the term. The screen retracts for talks. The theatre will be showing films which have Q&As afterwards featuring directors and actors.

There seem to be theme months. For instance, January is Toronto Plays Itself, with all the films in the series having been shot in Toronto. Next month's theme will be Odd Couples: a slanted nod to the most romantic month of the year (and a leap one at that!), Paradise presents some of the movies’ most unexpected and quirky couplings, with a few other-worldly ones thrown in for good measure. Spanning decades and genres, we’ve assembled a motley season of cult favourites (Harold and Maude, Starman), modern hits (Lost in Translation, Out of Sight) and undiscovered classics (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, A Special Day), plus many other improbable and moving love stories ripe for rediscovery.

Everything is so well-done and thought out. I'll be watching this theatre for more films and events in the future. When I do, hopefully the weather will be better for my outside shots.

Sudbury Street, 1967 and Today

The other day, Teena discovered a couple of pictures from 1967 of our neighbourhood. They were posted on Facebook from Vintage Toronto.

The photo at the top of the page shows Sudbury Street looking south east from Dovercourt Road - Courtesy of Toronto Public Library & the Toronto Star Archives - 1967. Underneath is what it looks like today.

Below is a photo from the same year, likely the same day of Sudbury Street looking west from the corner of Dovercourt Road. Photo by Don Ritchie. - Copyright © Toronto Public Library. Again the photo under it is how it looks today.

All these high rises were built in the past few years. Another two are being constructed on the left side of the sidewalk in the second photo down. When they were being sold, I wonder if this, a sign posted on the new construction site, was put in the sales literature or declared when buyers signed the papers.

Columbia Hotel at Ossington Ave and Queen St. W. (1955 and now)

Here is a photo from January 2, 1955 of the Columbia Hotel from the Toronto Public Library, which sat on the NW corner of Queen St West and Ossington Ave. I searched but could not find any historical information about the hotel.

Below are two photo's, a black and white plus a coloured one which were taken today at noon. The old hotel is gone but the buildings that run behind it along Queen St W seem to still all be there.

Baseball in Stanley Park Toronto, 1914

Today on the Historic Toronto website there is a photo of a baseball game being played in Stanley Park on King Street W just east of Strachan Avenue. There was quite a crowd around the field so it must have been a big game.

The website says the photo was taken August 14, 1914, 103 years ago, but on the picture the date August 8, 1914, is written in hand. No matter which is right it is a cool shot.

Here is the park today. I tried to take the photo from about the same location.

There is a Stanley Park on the south and north side of King Street W but the game was definitely played on the north side with home plate being in the north east corner. Here is the house which is still standing today that is on the right side of the photo.

This row of houses also is still standing and is the building directly behind the batter.

The park is much more beautiful today and better used but it is always great to take a look into the past to get just a glimpse of what was going on on the same date many years before.

Sunnyside Beach Bathing Pavilion - June 15, 1922 and Now

Last Sunday, Teena and I had lunch on the patio of the historic Sunnyside Beach Bathing Pavilion.

The pavilion opened to the public in 1922. It was built, according to a Globe article which ran the picture and is on the the Toronto Public Library website, as over 300,000 bathers visited the beach the year before.

Above is a photo of the pavilion taken on June 15, 1922. The building is still beautiful as this picture taken last Sunday shows. If I had known this picture would pop up on the Historic Photos from around Toronto website, I would have taken one.

This is one of my most favorite places to visit in the city. I'm glad nobody ever came up with the idea to have it torn down.

Adelaide and Bay, April 27, 1927 and Today

Everyday I go to the Historic Photos from Around Toronto website. There are some really interesting pictures from the past of Toronto. The one above was taken at 12:05pm on April 27, 1927. As I work in the area, I went out and shot from about the same angle at 12:05pm. Public transit has changed on Bay.

Here is the same view from the east side of Bay, taken at 12:10pm, same date in 1927. Seems like men all wore fedoras back then.

Here it is today, at 12:10pm.

It was an interesting way to spend my lunch hour.

King and Strachan, May 4, 1917 and May 4, 2015

The above picture is from the Historic Toronto Photos website. Each day they put up a few pictures from the past of different areas of Toronto. Today is a photo of King and Strachan looking east along King towards downtown Toronto.

The Palace Hotel, on the left of the picture, is now known as the Palace Arms, and now rents rooms by the week and month. I understand it was originally built in 1890.

It's hard to see but on the right of the picture are row houses just before the park which still remain. The area sure has changed, especially when looking towards downtown Toronto.

Toronto Past and Present - Queen and Bay, 1923

This is Queen and Bay in Toronto on April 7, 1923. The image is from the Toronto Archives which I found on the Historic Toronto website. If you love old pictures of Toronto, this is worth a visit.

Those buildings on the top left hand side were torn down to make way for Nathan Phillips Square and new City Hall which you can see part of in the new picture. A few friends at work looked at the old picture and thought it might be an old shot of Chicago but no, it's our own fair city!

Today I wandered up to the corner to do my best to capture the same angle today.

