A rendezvous for particular people: Showmanship, regulation, and promotion of early film-going in Toronto (Ontario)

For film-going to be a mass practice integrated into everyday life, the novelty amusement had to be adopted into the established cultures of cities. Conditions for gathering in nickelodeons were adapted through standards set by showmen in conjunction with institutions of urban and regional governance, and promoted through journalism and advertising in newspapers. This historical sociology of early film-going takes an interpretive approach to study the case of Toronto, Canada, from the opening of John Griffin's first "theatoriums" showcasing moving pictures in 1906 to the creation of Famous Players Canadian theatres following the First World War in 1920. Altogether, especially during the War, a nationalist practice of going to the movies, with Toronto as metropolis for Canada, emerged without significant local or national film-making. Important, new sources of film journalism, police records, and municipal documents unveil how the social character of early movie-going was produced through its local conditions.