A second look at the screen area of the Old Capitol. This time with the main curtain opened exposing the stage and screen. Charlie told me the only lighting he used was the existing theatre lighting. This included the Auditorium, Stage, Proscenium Arch lights and the Cleaning Lights. Charlie also turned on the Spot Light from the Booth.

Live performances were held at the Capitol. A curtain just visible behind the main curtain closed across the screen to cover it when the performers were on stage. The Proscenium Arch was designed by Bill Landry. B&L used his design in other theatres they built later. The Imperial Theatre in Windsor, Nova Scotia is supposed to be of similar design to the Old Capitol. Sharp eyes will see the piano to the left of the stage on the floor.

Note the screen size. 1.33:1. The ratio of screen width to height. The same ratio that would be found in all the theatres before the advent of "CinemaScope" 2.35:1 in 1953 & "VistaVision" 1.85:1 in 1954. What is meant by the ratio is for every screen foot in height, the screen is so many feet wide. For example, in CinemaScope, for every foot in height, the screen is 2.35 feet in width. In other words, when I was at the New Capitol, the CinemaScope screen size was 14' high and 32'9"wide.

Charlie said when CinemaScope came to the Old Capitol, B&L didn't install a new screen with the correct dimensions. Instead B&L put a piece of movable masking at the bottom of the original screen, that raised up over the screen. Charlie had to manually raise up this bit of masking so you can only imagine how tiny the CinemaScope screen would be, as Charlie said the CinemaScope picture was at the proper ratio of 2.35:1. Masking is the black felt like cloth that is around the edges of the screen to give the picture a sharp edge.

My Mum went to see Hank Snow perform in the Old Capitol. Everytime Hank Snow got up to start singing the University Students would boo and jeer him. But when the accompanying group started to sing, the University crowd was quiet. Mum said after the third time Hank Snow tried to sing, and the University Students started to boo him again, he told the University crowd they may be in school learning an education, but they nevered learned anything about common courtesy. Good on Hank Snow for putting the University Students in their place. Mum said after Hank Snow had his say and started to sing, there wasn't a peep out of the University Crowd.

Mum said the very first show she ever saw in the Old Capitol was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Mum went to see it at the Saturday Matinee with her Best Friend in the Brierly Brook, Isabel Campbell. Mum said she and Isabel walked in from the "Back Road" where the Campbell's lived to the Capitol. The thing Mum remembered most about the Matinee was seeing a "Short Subject" on the 'Dionne Quintuplets'. Mum also liked the movie.

Another movie Mum saw in the Old Capitol, was "Random Harvest" She went with my Gram and my Aunt Edith. Mum was always a big fan of "Greer Garson"& "Ronald Colman". But one of her all time favorites was "Mrs Miniver" with "Greer Garson" & "Walter Pidgeon". In later years I rented the film on video for Mum and while we were watching it, the scene came up where Greer Garson finds the German Pilot in her garden. When the German pilot opened his eye, Mum said everyone in the Old Capitol, jumped in their seat.

Mum said when the scene at the end of the movie with the planes flying over the bombed out church with services going on came on, it made you really think about what was going on in Europe at the time. The War was on and Mum said it made you feel good about maybe the Allies might win the war. At the time of Mrs Miniver, it looked like nothing was going to put a stop to the Nazi's.

Mum said the ironic thing that happened after Mrs Miniver was over and folks were leaving the Old Capitol, was Antigonish was having a practice Air Raid. The whole town was black. Not a light was burning except for the search lights in the sky. Mum said this was how scary it was during the early part of War Years, with the possibility of the Germans making it over here.