History of Ontario's film industry, 1896 to 1985

TAKE ONE, Summer, 2000 by Wyndham Wise

The Early Years: 1896-1934

A marvel in a marvellous age, the Vitascope screening of The Kiss--starring the Whitby-born Broadway comedian May Irwin--was a huge success. Long before 8 o'clock on the Tuesday evening, July 21,1896, every reserved seat was taken in Ottawa's West End Park and audiences exceeded 1,600 people in the first week. A month later, an unusual double bill featuring "Edison's Wonderful Vitascope" and "Prof. Roentgen's Great X-Rays" opened in Toronto at Robinson's Musee, 81 Yonge St. The Musee was an odd mixture, with a zoo on the roof, a curio shop on the second floor, the Bijou Theatre on the ground floor and Wonderland, offering freaks and waxworks, in the basement. It cost 25 cents to see the professor's "X-Rays" and 10 to see the Vitascope screening.

Shown infrequently at first, movies earned a regular place on Ontario vaudeville show bills over the next 10 years. Toronto's first permanent movie theatre, the Theatorium (at the corner of Yonge and Queen streets), opened in 1906 with Edison's production of The Train Wreckers. The Allen brothers, Jules and Jay, opened their own Theatorium in Brantford in the fall of that year. The American-born brothers would soon become a major force in the early days of Canadian exhibition and distribution. A much more powerful force, the Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, had entered the penny arcade business in 1903 and by 1904 had built his first palatial movie theatre, the Crystal Hall, in New York City.

In 1911, the province of Ontario passed The Theatres and Cinematographers Act to regulate theatres and "cinematographs" and establish a Board of Censors, the first in North America. A separate Theatres Inspection Branch, responsible for setting the standards by which the theatres were to operate, was formed in 1913. In a few short years, the Ontario Board of Censors became an effective department, setting a high moral standard for films shown in the province. George Armstrong, the first chairman of the Board, wrote to the provincial treasurer (T.W. McGarry, who was responsible for its management): "The present standard of censorship is that of all Censor Boards in the Dominion, and in the United States. In some instances, films that have been passed by the Philadelphia Board, which is one of the strictest Boards in the United States, have been condemned by our Board."

Ontario theatre audiences, however, were becoming increasingly upset at the often gratuitous insertion of the Stars and Stripes in American films. Liberal prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier had been defeated in the 1911 national elections on the issue of trade reciprocity (essentially free trade) with the United States. In an era when English-Canadians identified themselves as proud citizens of the British Empire, British interests were perceived to be Canadian interests. Throughout this period there was a continuous demand for films with a pro-British Empire point of view. The Board of Censors, in response to this groundswell of anti-Americanism, attempted to curb the overwhelming patriotic content of many American films. In December 1911, Armstrong wrote an open letter to the American distributors operating in the province, published in Moving Picture World: "Our position is this--in subjects where the flag is shown where there is not the least bit necessity of it, or where the display of the Stars and Stripes in any way compares to the disadvantage of our own flag, we bar these subjects out."

The popularity of movies grew throughout the war years and Toronto, headquarters to seven of the largest Canadian distribution companies, became the most important film centre in the Dominion. The province was not slow to realize the tax potential of this new business and a war tax (officially known as the Amusement Tax) was introduced in 1916. It ranged from one cent to 25 cents per ticket, according to the price of admission. McGarry, however, did not view films only as a source of tax revenue. He became convinced of the educational value of film. With the cooperation of Premier William Hearst, he centralized Ontario's film production activities. In 1917, S. C. Johnson, an employee in the Department of Agriculture (which had been active in making short films on farming methods), was appointed director of the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau (OMPD). Its purpose was to advise the province and "to carry out educational work for farmers, school children, factory workers and other classes."

The OMPB developed the content of these films and distributed the prints; the actual production was contracted out to private firms. In 1919, the Bureau appointed Regal Films Ltd. of Toronto to handle the distribution as well. This contrasted markedly with the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau (CGMPB), which was established in Ottawa in 1918; it produced its own films with filmmakers on staff. This lack of hands-on filmmaking expertise would hamper the growth of the OMPB, as would its choice of non-theatrical 28mm safety film, instead of 35mm, the industry standard. At the time, 35mm was being made on flammable nitrate stock; so, the OMPB decided to stay with the safer 28mm for screenings in schools and town halls. This decision restricted the Bureau's films to the non-theatrical market.