A sad tale. They made a mall in front of the theatre and down one more block and so cars couldn’t drop off people and children in front of the theatre. Hardly any buses back then….the early 80’s. They had a large lobby but the owners wouldn’t open the doors early and so people that arrived 5, 10 or 15 minutes early would have to stand out in the Canadian north cold and wind….and people just gave up going there. Malls are deadly for people. A beautiful theatre and popular too. A tragedy really. The city took it over for back taxes after management had ruined it, and then the city let it sit until the roof leaked so bad that this absolutely classic building had to be demolished. The same thing happened in Ottawa regarding the Sparks Street Mall. No parking and no people killed the Centre Theatre on Sparks between Metcalfe and O'Connor Streets, as well as the Regent on Sparks at Bank.
I remember The Regent well. I went weekly from 1966 thru to the end in 1972. Very classy as Hugger1 says. However, the photo above shows the corner of Sparks and Kent, and as your comments say, the Regent was for sure a the corner of Bank Street and the Sparks Street Mall. The Mall closing to vehicle traffic in the summer of 1966, the year I arrived from Alexandria ( with one theatre ) to Ottawa which had about 8 or 9 at least. A great time for movies and the theatres were always filled. Ah, memories.
A sad tale. They made a mall in front of the theatre and down one more block and so cars couldn’t drop off people and children in front of the theatre. Hardly any buses back then….the early 80’s. They had a large lobby but the owners wouldn’t open the doors early and so people that arrived 5, 10 or 15 minutes early would have to stand out in the Canadian north cold and wind….and people just gave up going there. Malls are deadly for people. A beautiful theatre and popular too. A tragedy really. The city took it over for back taxes after management had ruined it, and then the city let it sit until the roof leaked so bad that this absolutely classic building had to be demolished. The same thing happened in Ottawa regarding the Sparks Street Mall. No parking and no people killed the Centre Theatre on Sparks between Metcalfe and O'Connor Streets, as well as the Regent on Sparks at Bank.
I remember The Regent well. I went weekly from 1966 thru to the end in 1972. Very classy as Hugger1 says. However, the photo above shows the corner of Sparks and Kent, and as your comments say, the Regent was for sure a the corner of Bank Street and the Sparks Street Mall. The Mall closing to vehicle traffic in the summer of 1966, the year I arrived from Alexandria ( with one theatre ) to Ottawa which had about 8 or 9 at least. A great time for movies and the theatres were always filled. Ah, memories.