Calgary's Downtown Dilemma

[DougB]

I have a memory of seeing White Men Can't Jump there. I think the second tower was under construction at the time.

Famous Players closed the Palace when it opened Bankers Hall.

For a while, the Globe (know as Towne back in the day) had a Red theatre showing mass market movies and a Blue theatre showing porn. Every few months they would swap the physical locations - likely for cleaning. 12 year old me saw Splash (with Tom Hanks) in the Red theatre and saw my Art Teacher in line for the Blue.

 

[DougB]

The Esso plaza cheap theatres were turned into the Fifth Avenue Place food court, I believe.

The food court was always there. The theatres became the drug store and optician office. Esso Plaza theatres were tiny, probably the worst in Calgary.

 

[DougB]

Let’s do a theatre roundup:
Palliser Square 2 —> Vertigo Theatre
Bankers Hall —> Data Centre
Watermark (might have been a data centre to begin with) —> paper record room (ComputerShare)
Imperial Oil 9 —> ? Food Court
Grand —> Grand (currently closed)
Palace —> Palace
Eau Claire 6 —> to be demolished
Towne 1 --> closed
Towne 2 --> Globe 2 —> survives for now
Barron/Uptown 1 --> 2 —> 1 --> demolished
Calgary Place 2 --> 3 --> Metropolitan Centre
Hitching Post --> Retail
Capitol --> Retail

Were there others?

So Eau Claire opens out competes the other theatres then shuts down itself. This might be leaving downtown with the fewest theatres in a century.

I don't remember a theatre at Watermark (nee Western Gas Tower).

 

[badc0ffee]

Esso Plaza theatres were tiny, probably the worst in Calgary.

Yeah, it was tiny. Some people today have projectors in their basements about as large as those screens. You couldn't beat $1 or $2 for a movie, though.

 

[DougB]

Yeah, it was tiny. Some people today have projectors in their basements about as large as those screens. You couldn't beat $1 or $2 for a movie, though.

Southland was almost as bad

 

[Surrealplaces]

There were theatres in Bankers Hall? lol

Yup, saw Titanic there.