Saskatoon's historic Roxy Theatre is looking for a new owner

The Roxy was the place to go on a hot Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon when it became the first theatre in the city with air conditioning back in the 20th century.

But the movie house, which opened its doors in August 1930, is known for more than that, it also served as a community meeting spot and a venue for live entertainment over the years.

However, the future of the historic landmark on 20th Street is uncertain since it's been put up for sale.

"It was a natural kind of course of events," said Tom Hutchinson, president of Magic Lantern Theatres, the chain that runs the Roxy.

The movie theatre has always been tied to Rainbow Cinemas, which closed in 2020, he added.

"The lease there was not renewed when it expired after 25 years. And so that put the pieces in place for the sale of the Roxy as well."

Reopening in 2005

The Roxy Theatre had been vacant for around 10 years when Hutchinson and his company decided to reopen it in 2005. 

It was in rough shape when Magic Lantern Theatres took it over. The roof had been leaking and the plaster work inside — the hallmark of the movie house — was damaged, Hutchinson said.

"I've always been a bit interested in older theaters and had watched many of the theatres of that era being demolished," he said.

Hutchinson enjoys it when historic buildings continue to serve their original purpose rather than being turned into museums. However, he says the time has come for someone else to run the Roxy Theatre.

"My preference would be that the new owner build on the foundation we've laid there," he said.

"I'm really good at the way things were 55 years ago. I'm much less good at the way things are today…. So the [new] owners of the Roxy need to be younger people who are in touch with the way things are today."

According to the Riversdale Business Improvement District, some groups and organizations have shown interest in the movie theatre.

Randy Pshebylo, executive director of the organization, says he has connected some people with Hutchinson to learn more about the building.

"It's very heartwarming to hear that there's … a number of people banding together, not just one person, coming up with $900,000," he said.

However, Pshebylo believes it will take a while until a final decision is made. 

"It's been a magnet and can still be going forward."

The Roxy's history 

"Amuse me, or you die" might sound like the perfect motto for the Saskatoon movie house.

Back in 1930 visitors of the Roxy Theatre enjoyed watching the U.S. entertainer Ted Lewis obey this command from a pirate on the screen when the short film Is Everybody Happy became the first movie ever shown at the Saskatoon cinema.

About 65 years later, the Towne Cinema as it was called then, closed its doors for a decade until the reopening in 2005. 

The last movie at the cinema in 1995 showed Bruce Willis in Die Hard with a Vengeance.

In between these two film screenings, the iconic movie house served as a place of amusement and community, according to City of Saskatoon archivist Jeff O'Brien.

The 1920s were the golden era of movie houses. At that time, theatres usually served two purposes; they were cinemas as well as playhouses, O'Brien said.

By the late 1920 though Vaudeville was starting to die out.

"So the Roxy Theatre is the very first theatre in Saskatoon that's only a theatre, it's cinema only," he said. "But it looks like one of these playhouses."

After the Roxy's initial construction, it would take 16 more years until another theatre was built in the city. The Broadway Theatre opened its doors in 1946. 

Over the years, the Roxy hosted different events, including concerts, O'Brien said.

The Winnipeg movie house mogul Nathan Rothstein was the first owner of the theatre, with the Rothstein family possessing a chain of theatres across the Prairies and Ontario, according to O'Brien.

The Roxy Theatre was designed as an atmospheric theatre in the Spanish Mission or Spanish Colonial style, the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation says on its website.

Visitors coming in would see walls covered with small balconies and windows, feeling immersed into the middle of a Spanish village or courtyard.

In addition, the ceiling was painted in the motif of a night sky, according to the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation.

"They had these two cloud projectors that would actually project the illusion of clouds drifting across the ceiling," said O'Brien.

"If the movie wasn't that exciting [patrons] could lie back and watch the clouds drift by a starry sky."

A place for community 

In contrast to other cinemas, the movie house on 20th street was built right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, making it a community meeting place.

In 1960, it became the first theatre offering a crying room to accommodate mothers with their crying children, said O'Brien.

Today the Saskatoon theatre is one of the last of its kind still standing.

O'Brien believes it is the last of the Rothstein cinemas that still serves as a theatre.

"The Roxy stands at an important moment in time for popular culture," he said.