Now known as the Ed Mirvish Theatre, when the Art Deco structure opened on Yonge Street in 1920, it was called the Pantages Theatre. The building was designed by renowned theatre architect Thomas W. Lamb, responsible for the building that now houses the Boston Opera House, and the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres. It was the biggest movie theatre in Canada at the time, with 3,373 seats.
While it operated successfully with a combination of vaudeville and movie screenings for about a decade, its next turn of fate would come in the form of a sex scandal.