BABINEAU, JOSEPH LOUIS DE GONZAGUE (1890-1973)

BABINEAU, JOSEPH LOUIS DE GONZAGUE, movie theater proprietor; b. St Louis de Kent, N.B., 18 Apr 1890, s/o Urbain ("Reuben") Babineau and Marie Leblanc; m. 1918, Mary McLaughlin, of Buctouche, N.B.; d. Chatham, 12 Jan 1973.

J. Louis De Gonzague ("L. G.") Babineau came to Chatham as a child when his parents acquired the former Francis Peabody stone house and opened the Babineau Hotel. His parents stayed in the hotel business until around 1913, when they took over management of the Palace Theatre movie house in Chatham.

When his father died in 1918 Babineau assumed responsibility for the theater. In 1920 he was also licensed to conduct the Lyric Theatre in Loggieville, in which movies were shown two nights weekly. In 1936 the Palace Theatre was destroyed by fire. It was not replaced as such, but was superseded by the new Capitol Theater, which was opened soon afterward and was one of the best-equipped movie houses in the province. Babineau was also manager of the Capitol, in which the Maritime Film Co. held the controlling interest. He continued in the theater business for the rest of his life, with his wife, Mary McLaughlin, as his assistant. A talented pianist, and the organist for some years at St Michael's Church, she died in 1972. Their survivors were a son, Dr Maurice Babineau, of St Lambert, Que., and a daughter.