Allen Theatres

Jay and Jules Allen (Jay, born Bradford, Pennsylvania, 1890; died, Toronto 1942); (Julie: born, Bradford, Pa., 1888; died, Toronto 1964) were pioneering Canadian film exhibitors.

The American-born Allen brothers, Jules and Jay, along with their father Berney, opened their first Theatorium in 1906 in Brantford, Ontario. They held the Canadian franchise for Paramount feature films (which had Toronto-born Mary Pickford, the world’s first female movie superstar, under contract), from 1914 to 1919. With the strength of that arrangement, they forged a chain of almost 100 theatres, with movie palaces in every major Canadian city between 1917 and 1921, with plans to expand into the United States and Britain, too. When their imminent success became apparent, Paramount’s Adolph Zukor tried to buy them out. When they refused, Zukor withdrew the Pickford films and the brothers were driven out of business. By 1923, the Allen theatres were gone, leaving a near monopoly in Canada in the hands of Paramount and Famous Players Canadian Corporation. Allen's Danforth Theatre managed to survive as an independent cinema, and is today known as the Danforth Music Hall.

Following the bankruptcy of the Allen Theatre chain the brothers returned to film exhibition with the Ontario-based Premier Theatres, today a chain of drive-in cinemas.

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