 

 I could not get the same angle as the original was taken from above, likely out of the offices of this old building which is now part of the Hudson's Bay Company flagship store.

The bend in the road is still there, as well as the pedestrian island that the streetcars are going around, and to the right hand side of the picture, thankfully old City Hall, one of my favorite buildings in the world.

I love looking at old photos of our city to see how things have changed.

Toronto- Adelaide and Bay, 86 Years Ago and Today

Every day I go into the website Historic Photo's From Around Toronto, which has a photo from the past taken on the same day.

Today's photo was taken from the Toronto Archives and as the caption says, this is looking eastward along Adelaide from Bay Street on February 7, 1927. On the right is the old Grand Opera House.

The picture below was taken at noon today, 86 years later.

 

It's not hard to notice that all the buildings by the corner are gone. In the distance on the left seems to be one remaining building from the first photo. Adelaide now is a one way street east and one set of streetcar tracks are gone.

Things certainly have changed at this intersection. Click here to see a picture looking north on Bay from this same intersection in 1924.

Downtown Toronto - 88 Years Ago and Today

I saw this on Historic Toronto Photos from Today website. This is looking north along Bay Street from Adelaide St back on this date, Saturday December 6, 1924. I love the cop with the traffic signal in the middle of the intersection. Seeing this I had to go out at lunch to the same intersection and take my own shot. Looks like everything on the west side of Bay is now gone. The Northern Ontario Building which is just being started still stands today. I hope you enjoy the comparison.

Visiting the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse on Toronto Island

This evening Teena and I went for a tour of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse on Toronto Island.

I have been looking forward to this for awhile as we always see it during harbour tours and know that the lighthouse is kept locked. Richard Fiennes-Clinton from Muddy York Walking Tours arranged for the doors to be unlocked for two small groups. We were part of the second group.

Now many of you might think this is boring or dorky but Teena and I both have a keen interest in Toronto and this is Toronto's oldest standing building and besides ... how many times does a person get a chance to visit the top of a lighthouse!?

The lighthouse light was lit for the first time in 1809 and stood 16 meters high (52 feet). In 1832, the tower was added to raising it to a total height of 25 meters (82 feet). You can see the difference in the style of the brickwork from where the tower was raised. I find it interesting that 9 meters (30 feet) could make that much of a difference.

I always wondered why the lighthouse was built so far inland on the peninsula from the lake but learned that when it was first built, it was at the water's edge.

Sand built up over the years so now the lighthouse rests 170 meters (550 feet) from the nearest shore of Lake Ontario and 380 meters (1200 feet) from the point! Here is a painting from Robert Irvine, a soldier active in Canada painted around 1816 and the same view shot today.

Here is a shot from behind the other direction.

Richard told ius the story of  the murder of the very first lighthouse keeper, J.P. Rademuller. Not only did he keep the light going but was a known brewer. There are many versions of what happened that evening. One said soldiers came over from the fort accusing him of watering the beer, another is a couple of soldiers came for beer and were denied, but in the end the one thing that is known is that Muller disappeared and was never found.

Subsequent lighthouse keepers were said to have seen him wandering around the grounds, heard footsteps in the lighthouse and told of lights mysteriously turning on and off. Teena and I never spotted him tonight.

We went up in groups of six as it is quite small and cramped at the top. Everyone seemed to hesitate so Teena and I were the first ones through the door and up the long, thin, windy staircase.

The final ladder at the top was very cool. Tours of the lighthouse are very very rare.  In fact, it took two years for Richard to arrange this. So when I saw how worn the final ladder was, I knew it was the wear from 124 years of lighthouse keepers climbing this final section, night after night.

 

And then we arrived!

 

Originally the lighthouse burned sperm whale oil and changed over to burning coal oil in 1872. I can't imagine how much either must have smelled. In 1872, the light was refurbished so it rotated once every minute and 48 seconds. In 1916, the first electric light was installed. The lighthouse keeper must have been glad about that! The light system that the lighthouse now has was installed in 1945 and was used 'til 1958 when the lighthouse was closed and transferred to the City's Parks Department.

There were some cool views but too many reflections to take a good shot. This was the only one I got. I love the lighthouse reflection on the trees. The other was taken with Teena's camera ... of us!

It was a short visit to the top as we had many people behind us anxious to come up. We were at the top maybe 10 minutes. It was hot, humid and such a fabulous experience. Thanks, Richard, for making this happen. It was fabulous. We have been on a few of his walks before and they all are great fun.

I swore that when I go to a historical place that I will try a couple of shots in sepia and black and white to try to capture the historical feeling. The sun was going down and the light was getting bad but here are two of my best.

Lightkeepers of the Gibralter Lighthouse

J.P. Radan Muller 1809-1815
William Halloway 1816-1831
James Durnan 1832-1853
George Durnan 1853-1908
Captain P.J. McSherry 1905-1912
B. Matthews 1912-1917
G.F. Eaton 1917-1918
F.C. Allan 1918-1944
Mrs. Ladder 1944-1955
Mrs. Dodds 1955-1958