Metropolitan Entertainment Centre

Except for a few inaccuracies in the copy it’s quite good. Also, one photo claims to show the interior of the theatre when it was still in operation, but it is of the Walker (Burton Cummings) Theatre during its Odeon years and not the interior of the Met at all. Besides the major alteration to the lobby and entrance area in the late 40’s, an earlier reworking of the stage area had been done. (compare early photos of the interior when it was the Allen to more recent photos). No photos seem to exist from the peak Famous Players years before they ripped all the silk damask coverings off the auditorium walls and painted it in those horrendous colors. (not the
first theatre to be massacred by FP). It was at that point that the Met lost most of it’s former grandeur.
I still reserve judgment on the future use of the theatre, at least until more information is released by the new owner. I still don’t see the point in their proposal for a rock and roll museum when a national r'n'r museum is supposedly in the works elsewhere.

The boards are off the windows, there has been some tours from the local media.

part of me does strongly agree. i would like to see the met restored to her original appearance and use, rather than sit and rot as she has all these years. this could have been done already, but no one did it. now there is a new owner and of course they have their own agenda. at least what they propose is still under the heading of entertainment, in the broad sense. and they will go ahead with their project unless they can be convinced to do what you’ve proposed. and i think the only way that could happen would be to present a petition with many mnay signatures, saying the public wants the met as a venue for movies&concerts. this could be done, if somebody really has the chutzpah to do it. but it would have to be done soon!

**changed my name to garro

Here is a link to all article’s relateing the the Met take over from the Free press.

View link

yes, i did see those pix, ken, and thank you. my compliments on your work. it’ll be great as well, if they’ll let you in, to take some more pix, before the work by the new owner starts. i’d love to see how the auditorium, lobby, and concession area, as well as other areas, look now. though i realize it’s probably not they way we remember, &could be quite saddenning. but would like to see anyway. is it known if they removed all the beautiful chandeleirs that were in the auditorium? anyway, ken, thanks a lot for note-g.

The boards were off the theatre for the filming of the movie
“The Horseman”. When I looked through the windows and door, everything looked as it did in ‘99, aside from all the
filming equipment. Since, the Met has been re-boarded and has
returned to it’s former quiet state. I work near to theatre
and always keep on eye on any activity going on there. Currently,
there is no sign of any project going on there. I will keep you posted if and when I see the start of anything going on there.

An article in today’s Wpg Sun follows up the tv report saying that CanadInns has bought the Met for the seemingly bargain basement price of $100,000. However, the projected restoration/renovation costs are estimated to run around $10 million.

Ken: Hopefully you can complete your photo/documentation of the theatre before any renovations are carried out. Perhaps you can also find some hint of the original theatre organ chambers. A pipe organ was installed when it was built but no record has surfaced about it’s removal.

well, i guess this is good news, at least much better than having her sit&rot away. just hope they keep as much intact&they way it was, as possible.—are the boards still off, then? can you see through the windows-lobby, concession stand, staircase? is it possible to see, from the sidewalk? if yes, does it look about the same as we remember, from what can be seen? would be great if somebody can take a few pix, and post them on the site.

According to a CTV-tv news report this evening, Centre Venture has sold the Met to CanadInns. The way the report was worded is that it’s already a done deal. The report went on to say that CanadInns intends to create an entertainment complex out of the long closed theatre with a possible emphasis on rock ‘n’ roll in the mix. Since the theatre is listed as a heritage site one has to wonder what plans are included that will guarantee and preserve the heritage aspect.

By rights your comments about the Walker belong on that page. Possibly someone from the theatre’s management might see them and take heed. I’ll add one of my own though. I got the impression that the Walker operation is ‘winging it’ and they really don’t have their stuff together. That’s the impression I was left with when I was there.

I too was at the Walker Theatre 100th, and was very surprised at the production, i find the only thing missing, that i would have done was a short show of images from records or back room shots of any of the dressing rooms, basements, and just some of the stuff that people wouldn’t normally see, my only problem that night and depending on where one was sitting was when during intermission, i went to the washroom and found that the wait for the lower floor would have out lasted me, so i thought, maybe the upstairs are less crowded, sure enough they were and i got in with out much wait, the only blip on this was that no one told me that one had to have his ticket to return to my seat on the lower floor, well when i returned some “women” got into my face and refused my return when i informed her that it wasn’t told to me that i need my ticket to return and was not allowed to go and get my ticket which was left in my jacket i got a bit hot over this, like its not like im some 16 year old trying to sneak into a better seat and for the most part all the bottom seats were full, so i don’t know how she thought i was gona take someone else seat. well finely after raising my voice a bit she did find someone to take me to my seat to retrive my ticket and i made a bit of noise over this so people in that area knew i was pissed with this process. the guy did at the seat told me that he was fine with it but i insisted that i brought the ticket to the young lady, (and i use that term lighty) well haft way there i gave up and made my way back as the crowd was hard to move around in and i think i made my point, as for the other story for the night getting out of the parking lot across the street, the four floor one took 50 mins, never parking there again, and some kids in a car tried to sneak down the entrence part and my girlfriend took a strip off his back by yelling at him then another women in another car got into it with us,, well he ended up getting in about 5 cars behind us,, so it was intresting night to say the least.