At 189 Yonge Street we find the fabulous Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres. These are separate theatres located in the same building: the Winter Garden is located seven storeys above the Elgin, which is at street level. They are the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatres in the world.
A Bit of History
Currently owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the pair of theatres were originally built as the flagship of Marcus Loew’s theatre chain in 1913. The building was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, who also designed the Ed Mirvish Theatre (formerly named the Pantages Theatre). The Elgin Theatre has a seating capacity of 2,149, while the Winter Garden Theatre seats a maximum of 1,410.
Before construction of the stacked theatres, Marcus Loew intended to rent out the Yonge Street frontage as commercial space, but the dimensions contravened a 1912 Toronto bylaw. To bypass the bylaw, Thomas Lamb had to file drawings with the City Architect’s Office that showed a “sham” entrance on Victoria Street. Today, the Victoria Street entrance is still used — as the stage door.
Both theatres were built to host vaudeville acts and the short silent movies of the time. Each theatre was intended for a different class of patron. The gold-and-marble, domed, “hard-top” lower theatre (originally called Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre) was home to continuous vaudeville and movies. The theatres played host to such greats as George Burns & Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.
The Elgin
The classical architecture of the Elgin was typical of vaudeville stages, set apart by its lavish interiors. Renowned for its warmth of colour and coziness, it was decorated in modern French Renaissance style – with gilt, imitation marble, red damask and ornamental plasterwork of festooned grapes, ribbons and musical instruments.
In 1939, the Elgin held the premieres of classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. It would continue to be open for the public from the end of World War II into the late 1970s, but as a cinema the theatre was facing high taxes. Even in 1940, as it lost money, the Elgin was beginning its journey towards degradation as the splendour of the old vaudeville days was starting to fade.
The Winter Garden
The upper-level Winter Garden is an “atmospheric” country garden under the stars, painted with murals of plants and garden trellises, with tree trunk columns and lantern lights. This upper theatre was originally built for the “big time” vaudeville market and had reserved seats at premium prices, catering to affluent patrons. As well as competing in a different market, the upper theatre could be used for experimentation with acts, without the risk of closing the lower theatre.
Decline and Closure
With the decline of vaudeville, the Winter Garden closed in 1928. It remained closed for more than half a century, becoming a time capsule of a bygone era. The lower-level Elgin, with its grand domed ceiling, continued as a movie house, gradually slipping into disrepair with the passing of each decade. After closure there was left inside a large collection of vaudeville flats and scenery, now the world’s largest surviving collection.
In 1969, Loews sold the Elgin to Famous Players. By the late 1970s, the Elgin was showing mainly B movies and soft-core pornography. In 1981, the Ontario Heritage Foundation bought the structure from Famous Players. The Elgin was closed as a movie theatre on November 15, 1981; the final film presented at the theatre was the erotic sex comedy What the Swedish Butler Saw.
From March 1985 through March 1987 the musical Cats was very successfully presented in the essentially unrestored Elgin, showing the viability of the theatre. Cats went on to gross nearly $22 million in ticket sales, making it one of Toronto’s most successful commercial shows.
Rebirth
Later in 1987, a $29-million restoration began in both theatres, directed by architect Mandel Sprachman; this was the largest theatre restoration ever undertaken in Canada. The gilt plaster detail work in the Elgin required more than 300,000 wafer-thin sheets of aluminum leaf. The walls of the Winter Garden had to be cleaned using hundreds of pounds of raw bread dough to avoid damaging the original hand-painted watercolour artwork. More than 65,000 square feet of new space was created, including lobby and lounge areas and an eight-storey backstage pavilion housing modern dressing rooms and two rehearsal halls. The theatres reopened to much acclaim in 1989.
The Elgin had suffered extensive alterations through its declining years of use as a movie theatre. The proscenium arch had been destroyed to accommodate a wider screen and the opera boxes had disappeared. With the original architectural drawings and archival photographs as reference points, the interior of the Elgin with its gilt ornamental plaster surfaces, red damask wall coverings and imitation marble features was painstakingly restored or reconstructed.
Historical Photos
Photo: Toronto Transit Commission Archives
Photo: Toronto Star Archives
Photo: Toronto Star Archives
Here’s an excellent short video detailing the history, decline and rebirth of these beautiful theatres:
The Elgin and Winter Garden theatre building is a National Historic Site of Canada, and the theatres remain one of Canada’s finest theatrical stage complexes. A sampling of shows that have been presented here includes:
- The Wizard of Oz
- Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear
- Robin Philips’ production of Aspects of Love
- The North American premiere of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond
- Napoleon
- George F. Walker’s Nothing Sacred
- The Who’s Tommy
- STOMP
- Forever Tango
- Tap Dogs
- Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project
- Grease
- The Full Monty
- Stones in His Pockets
- The Drawer Boy
- Copenhagen
- Rent
- Avenue Q
- Tuesdays with Morri
- Various productions by Opera Atelier, the Canadian Opera Company and Ross Petty Productions
The theatres have also presented musical and comedy concerts, lectures, award presentations, gala screenings from the Toronto International Film Festival and a variety of special events and receptions.
A Haunted Elgin/Winter Garden?
According to the website TorontoGhosts.org, a number of paranormal occurrences in the theatres have been reported over the years, including:
- A workman in the theatres watched once as a group of theatre seats in the Winter Garden folded down as if an unseen audience had just sat down to watch a performance, and then, moments after, returned to their normal position.
- The hand operated elevators, which supposedly require an operator to move, will suddenly start up by themselves and go to various floors for no apparent reason. Staff have either experienced this themselves or know someone closely who has.
- Many staff and a few theatre patrons have reported an apparition of a woman in Edwardian clothing appearing in the lobby and remaining long enough to be witnessed by a few before disappearing.
- Some of the volunteers doing the renovation conducted a session with a Ouija Board. Almost as soon as they started, a ghost named “Samuel” identified himself. He had been a trombone player in 1918 who had passed away by falling into the orchestra pit of the Elgin. The volunteers asked if there were any other spirits there. He said yes, but when they asked to talk to them, he refused.
If you’re still reading this – thank you! I realize this has been a long-ish post but with such a fantastic subject, it’s easy to get a little carried away – the building is certainly deserving of architectural praise. We are so very fortunate to have this historic, gorgeous theatre complex in our city and shouldn’t take it for granted. The Elgin and Winter Garden came very close to being demolished like so many of Toronto’s heritage buildings… and that would truly have been a shame.
References:
Heritage Matters
Ontario Heritage Trust
HistoricPlaces.ca
Local Film Cultures: Toronto
TorontoGhosts.org
This is such a lovely part of the city. I love how they fixed up that square and the fountain…