A brief history of the Ouimetoscope, the first theatre exclusively for film in North America
Ouimetoscope print advertisements, circa 1907, Ecomusée du fier monde collection.
At the dawn of the 20th century, the residents of Montreal’s Centre-Sud neighbourhood couldn’t have guessed that they would have front-row seats to the emerging film industry in Canada. Yet it was in this industrial neighbourhood—home to mainly working-class families—that the first cinema theatre in North America was inaugurated.
Originally located at 624 Sainte-Catherine St. East, the Ouimetoscope stood out from the apartments, shops, taverns, factories and theatres that made up the urban landscape of the major Montreal thoroughfare. When the cinema opened on January 1, 1906, it was set up in the Poiré room. The following year, the building was demolished and replaced with a luxurious, 1,200-seat theatre that was better suited to motion pictures and vaudeville performances. Spectators could purchase a ticket for a balcony, ground floor or box seat, depending on what they could afford. To the delight of cinema pioneer Léo-Ernest-Ouimet (1877–1972), the theatre was extremely popular, with films playing to packed houses night after night.
Born in Saint-Martin-de-Laval, Ouimet began his film career in 1903 as a travelling projectionist, presenting his shows in parks, department stores and church halls around Montreal. Although Ouimet was a cinematic jack of all trades who worked as an entrepreneur, engineer, director, producer and distributor, he remains primarily known for his eponymous cinema, which he owned until 1922. The cinema changed hands many times over the years before closing permanently in 1993. In 2011, a condominium project was announced on the grounds of the former cinema. Today, a commemorative Cinémathèque plaque is all the remains to mark the location of the former Ouimetoscope. This tarnished plaque is a reminder of a bygone era of cinema.
Camille Choinière is the Cultural Mediation Project Manager at the Écomusée du fier monde, an industrial history museum and citizen museum in Montreal’s Centre-Sud neighbourhood.
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