Because of Canada’s geographic location, the business of film exhibition has always been tied to the United States and ultimately controlled by Hollywood. In order to understand the historical cinematic experience of Canadians in different regions, this paper seeks to compare opening playdates in urban Canada to the northern mining community in Timmins, Ontario from 1914 to 1929, a pivotal period during which Paramount controlled Famous Players came to dominate both film exhibition and distribution in the country. I also analyse holiday programming at Christmas and Easter during this same time period. My analysis demonstrates that there was a variance of film premiere dates throughout urban Canada. This article also shows that even though small towns like Timmins had films much later than urban locations they were still able to create a unique cinema culture through special programming during holidays that was unique from other locations in Canada.

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Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
doi.org/10.18146/tmg.648
Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis

Whitehead, Jessica Leonora. (2020). Comparison of Canadian Urban and Small-town Exhibition Practices 1914-1929. Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, 23(1-2), 1–32. doi:10.18146/tmg.648