By Michel Rossignol
For thirty years, many residents of Lowertown and other parts of Ottawa have travelled to countries around the world and sometimes to other planets. Instead of travelling by jetliner, flying saucer or time machine, they visited the world by watching films at the ByTowne Cinema on Rideau Street. Since 1988, the ByTowne Cinema has been a major contributor to Ottawa’s cultural scene and a key part of our community’s long association with the cinema.
The first cinemas in Lowertown opened their doors over a century ago. Between 1914 and 1961, many generations of Lowertown residents went to see great and not so great Hollywood productions and even some films in French at the Français Theatre on Dalhousie Street, one block north of Rideau. In the late 1930s, francophones could also see some films in French just one block away at the Rideau Theatre on Rideau Street at the corner of Dalhousie. However, after its grand opening on November 23, 1931 and until it closed in 1982, the Rideau showed mostly Hollywood productions, especially action films. The Rideau apparently replaced the Princess Theatre, which opened in 1915, and while the building is still there, it is no longer used as a cinema.
The Linden Theatre on Beechwood Avenue, just outside of Lowertown near the St. Patrick Street Bridge, also attracted customers from this community. In the 1950s, many Lowertown families used dishes given free by the Linden and other cinemas to encourage people to go to movie theatres instead of watching television at home. In 1966, the new owner of the Linden gave it a new name, the Towne Cinema, which became famous as a repertory cinema offering a mix of classic and recent films. In 1988, the owners of the Towne bought the Nelson Theatre on Rideau Street and renamed it the ByTowne Cinema. The Nelson was built in 1946 and, a year later, started showing some of the most popular films of the day. This is where classics such as Ben-Hur (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and, of course, The Nelson Affair (1973) got their first showings in Ottawa. When the Nelson became the ByTowne, cinema in Lowertown got a new lease on life. So, check the ByTowne schedule for the next departures to exotic places around the world and, Bon voyage!