My wife Kathy acquired two very interesting photographs recently. Dated 1943, they depict a large Quonset-style structure that appears to be roughly 12 meters wide by 35 metres long. Across the front is assembled a large signage display proclaiming “Canadian Premiere of/Irving Berlin’s/ This the Army/produced by Warner Brothers/Whitehorse Yukon.”
The film stars George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Kate Smith, boxing heavyweight champion Joe Louis, and a future president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Flanking either side of the front of the building are stylized totem poles featuring the faces of the stars of the film.
I did some research into the production of this film, and it was no lightweight project. “This is the Army” was a musical comedy produced by Jack Warner and Hal Wallis. The movie, based upon a stage musical was designed as a morale-booster for the war effort. Both Warner and Wallis donated their salaries for the film to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.
The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, although it won only a single Oscar, Ray Heindorf, for best musical score. The film was a big hit financially, and was the highest grossing musical film of its time, earning $10 million. The funds were turned over to the Army Relief Fund. It remained the biggest earning motion picture of its type until it was surpassed by the Bing Crosby film, “White Christmas,” which came out in 1954.
So why did such a prominent film open in such remote place as Whitehorse? It wasn’t easy. The building was erected by the Metcalfe-Hamilton-Kansas City Bridge Company, at their camp at Macrae, during the wartime construction of the Alaska Highway. The highway, which was opened as a strategic wilderness road within nine months of the start of construction, was a big deal, requiring thousands of soldiers and contract labour to complete the job.
A construction project of this size would have created a tremendous amount of interest in the north, and the launch of such a film on the Alaska Highway project would have provided a positive spin for the military. There was much publicity around the preparations for the screening. On September 17, 1943, a special convoy consisting of three high-speed trucks left Edmonton, headed for Whitehorse bearing “standard-sized motion picture projection machines and sound equipment,” courtesy of Famous Players Corporation. The transportation was facilitated by the Northwest division, Corps of U.S. Army Engineers.
To ensure safe delivery of the equipment for the premiere on September 21, the convoy that left Edmonton included an expediter and two shifts of drivers. Fortunately, the convoy reached Whitehorse in record time.
More than 500 people crowded into the Tita theatre (short for This is the Army) for the opening night, including such dignitaries as Brigadier-General James A. O’Connor and other high-ranking military personnel, as well as J. Frank Willis of the CBC and representatives of Famous Players and Warner Brothers. Cameraman Ross Beesley was flown in from Montreal to record the event for “the news-reels of the world.”
Famous movie stars and Robert Service were originally planned to attend, but they did not. Instead, Service recorded an address made in Vancouver, to be broadcast over the network.
Such an event would not have been possible a few short months before. Whitehorse had been a sleepy little town with a few hundred residents until it was inundated by thousands of military personnel after the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands – the only enemy incursion onto American soil during the war.
Overnight, Whitehorse was swamped by people in numbers it was not equipped to handle. Long line-ups occurred at the local liquor store, and similar queues could be seen outside the local theatres. Before the war, I learned, the North Star Athletic Association building, located where the federal building stands today, had a theatre in which it showed films as early as 1933. The White Horse Theatre (or simply, the W.H. Theatre) was constructed on the Southwest corner of Main Street and Second Avenue, (where a Starbuck’s was located until recently), by J.R. Alguire, and opened on June 5, 1937.
The interior was described as decorated in a light blue colour with decorative wall sconces. The sound equipment produced a “clear and true tone.” Audrey Ryder and “Goodie” Erickson the usherettes, were dressed in blue uniforms with red trim, and directed patrons to the comfortable interior seating.
A second theatre (The Capitol) was constructed in 1943 a block farther up the street on the southwest corner of Main Street and Third Avenue. Soldiers were eager to get in to see the latest films. Aside from liquor, movies were one of the few diversions to entertain the soldiers flooding the community.
I attended a screening of a movie in the old Capitol Theatre in June of 1972, The film was, I recall, titled Tora!Tora!Tora!, although advertisements I found recently advertised the movie at the Yukon Theatre, not the Capitol .
The old W.H. Theatre was finally closed at the end of May 1953, and the new Yukon Theatre was opened a year and a half later, December 3, 1954. The owner, Sam McClimon had operated the W.H. Theatre since 1941. In 1946, McClimon had acquired a half interest in the Capitol Theatre, but he soon realized there was a need for a modern cinema in Whitehorse. The Yukon Theatre could seat 464 patrons. It had a fully-equipped curved candy bar, modern washrooms upstairs and a roomy lobby. The projectors were capable of screening Cinemascope and Vistavision and the sound system was top-notch.
Over the years, my wife, daughter and I saw many films in the Yukon Theatre, including Titanic, and the Harry Potter series. The Yukon theatre, along with its sister, the Kwanlin theatre, were acquired by Landmark Cinemas. Aside from a few minor upgrades, the Yukon Theatre saw a gradual decline. The theatre was shut down during the COVID pandemic in 2020, and the Yukon Film Society has since reopened and renovated the building.
The Yukon Theatre has been given a new lease on life, with various technical upgrades, an exterior facelift, and the neon sign that once again glows brightly over the entrance.
And the theatre built at Macrae? It was supposed to be used for other films. Following the gala opening in 1943, it was scheduled to screen “Heaven Can Wait” the following weekend. But I found little evidence that this theatre was used for very long, despite pronouncements that “it is destined to become a centre of attraction for years to come.”
If anybody can remember anything about the theatre at Macrae, or any of the early theatres in downtown Whitehorse, I’d love to hear your stories.
Michael Gates was the Yukon’s first Story Laureate from 2020 to 2023. His latest book, “Hollywood in the Klondike,” is now available in Whitehorse stores. You can contact him at msgates@northwestel.net
