Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Cinemas of St. Clair West

Photo by the City of Toronto - Posted October, 2011

Photo and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted October, 2011

Attached to this eastbound St. Clair Avenue West transit shelter at Dufferin Street is this City of Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.677985 -79.442679

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Nabes were a phenomenon that peaked in the late 1940s and lasted until the 1970s. They showed small-budget movies and were run by "mom and pop" and larger business ventures. The local nabe became the place of escape from daily life. To get to your nabe, you usually walked or took transit and rarely went to one outside your neighbourhood.
The nabe's manager became an important public figure and was referred to as the "mayor of the district". Nabes became unprofitable by the 1970s with the introduction of multiplexes and car parking issues. In the early sixties, David Lewis Stein recalls taking Alison, his future wife, to see 'The Grapes of Wrath' at the Kent Theatre: "My old neighbourhood movie had become an art theatre, just before it disappeared forever."

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