Tweet "Mystery" in the Zoo - Imperial Theatre, Saint John NB

Interesting that the pre-code chiller Murders in the Zoo (1933) gets a name change on this marquee at Saint John, New Brunswick's Imperial Theatre. Saint John has always been a conservative town, maybe the word "murder" was too lurid to put up in lights.





Thankfully for Maritimers, the theatre still stands, I'm heading that way for a solo show by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on Saturday. Saint John is my mom's home town (also home to Louis B. Mayer, Walter Pidgeon and Donald Sutherland), and it'll be a treat to finally see a show in this lovingly restored venue. When I was a kid, the place was used as a church by the "Full Gospel Assembly" and I was bummed I couldn't see shows there, although there were two other movie theatres on the same square. My grandmother and great aunts told me stories about some of the acts they saw there, including the First World War musical comedy troupe the Dumbells. Supposedly Houdini and Jolson also appeared there, but I haven't seen any proof of that.

(Note: the Imperial became the Capitol when it was purchased by Famous Players in 1929, but these days they have gone back to calling it the Imperial because another former movie house in nearby Moncton, now a live performance venue, is also called the Capitol. Sadly, the Capitol Theatre where I live in Halifax was bulldozed in the early '70s to build a hideous office tower.)