Plaza Theatre Calgary opened its doors on January 10, 1935, with a comedy called Mr. Skitch starring Will Rogers and ZaSu Pitts. That date comes straight from the theatre’s own history page, and we love it. The single screen at 1133 Kensington Road NW is still running films today.
Here’s the part we find funniest. Before the velvet curtain there was a garage. The theatre says the building went up in 1927 as an auto mechanics shop. Kensington’s business directory, which quotes the City of Calgary’s heritage sites archive, says a garage opened on the site in 1929. So the garage’s birthday depends on who you ask. Both sources agree that it became a cinema in the mid thirties.
A neighbour named Jim Finney remembered watching the Plaza being built. He and his friends spent their Saturdays there, and a show cost 10 cents. His gang had a system too. Whoever had the dime paid, walked in, and opened the back door for everyone else. Thanks for the story, Jim.
Next time you’re on Kensington Road, look up at the front. The stucco facade owes as much to the western false front tradition as it does to the Modern movement, with a moulded parapet across the top. The directory’s heritage write up describes a building that adapted to what its community needed, and says a full house is common when the old classics play.
The next chapter started in the spring of 2021, when Fatima Allie Dobrowolski took over the lease to revitalize the cinema. Today the Plaza is a fully licensed venue. You can have a coffee, order from a speakeasy style cocktail bar, or sit on the patio, where a food truck features local chefs. Then you carry a drink and a snack into the same room that has been showing movies since Will Rogers was on the marquee.
If you like cinema history, we’ve been mapping the rest of it. Our look at lost Calgary cinemas covers the rooms that didn’t make it, the Stephen Avenue cinema map walks you past the downtown ones, and the Palace Theatre story shows what a 1921 movie palace looked like. For year round programming, Cinematheque Calgary is worth a bookmark.
Check the schedule on the Plaza’s site, pick a night, and sit in a seat that has a 1935 opening night behind it.
If this one hooked you, we think The Garneau Theatre Edmonton Is an Art Deco Cinema From 1940 and Never Seen is heading to Edmonton for NorthwestFEARFest are a good next read.
Quick answers
The Plaza Theatre opened on January 10, 1935, with the comedy Mr. Skitch starring Will Rogers and ZaSu Pitts, according to the theatre’s history page. The building started out as a garage and was converted into a single screen cinema in Kensington.
The Plaza Theatre is at 1133 Kensington Road NW in Calgary, in the Kensington district. The stucco building has a front that blends the western false front tradition with Modern movement design, topped by a moulded parapet.
Fatima Allie Dobrowolski took over the lease in the spring of 2021 to revitalize the cinema. The Plaza is now a fully licensed venue with a cafe, a cocktail bar and a patio, alongside its film screenings.
Sources: Plaza Theatre, History; Kensington Business Directory, Plaza Theatre.
