Nat Taylor loved movies, and he also loved business. In 1918, when he was only 12 years old, Nat got his start in the film industry by selling postcards of movie stars to theatre owners in Toronto. His passion for the movie industry continued, and so did his entrepreneurial skills. In the thirties, Taylor started his own theatre circuit and quickly began acquiring more and more theatres.
The story of the multiplex began at the Elgin, an Ottawa theatre Taylor had bought in 1938. He later subdivided the building, creating the 'Little Elgin' to show art movies, and the 'Big Elgin' for first-run features. In 1957, Taylor faced a dilemma. He had been playing Alfred Hitchcock's Witness for the Prosecution for several weeks when David Lean's blockbuster, Bridge on the River Kwai came out. Rather than risk losing the new movie to his competitors, he moved Witness to the smaller theatre and screened the new one at the 'Big Elgin', thus creating the world's first dual theatre.
"Nobody in those days could conceive of the idea that you could put two films in one location," said Taylor. "It was a tremendous success." If two theatres in one place was good, wouldn't three be even better? So Taylor built the first movie triplex in Burnaby, BC. This was followed by a four-theatre complex in Mississauga, ON and a fiveplex a few years later. In 1979 Taylor's grand vision finally materialized with the opening of of the 18-screen Cineplex in Toronto's Eaton Centre. With the greatest number of screens in a single theatre, this Cineplex was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records.
The critics who predicted a speedy failure for 'Taylor's Folly' must be biting their tongues today!
Historica Minute Cast
| Taylor | David Calderisi | |
| office man | Scott Denton | |
| Madge | Suzanne Cyr | |
| Mrs. Smith | Sally Willis | |
| Mr. Smith | Wayne R. McNamara |
