Every cinema was somebody’s business
A movie theatre is a building. It’s also a business, and in Calgary it was one people fought over.
The Atlas Project’s guide, Calgary Goes to the Movies, describes local entrepreneurs working to make movies speak to local audiences while they battled encroaching theatre chains for control.
The Palace shows how it went
The Allen family ran the biggest cinema chain in Canada. The Alberta Register of Historic Places says they were the largest independent chain until the sale to Famous Players in 1923, and Parks Canada recognizes the Palace as a National Historic Site.
Next time you pass an old marquee, think about the owner who had to fill the seats every night. Start with the map of the movie houses Calgary lost if you’d like to go hunting for them.
Quick answers
Local entrepreneurs did. The Atlas Project’s guide, Calgary Goes to the Movies, describes them working to make movies speak to local audiences while they battled encroaching theatre chains for control. Every cinema was somebody’s business, and in Calgary it was one people fought over.
The Allen family ran the biggest cinema chain in Canada. The Alberta Register of Historic Places says they were the largest independent chain until the sale to Famous Players in 1923, and Parks Canada recognizes the Palace as a National Historic Site.
Start with the map of the movie houses Calgary lost if you would like to go hunting for them. It is Calgary Goes to the Movies, from the Calgary Atlas Project, and it shows where audiences watched films in the city before the old marquees disappeared.
Sources: Calgary Institute for the Humanities, Alberta Register of Historic Places, Parks Canada.
Keep going with Superman Left Its Cape Prints All Over Alberta and Hoot Gibson and the Hollywood crew that crashed Stampede 1925.
