Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The greatest honour that the theatre industry can bestow upon a person is to immortalize him or her in the name of a theatre. This honour has been a long time coming for Ed Mirvish. He joins the likes of Queen Alexandra, Diana Princess of Wales, Noël Coward, Laurence Olivier and many others.
From today – December 6, 2011 – the venue at 244 Victoria Street in Toronto will be known as the ED MIRVISH THEATRE.
The announcement was made from the stage of the venue by Ed Mirvish’s son, David Mirvish, in a ceremony that included tributes from the Prime Minister, the Premier of Ontario, the Mayor of Toronto and many luminaries of Canadian theatre, including Michael Burgess, Shirley Douglas, Ted Dykstra, Richard Greenblatt, Molly Johnson, Louise Pitre and Camilla Scott.
David Mirvish said, “Without a doubt, this may be the most personal and the most important announcement I have ever made in my professional career. It is something that has been germinating in my mind for many, many years. But I now finally have the opportunity to act on this idea.
“Since I was very young, I watched my mother and father create a life that, I believe, was and is extraordinary. They built a small business by providing access to goods at remarkable prices, so that they were available to everyone. That business – Honest Ed’s – grew and grew, as did its customer base.
“When I became involved with the theatrical part of my family’s business, my admiration for my father grew even greater, because I understood more than ever how remarkable his theatrical work was. Running a theatre and producing shows are not easy endeavors. “Financially they require very high risk and they need entire armies of people to work cohesively together to create a handmade, delicate and ephemeral product that lives in the moment, but if successful, can stay in all our memories forever.
“But my father did this and did it without seeking the limelight for himself. He brought great artists from around the world to the Royal Alex. He gave opportunities to young Canadian artists to shine. He helped to build the Toronto theatre community, undoubtedly one of the finest in the world.
“I could go on and on about his accomplishments. I know he was my father, so it was only natural that I looked up to him when I was young. But as an adult I couldn’t help but genuinely admire and appreciate all he did for all of us.
“While my father was alive, I tried many times to find ways to publicly honour him. But he wouldn’t have any of it. As he once joked, he was full of “humbility.” He was just happy to be working at what he loved, and he loved the theatre and the people around it – the actors, playwrights, directors, technicians, musicians, ushers, front-of-house staff, and especially the audience.”
History of 244 Victoria Street
The Ed Mirvish Theatre was built in 1920 by Nathan L. Nathanson, head of Famous Players Canada, to be his company's flagship theatre, and the biggest motion picture palace in Canada. The elegant and glamorous auditorium, designed in the “Adam and Empire style” by the Canadian-born theatre architect Thomas Lamb, was designed for the display of both motion pictures and live variety - vaudeville - shows. Nathanson awarded the lucrative vaudeville booking and management contract to the powerful Hollywood impresario Alexander Pantages and, with it, the naming rights to the theatre. Thus, the theatre opened as "The Pantages", despite the fact that Mr. Pantages had no ownership in the building and is recorded as having visited it only once in the ten years it bore his name. When Mr. Pantages was involved in a scandal that resulted in his incarceration in 1930, Famous Players changed the name of the building to the Imperial in an attempt to distance the theatre from the scandal.
It remained the Imperial for three more decades, although it ceased staging any live entertainment and became solely a cinema palace after 1930. In 1972 it was remodeled into six cinemas and named the Imperial 6.
In a complex transaction, the building was bought by Cineplex, Famous Players’s cinema rival, and was restored as a live venue, reverting to its original name and opening with the Canadian premiere of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA in 1989.
David Mirvish took over management of the building in 2001, about the same time as the venue was bought by SFX/Clear Channel/Live Nation, who had bought the holdings of the bankrupt Livent Corporation and who made a sponsorship arrangement to have the building renamed the Canon Theatre.
Mirvish finally took full ownership of the building in 2008 from Key Brand Entertainment, who had purchased some of the Live Nation holdings.
Now, with the building being named the Ed Mirvish Theatre, the venue will finally be named after a local figure instrumental in the development and growth of Toronto theatre.
About Ed Mirvish
Ed Mirvish was an unlikely theatre impresario. He and his family moved to Toronto in 1923. His father became the proprietor of a small grocery on Dundas Street, but he passed away in 1929. Ed was only 15.
From these humble beginnings Ed developed an empire that included a behemoth department store, the unique Honest Ed’s, which he started with his wife Anne. As Ed Mirvish’s career grew and developed, he changed the landscape of the city of Toronto – especially with regards to the arts.
Ed did not have much experience with the arts, but he was blessed with a flair for the dramatic and his wife, Anne, was a loyal theatregoer who was the one who alerted him to the sale of the Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street. She encouraged Ed to buy the theatre and save it from the wrecking ball. This he did, painstakingly renovating this gem of beaux-arts design in 1963.
The King Street neighbourhood, however, was nowhere near the bustling, exciting centre of Toronto culture that it is today. It was grimy, industrial and mostly consisted of abandoned buildings. To start to make the neighbourhood more attractive Ed opened a restaurant, then another, and another, and another! Thus the area rose from the soot of neglected industrialization to become the Entertainment District, as it is now officially known. But none of it would have been possible without Ed purchasing and restoring the Royal Alex.
At the Royal Alex, Ed discovered the joys (and tribulations) of the theatre business. As he functioned not just as a landlord but also as a producer, Ed had to deal with all aspects of production. He loved everyone who worked in the theatre, from the stars on stage to the technicians back stage and the front-of-house staff. He especially enjoyed interacting with the audience, and he would be at the front of the theatre on most performance days so that theatregoers could tell him firsthand what they liked and didn’t like.
His philosophy was to keep the Royal Alex busy 52 weeks a year. He made sure the Royal Alex was home to revivals of the classics, world premieres of plays and musicals, and Canadian premieres of the biggest hits of London and New York. Ed brought in many of the great performers of the day – everyone from Sir John Gielgud to Katherine Hepburn.
Having been bitten by the theatre bug, in 1982 Ed embarked on his second adventure as a theatre owner and producer. He purchased the legendary Old Vic Theatre in London, England. After meeting some skepticism he quickly earned the respect and trust of London theatregoers. He renovated the theatre, and in the first season under his ownership productions at the Old Vic took home five Olivier awards.
Back on this side of the pond, in 1993 Ed and his son David built the Princess of Wales, the first privately owned freestanding theatre to be built on the continent in half a century.
Ed’s legacy has continued as Mirvish Productions acquired two more Toronto theatres in 2008 – the Canon and Panasonic.
It is only fitting that Ed Mirvish be immortalized less than three kilometres from where his journey began on Dundas Street, in a theatre at Yonge and Dundas.
2011-12-06
Toronto: The Canon Theatre is renamed in honour of Ed Mirvish