history
The history of Boomer.
The Roxy Theatre Revelstoke's mascot is Boomer! Loud, proud, and always the film buff. Boomer is a mash-up of a vintage cinema machine and an avalanche cannon. Boomer loves movies and if you look around the website, Boomer has made some recommendations that you are sure to love. Next time you are at the theatre grab one of our new stickers featuring Boomer.
It all started the week before Christmas, 1938.
A near-disastrous fire had destroyed the building of the local Provincial Theatre, miraculously sparing its expensive projection equipment. With the equipment intact, but no movie house in which to use it, plans went ahead to convert the Lawrence Hardware building into Revelstoke’s newest cinema.
Amid a last-minute, round-the-clock flurry installing seats procured from England, which had traveled by ship through the Panama Canal, the new theatre opened on December 22, 1938.
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The excitement in Revelstoke was palpable. The mayor spoke at the theatre’s opening night, a midnight matinee on Christmas day drew an enormous crowd, and the theatre became a focal point for celebrating the holiday season.
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A contest to decide the theatre’s name was held in February 1939. The name Avolie was chosen from more than 150 submissions. It may or may not be a coincidence that the winning submission was inspired by the name of the theatre manager’s wife, Olive.
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Many years of movie-going bliss passed in Revelstoke. In 1959, under new ownership, the theatre’s name changed once more. It became The Roxy.