Theatres & Movies

TEAM OVERVIEW:

We are interested in the social history of entertainment in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Exploring how in this particular city, through the social conditions of movie-going, theatres, and movies that played in Niagara Falls in different periods, we are uncovering the Falls as a community with a rich multi-cultural history. We are conducting our research through traditional methods of scholarly research in archives and libraries, as well as conducting site visits for the purposes of documentation, and interviewing and consulting with local residents who were movie-goers, former theatre employees, business owners, and collectors of memorabilia.

Some of the areas we are exploring include:

local movie audiences' gender, ethnicity and social class
Hollywood and non-theatrical films shown locally in the silent and sound periods
the architecture, design and sites of local theatres past and present
the rise and decline of downtown in relation to local theatres
the role of theatres in community service
theatre business practices and employees and their roles
movie ads and promotion of movie stars in newspapers
cross-border competition for local movie audiences
movie exhibition in other venues such as schools, union halls and ethnic centres.

TEAM MEMBERS:

Joan Nicks was born in Saskatchewan in a small town without a movie theatre. At the age of 10 she moved to Niagara Falls where she attended local schools and biked to her favourite swimming holes, Dufferin Islands and "the Cynamid." Her passion for movies was nurtured on Saturday afternoons watching, over and over, Hollywood films at the Seneca theatre, where she later introduced her son and daughter to movies and movie-going. Various paths and detours later, her long interest in film led to Brock and Carleton Universities to study film, popular culture, and Canadian culture, and ultimately back to Brock to teach and write in the department that nourished her early on. At Brock, she was a member of the steering committees to found Brock's Communications Studies, Canadian Studies, and Women's Studies Programs. Following her long tenure as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film, her current departmental association is as Adjunct Professor. Her community activities include service as co-organizer and programmer of BUFS (Brock University Film Society), co-director of NIFF (Niagara Indie Film Fest), and board member of NAC (Niagara Artists Centre).

As co-editors of the anthology Slippery Pastimes: Reading the Popular in Canadian Culture (2002), Joan and colleague Jeannette Sloniowski developed a liking for collaborative work together and the potential of a locally based project on Niagara. Their current research on a history of theatres and movies in Niagara Falls is a labour of love inspired by their roots in this community, the generous responses of many individuals, and a fondness for local cappuccino at the end of each research day.

Jeannette Sloniowski was born in Niagara Falls but spent her childhood in Stamford Township reading Nancy Drew novels and swimming in Chippawa Creek ("Duff" was for the faint of heart). She spent many happy hours plotting ways and means of getting to the Princess Theatre, and when she was particularly crafty and successful, she managed to get to the Seneca and even the Capitol way down the road in Niagara Falls. She also attended the Starlite and Hollywood Drive-ins where she watched Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with eyes covered and breath held, from the back seat of her parent's car. After going off to the University of Toronto in the mid-sixties, she returned to the Niagara Peninsula with husband and family and discovered the Film Studies Program at Brock University, wonderfully taught in those days by Jim Leach, Maurice Yacowar and Barry Grant. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Jeannette currently works as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film, and the Graduate Program in Popular Culture at Brock. She has continued her interest in detective fiction, thanks to Nancy Drew and Marilyn Rose of Brock's English Department, with whom she has created a comprehensive database on Crime, Mystery and Detective Fiction, Film and Television: www.Brocku.ca/crimefictioncanada. She is currently working on a short book on Jack Webb's Dragnet, and rediscovering Niagara Falls with Joan Nicks. The Niagara Movies and Theatres Project is even more fun than sneaking off to the movies and Jeannette is very grateful to all of the wonderful people in Niagara Falls and Stamford who have shared their sneaking off to the movies stories with she and Joan.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

The team research of Joan Nicks and Jeannette Sloniowski on Niagara Falls Theatres and Movies is part of the larger Popular Culture Niagara project. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC file #02-343) for this research, of which this web site is a component.

We thank the many local people who participated in interviews and shared memories, information and memorabilia on Niagara Falls movie theatres and movie-going. We thank the curators, librarians, archivists, collectors, historical societies, community members and officials, and Brock University's Office of Research Services, university colleagues and staff, who generously gave us their time, expertise and access to records, data and resource materials. We thank Research Assistants Julie Pong and Sarah Bradley for their supportive work, and Brock's Popular Culture M.A.
Program for providing their services. We thank the members and students of our home department, Communications, Popular Culture and Film, for their interest, encouragement, and contributions. This research project would not have been possible without the cooperation, knowledge, work and interest of all these people.