Early 20th Century
The new century brought six new stage houses between 1900 and 1915. Some came and went, while some gained a lasting popularity. The Empire, opened by H.B. Clarke in 1900, opened where the old Exhibition building had been on Tower Road. As former manager of the Academy of Music, Clarke’s new space boasted a stage better than that of the Academy and attracted a succession of opera companies, dramatic troupes, and variety performers. The Empire became an annual skating rink in the winter months as the lack of heating arrangements restricted the space considerably.
A rash of upstart theatres appeared in 1907 and 1908, owing to the public acceptance of moving pictures and to popularity of vaudeville. The Nickel was the city’s first moving picture cinema. Other theatres attempted to combine new popular entertainments and offered both vaudeville and movies or “photo plays" on the same program. The King Edward Theatre opened 1907, as did the Dreamland, which had been converted from Trinity Episcopal on Jacob Street, and the Star Theatre on Buckingham Street.
In 1908, Acker’s Family Vaudeville was opened by Leonard R. Acker from Buffalo, who showed two performances daily, featuring five or six acts and within a few years, a second evening performance was added. The year 1915 saw the opening of the Strand, built to seat 900, under the direction of J.M. Franklin to take advantage of the continuing popularity of vaudeville acts; it offered three shows a day consisting of vaudeville and a movie serial. The Strand and Acker’s thrived side by side during wartime while the King Edward also continued to find audiences for its offerings of vaudeville and photoplays. In 1918 the Majestic Theatre opened where the Academy of Music had been.
1920s
Surprisingly, the Halifax Explosion caused little damage to theatres as most of them were located in parts of the town that escaped the destruction. The 1920s saw the first signs of influences that were to eventually bring about the end of the Golden Age of live theatre in Halifax where vaudeville was replaced by that brand of musical revue which would later develop into burlesque; by the end of 1920, the Acker’s Vaudeville was featuring mainly revue companies. There was an attempt to revive vaudeville and stage entertainment but the demand for cinema was too strong. The costs of transportation and staging made survival difficult for road companies and for theatres and the result was a deterioration in the quality of stage productions.Movies and radio and new “home entertainment" made it no longer necessary for people to go out to the theatre for entertainment.
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Only the Strand and Majestic survived the 1920s, both of which offered good performances that regularly attracted capacity audiences. While dramatic and light opera companies were attracted to the Majestic, the Strand continued to specialize in vaudeville through 1927. After this, the Majestic sold out to Famous Players Corporation and the venue continued to support stage productions for another two years, the film company having other plans in mind for the space. Wrecking crews arrived in 1929 to begin demolishing the building to make way for the new Capitol, a movie palace typical of those built in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. The Garrick Repertory Theatre, under the direction of J.M. O’Connell for a good many years, replaced the Strand around that time, largely as an attempt to fill the need for what had disappeared with the demolotion of the Majestic. This left the Garrick, future site of Neptune Theatre, as Halifax’s only surviving live theatre.
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