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Movie theatres in Timmins history

With the first ever Timmins Film Festival coming up at the end of next week, we’re going to use our look back at local history the next two ,  looking at movie theatres.

Timmins Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says movies have been  in the Porcupine mining camp since the beginning.  In 1912,South Porcupine had the Majestic Theatre and the Rex Theatre, one block apart.

“So the town was divided up in two,” Bachmann outlines.  “You could put your posters on this side and you could put your posters on this side.”

The manager of the Rex found the audacity to put up a poster in Majestic territory.

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“They came to blows in the street, the two movie managers,” says Bachmann.  They got hauled in front of the magistrate, who actually said ‘Get your act together.  You keep your posters on your side; you keep your posters on your side’.”

The Majestic Theatre.
(Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre)

The theatres were the only source of real entertainment in town, which was dry, so had no taverns.

Bachmann says they screened first-run films at the same time as they could be seen in Toronto.

“But the theatres were not only for movies, they were also for vaudeville.  In between the nights where you show films, and there would be three new films a week, you would have vaudeville performers and they would make their way up to the Porcupine as well and share those theatres.”

Next Monday, we’ll feature theatres that thrived in downtown Timmins, before the advent of television.

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