The following has been taken from Manitoba Provincial Archives:
While he was still manager of the Winnipeg Theatre, C. P. Walker decided to build a safer, more modern, and imposing playhouse that would comply with the very stringent requirements of the new Public Buildings Act. (Safeguards against fire had become an important consideration following a theatre holocaust in Chicago that killed 602 people on 30 December 1903, which some blamed on the greed of its syndicate.) Even before his lease for the Winnipeg Theatre expired he acquired the site for the building still known as the Walker Theatre. He visited other cities in the fall of 1905 to get ideas on contemporary theatre design. He also consulted with Howard C. Stone, a well-known Montreal architect, who also inspected the best theatres in the United States before beginning work on the plans. Construction began in March 1906 and was completed by the end of the year in spite of labour disruptions and delays in materials and fixtures. Walker had scheduled several bookings for late December that could not be cancelled without losses to him and the companies. Accordingly, several performances went ahead, including one by the Pollard Australian Lilliputian Opera Company on 17 December 1906, even though many things were incomplete at the time, making it the first performance in the new theatre.
Announced as the “Finest Play-house in the Dominion—Absolutely Fireproof,” the physically imposing building had a strikingly original interior. The ornate vaulted ceiling, sixty feet in maximum height, and the megaphone-shaped interior space contributed to excellent acoustics, well suited for the quality live entertainment for which the building was designed. There were no posts or pillars supporting the two balconies, so all upper-level seats had a clear view of the stage. Several rows of seats in the upper balcony, known as the “gods” and reached through a separate staircase, were priced at 250 for school children and patrons of modest means who could not afford the top-priced $2.50 seats for the carriage trade on the lower levels. The 1,798-seat auditorium, lobby, and lounges had a luxurious splendour that surpassed anything in the entire West: Italian marble, intricate plasterwork, gilt trim, velvet carpets, silk tapestries, murals, crystal chandeliers, and other amenities. When completed, the building alone cost over $250,000; about fifteen years later Walker estimated the total cost of his enterprise at $400,000.
The theatre’s official opening on 18 February 1907 was a gala social occasion; the Lieutenant Governor, the Provincial Premier, and the City Mayor gave dedicatory speeches. The audiences, many in full evening dress, enjoyed a triple production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in English, just three years after the opera had opened in La Scala, Italy. Walker brought to Winnipeg the finest old and new plays, musicals, operas, and symphony concerts from New York, Boston, Chicago, and London. Among the outstanding productions that played at the Walker in its early years were Sappho, Carmen, Chu Chin Chow, The Ginger-bread Man, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Peer Gynt, The Blue Bird, Peter Pan, Pygmalion, Comin’ Through the Rye, Little Women, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Blossom Time, Maid of the Mountains, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, along with The Dumbells and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. The Quinlan Grand Opera Company from London stayed at the theatre and presented fifteen large-scale operas by major composers in a two-week period. The Stratford-Upon-Avon Players paid frequent visits. Shakespearian actors such as Robert Martell, Sir Johnstone Forbes-Robertson, and the perennial favourite Sir John Martin-Harvey also appeared. Other theatre celebrities included Sir Harry Lauder, Wee Georgie Wood, Ed Wynn, May Robson, Grace George, William S. Hart, Victor Moore, Blanche Bates, singers Feodor Chaliapin, Nellie Melba, Madame Clara Butt, Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, and many more. Over the years the Walker Theatre sponsored the most famous artists of the English-speaking world in plays, grand and light operas, concerts, and pantomime.
The theatre’s spacious stage could handle large, spectacular productions, such as a thrilling performance of the epic Ben Hur that ran for six days beginning on 8 March 1909, announced as “a mighty play staged on a scale of unparalleled splendour.” The touring company carried a special orchestra and 200 people were involved in the production. The highlight was the re-creation of a chariot race involving twelve horses pulling three chariots on treadmills before an enormous moving background depicting spectators. An ecstatic review of the event in the Manitoba Free Press appeared on the following day:
Only the language of the superlative with frequent notes of exclamation can possibly describe all the glories of “Ben Hur” produced at the Walker Theatre last night. From a staging and scenic point of view it is easily the most elaborate presentation ever given in Winnipeg and it should be a matter of pride to every patriotic citizen that only in about four theatres in the States would it be possible to as adequately mount the play as was the case last night.
