Did you know that Canada once had a golf course where you tee’d off in Saskatchewan and holed out on the 9th green in the United States — and in a different time zone?
These and other bizzare anecdotes about Canada (A pet cemetary in Aurora, Ont.?) can be seen this Sunday starting at 7 p.m. on a rare newsreel being shown at The Westdale cinema in Hamilton, Ont. The 16mm short is called “Did You Know That?” and it is one of several short subjects set to run Sunday as part of The Westdale’s 90th anniversary celebrations.
For one night, the historic neighbourhood theatre is offering movie patrons in 2025 the same experience cinema goers enjoyed in 1935. Back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, cinema goers could look forward to a newsreel, a short subject, a cartoon or two, a comedy two-reeler (usually around 15 or 18 minutes in length) and several movie trailers before the start of the main feature. This tradition gave us dozens of comedy shorts — the forerunners to today’s sitcoms — still watched today, including hundreds of episodes of The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. (They also helped theatres such as The Westdale sell popcorn, so load up!).
In keeping with the 1935 theme, one of Laurel & Hardy’s funniest shorts from that year will be part of the bill Sunday at The Westdale.
The other 16mm shorts I’ll be showing, all from my personal collection, include a Pete Smith Specialty. This one is sports-themed. I’m also projecting two cartoons, both in colour. Their titles will be a suprise, but one features caricatures of popular film and radio stars of the day. See if you can spot Clark Gable, W.C. Fields, Katharine Hepburn, Tarzan’s Johnny Weismuller, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson, Laurel & Hardy and two of the three Marx brothers.
Speaking of Marxes, The Westdale’s Cinema and Projection Coordinator, Paul Zoccolillo, will introduce a brand new, state-of-the-art, HD digital print of the 1935 classic “A Night at the Opera” as the night’s main attraction. This was the first Marx Bros. movie I ever saw and I discovered it late one night on CBC back when I was barely a teenager. It was actually a moving experience — I couldn’t believe that, way back in the ’30s, somebody had made a movie just for me.
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Now I’m over 50 years older and I still feel the same way. Seeing these classics on a big screen with an audience full of people is an incredible experience and exactly the way they were made to be seen. The filmmakers back then even timed audience reactions for laughter. Paul hunted through the history of The Westdale and found that “A Night at The Opera” played in this very same building during its first year of operation 90 years ago.
Don’t miss this chance to see it, as well as a package of rare shorts on what should be a fun and nostalgic night. It all plays Sunday, Sept. 21 starting at 7 p.m. For tickets and more information go to thewestdale.ca.
