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Description:
600-602 Queen Street West is an Art Deco building located on the north side of Queen Street West approximately midblock between Bathurst Street and Markham Street in the West Queen West neighbourhood of Toronto. 600-602 Queen Street West was constructed the early 1940s and originally housed the (New) Orpheum Theatre.
As of early 2022, the theatre marquee on 600-602 Queen Street West is intact, albeit is now used for advertising wares. The large Orpheum theatre sign was removed in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
600-602 Queen Street West is a heritage listed building and a contributing property within the West Queen West Heritage Conservation District.
Architect - Jay Isadore English:
The architect of 600-602 Queen Street West was Jay Isadore English (1903-1947).
The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: 1800-1950 has provided the following biography of Jay Isadore English:
"Jay Isadore English [né Angelchick] (1903-1947), active in Toronto, Ont. and a leading designer of movie theatres in Ontario and British Columbia. He was born to a Jewish family named Angelchik in Lukow, Poland on 1 December 1903 and was brought to Canada by his family at a young age in 1905 or 1906. He attended Ryerson Public School in Toronto from 1912 to 1919, then enrolled in evening classes in building design and construction at the Toronto Technical School from 1919 to 1923. During this period, he spent his days training with local architects including Dowswell & Dolphin (in 1920), with F.S. Mallory (in 1921), and with Ellis & Ellis (in 1922). In 1923 he moved to Detroit, Mich. and joined the architectural office of Charles L. Phelps (in 1923-24), and from 1925 to 1927 he studied architecture at Columbia University in New York. While there, he spent two years in the office of A. Loomis Harmon, a leading architect in New York City who would later join Richard Shreve and William Lamb to design the Empire State Building (built 1929-31), the world’s tallest building at the time of its completion. In late 1927 English moved back to Detroit and accepted a position as designer in the office of Albert Kahn Inc. one of the largest architectural and engineering firms in America, where he assisted with design and completion of the mammoth Fisher Building, West Grand Boulevard, Detroit (1927-28). English remained in Kahn’s office for five years, then returned to Toronto in late 1932.
He commenced his career in Toronto in 1932, and became a registered architect in Ontario (in 1935), in British Columbia (in 1940), and in Nova Scotia (in 1945). He specialized in the design of movie theatres, at first for Famous Players Co., and, from 1945, as Chief Architect for the Odeon Theatre chain in Canada. His largest and most important theatre commission was for the Odeon Carlton Theatre, the flagship of the Odeon chain, and a striking modernist work with an 80 foot tower visible from several blocks away (built 1947-48; demolished 1974). The promising career of J. I. English came to an abrupt end on 18 August 1947 when, at the age of 45 years, he drowned in a canoe accident on Gull Lake near Gravenhurst, Ont. At the time of his death, he was said to have 19 movie theatre buildings under design development or in the construction stage. His successor was Leslie H. Kemp, FRIBA, a British architect who was brought over to Canada by the management of the Odeon chain to complete the projects by Jay English which were then under construction in 1947-48."
The (New) Orpheum Theatre:
The first Orpheum Theatre on this block of Queen Street West opened in 1913/1914 at 604 Queen Street West. The first manager of the Orpheum Theatre — as of 1913/1914 — was George Dodds. Prior to 1913, George Dodds operated an amusement arcade and shop from the premises.
The Orpheum Theatre was acquired Minnie (Mindel) and Norman (Nachum) Rittenberg around 1929/1930. The Rittenbergs were Jewish and emigrated from Poland to Canada in the early 1910s. The family spoke English, Polish, and Yiddish. Census records indicate that as early as 1921, the Rittenbergs lived at 600 Queen Street West, which then housed Eugene Ford's fruit store on its ground floor. During the early-to-mid 1920s, Norman Rittenberg ran a confectionery shop at 422 Spadina Avenue.
By 1929/1930, the Rittenberg family had moved to 405 Shaw Street. As of this point in time, Morris Rittenberg — the son of Norman and Minnie Rittenberg — was employed at the theatre and as the manager of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners Association. The Rittenberg family also owned and operated the Garden Theatre at 290 College Street. Other family members, included extended family members, also had various roles at the theatres.
In 1940, Minnie Rittenberg and Norman (Nathan) Rittenberg commissioned architect Jay Isadore English to design a new Orpheum Theatre. The new Orpheum Theatre cost $60 000, contained expanded premises, and was located at 600-602 Queen Street West (to the immediate east of the original Orpheum Theatre at 604 Queen Street West). Construction of the new theatre was undertaken by Toronto builder Reuben R. Dennis and was completed prior to May 1943.
The following description of the (New) Orpheum Theatre is provided by John Sebert in The "Nabes" — Toronto's Wonderful Neighbourhood Movie Houses (2001):
"All but unknown to any but the locals, this Queen and Bathurst theatre, like most of the Queen St. West theatres, never advertised. The Orpheum outlasted its neighbour, the tiny Chateau, only a block to the east, by almost 20 years, closing in the 1970s. It was said to have had a unique auditorium configuration, with a reverse sloping floor, which meant its floor sloped upward, unlike the usual downward slope. The building remains, very much as in its heyday, with the marquee still in use." (page 112).
Doug Taylor in his article Toronto's Old Movie Theatres — the Orpheum on Queen Street West (2013) has also provided an additional description of the theatre:
"The theatre contained two aisles, with almost 500 plush seats with well padded backs. In the balcony, there were another 146 seats. The ladies washroom was accessed from the right-hand side of the lobby, but the men’s was in the basement. A candy bar was installed in December 1950, placed behind the back row of the centre section of seats. [...] [The] Orpheum Theatre continued to screen films from its inaugural year [for over] forty years. During its later years, patrons were able to call the number EM 8-5752 to discover the starting times of the films. "
During World War II, the Orpheum Theatre was one of several Toronto theatres to consider running midnight shows for war swing shift workers who worked late into the evening. An article published in The Globe and Mail on 21 May 1943 states the following:
"Probably the closest theatre to the big John Inglis plant with its thousands of war workers, the Orpheum on Queen Street West, tried midnight shows for three or four weeks but discontinued them at the end of April both for lack of help and because of small attendance.
"I felt, too, that the attendance at these shows was hurting the attendance at the theatre during the daytime." Norman Rittenberg, owner and manager, explained.
He said that theatre capacity was 650 and attendance was never above 250 or 300. Help could not be obtained and he couldn't carry on alone. Furthermore, he said, he didn't think it paid.
Many theatre managers agreed that "swing shift" workers had ample opportunity for entertainment at daytime shows and that these amply met the need."
By the early 1950s, the Rittenberg family were living at 126 Roxton Road. Norman Rittenberg died in 1952 and the theatre was inherited by his son Morris Rittenberg. Morris Rittenberg continued to operate the theatre until his own death in 1976. The Orpheum Theatre closed in 1977 and the building reportedly sat vacant until 1979/1980.
Please note that this Orpheum Theatre was independently operated and not part of the motion picture and vaudeville theatre chain Orpheum Circuit.
Later Occupants and Uses:
In 1980, the Rosemary Theatre opened at 600-602 Queen Street West, although this venue closed only two years later in 1982. Between 1983 and 1987, the building housed the Golden Dragon Theatre, which primarily screened Asian films.
Since the late 1980s, the ground floor and basement of 600-602 Queen Street West has housed various non-theatre businesses, including a jewellery shop (c. 1980s and 1990s) and various furniture and home decor merchants (c. late 1990s or early 2000s to present day), including HCD Furniture. Comparatively, the upstairs is used by the Toronto Alliance Church (c. 2000s to early 2020s).
(Research by Adam Wynne)
