Cherished green vinyl seat from Yellowknife 'social hub' evokes memories

A seat from the original movie theatre in Yellowknife fit with its faded green vinyl is now part of an exhibit at the city's museum.

"Making a Museum" is a collection of decades-old, day-to-day objects from across the Northwest Territories; from mysterious, fairy-like protective goggles to the chalice from the Lady of Good Hope church in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., from the 1800s.

Museum curators spent tenyears collecting dozens of items, some of which kindle long-ago memories.

"Allan Brown and I, we would go and hold hands in [the theatre's] double seats," said Sherry Holden, who grew up in Yellowknife.

"He was my boyfriend in Grade 4," Holden added, recalling her time at the original Capitol Theatre in Yellowknife.

'Aplace of real magic'

The theatre was originally located where the Scotiabank Centre is downtown on 51st Street. It opened in 1947 and soon became the "social hub" for the city, which, at the time, didn't have a road connecting it to the rest of Canada.

"That theatre was a very important part of the culture of Yellowknife," said Marc Horton, who was born in Yellowknife a year after the theatre opened.

"It was a gateway for a lot of people to sort of remove themselves from Yellowknife...for a couple hours."

Hortonsaidever since he was six years old, he's gone to three movies a weeka habit that began in Yellowknifeand led to work as a film critic in Edmonton.

"When I was a kid, [the Capitol Theatre]was a place of real magic," Horton said.

"I always thought it was just beautiful."

Many people remember the double seats at the old Capitol Theatre, where they'd cuddle up to their newest girlfriend or boyfriend; they remember the velvet curtains that slowly swayed open as the movie was about to start; or the sound of theemptyglass Coca-Cola bottles that kids rolled down the theatre's sloped floor.

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Sherry Holden recalls the Plexiglasrooms at the back of the theatre, equipped with a sound system to hear the movie. One was called "the cry room" for mothers and their babiesand the other one wasfor the smokers.

Holdensays whenever she showed up at Yellowknife'sCapitol Theatre in the 1960s"there'd be everybody you know."

'A prize possession'

Most of the original Capitol Theatre was demolished in 1978, but a portion of the building still remains in the city andnow sits in Old Town next to the government dock.

Karen-Maria Tratt, who used to live in Yellowknife, was given one of the seats from the theatre before it was torn down.

For years, she kept itas a lounging chair in her home, but after speaking with a historian in town, she decided to donate the seat to the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre.

"It really was a prize possession for her," said Ryan Silke, the museum's collections assistant, and the one who picked up the seat from Tratt's current home in Calgary.

"She was excited to see a home for [the seat], but also sad to see it leave as a functional chair in her life."

Silke posted a picture of the seat on Facebook and that's what forged the more than 100 comments retelling stories of the memorable theatre.

The seat, along with all the other artifacts in this collection, is now on displayat the museum in Yellowknife.