Elmer’s Saturday Morning Theatre Parties at the Palace.

For a mere 20 cents per child, Cornwall’s parents were once able to trundle their children off to the pandemonium that was “Elmer the Safety Elephant’s Saturday Morning Theatre Parties,” at the Palace.

(Photo 1) Hysteria reigned supreme at “Elmer’s Theatre Parties,” during the 1960s.This scene familiar throughout Ontario, did not take place in Quebec, due to a 1927 fire in a Montreal cinema that claimed the lives of 77 children. To prevent such a tragedy repeating itself, the Quebec Government passed a law banning children under 16 from going to the movies. The law was modified in 1961, but not entirely removed until 1967.

Billed as the “House of Comfort,” in 1921 Pitt Street’s 820 seat, Palace Theatre, became Cornwall’s first custom built cinema, and the first stadium style auditorium with a sloping floor and balcony in Eastern Ontario.

The Palace was owned by former cotton mill, loom maintenance man James Witham, founder of the Palace Amusement Company, and future proprietor of the 1,321 seat Capitol. Witham with his son-in-law Clarence Markell went on to dominate Cornwall’s movie industry, and by 1939 ran two theatres with more than 2,000 seats, a staff of 25 and a weekly overhead of $2,500.Business was so good that by 1951 an average of 16,000 people a week, a number roughly equaling the population of the City of Cornwall, attended one or more of Cornwall’s theatres.

Keen to maintain the competitive edge over Montreal Road’s 700 seat “Roxy,” (Port,) opened in 1940, Markell invested $215,000 to renovate the Palace with earthquake resistant reinforced ceilings. At the June2, 1948 reopening of this 960 seat theatre, featuring Irene Dunne in “I Remember Mama,” Cornwall Mayor Lloyd D. Gallinger said, “ I regard this fine new theatre as a definite milestone in the coming of age of Canada’s second youngest City.”He then complemented Markell in successfully completing the project in the face of the post-war building materials shortage “and uncertain labour conditions.”

Markell stated that the new theatre was his way of paying tribute to his loyal patrons who deserved “dignified, fashionable and restful” theatres.
Inside the outer lobby was decorated in beige, peach and lime green with modernistic furniture and a water fountain.Simplicity was the keynote “giving the theatre an appearance which is at once striking and eye-pleasing.There is a decided absence of frills or dressiness” except for the small islands of concentrated decoration.

(Photo 2) – The “modernistic” furniture in the renovated lobby, 1948.(Photo courtesy: Ontario Public Archives.)

(Photo 3) – The all important Candy Bar, highlighted by a “small island of decoration,” 1948. (Photo courtesy: Ontario Public Archives.)

(Photo 4) – People lining-up outside of the Palace in 1955, to see Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch.”Do you remember when “air conditioning” was a special feature?

Outside movie goers were drawn in by a 2,000 light staggered modernistic marquee. Evening admission for children was 20 cents, adults 48 cents and loge seats, outfitted with earphones for the hard of hearing, 60 cents.( Disney features were a dime more.)

In talking about the future of the cinema, Markell mused:

“It is quite possible that within the next few years motion picture screens in Canada will carry large screen television. The larger theatres will no doubt show championship fights. World Series Baseball, musical comedies and possibly grand opera at the same time the event is taking place”

“You may also see pictures being shown on the screen in theatres in Cornwall in our own homes through a process known as Telemeter – you may see it on your own TV set by paying for it on a meter basis.This process is being introduced in the U.S. and will come to Canada shortly. Famous Players already has a franchise.”

“Another new development still in the experimental stage is the Cyclorama, by which three cameras are focused on a curved screen to produce three-dimension pictures which can only be described as terrific. After 50 years, the movie business is still going ahead. And you can be sure that all the latest developments will be brought right here to Cornwall.”

If you missed these improvements when you were younger, I am sure that you remember Theatre Parties and Saturday, double film matinees!

(Photo 5) An early 1960 window display advertising the fun awaiting all those who attended Elmer’s Saturday extravaganzas.

Eventually associated with Odeon Theatres, the Palace fell victim to changing trends and home videos, and closed in the 80’s to be repurposed as Maximum Fitness, which also closed, leaving the building empty and to eventual demolition.

(Photo 6) Looking southeast along Pitt Street at the former location of the Palace and the parking lane that replaced it. I always thought that the lane might have been named after the “Palace,”but instead the “powers that be,” chose to honour long time civic boaster and Pitt street businessmen George Assaly.