Now playing at the Capitol Theatre, a double bill: The Girl from God’s Country, with adventurous filmmaker Nell Shipman, plus the story of how Peterborough almost got itself an auto manufacturer.

A mixed bag of images from the early life of the Paramount Theatre.

In 1955 the U.S. trade magazine Motion Picture Herald had a couple of images of the Paramount Theatre candy bar. It praised the manager, Arthur Cauley, for his promotional initiative, but did not give the names of the women staffers in the photos.

For over a hundred and thirty years, Peterborough’s Jackson Park has been the scene of leisurely wooded walks, picnics, band concerts, skating, tobogganing — and, at one time, motion pictures. Here’s a look back at one of our favourite places.

How an audience boom in the war years of the 1940s led to a burst of theatre-building, changing the face of downtown Peterborough for decades.

A tour of the Capitol Theatre as it was in October 1947 — the lobby, the mezzanine, the auditorium, and more — with official photos that the Ontario government requested for insurance purposes.

On Wednesday June 12, 1940, members of the Peterborough Garrison marched to the Capitol Theatre for a screening of the British film For Freedom. A Roy Studio photographer caught them on camera.

The corner of Hunter and Water streets in 1906 — and a poster with a coming attraction to the Grand Opera House: the “Original Sevengala” and Telepathy: now what was that all about?

What was popular — and not popular in town during the Depression.

How Maple Leafs icon Ace Bailey got his first pro contract in a Peterborough movie theatre.

A rare account of going to a moving picture show in Peterborough in 1921.

Sometimes historical research can lead an unsuspecting practitioner into surprising territory. . . . This story begins with the name "Truax."

On Saturday, Feb. 24, 1928, a couple of young Peterborough boys went to the Grand Opera House to see one of the “big” movies of the time: Wings.

The Royal Theatre, with this dazzling front entrance, opened just before Christmas in 1908.

The now-tawdry theatre façade with its plastering of posters had lost a good deal of its original lustre over the years.

The Empire Theatre was established by veterinarian Fred Robinson towards the end of July 1914, just before the beginning of the First World War.

The doors are shut, but the sign still promises “Pictures and Music That Excell.”