Other animal performers that appeared in Walker Theatre productions included horses in Old Kentucky and Mazeppa, a cat in Kindling, bloodhounds in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, spaniels in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, camels in Kismet, and both goats and camels in The Garden of Allah.
Much of the credit for the fine entertainment was due to the efforts of Walker’s wife, Harriet, who encouraged amateur productions, notably university drama groups and the Winnipeg Kiddies, a popular children’s vaudeville show that toured North America for several years. She also aided her husband in booking music and drama productions for the Red River Valley Circuit. She wrote intelligent and well-informed press material on theatre topics for all Winnipeg newspapers; she was also a member of the Canadian Women’s Press Club. The Walkers’ daughter, Ruth Harvey, later published a detailed and entertaining collection of reminiscences about life with her parents (“papa” and “mamma”) at the Walker Theatre. [11]
The Walker Theatre was also used for important social and political events, such as the 1912 debate on women’s rights between Premier Rodmond Roblin and suffragist Nellie McClung, a personal friend of Harriet Walker. In 1914 McClung had the starring role in The Women’s Parliament, a parody on the Manitoba Legislature dealing with men’s right to vote, in which she played the premier. These events advanced women’s suffrage and helped defeat Roblin’s government in a later election.
The Walker Theatre flourished until the 1920s when the Theatre Syndicate’s touring system collapsed. Walker compensated by bringing in British and American companies and by sponsoring local amateur productions and miscellaneous touring shows. Now the movies were becoming a more popular form of public entertainment; early motion pictures at this playhouse included Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Walker closed his theatre in 1933 and the City of Winnipeg acquired it in lieu of taxes in 1936; it was then sold to a family that converted it wholly to a movie theatre. After serving as a cinema for several decades, following renovations it opened again for live theatre on 1 March 1991. Later that year the Government of Canada designated the Walker Theatre a site of national historical and architectural significance.
ODEON/WALKER THEATRE1906 B. Howard C. Stone
The Odeon Cinema was built in 1906 as the Walker Theatre, after the original building, the Victoria Hall, was destroyed by a fire that killed four firemen. After the Victoria Hall was destroyed in 1905, Howard C. Stone was commissioned to plan a modern, fully fringed playhouse. The building was constructed of steel and reinforced concrete with terra cotta used to encase the steel work in certain areas. One significant feature of the Walker Theatre, thanks to the use of the steel, is the elimination of columns and posts that would normally obstruct the patron's view. In 1936, the Walker Theatre was converted into a cinema and sold to the Morton family because it could not escape the economic dislocation of the depression. In 1945, the theatre celebrated its second re-opening as the Odeon.
The theatre, which staged numerous exhilarating shows before thousands of satisfied patrons, is an architectural treasure which people will cherish.
While he was still manager of the Winnipeg Theatre, C. P. Walker decided to build a safer, more modern, and imposing playhouse that would comply with the very stringent requirements of the new Public Buildings Act. (Safeguards against fire had become an important consideration following a theatre holocaust in Chicago that killed 602 people on 30 December 1903, which some blamed on the greed of its syndicate.) Even before his lease for the Winnipeg Theatre expired he acquired the site for the building still known as the Walker Theatre. He visited other cities in the fall of 1905 to get ideas on contemporary theatre design. He also consulted with Howard C. Stone, a well-known Montreal architect, who also inspected the best theatres in the United States before beginning work on the plans. Construction began in March 1906 and was completed by the end of the year in spite of labour disruptions and delays in materials and fixtures. Walker had scheduled several bookings for late December that could not be cancelled without losses to him and the companies. Accordingly, several performances went ahead, including one by the Pollard Australian Lilliputian Opera Company on 17 December 1906, even though many things were incomplete at the time, making it the first performance in the new theatre.
