Ouimet, Léo-Ernest National Historic Person
Montréal, Quebec
Léo-Ernest Ouimet (1877-1972)
© Archives de la Ville de Montréal, BM1-11_11op-1906-1-1
Address :
335 de Maisonneuve Boulevard East, Montréal, Quebec
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
2018-07-31
Life Date:
1877 to 1972
Dates:
-
1877 to 1972
(Significant)
Other Name(s):
-
Ouimet, Léo-Ernest
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
2017-20; 2016-08
Importance:
An important pioneer in the cinema industry in Canada as a movie theatre operator, film distributor, filmmaker, producer and inventor.
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: 335 de Maisonneuve Boulevard East, Montréal, Quebec
Film producer and distributor Léo-Ernest Ouimet helped lay the foundations for the Canadian film industry. He worked as an electrician and projectionist before founding a film distribution company, considered to be the first in Canada, which expanded to have branches in several provinces. The luxurious Ouimetoscope, which he opened in Montréal in 1907, was among the first large theatres specifically designed for the showing of motion pictures. Ouimet was a tireless innovator, who also developed a subtitle projector, experimented with three-dimensional projections, and produced some of the earliest Canadian newsreels.