Ambrose Small
Encyclopedia
Ambrose Joseph Small was a Canadian theatre
magnate, who owned theatres in several Ontario
cities including the Grand Opera House
in Toronto, the Grand Opera House
in Kingston, and the Grand Theatre
in London, Ontario
. More notably, he is a famous Canadian missing person
. He disappeared on 2 December 1919 and his body was never recovered. He was 56 years old. It is alleged that Small's wife and her lover killed Small and cremated his body in the London Ontario Grand Opera theater furnace (one of Small's holdings). It is further alleged that a police inspector was involved in a "cover-up" of Small's disappearance {See links below}.
Small appears as a major character in the Michael Ondaatje
novel In the Skin of a Lion
. The events concerning him in the novel after his disappearance are fictitious.
On December 1, 1919, Ambrose Small sold all his theatrical holdings, at a profit of $1.7 million CAD
. On December 2, Small met with lawyer F. W. M. Flock in Small's office at the Grand Opera House
. Flock left at 5:30 p.m. and was the last person to see Small alive.
That night, Small disappeared from his office
. No one who testified for the police claims to have seen him leave his office, or in the Adelaide
and Yonge Street
area, outside the building. A newsstand operator, Ralph Savein claimed to have seen Small buying a paper at his stand; however, this claim was later repudiated by the police, who considered it to be an attempt by Savein to garner fame from the case.
Small had no motive to disappear: the millionaire
did not take money with him, nor was there any ransom
note, let alone evidence of kidnapping. At fifty-six years old, Small owned theatres in seven Ontario cities and was the controller of sixty-two other buildings, a self-made millionaire at the height of his career.
The week of his disappearance, Small's Opera House was playing Revelations of a Wife, a show that reportedly attracted full houses. Police analyzed the plot and its themes, but found no leads; Small had not chosen this play to provide cryptic hints.
Theresa Small, his wife, suggested that Small had fallen into the hands of a "designing woman"; police found no candidates.
Along with his office, "Amby" had a "private secret room", with its own entrance. The room is said to have been for assignations and the settling of gambling
debts. The room was scoured for leads, albeit unsuccessfully.
reporters contacted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about the case, when the author was on a New York
visit. Doyle showed interest in the case, bringing the headline "World's Greatest Detective
to Solve Small Case". In the end, Doyle decided not to pursue the case.
got involved with the case, contacting him or his spirit. They offered a diverse lot of largely improbable reasons for his disappearance. Among their explanations:
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
magnate, who owned theatres in several Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
cities including the Grand Opera House
Grand Opera House (Toronto)
The Grand Opera House was an opera house and concert hall located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Opened in 1874 on Adelaide Street West, west of Yonge Street, the Grand Opera House was Toronto's premier concert hall during the late 19th century...
in Toronto, the Grand Opera House
The Grand Theatre (Kingston)
The Grand Theatre is a historic Canadian theatre located in Kingston, Ontario and is currently one of that city's major performing arts venues. It has been the home of the Kingston Symphony since 1964. The main theatre seats 776 people, and has a proscenium stage and an orchestra pit...
in Kingston, and the Grand Theatre
Grand Theatre, Ontario
The Grand Theatre is a professional theatre located at 471 Richmond Street just south of Dufferin Avenue in London, Ontario, Canada.Its main auditorium has a seating capacity of 839 with a regular season running from September to May...
in London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
. More notably, he is a famous Canadian missing person
Missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
. He disappeared on 2 December 1919 and his body was never recovered. He was 56 years old. It is alleged that Small's wife and her lover killed Small and cremated his body in the London Ontario Grand Opera theater furnace (one of Small's holdings). It is further alleged that a police inspector was involved in a "cover-up" of Small's disappearance {See links below}.
Small appears as a major character in the Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
novel In the Skin of a Lion
In the Skin of a Lion
In the Skin of a Lion is a novel by Canadian/Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje. It was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart. The novel fictionalises the lives of the immigrants whose contributions to building Toronto in the early 1900s never became part of the city's official history...
. The events concerning him in the novel after his disappearance are fictitious.