Announced as the “Finest Play-house in the Dominion—Absolutely Fireproof,” the physically imposing building had a strikingly original interior. The ornate vaulted ceiling, sixty feet in maximum height, and the megaphone-shaped interior space contributed to excellent acoustics, well suited for the quality live entertainment for which the building was designed. There were no posts or pillars supporting the two balconies, so all upper-level seats had a clear view of the stage. Several rows of seats in the upper balcony, known as the “gods” and reached through a separate staircase, were priced at 250 for school children and patrons of modest means who could not afford the top-priced $2.50 seats for the carriage trade on the lower levels. The 1,798-seat auditorium, lobby, and lounges had a luxurious splendour that surpassed anything in the entire West: Italian marble, intricate plasterwork, gilt trim, velvet carpets, silk tapestries, murals, crystal chandeliers, and other amenities. When completed, the building alone cost over $250,000; about fifteen years later Walker estimated the total cost of his enterprise at $400,000.
The theatre’s official opening on 18 February 1907 was a gala social occasion; the Lieutenant Governor, the Provincial Premier, and the City Mayor gave dedicatory speeches. The audiences, many in full evening dress, enjoyed a triple production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in English, just three years after the opera had opened in La Scala, Italy. Walker brought to Winnipeg the finest old and new plays, musicals, operas, and symphony concerts from New York, Boston, Chicago, and London. Among the outstanding productions that played at the Walker in its early years were Sappho, Carmen, Chu Chin Chow, The Ginger-bread Man, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Peer Gynt, The Blue Bird, Peter Pan, Pygmalion, Comin’ Through the Rye, Little Women, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Blossom Time, Maid of the Mountains, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, along with The Dumbells and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. The Quinlan Grand Opera Company from London stayed at the theatre and presented fifteen large-scale operas by major composers in a two-week period. The Stratford-Upon-Avon Players paid frequent visits. Shakespearian actors such as Robert Martell, Sir Johnstone Forbes-Robertson, and the perennial favourite Sir John Martin-Harvey also appeared. Other theatre celebrities included Sir Harry Lauder, Wee Georgie Wood, Ed Wynn, May Robson, Grace George, William S. Hart, Victor Moore, Blanche Bates, singers Feodor Chaliapin, Nellie Melba, Madame Clara Butt, Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, and many more. Over the years the Walker Theatre sponsored the most famous artists of the English-speaking world in plays, grand and light operas, concerts, and pantomime.
The theatre’s spacious stage could handle large, spectacular productions, such as a thrilling performance of the epic Ben Hur that ran for six days beginning on 8 March 1909, announced as “a mighty play staged on a scale of unparalleled splendour.” The touring company carried a special orchestra and 200 people were involved in the production. The highlight was the re-creation of a chariot race involving twelve horses pulling three chariots on treadmills before an enormous moving background depicting spectators. An ecstatic review of the event in the Manitoba Free Press appeared on the following day:
Only the language of the superlative with frequent notes of exclamation can possibly describe all the glories of “Ben Hur” produced at the Walker Theatre last night. From a staging and scenic point of view it is easily the most elaborate presentation ever given in Winnipeg and it should be a matter of pride to every patriotic citizen that only in about four theatres in the States would it be possible to as adequately mount the play as was the case last night.
Other animal performers that appeared in Walker Theatre productions included horses in Old Kentucky and Mazeppa, a cat in Kindling, bloodhounds in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, spaniels in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, camels in Kismet, and both goats and camels in The Garden of Allah.
