Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: Empress Theater

Built in 1927 and designed by Joseph-Alcide Chaussé, with interiors by Emmanuel Briffa, it was, and remains, the only theatre in Canada designed in the Egyptian style (inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb). Opened as the Empress Theatre, the building was a Vaudeville theatre for burlesque and first-run films. In 1962 it was a dinner theatre called the Royal Follies. In 1968 it was divided into two floors to became the two-tiered Cinema V-Salle Hermes, an art-movie cinema. In 1974 it was briefly named The Home of the Blue Movies, gaining notability as the Montreal home of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 1975 it then became Cinema V, a repertory cinema. In 1988 it was taken over by the Famous Players chain and showed first-run films. In 1992 a fire caused damage to the theater resulting in its permanent closure. Since its closure 20 years ago, the building has fallen into a state of disrepair and is slowly deteriorating. In 2005 community organizers re-opened a small one room office on the ground floor (left corner of building; location of the former Sesame health food store) mainly as a headquarters for coordinating the building’s restoration. The office was vacated in late December 2011 due to seizure by the city of Montreal, leaving the entire property abandoned. Most of building is fenced off due to falling debris