The disappearance
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
. On December 2, Small met with lawyer F. W. M. Flock in Small's office at the Grand Opera House
Grand Opera House (Toronto)
The Grand Opera House was an opera house and concert hall located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Opened in 1874 on Adelaide Street West, west of Yonge Street, the Grand Opera House was Toronto's premier concert hall during the late 19th century...
. Flock left at 5:30 p.m. and was the last person to see Small alive.
That night, Small disappeared from his office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
. No one who testified for the police claims to have seen him leave his office, or in the Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
area, outside the building. A newsstand operator, Ralph Savein claimed to have seen Small buying a paper at his stand; however, this claim was later repudiated by the police, who considered it to be an attempt by Savein to garner fame from the case.
Small had no motive to disappear: the millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
did not take money with him, nor was there any ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
note, let alone evidence of kidnapping. At fifty-six years old, Small owned theatres in seven Ontario cities and was the controller of sixty-two other buildings, a self-made millionaire at the height of his career.
Original leads
The police launched an extensive investigation on the disappearance of Ambrose Small. The case remained unsolved, until being officially closed in 1960.The week of his disappearance, Small's Opera House was playing Revelations of a Wife, a show that reportedly attracted full houses. Police analyzed the plot and its themes, but found no leads; Small had not chosen this play to provide cryptic hints.
Theresa Small, his wife, suggested that Small had fallen into the hands of a "designing woman"; police found no candidates.
Along with his office, "Amby" had a "private secret room", with its own entrance. The room is said to have been for assignations and the settling of gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
debts. The room was scoured for leads, albeit unsuccessfully.
Holmes to solve case
TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
reporters contacted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about the case, when the author was on a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
visit. Doyle showed interest in the case, bringing the headline "World's Greatest Detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
to Solve Small Case". In the end, Doyle decided not to pursue the case.
Use of mystics
Spirit mediumsMediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
got involved with the case, contacting him or his spirit. They offered a diverse lot of largely improbable reasons for his disappearance. Among their explanations:
- was a victim of amnesiaAmnesiaAmnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
; this would not explain how he got out of his office, and the lack of any early stage of this malady until then. - had started his life over again in a foreign country; why then would he have not taken the money from his theatre sales, and why would he pursue this, when his career showed no visible or financial weaknesses?
- was abducted by his private secretarySecretaryA secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
; His secretary, John Doughty, did steal $100 000 in bonds from Small after his disappearance but he was caught. - he was murdered by gamblers; again, they'd want the money before they killed him, and would have to be quite odd to kill him until he complied.
- he was murdered by gangsters; again, they'd want the money before they killed him.
- was burning or burnt in a house in MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
; this was according to psychic Max A. Langsner of Vienna, who used "thought waves" to "solve" the case in 1928. However, if anyone were to burn the remains of Small's body, why would they wait until nine years later to do so? - He was chased down a set of stairs by a man younger than him, shot in the back, killed, and was buried underneath an oak tree within walking distance of the theatre.
Other contact stories
- Magician Harry Blackstone, Sr.Harry Blackstone, Sr.Harry Blackstone was a famed stage magician and illusionist of the 20th century. Blackstone was born Harry Bouton in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career as a magician in his teens and was popular through World War II as a USO entertainer. He was often billed as The Great Blackstone. His son...
signed an affidavit reading "On April 8th, 1920, I saw Amby playing roulette in a gambling casino in Juarez, MexicoCiudad JuárezCiudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
." - Small kidnapped and held, alive, in the lime-kilns near Brampton, OntarioBrampton, OntarioBrampton is the third-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada and the seat of Peel Region. As of the 2006 census, Brampton's population stood at 433,806, making it the 11th largest city in Canada. It is also one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, with an average...
- A man in Wisconsin phoned the police, claiming he was Small. Instead, he was an escaped psychiatric patient.
Hauntings
- Legend has it that the ghost of Ambrose Small haunts the Grand TheatreGrand Theatre, OntarioThe Grand Theatre is a professional theatre located at 471 Richmond Street just south of Dufferin Avenue in London, Ontario, Canada.Its main auditorium has a seating capacity of 839 with a regular season running from September to May...
in London, OntarioLondon, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, and the Tivoli Theatre in Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
. - Small's London hauntings seem to coincide with plays related to death or murder.