Cinema Centenary Plaque in Toronto Re-Visited

 I initiated the unveiling of this plaque while a board member of Toronto Film Society. There was also a week long series of lectures at the Toronto Historic Board. You will find this plaque, facing Yonge street, on a pillar at 1 Adelaide Street East which is the southeast corner of Adelaide Street East and Yonge Street. in downtown Toronto.

The plaque reads:

"Site of Toronto's First Moving Picture Show

On August 31, 1896, a series of films running less than a minute each was projected from a "Vitascope" invented by Thomas Edison at Robinson's Musee Theatre on this site. On the next day, the Toronto World reported that the "...machine projects apparently living figures and scenes on a canvas screen...it baffles analysis and delights immense audiences." Known as a "dime museum" (admission was ten cents), Robinson's Musee had opened in December 1890 and featured jugglers, magicians, and aerialists; a curio shop and waxworks on the second floor and an animal menagerie on the roof. The building changed hands several times, eventually becoming, in 1899, the first location of Shea's Theatre (later situated on Bay Street). It was destroyed by fire in 1905.

Toronto Historical Board, 1996"

from the website Kinema, a superb resource from the University of Waterloo:

"The sole right for exhibiting the Vitascope in Canada was secured by the Holland brothers of Ottawa, as agents for Raff and Gammon, the American Vitascope promoters. The scheme devised for marketing called for the selling of franchises of Thomas Armat's Vitascope (not Edison's, since Armat had allowed Raff and Gammon to use the Edison label strictly for commercial expediency). For an initial advance payment, an agent could purchase the exclusive rights to the Vitascope for a state or group of states giving the person [or persons] the right to lease projectors (for US $25 to $50 monthly per machine) and buy, of course, Edison films. The manner and location of the exhibitions were left entirely to the franchise holder. Agents could exploit the Vitascope themselves, or, as Raff and Gammon repeatedly pointed out in their correspondence, the territories could be further divided or sub-franchised."

Something new in the line of amusements will be opened to the Toronto public on Wednesday next. The buildings at 91 and 93 Yonge street have been fitted up for Robinson's Musee Theatre. The entrance leads to the second floor, on which is a large hall containing wax works and tableaux, on the third floor is the art gallery, stereopticon views and curio halls, and on the fourth or top floor is the menagerie of living wild animals, aquarium and aviary. From the top floor the public will pass downstairs in the rear of the building to the theatre on the ground floor. The hall is being fitted handsomely and will have seating capacity for several hundred people... The theatrical attractions will be of high order and will be kept free from anything of objectionable character.

(The source Kinema credits for this quote is the Globe, Dec. 1, 1890, p. 8.)

SOURCE

Robinson's Musee was located in a converted shopfront at 91-93 Yonge Street, roughly mid-block on the east side of the road between King and Adelaide. It opened under the stewardship of American curios promoter M. S. Robinson on a chilly December 8, 1890, as the self-described "leading family resort of the Dominion."

 The business - an imitation of the famous Barnum oddity museum in New York City - hosted a eclectic mix of touring productions: artwork, animals, musicians, comedians, dance acts, artifacts - anything that would draw a crowd, but no clear photo appears to exist of its exterior.

Typical fare included Barney Baldwin, "the only man living with a broken neck" ("scientists and physicians puzzled,") a "midget queen," a troupe of Japanese "wonder workers," a set of wax figures, a prairie dog village, an ancient Aztec mummy, and a Punch and Judy show scattered in various rooms, all accessible for 10 cents.

The Musee also had a top-floor menagerie of animals, complete with an aquarium and an aviary, and a small auditorium, Robinson's Musee Theatre, at the back with enough seats for at least 100 people.

Robinson appears to have left the city shortly after establishing the museum, leaving the day-to-day running to a series of managers. One, named "Young," was sued in April, 1896 by Flora Stuck, "The Three-Headed Girl," after she was exposed as a fraud and heckled by a particularly unforgiving audience, much to her embarrassment.

(One can only speculate what happened, but I like to imagine two painted papier-mâché heads flopping to the floor in the moments before Stuck had to make her hasty escape.)

The building's namesake returned later that year, possibly as a result of the controversy around Young and Flora Stuck, and organized a grand re-opening for August 31.

The event would feature two Toronto firsts: the first motion picture screening in a basement area named "Wonderland" and an installation of X-rays taken by the pioneering Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen, a German physicist who would go on to be the first ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901.

