Prince Arthur Hotel
The Prince Arthur Hotel is a historic hotel in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), long a venue for civic dinners and gala events in the Lakehead.
In 1908, J.J. Carrick convinced the Canadian Northern Railway to build the Prince Arthur Hotel, over a poker game on a train from Winnipeg. CN paid Carrick $850,000 to have him build the hotel; the city provided the lot; this hotel is also the first place in Canada to sell the Remembrance Day poppies [6] [1]
Following the world premiere of The Incredible Journey on 4 November 1963, the hotel hosted the reception for the visiting dignitaries — the special guests who had been flown in from Toronto and met at the Lakehead airport that morning. The premiere screening itself was held at the Odeon Theatre and Paramount Theatre; the Prince Arthur Hotel was the site of the after-party, not of the film showing.[1]
In 1968 the hotel hosted the kick-off dinner for the Port Arthur–Fort William Kiwanis Club Easter Seals campaign, at which the year's "Timmy," G.G. Niemi, met the mayors of both cities.[2]
References
- ↑ "Incredible Journey: World Premiere Here on Monday", Port Arthur News-Chronicle, 2 November 1963, p. 1.
- ↑ G.G. Niemi, "My Hip Parade", Medium, 2020.