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Casino Theatre (Toronto)

Burlesque theatresTheatres in Toronto
Casino Theatre in the 1940s ttc pc147
Casino Theatre in the 1940s ttc pc147

The Casino Theatre was a live theatre, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located at 87 Queen Street West across the street from the current site of Nathan Phillips Square.The structure was designed by architects Kaplan & Sprachman, who designed 21 other theatres in Toronto, and 48 elsewhere in Canada. The theatre opened in 1936 and demolished in 1960. It seated almost 1,200 patrons. The theatre hosted well-known performers, such as Johnny Rae, Patti Page, Gene Nelson, Pearl Bailey, Phil Silvers, Abbott and Costello, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Mickey Rooney, Frankie Laine, Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, Rose La Rose, Cup Cakes Cassidy, the Crewcuts, the Four Lads, Golden Gate Quartet, Billy Daniels and Rosemary Clooney.The strippers, and baudy comedians who performed at Casino made the Casino particularly subject to commentary and complaints. Doug Taylor, the author of Toronto Theaters and the Golden Age of the Silver Screen wrote that, "Other perhaps than the Victory Theatre on Spadina, there is no entertainment venue that elicited as much praise, raunchy stories, condemnation and press coverage as the infamous Casino Theatre." He described one high school principal staking out the theatre in order to catch students who were playing hookey to catch a show at the Casino. Mike Filey, the Toronto Sun's historical columnist, noted that the theatre opened at one minute after midnight, April 13, 1936, a Monday, because conservative laws required the closure of venues that catered to pleasure, on Sundays. Filey suggested public complaints about the morals of the establishment were routinely ignored, since it was right across the street from City Hall, and many city councilors were regular patrons. Filey wrote that the Casino "offered every type of performance allowed by law, and some that weren't." The three partners who founded the Casino were Jules Allen, and Jay Allen, and Murray Little, who already owned the Broadway Theatre, another Burlesque theatre at 75 Queen Street West.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Casino Theatre (Toronto) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Casino Theatre (Toronto)
Albert Street, Old Toronto

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 43.65185 ° E -79.38338 °
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Nathan Phillips Square

Albert Street
M5G 2E1 Old Toronto
Ontario, Canada
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Casino Theatre in the 1940s ttc pc147
Casino Theatre in the 1940s ttc pc147
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Old City Hall Cenotaph, Toronto
Old City Hall Cenotaph, Toronto

The Old City Hall Cenotaph is a cenotaph located at the front steps of Old City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Originally built after World War I to commemorate Torontonians who lost their lives in services for Canada, the memorial also commemorates those who died in World War II and the Korean War. It was modelled on The Cenotaph at Whitehall in London, England, constructed using granite cut from the Canadian Shield, and unveiled on November 11, 1925. The City of Toronto lists the artists as "Ferguson/Pomphrey", which were an architectural firm located at 282 St. Clements Ave. in north Toronto. Their design was selected from among 50 designed submitted after City Council's request to replace a temporary wooden structure that had been used each Remembrance Day since 1919. The two Toronto architects received a fee of $2500 for the work; this was 10% of the cost of the $25 000 project. The work was completed in budget and on time. There was some controversy before the monument was unveiled; "the only wording on the Cenotaph would be a simple four word statement “TO ALL WHO SERVED.” Then someone realized that this monument was in fact a cenotaph, a structure that by the very definition of that word (from the Greek kenotaphion – kenos, empty + taphos, tomb) signified an “empty tomb.” " As a memorial to those who had died and are buried elsewhere, it was felt that TO ALL WHO SERVED was inappropriate in such a case. After much discussion, the original inscription was removed and replaced with the current TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD.The memorial features a stone laid by Field Marshall Haig on July 24, 1925.The site is one of several locations used for Remembrance Day commemorations in Toronto.