Norman Tanner - 16 Jun. 1977 | Ontario Jewish Archives

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Biography: Norman Tanner was born in 1898 in New York City's east side to possibly Austrian parents, last name Tannenbaum. He had an older sister Ida who died c. 1976 and a younger sister, name unknown. He married his first wife c. 1920 and his second wife in 1954. He had at least one child, a daughter named Molly. He moved with his family from New York City to Toronto, Ontario around 1905-1906. He also lived briefly in Oshawa and then Copper Cliff sometime during the First World War. He started attending school in Toronto around 1905-1906 and left when he was still young, possibly 11-13 years old. Tanner worked as a film projectionist for approximately 50 years. He apprenticed under projectionist Leonard Carlisle (sp?) at the Crystal Palace Theatre in Toronto for 2-3 years starting in 1916. He got his projectionists licence in 1917 and shortly afterwards joined a union (probably IATSE). He has worked at more than a dozen theatres in Toronto including the Red Mill, the Temple Theatre, the Colonial Theatre, the Christie Theatre, the York Theatre, the Princess Theatre, and Shea's Hippodrome. He ran some of the first "talkies" to come to Canada and at Shea's Hippodrome he also worked the spotlight for celebrities such as Irving Berlin and Eddie Fisher. He worked at the the Uptown theatre from c. 1940 to 1954 when he had a heart attack and subsequently retired.

Norman Tanner - 16 Jun. 1977