The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres ....

This winter really got to me.   Most years I can

skip through the dark, cold, dreary days of the

winter season with nary a twinge.   I get out

when I can and hibernate in my craft room 

or take refuge in a good book when I cannot.

But this winter was different.  I think the

ice storm just before Christmas really got

the season off on a nasty footing and just

got gradually worse.    I'm sure you

all know exactly what I'm talking about

and have been experiencing it yourselves.

I've been eating stuff that I shouldn't in

quantities that I didn't need,  I've been 

voluntarily, morosely  housebound

because of the frigid weather and the 

treacherous conditions under foot, and

have had no ambition to do anything at all.

Because of this interminable winter

 I decided to skip March entirely.

March let me/us down.   No gentle

easing of winter's icy fist of doom,

no ever increasing bouts of warmer,

sunny weather,  no signs of tiny green

buds poking through the ground ....

Actually, no signs of the ground

whatsoever.

March was a bust!!!

So lets just move on to April and

forget that March ever even existed.

Okay?

When last we met I was describing the 

2014 Girls Weekend in Toronto that

my friend Darlene and I enjoyed in

February.   To continue that story

we are now on Saturday, the main

full day of the weekend.

We began by sleeping in a bit ... of course

and then rushed around getting showered

and dressed in time for the planned ... and

unplanned ... events of the day ahead.

Breakfast was at McDonalds since we were

in a hurry which wasn't too bad food wise.

They make good hot chocolate.

Our first event of the day was a tour of one

of downtown Toronto's theatrical gems ....

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres.

Any theatre lovers out there???  

 I've loved the theatre and especially the 

musical theatre since forever!!   And I've 

been to just about all the theatres in the 

downtown Toronto area over the years for 

various shows.   But somehow I'd never 

been to anything in the Elgin and/or the 

Winter Garden theatres.  So the 

opportunity to explore and tour these two

historic theatres was an highly anticipated

event.

The Elgin and the Winter Garden are two

theatrical spaces built one on top of the

other and are the only ones of that kind

left in the world.    The Elgin is on street

level while the Winter Garden is seven

stories above it.   Built in 1913 the 

theatres were mainly intended for use

during the heyday of vaudeville and

for the showing of the newly invented

moving pictures.

The interesting thing about these theatres

though is that in 1928, when vaudeville

was no longer popular with theatre goers

and loosing money and patrons it was 

decided to close the Winter Garden theatre.

So they did.

One night, after the last vaudeville show

performed there, the staff covered stuff

with tarps, shut off the lights, locked the

doors and walked away.   For 60 years!!!

They even ended up blocking off the grand 

staircase leading up to the Winter Garden

to keep curious people from going up there

to poke around and perhaps carry away 

souvenirs of the place.  

Interior of the Elgin theatre.  This is the larger of

the two theatres and the one on ground level.

The Elgin theatre suffered the fate that many

former live theatre spaces did during the

1960's when it was turned into a movie

theatre.

Then, in the 80's, with a revival of interest

in live theatre and the successful restorations

of other historic theatres in Toronto the 

Ontario Heritage Trust decided to take on

the restoration of the Elgin and the Winter

Garden theatres.

They unblocked the grand staircase and 

opened the doors to the long abandoned

Winter Garden theatre and walked into

a time capsule.    Everything left just 

exactly as it was when the last 

vaudeville performance had ended

60 years earlier.   

They found the huge old movie 

projector,  they found stage equipment, 

the old lighting and they found an extensive

collection of hand painted vaudevillian

scenery just left there,  and although

the place had suffered the ill effects

of time, neglect and water from the

inevitable leaky roof,  they had 

plenty that could be restored or used

to reproduce to exacting detail 

what once had been.

And why was it called The Winter

Garden Theatre you might ask?

When you walk into the theatre you look up

in awe at the ceiling.   It is covered in foliage!

Branches and leaves and berries and flowers,

in many variations and colours.  With little

lanterns scattered around for lighting.  Some

of those had been stolen over the years, but those

on the main ceiling were still there.

This picture is of the ceiling below the

balconies.   The old foliage was not

salvageable so the restoration team

went out to wood lots around the city

and brought back real branches to use

and samples of leaves to recreate the

ceiling in all it's awe inspiring detail. 

One side of the theatre was badly water damaged

and had to be re plastered and re painted, but the

other side and the back were in good, salvageable

condition.   

We were taken behind the stage of the 

Winter Garden to see some of the 

old lighting system and the incredible

movie camera, some of the equipment

left behind when the theatre was abandoned.

One of the old vaudevillian backdrops, 

restored and used to cover the fire 

screen on the stage.

The delicate hand pained back wall of the

theatre. 

The tour, conducted by a volunteer well

versed in the history and the restoration

of the theatres, lasted an hour and a half

and was thoroughly fascinating.  I love

hearing about the old buildings and

the history of Toronto so this was

a major thrill for me to experience and

I know Darlene felt the same way.

Yes, there are ghost stories and during the

Halloween season there is a haunted tour

of the place.    The tours are conducted

on Thursdays and Saturdays for a small

fee and well worth the money.

Oh, one more story.

The old seating in the Winter Garden was

not restorable.   So they went looking

for seating from another theatre of the

same vintage to replace them.   They 

found a warehouse full of seats from an

old Chicago theatre that fit the bill

perfectly, cleaned them up and reupholstered

them and retrofitted them into the Winter

Garden.

Then they found out the history of those

seats and the theatre they came from.

Apparently it was a movie theatre (The

Biograph) and one night in 1934, after a showing 

of the movie Manhattan Melodrama, one couple in

particular left the theatre.    The woman was

wearing a red dress.   (Do you know

where I'm going with this?)

Waiting outside the theatre was the police

who were watching for that woman in the

red dress.  Her escort was accosted and told to 

surrender.   He chose to pull a gun and try to run 

for it.  The police opened fire and shot him.

The man was John Dillinger.

So if you go to the Winter Garden theatre

to see a show you might just end up 

sitting in the seat that John Dillinger sat

in on that fateful night.  

Unfortunately no one knows just which one

of the seats it is.   But that's fine.   Hopefully

you'll have a better night in it then Mr

Dillinger did.

Hope you enjoyed this little bit of Toronto

history and I haven't bored you too much.

There is more to tell of our Saturday after

we left the theatre but that'll do for another post.

Cheers!!

Link to the Elgin and Winter Garden site

for more info and history.

http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/EWG/About-us/History.aspx