Welcome to the new CAA Ed Mirvish
Theatre has had many names, but its sign has stayed the same shape
It’s had many names in its 101 years of existence and now one of Toronto’s major theatres has one more.
The Ed Mirvish Theatre — originally the Pantages, and subsequently the Imperial and the Canon, amongst other names — has been rechristened the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in recognition of an expanded partnership between the Canadian Automobile Association and Mirvish Productions.
That partnership began in 2017 and led to the renaming of the Panasonic Theatre at 651 Yonge St. as the CAA Theatre.
“Our partnership with CAA has been so successful that when I was approached about extending it for 10 more years, I didn’t hesitate to agree,” said David Mirvish, owner of Mirvish Productions. “I commend CAA’s commitment to theatre and the arts, and I especially value the organization’s reach to over 56 million CAA and AAA (American Automobile Association) members across North America.
“I am hopeful that this will help us build a bigger audience for theatre, something that is very meaningful as we cautiously reopen our theatres,” Mirvish added.
The CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, located at 244 Victoria St., opened in 1920 as the Pantages Theatre. Masterminded by the motion picture distributor Nathan L. Nathanson and designed by Thomas W. Lamb, the Pantages became part of the storied vaudeville circuit helmed by Greek-American entrepreneur Alexander Pantages.
The theatre thrived as a combination vaudeville and movie house in the 1920s, but the Great Depression led to the demise of Pantages’ vaudeville circuit.
In 1930, the theatre was rechristened the Imperial and, from that year through the late 1980s, it was primarily a cinema — initially Canada’s largest single-screen movie house with 3,626 seats and then split into six separate movie theatres in the 1970s.
Following a dispute between Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players over the terms of ownership of the building in the late 1980s, it reopened as the Pantages in 1989 under the leadership of Cineplex Odeon’s newly formed live entertainment division, known as Livent. The new Pantages opened with the Canadian premiere of “The Phantom of the Opera,” the first legitimate theatre production ever presented in the building. Following a scandal over accounting irregularities, Livent filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and its assets were purchased by Clear Channel Communications, which renamed the theatre the Canon, and leased it to the father and son team of Ed and David Mirvish.
In 2008, Mirvish Productions purchased the theatre and, in 2011, it was renamed the Ed Mirvish, in honour of Edwin “Honest Ed” Mirvish, the legendary businessman and philanthropist who died in 2007.
Throughout many of its lives, the theatre has been known for its thermometer-shaped sign on Yonge Street and the new sign for the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre is the same shape, honouring this legacy.