Osborne Theatre

108 Osborne Street South,
Winnipeg, MB R3L 1Y5

Unfavorite 2 people favorited this theater

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Famous Players

Functions: Retail

Nearby Theaters

Osborne Theatre

The Osborne Theatre opened during the 1920’s and was one of several neighborhood theatres under the Famous Players banner. It had no stage house and no organ, but did contain a Photoplayer instrument to accompany silents. The Photoplayer is currently located in a theatre in eastern Ontario. Movies at the Osborne Theatre were mainly double bills of sub-runs as well as Saturday kid’s matinees.

The Osborne Theatre closed in the mid-1950’s and was leased to an Elks Club. The interior was pretty much stripped of all fittings and the floor was levelled out in the conversion. However, the marquee and vertical remained, although the neon was changed to read ‘Elks Club’.

With a change in the immediate area to the trendy Osborne village in the late-1970’s until now, the Elks vacated the building and for a number of years it had been a rock venue. At some point the vertical sign and marquee were removed and an awning running the full width of the front of the building replaced it. It had the name ‘Village Cabaret’ on the awning but that has since been painted out and it remains blank.

In 2011, the building was in use as an American Apparel clothing store.

Contributed by sam_e

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 8, 2007 at 4:31 pm

Here is a 1945 ad from the Winnipeg Free Press:
http://tinyurl.com/yqj67j

wpgcinemas
wpgcinemas on June 10, 2008 at 10:34 am

This has recently been converted to an American Apparel store. If you squint just right, though, you can still see it as a cinema…

kation
kation on October 19, 2008 at 11:39 am

That used to be a theatre? Wow, I’ll have to take a good look at it next time I go past.

wpgcinemas
wpgcinemas on November 18, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Here is a picture taken from the corner of River and Osborne — the marquee can be seen in the background:
View link

(source: Winnipeg Tribune Archives)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 12, 2011 at 9:01 am

This theater might be on the site of an earlier Osborne Theatre that was destroyed by fire on December 12, 1917, as reported in the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. The address of the destroyed theater was not given, but the loss was estimated at $42,000.

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.