My earliest memory of seeing a film in the theatre on Rideau Street, near the corner of Nelson Street, was a Walt Disney film, possibly Snowball Express, in the early 70s. My dad, on one of his visits, decided to treat my older sister, Holly, and me to an afternoon out. My kid sister, Jen, was too young to sit still in a dark room, filled with strangers, and so stayed home.
The theatre, then named the Nelson, was not the furthest from my neighbourhood of Parkwood Hills but it was an effort to get out to by city bus. But when I was in my teens, my friends and I would head to that part of town on weekends, to one of our favourite gaming stores, Fandom II, where we would buy new dice and books for Dungeons & Dragons. This store was on the upper level of the house that is now The Horn of Africa restaurant. Fandom II would later move a few blocks south, on Laurier Avenue East, but still near Nelson Street, before it moved to where it still exists, in Centretown.
But from time to time, my friends and I would head to the Nelson Theatre to catch the latest movie. In 1981, when Excalibur came out, we were too young to get in. The film was restricted to those 18 and older, and we were only 16 or 17. But that didn't prevent us from trying, anyway.
And we had already been successful earlier that day. Our friend, Andy, was 17 but looked 19, and had successfully acquired a case of Molson Brador from our local Brewers Retail. There were five of us on that rainy day: me, Andy, Donald, Dave, and Al. Dave was the one we worried about the most, as he was the most boisterous of our group and alcohol amplified his volume. We each drank a couple of bottles or so of the Brador and then placed the remaining bottles in a blue and red Adidas gym bag, as we clambered onto an OC Transpo bus and headed downtown.
Dave insisted that we open up some bottles of beer while we made our way on the bus, but Andy, who was in possession of the Adidas bag, remained firm. We were saving our beer to have with the movie, assuming we got in.
The bus let us off in Centretown but we had to make our way to Lowertown, and because it was raining we were soaked by the time we reached the line for the theatre. We still had our buzz from the beer we drank in Donald's basement but we were clear-headed enough to have a plan. Because Andy looked the oldest of our bunch, he was tasked with buying our tickets. But because I looked the youngest, I would be the first to try to get past the person at the theatre doors. If I was successful, it was highly likely that my friends wouldn't be questioned.
Either the person who took my ticket didn't care or he was distracted by the noise that Dave was making, he let me through without a second glance. Dave was held back, briefly, because he was loud and appeared intoxicated, but eventually got through, and we all found seats together in this packed house.
No one questioned the bag that Andy carried.
As soon as the house lights were dimmed and the trailer films began, Andy distributed bottles and we discretely downed them as quickly as we could. Though moderately pissed, I do remember the film clearly.
Dave, however, didn't get to see the whole film. He was sitting next to an aisle and the bag with beer was between him and Andy, who was the next person in from the aisle. As Dave tried to get his empty bottle into the bag, he missed the bag and his bottle hit the floor with a loud ring, and the bottle rolled down the slope toward the screen. Had he stayed quiet, he might have got away with it but he cursed and began rummaging through the bag for a new bottle.
The ushers were on him pretty quickly, and they grabbed Dave and the Adidas bag, and escorted him out of the theatre. I still remember hearing him scream for a refund but I doubted that he'd receive one. The rest of us denied that we knew Dave and Andy claimed he didn't know there was beer in the bag. I was the furthest away from the commotion and could focus on the movie while Andy and Donald promised that there would be no trouble through the rest of the show.
Dave was across the street, at the Harvey's hamburger joint, when we met up with him after the movie. He was soaking wet and reeked of beer. He had fallen with the bag and had broken a couple of bottles. We grabbed some food to go and headed back to our neighbourhood.
It was the last movie that I had seen at the Nelson Theatre.
I was stone-sober this time.
As time went on, DW and I stopped going to movies as often and stopped buying membership passes. But we still continued to visit the Bytowne from time to time.
The last film that we saw in this venerable old movie house was a couple of years ago, on Canada Day in 2017. As part of the 150th anniversary of this country, the Bytowne offered free admission. We watched the wonderful French film, Incendies.
In December, the theatre announced that it was suffering from reduced audiences, due to COVID-19. It had planned to close its doors today, but because of the province-wide shutdown, its final film, White Christmas, was shown on December 24.
That afternoon, I drove down to Lowertown to photograph the lit marquee for perhaps the last time. Like that day in 1981, it was raining all day. But as luck would have it (I always seemed to have luck around this theatre), the rain turned to a light drizzle as I captured the images.
I hope that this isn't the end for this building, that someone reopens it after the pandemic and the screen can once again give us movies.
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