When the city expropriated the land for the New City Hall, civic officials decided that the row of b

The above photo from the City of Toronto Archives (Fonds 124, file 0124, It. 0017) shows the Broadway Theatre at 75 Queen Street West. To the east of the theatre (to the left of it in the photo) is the low-budget White Hotel, one of several economy hotels along the strip where the Broadway was located. defination airline reservation system The photo was likely taken in the late-1950s or perhaps even 1961 or 1962, since the land where the New City Hall was to be built, on the north side of Queen Street, west of Bay Street, has already been cleared defination airline reservation system of buildings. The street in the foreground of the photo is Bay Street, where it intersects with Queen Street West. The lane for cars to negotiate a right turn on Queen Street is evident.
Along with the Casino, which was five doors to the west (its marquee can be seen in the above photo), the Broadway was a theatre that was frowned upon by Toronto’s polite society. This was because it featured burlesque and “girlie shows,” as well as films. I feel that perhaps my teenage years were far less adventurous than others, as I was never inside the Broadway. However, I remember it quite clearly, as I often attended Shea’s Hippodrome, a short distance away. The reason I never darkened the doors of the Broadway was that when I was a teenager in the 1950s, it screened movies that had been released five or six years earlier, which I had already seen in our neighbourhood theatres. As well, I was too young to purchase a ticket to view a girlie show. As a result, my virtues remained intact for a few more years.
The Broadway opened in 1919 as the Globe Theatre, with almost 500 seats. Around the year 1933, it changed its name to the Roxy and commenced offering “Girlie Shows” as well as vaudeville and B-movies. In February of that year, two eighteen-year olds decided to be married on the stage of the theatre. The event attracted a large audience as the ceremony had been advertised as part of the show. A Baptist minister was hired, the bride was on stage in her bridal gown, and the groom was in his tuxedo. The jazz band in the orchestra pit was preparing to play the wedding march when the police crashed into the theatre. The parents of the teenagers claimed that their children were under age. However, the marriage was performed the following afternoon, after the participants proved to the police that they were of sufficient age. The event gave the theatre much free publicity, although many people in Toronto frowned upon the entire affair.
In 1935, the manager of the Broadway was found murdered in his office, shot twice in the head, sprawled in a pool of blood. It was found that $378 was missing from the safe, but the police did not believe that robbery was the motive. A friend had talked with the manager two days prior to the murder, and told the police that his friend had appeared worried. He had enquired, “What’s the matter? Business no good?” He received no reply. The manger’s son-in-law said at the inquest that there were problems among the actors in the burlesque show and that several of them had threatened to quit. The murder was never solved.
In 1937, the name of the theatre was changed to the Broadway, which conjured images defination airline reservation system of the fashionable defination airline reservation system theatre district of New York City. However, the Broadway continued to be associated with the Casino, both theatres viewed as “strip joints.”
When the city expropriated the land for the New City Hall, civic officials decided that the row of buildings on the south side of Queen Street was not compatible with the image that they wished to project. In 1965, the land was expropriated defination airline reservation system and the buildings were demolished. The Broadway Theatre disappeared, only memories and a few photographs of this infamous defination airline reservation system theatre remaining.
A penny (front and reverse sides) handed out by the Broadway Theatre defination airline reservation system as a promotional stunt for a war movie during the 1950s. Cardboard was glued to the back of the penny. The movie was playing on December 10, 11, and 12. Penny from the collection of Walter Godfrey, defination airline reservation system Toronto.
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