Famous Players Theatres

Background

Famous Players Canadian Corporation dates back to the early days of Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures), founded in 1912, as its earliest predecessor, though that company did not have any operations in Canada until 1920, when it bought Nathan Nathanson's Paramount Theatre chain, which Nathanson had established four years earlier. Nathanson, along with being the 5th richest person in the world, became the first president of the resulting entity, Famous Players Canadian Corporation Limited. In 1966, Famous Players and other Paramount properties were sold to Gulf+Western Industries, with the chain continuing as a subsidiary of Paramount and following that studio through the Paramount Communications and Viacom eras. On June 13, 2005, Cineplex Galaxy announced it was purchasing the Famous Players chain from Viacom, and had plans to build new locations with Cineplex Entertainment branding introduced later that year while keeping older Famous Players locations open. The deal was completed on July 22, 2005.

1st Logo (1954-1958)

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Visuals: A book page is displayed marking the status of an upcoming feature. Following this, the book is closed to reveal its front cover, which displays the Famous Players logo of the time (a maple leaf with the words "A FAMOUS PLAYERS THEATRE" written into the inner light gray ribbon shape). The snipe then either fades or cuts out.

Variants: Many, depending on the date and time in which an upcoming feature is scheduled to be screened.

• A colour version exists. Here, the book is placed on a different fabric background which is coloured crimson. The Famous Players logo is smaller, rotated more and is placed at the near-bottom-centre of the book, which now has a brown stripe on the bottom. The ribbon is now a live-action object, coloured crimson and extending so that it goes off the book's cover.

Technique: Live-action most of the time. The Monday coming attraction variant is still, while the Saturday coming attraction variant uses a fade effect with live-action.

Audio: It depends on the variant.

2nd Logo (1977-1987)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is a green shiny maple leaf facing up moving from the left. The logo then cuts to the top part of the leaf slowing spin from the right, then cuts to the maple leaf move from the left then fades to the logo moving in the opposite direction, and finally cuts to the leaf facing up moves forward and flips to face the front to the the middle of the screen. The text "FAMOUS PLAYERS" in yellow flips onto the maple leaf at the same time, making the maple leaf shine a bright green with the text "Another fine film now showing at this theatre" in yellow. The logo then cuts to black.

Variants: There's a coming attractions variant, which is the same but the text now says "Coming soon to a Famous Players theatre".

Technique: Live-action. According to the uploader of the YouTube video above, the leaf was an acrylic model made by their dad and the text was "optically added".

Audio: An orchestral fanfare that builds up to a 6-note fanfare.

3rd Logo (1987-1994)

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Visuals: The sequence starts by briefly flying across a aerial shot of the earth, which quickly descends into the inside of a series of clouds. A series of gray lines appears from within the clouds, which then zoom out as the clouds dissolve to reveal a sunset over the ocean. Eventually the gray lines zoom out far enough that they reveal themselves as being the Famous Players logo-a series of segmented lines which extend across most of the "FAMOUS PLAYERS" text before forming a maple leaf and a small rectangular border on the far right. Once the entire logo is visible, the smaller text "Coming Attractions" fades into place underneath the logo. The logo continues zooming out as the snipe eventually fades out.

Variants: A feature presentation variant likely exists, but has yet to be found.

Technique: Live-action and CGI.

Audio: A piano-based space jingle which segues into a triumphant brass fanfare.

4th Logo (1994-2001)

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Visuals: The sequence opens by fading into a space background complete with stars shining. Then one star near the centre of the screen lights up, and the words "BIG SCREEN" emerge from the star's light and zoom in across the screen before disappearing. Then the words "BIG SOUND" also emerge from the star and do the same. The text "FAMOUS PLAYERS" (in blue) then zooms out until reaching the centre of the screen. Then a much larger flash of light encompasses the entire screen, surrounding the text and releasing a small meteor shower. The same text as before-except a bit smaller-then flashes into place underneath the company name. The entire logo then fades out, though the music drags on a little bit longer.

Variants: A French version exists where the words "BIG SCREEN" and "BIG SOUND" are replaced with "ÉCRAN GÉANT" and "QUALITÉ DU SON".

Coming Attractions Variant: The sequence starts with the completed logo as before fading in. Then a star shines a light between the two lines of text, which start to move themselves above and below the star, respectively. The star then rotates itself upwards, gradually revealing itself to be the same logo from the 1987 trailer. Once the logo and text have re-centred themselves into place, a flash of light appears which changes the bottom text from "Big Screen Big Sound" to "Coming Attractions". A series of lights then shine from the maple leaf, along with two which flash from the left and right sides of the screen. The light quickly dims, and then the entire logo fades out.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A rather jarring percussion fanfare for the main trailer, and a synth sci-fi fanfare for the coming attractions variant.

5th Logo (2001-2005)

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  Coming Attractions Text

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  Feature Presentation Text

Visuals: A white flash of light bursts onto the screen, revealing a red background with a series of circles resembling speaker rings in the centre. From here, a barely visible series of rings slide out from the centre until disappearing as the red background shrinks to a small beam of light stretching across the middle of the screen with a white line drawn out across the light. The stereo rings reemerge and pan across the screen vertically while the line splits into a series of wavelengths which zoom out as the rings float back on screen with the speaker rings reformed behind them. The white line reappears to write out the text "Feature Presentation" in a slick, futuristic font as more rings float in behind the text. The text wipes out as the same Famous Players logo as before draws itself in on the top half of the screen. A circular white light shines across the logo before filling in the maple leaf. Four more light beams zoom in at the bottom to reveal the logos of Famous Players' various subsidiary labels (Famous Players Coliseum, Paramount, SilverCity and IMAX Colossus respectively) The trailer ends with all five logos sucked into the red light which then zaps itself off the screen as if it were a TV set turning off.

Coming Attractions Variant: The same trailer plays against a blue background, and the white line displays the text "Coming Attractions".

Technique: CGI by TOPIX FX.

Audio: Various laser-synth sound effects, with a short chime theme playing near the middle. For the Coming Attractions Variant, the chimes play at the beginning and at the end.

Famous Players Theatres

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