Death Of A Cinema
Sad news here in the leafy loopy lefty environs of Upper Parkdale. The Revue, which dates back to 1911 as a moving picture house on the corner of Howard Park and Roncesvalles Avenues, is closing its doors on June 30. Two other rep cinemas in the west end will also be closing.
I've lived within a 5-minute walk of The Revue for seven years, and it's been like my living room. I've often popped in to see whatever film was playing just because I needed to zone out of the real world for a while. A lot of people feel weird going to a film by themselves, but not at The Revue, where sometimes a quarter of the people at any given film went stag. Or they just happened to meet up with a neighbour at the movie house.
The Revue was also a very generous force in the community, hosting afternoon movies at reduced rates for new parents with their infants. I was on the board of a local community literacy program for a couple of years recently, and The Revue's managers always came through with plenty of gift certificates when we needed door prizes for events.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Jane Jacobs' unspoken impact on my neighbourhood, citing The Revue as one local institution I enjoy that probably wouldn't be here if the antiseptic planning gurus and their developer friends of the 1960s and 70s had their way. It raises the hair on the back of my neck seeing both die within three months of each other.
When I moved into the neighbourhood in 1998, there were four cinemas nearby: The Revue and The Royal (another rep cinema near College and Clinton Streets also closing in June), and two first-run cinemas in Bloor West Village with two screens each, all within walking distance. As of July 1, there will be no movie theatres easily accessible on the hoof. The Runnymede, one of the first-runs that closed about six years ago was turned into a Chapters store.
The closest first-run theatre is the egrigiously obnoxious house of horrors and teenage B.O. called The Paramount in the Queen Street tourist zone. The closest rep cinema is The Paradise, a four-stop subway haul.
And this is frickin' Toronto for god sake. I demand the conveniences I'm entitled to in the centre of the frickin' universe.
Kidding aside, I really loved the fact that I could go years without plopping down $12.95 to enter a schizo corporate popcorn barn and still be fairly up-to-date on the latest films, minus the six weeks it took them to trickle down to the rep circuit.
I don't know what shape The Revue will take from here. The local gossip has it turning into a Dollarama or some such discount store. Cheap toothpaste does not a real neighbourhood make.
I've lived within a 5-minute walk of The Revue for seven years, and it's been like my living room. I've often popped in to see whatever film was playing just because I needed to zone out of the real world for a while. A lot of people feel weird going to a film by themselves, but not at The Revue, where sometimes a quarter of the people at any given film went stag. Or they just happened to meet up with a neighbour at the movie house.
The Revue was also a very generous force in the community, hosting afternoon movies at reduced rates for new parents with their infants. I was on the board of a local community literacy program for a couple of years recently, and The Revue's managers always came through with plenty of gift certificates when we needed door prizes for events.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Jane Jacobs' unspoken impact on my neighbourhood, citing The Revue as one local institution I enjoy that probably wouldn't be here if the antiseptic planning gurus and their developer friends of the 1960s and 70s had their way. It raises the hair on the back of my neck seeing both die within three months of each other.
When I moved into the neighbourhood in 1998, there were four cinemas nearby: The Revue and The Royal (another rep cinema near College and Clinton Streets also closing in June), and two first-run cinemas in Bloor West Village with two screens each, all within walking distance. As of July 1, there will be no movie theatres easily accessible on the hoof. The Runnymede, one of the first-runs that closed about six years ago was turned into a Chapters store.
The closest first-run theatre is the egrigiously obnoxious house of horrors and teenage B.O. called The Paramount in the Queen Street tourist zone. The closest rep cinema is The Paradise, a four-stop subway haul.
And this is frickin' Toronto for god sake. I demand the conveniences I'm entitled to in the centre of the frickin' universe.
Kidding aside, I really loved the fact that I could go years without plopping down $12.95 to enter a schizo corporate popcorn barn and still be fairly up-to-date on the latest films, minus the six weeks it took them to trickle down to the rep circuit.
I don't know what shape The Revue will take from here. The local gossip has it turning into a Dollarama or some such discount store. Cheap toothpaste does not a real neighbourhood make.
posted by Raymaker at 9:34 AM
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