Metropolitan Entertainment Centre

281 Donald Street,
Winnipeg, MB R3C 5S4

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garr
garr on December 5, 2007 at 8:37 am

thanks a lot for the info, burning dust and sam! if you hear any more news, i’m all ears!-g

PGlenat
PGlenat on December 5, 2007 at 1:23 am

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.

burningdust
burningdust on December 4, 2007 at 9:47 pm

A huge thanks goes out to Ken for producing a video highlighting the efforts made by “Friends of the MET”, as well showcasing the theatre. This is probably the most comprehensive collection of media covering the Met I have seen so far!
Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN2V7N-OQAE

burningdust
burningdust on December 4, 2007 at 9:24 pm

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

garr
garr on August 23, 2007 at 12:39 am

hey all, since i don’t live in wpg., can someone tell me if they’ve started work on the theatre, or is it still the same? are the boards off the windows. can you get a clear view of the inside?

garr
garr on May 27, 2007 at 10:53 pm

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!

whitewolf2112
whitewolf2112 on May 27, 2007 at 4:02 pm

Imho, I think turning the Met into a “nightclub/rock museum” is a tremendous mistake. It’s wrong for so many reasons. Can you say “Hard Rock Cafe?” Why not just get a Hard Rock here then?

Personally, I believe the theatre should be restored to its former glory from an architectural standpoint and then utilized as a “dual-format” venue, presenting movies as well as concerts. (Not unlike the Capitol in Passaic, NJ was… only with regular films, not porn).
Like changing the name of the Walker Theatre (which I always will refer to her as), the identity of the theatre is lost forever for the upcoming generations.
CentreVenture’s mandate be damned… we need to SAVE THE MET! DON’T LET CANADINNS DESTROY IT!!!

Just my $0.03…

garr
garr on April 22, 2007 at 5:58 pm

**changed my name to garro

garr
garr on April 22, 2007 at 5:56 pm

thanks a lot for that, ken! really appreciate it-g

KenS
KenS on April 22, 2007 at 7:26 am

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

View link

garred
garred on April 21, 2007 at 9:22 pm

hey, would anyone be kind enough to post the article in the SUN on the site, about the recent sale of the met? and even any other published aticles? i’d really appreciate it. thanks in advance-g.

garred
garred on April 21, 2007 at 8:28 pm

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.

KenS
KenS on April 21, 2007 at 7:27 pm

just a note garred if you look up my post’s, you will find a link to a site to show you some pic’s of the met as well as the colony and capital, in case you havn’t notice the posting, ken :)

Donald
Donald on April 21, 2007 at 6:56 am

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.

garred
garred on April 20, 2007 at 5:24 am

yes, hope you can do it while before renovations start. would be nice to see hoe the lobby area and auditorium look, whether they resemble a lot, they way we remember.—since i’m not in wpg, and can’t go see, are the boards off, can anyhting be seen through the windows?

PGlenat
PGlenat on April 19, 2007 at 2:14 pm

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.

KenS
KenS on April 19, 2007 at 10:04 am

Well, its nice to see that someone stepped up to the rail and bought the MET, I’m hoping that many of the features are retained within reason, such as the hidden staircase, intact with all the writings on the wall, I am attempting to contact the company to inquire if i can perhaps get inside the Met and finished what I had done in photographing the upper reaches of the place and the hidden areas that I missed the first time around, and offer them all the photos in consideration for this opportunity. I will let you know how this plays out.

garred
garred on April 19, 2007 at 4:26 am

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.

burningdust
burningdust on April 17, 2007 at 6:14 pm

It’s a mixed bag as far as I’m concerned; Kudo’s to Canad; they definitely have the cash to get the “required” work done to the building. (Huge sigh of relief)
This means the physical state of “decline” can be adverted finally.
As far as preservation goes, that’s another story. I’m taking the “wait and see” approach.

They definitely know how to get things done & their locally owned..

PGlenat
PGlenat on April 17, 2007 at 5:32 pm

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.

burningdust
burningdust on March 21, 2007 at 7:16 pm

Does anyone know why theboards are off the all the windows and all the lights are on at the Met?

PGlenat
PGlenat on February 19, 2007 at 7:41 pm

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.

burningdust
burningdust on February 19, 2007 at 6:55 pm

Hey Ken, I figured you would be there.
I totally agree, they had a nice video rig there; they could have showed some pics from the archives, like opening night, construction, or even Odeon’s opening night. Great Idea.. There are some very interesting areas backstage etc…

Sorry to hear your experience included such bad luck! That’s really annoying about the seat thing.. I know the theatre was filled to capacity and it was a little chaotic, but as you said it’s not like you’re 16 and it was some expensive rock tour with $250 tickets.. jeeesh…
I was anticipating the rush at the end and decided to explore the theatre a little more (apparently many did.) My girlfriend and I stayed on the 1st balcony about 10 mins after, wandered up to the gods and sat there for a few, We have tickets to an upcoming show at the end of the month and wanted to visit our seats.
Then some hired goon kicked us and a couple other people out into the stairway which was locked at the end.
After politely knocking at the lobby door another security guard let us in and we were able to get out the front door, at that point the theatre was still quite packed.

We ended up on 3 in the parkade. I went to the pay station in the lot with about 50 other people, the thing jammed up which caused panic in the pay area. I suggested to my girlfriend we go for a walk to let things at the lot cool off, we came back a few minutes later and yea… 40 minutes later we were out.
I saw the kids on the entrance ramp.. lol…
At the end of the day I was just happy to be at the Walker and help the cause. Besides the organizational challenges it was really nice to see the Walker busy as ever before.

Seems to me they could have been a little more welcomming seeing as we were all there “supporting” the theatre.. What would it hurt to offer some guided tours after the show?

KenS
KenS on February 18, 2007 at 8:11 pm

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.

garred
garred on February 18, 2007 at 5:13 pm

yes, i find it truly sad that there still has been no movement re. the met. it’s great that there was such a good turnout fot the walker, 100 years is a real milestone. if only this spirit could be manifested for our much loved metroplolitan!