 "Nothing cheap except prices," the advert read.

SOURCE

Doug Taylor's post:

Toronto’s fascination with the silver screen began on the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Adelaide Street East, where today, a high-rise tower of glass and steel is located. In the final decade of the 19th century, this was the site of Robertson’s Musee. When it opened in 1890, it offered a curio shop, acts of magic, dazzling jugglers, musicians, and aerialists. On the second floor it possessed a wax museum, and on the roof were cages with live animals. However, all that was about to change. When the Musee opened its doors on 31 August in 1896, they had no idea that they were introducing a form of entertainment that would begin a permanent love affair between Torontonians and the world of cinema.

Robertson’s Musee featured “moving pictures,” projected by a “Vitascope,” the miraculous new invention of Thomas Edison. The movie experience in 1896 was quite simple compared to the films that would be seen in the years ahead. It was a series of films, each running less than a minute. Some of the clips simply depicted a man galloping past on a horse or an automobile appearing on the scene, and then, departing. Because the Musee charged ten cents admission, it became known as the “Dime Museum.” Although the quality of the films was crude compared to today, a newspaper reported that the “. . . machine projects apparently living figures and scenes on a canvas screen . . .  it baffles analysis and delights immense audiences.” It was a momentous moment in the history of Toronto’s  entertainment scene.

Robertson’s Musee was sold several times and managed by different proprietors. In 1899, it became the first location of Shea’s Theatre, which later relocated to Bay Street, a short distance north of Queen Street. Unfortunately, the building at Yonge and Adelaide was destroyed by fire in 1905. In 1998, the Toronto Historical Board placed a plaque to commemorate “Toronto’s first moving picture show,” on the Yonge Street facade of the building that is located on the site today.  

Much of the information for this post was obtained from the historic plaque. 

SOURCE

Doug Taylor (June 14, 1938 – July 27, 2020) was a Canadian historian, professor, author, and connoisseur of movie theatres.

Doug Taylor passed away in his 82nd year after a courageous battle with cancer.  His obituary in the Toronto Star can be found HERE.

His official vocation was teaching but, with an intense love of his native Toronto inspiring his subject material, he has been a prolific artist, an author with nine published books to his credit, and a historian with the popular website www.tayloronhistory.com containing 1000 blogs on Toronto architecture and landmarks both existing and lost.

Links to posts about Toronto’s movie houses—past and present.

https://tayloronhistory.com/2013/10/09/links-to-toronto-old-movie-housestayloronhistory-com/

Recent publication entitled “Toronto’s Theatres and the Golden Age of the Silver Screen,” by Doug Taylor,  the author of this blog. The publication explores 50 of Toronto’s old theatres and contains over 80 archival photographs of the facades, marquees and interiors of the theatres. It also relates anecdotes and stories from those who experienced these grand old movie houses.  

Publications

Taylor's parents immigrated to Canada from Newfoundland, when it was an independent country. Two of Taylor's books are memoirs of his experience growing up in an immigrant family.

• Doug Taylor (2008). There Never Was a Better Time: Toronto's Yesterdays. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595899555. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
• Doug Taylor (2010). Arse Over Teakettle: An Irreverent Story of Coming of Age During the 1940s in Toronto. iUniverse. ISBN 9781450205306. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
• Doug Taylor (2010). The Villages Within: An Irreverent History of Toronto and a Respectful Guide to the St. Andrew's Market, the Kings West District, the Kensington Market, and Queen Street West. iUniverse. ISBN 9781450225250. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
• Doug Taylor (2011). The Reluctant Virgin: Murder in 1950s Toronto. iUniverse. ISBN 9781462046478. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
• Doug Taylor (2013). When the Trumpet Sounds. iUniverse. ISBN 9781491708705. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
• Doug Taylor (2014). Toronto Theaters and the Golden Age of the Silver Screen. The History Press. ISBN 9781626194502.
• Doug Taylor (2016). Toronto's Local Movie Theatres of Yesteryear: Brought Back to Thrill You Again. Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781459733428.
• Doug Taylor (2016). Toronto Then and Now. Pavilion Books. ISBN 9781910904077.
• Doug Taylor (2018). Lost Toronto. Pavilion Books. ISBN 9781911595038. Retrieved May 24, 2017.