The Danforth Music Hall

The Danforth Music Hall opened in 1919 as a vaudeville and movie theatre on Danforth Avenue, part of a wave of ornate neighbourhood movie palaces built across North American cities in the early 20th century as film became a mainstream entertainment industry. It served that original purpose, showing films and hosting stage entertainment, for decades as the surrounding Greektown neighbourhood grew up around it.

A concert venue since the 1970s

As single-screen neighbourhood cinemas across Toronto lost business to multiplexes and television through the mid-20th century, the Danforth Music Hall was converted into a live concert venue in the 1970s, retaining much of its original ornate theatre architecture while adapting to hold touring bands rather than film screenings. It has remained one of Toronto's established mid-sized concert venues since, its heritage building giving touring acts and audiences a genuinely historic room rather than a purpose-built modern box.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Danforth Music Hall
• Heritage Toronto — Danforth Music Hall

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