Much of the credit for the fine entertainment was due to the efforts of Walker’s wife, Harriet, who encouraged amateur productions, notably university drama groups and the Winnipeg Kiddies, a popular children’s vaudeville show that toured North America for several years. She also aided her husband in booking music and drama productions for the Red River Valley Circuit. She wrote intelligent and well-informed press material on theatre topics for all Winnipeg newspapers; she was also a member of the Canadian Women’s Press Club. The Walkers’ daughter, Ruth Harvey, later published a detailed and entertaining collection of reminiscences about life with her parents (“papa” and “mamma”) at the Walker Theatre. [11]
The Walker Theatre was also used for important social and political events, such as the 1912 debate on women’s rights between Premier Rodmond Roblin and suffragist Nellie McClung, a personal friend of Harriet Walker. In 1914 McClung had the starring role in The Women’s Parliament, a parody on the Manitoba Legislature dealing with men’s right to vote, in which she played the premier. These events advanced women’s suffrage and helped defeat Roblin’s government in a later election.
The Walker Theatre flourished until the 1920s when the Theatre Syndicate’s touring system collapsed. Walker compensated by bringing in British and American companies and by sponsoring local amateur productions and miscellaneous touring shows. Now the movies were becoming a more popular form of public entertainment; early motion pictures at this playhouse included Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Walker closed his theatre in 1933 and the City of Winnipeg acquired it in lieu of taxes in 1936; it was then sold to a family that converted it wholly to a movie theatre. After serving as a cinema for several decades, following renovations it opened again for live theatre on 1 March 1991. Later that year the Government of Canada designated the Walker Theatre a site of national historical and architectural significance.
ODEON/WALKER THEATRE1906 B. Howard C. Stone
The Odeon Cinema was built in 1906 as the Walker Theatre, after the original building, the Victoria Hall, was destroyed by a fire that killed four firemen. After the Victoria Hall was destroyed in 1905, Howard C. Stone was commissioned to plan a modern, fully fringed playhouse. The building was constructed of steel and reinforced concrete with terra cotta used to encase the steel work in certain areas. One significant feature of the Walker Theatre, thanks to the use of the steel, is the elimination of columns and posts that would normally obstruct the patron's view. In 1936, the Walker Theatre was converted into a cinema and sold to the Morton family because it could not escape the economic dislocation of the depression. In 1945, the theatre celebrated its second re-opening as the Odeon.
The theatre, which staged numerous exhilarating shows before thousands of satisfied patrons, is an architectural treasure which people will cherish.
A Ghost Story
Manitoba - Winnipeg - The Walker Theatre - Eerie experiences have taken place here. Mysterious applauding in tiers of seats, which are unoccupied at the end of a performance sometimes, is heard. Steel doors close on their own they weigh at least a couple hundred pounds, and when a reporter did research in the theatre with a well known psychic in the night they set up a tape recorder for a few hours only to find they couldn't hear anything...until they played the tape back to hear loud banging sounds and hammering, footsteps across the floor to and from the tape recorder then more towards the tape recorder sounding like somebody was whispering "please" into it....this tape would play sometimes but other times appear blank...dressing room doors that were supposed to be closed would be opened the next time the guard would make his rounds. The wedge of wood he had used to prop open the doors would appear to be kicked out...the guards dogs would mysteriously bark at the air and be by his side all night, Which was unusual because they were very outgoing dogs. The suspected presence is said to be maybe acting team Laurence Irving and Mabel Hackney who died in 1914 less than a week after performing at The Walker.
Manitoba - Winnipeg - The Walker Theatre - Eerie experiences have taken place here. Mysterious applauding in tiers of seats, which are unoccupied at the end of a performance sometimes, is heard. Steel doors close on their own they weigh at least a couple hundred pounds, and when a reporter did research in the theatre with a well known psychic in the night they set up a tape recorder for a few hours only to find they couldn't hear anything...until they played the tape back to hear loud banging sounds and hammering, footsteps across the floor to and from the tape recorder then more towards the tape recorder sounding like somebody was whispering "please" into it....this tape would play sometimes but other times appear blank...dressing room doors that were supposed to be closed would be opened the next time the guard would make his rounds. The wedge of wood he had used to prop open the doors would appear to be kicked out...the guards dogs would mysteriously bark at the air and be by his side all night, Which was unusual because they were very outgoing dogs. The suspected presence is said to be maybe acting team Laurence Irving and Mabel Hackney who died in 1914 less than a week after performing at The Walker.
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