Pantages Playhouse Theatre to rise again

Exchange District

West End

Riverview

It was announced earlier this month that Pantages Playhouse Theatre will receive a multi-million-dollar renovation that will transform it into a modern performing arts space and the home of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

The origins of theatre date back to 1913 when the Seattle-based Pantages Theatre Company asked William Blake Lawrence, a Detroit talent manager working in Winnipeg, to find a space for its expanding vaudeville circuit. At the time, it had seven theatres, including venues in Edmonton, Alta., Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, Wash., and San Francisco, Calif.

Pantages agreed to sign a 20-year lease on a suitable property, which made it easy for Lawrence to assemble a group of investors. They bought property on Market Avenue, just steps from bustling Main Street, and in June 1913 began construction on a theatre that cost around $250,000 by the time it was built and furnished

The building was designed by Seattle-based architect B. Marcus Priteca, who had worked on other projects for Pantages. Its construction was supervised by local architect George Northwood.

Winnipeg’s Pantages Theatre boasted 1,763 seats on two levels, a large mezzanine lounge, and its interior consisted of lush carpeting and intricate plasterwork. As with all theatres, fire safety was important, and one newspaper review noted that “…a series of perforated pipes called sprinklers have been put in throughout the edifice.”

The grand opening took place on February 9, 1914, with Mrs. and Mrs. Pantages, Mayor Thomas Deacon, Premier Rodmond Roblin, and other dignitaries in attendance. W. B. Lawrence, head of the ownership group, was the theatre’s manager.

The opening week show was typical vaudeville fare, with comedic juggler Phil la Toska, singing duo Richards and Montrose, banjo band the Howard Brothers, a short play by Milton and Dolly Nobles, and the feature performance by Adgie, a Spanish dancer, and her troupe of lions.

From 1914 to 1919, Winnipeg was the starting point of the Pantages circuit. Acts from around the world assembled here, did their final rehearsals, then began a gruelling train tour that, at most stops, consisted of three shows a day, six days a week. This place at the top of the circuit ended after Lawrence’s death and the chain’s expansion to more than thirty cities, including Chicago, Ill., Toronto, Ont., Detroit, Mich., and Minneapolis, Minn.

By this time, vaudeville’s popularity had begun its downward spiral as moving pictures were becoming the entertainment of the masses. The number of circuits and theatres dedicated to vaudeville dropped off dramatically in the 1920s.

Pantages pulled out of its Winnipeg lease in summer 1923, opting to rent the Capitol Theatre whenever one of its shows came to town. The ownership group rechristened the venue The Playhouse and scrambled to sign travelling shows and rent it to local groups to survive.

The Playhouse went bankrupt in 1933 and was surrendered to the city for back taxes in 1936. Since then, it has been leased to many organizations to operate it. In March 2019, the city declared the land surplus, which allowed it to sell the building back into private hands after 83 years.