Kingsway Theatre

I was an usher at the Kingsway back in the early to mid ‘70s when it was still operated by the Famous Players theatre chain. I made $1.15 an hour, I think, paid in cash and coin in these little brown paper envelopes. I think I got an extra buck a week because I was the one who would scramble outside and change the heavy metal letters on the marquee each Thursday night. I was a grade nine or ten high school student at nearby Michael Power at the time.
I believe the Kingsway opened around 1939 or 1940, just as that west end neighborhood was being established.
Pretty sure the theatre had closer to 700 seats. I used to have to go around and tighted each one of the wooden arm rests with pliers. If the film being shown was in cinemascope, ushers had to adjust the matte curtains on either side of the screen by lining up two pieces of tape on the cables.
There was also a glassed in crying room up in a tiny balconey to the west of the projector booth that probably hasn’t been used since the '50s. Sat about 20.
The staff change rooms were in this dingy half basement under the main foyer. We used to have to put on these tiny black bow ties and sorta white shirts that hadn’t been cleaned since the 3-D craze. The creepy assistant manager used to like to go down there and watch everyone change.
I remember A Tough Of Class with George Segal and Glenda Jackson ran for six straight weeks there one summer. All those Bruce Lee Kung Fu films, too.
The manager was a magician who used to reach into the sand in the large, pedestal ash trays and conjure up coins. The lady who worked the glassed in ticket booth out front wouldn’t take the nearby subway to work because she was convinced the communists would get her there. The babe who worked the candy counter used to spray Love’s Fresh Lemon perfume all over herself and the popcorn each night. What a place.