Westwood Theatre
3743 Bloor Street W.,
Toronto,
ON
M9A 1A2
3743 Bloor Street W.,
Toronto,
ON
M9A 1A2
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 51 comments
May 2009 Google Streetview
1980 grand opening ad as a triplex in photo section.
He may have at other theaters but never at Westwood. He was a nice guy and we all got to know his family. True, he had a temper and he didn’t put up with “foolishness” but he never shot anyone as far as I know…
It was said that old Dickie Dalhouse carried a gun.
I am a avid Geocacher, if you don’t know what that is it’s like a hi-tech way of doing hide and go see.. You hide a container somewhere and record the GPS location. As much as I like to do the finds, I also like to do my own unique hides, all movie trivia based.. My latest hide was near the site of where the WestWood was.. A few days ago one of my fellow cachers who found my 1980’s based movie trivia cache told me that it was gone.. I knew this was soon to happen when I went down to the Queensway to see “The Way Way Back” at that time I saw 2 massive dumpsters full so I knew the city of Toronto would be finally demolishing the place as the supervisor from the city told me.. Sad to see it happen.
Rudolf Antony Dalhouse was a bit acerbic at times but in the end he cared more for his employees than any boss I’ve had since. I learned a lot from him and considered him a dear friend.
I haven’t seen him since I left Canada in 1985-I suspect he may have passed away since then… Does anyone know?
I remember old Dickie Dalhouse. I did not like him at all. He got his job through his friend Manager Sebastian Lopez who was at Cedarbrae Cinemas. Dickie’s first theatre as Manager was the Eve Cinema at Bloor and Bathurst!!
wow so sad. a big chunk of my life was spent there
The dear old Westwood has finally been demolished. After sitting there empty since April of 1998. It is so strange driving by and it’s gone.
I worked with Dudley for 4 years back in the 80’s-interesting guy. We wrote a song about our Manager, Dick Dalhouse, and he reported to Dudley as regional manager. I had no idea DD had been in the business that long.
Ironically Dick retired on a Friday, took the weekend off, and came back Monday morning at a different theatre as a “part-timer.” Basically he worked Fri Sat and Sun and did some paperwork during the week for 39 hours total…
This theatre was built by Twentieth Century Theatres in 1952 and Mr. Dudley Dumond was its first Manager. Twentieth Century Theatres (Twinex) were partners of Famous Players Canadian Corporation!!
This theatre was built by Twentieth Century Theatres in 1952 and Mr. Dudley Dumond was its first Manager. Twentieth Century Theatres (Twinex) were partners of Famous Players Canadian Corporation!!
This theatre was built by Twentieth Century Theatres in 1952 and Mr. Dudley Dumond was its first Manager. Twentieth Century Theatres (Twinex) were partners of Famous Players Canadian Corporation!!
robboehm It’s not hard to miss, right at the corner of Bloor St and Kipling Avenue north of the subway station.
I know it, it’s 3743 Bloor St W, Toronto ON
scoldsteve – since you’re in the area perhaps you could get the address and ad it to the heading on this site.
I passed by the old Westwood a few times in the last few weeks. The place is still standing right now but it’s in the middle of being gutted to be demolished. The City of Toronto workers were there taking down boards.. Had a good chat with him to find out what lies ahead for the old place.. There was future plans for condo’s at one point but the funding fell through apparently.. Lots of cool information coming out of today’s chat about the place.. Will post current photos eventually.
Yeah since they took down the basics there by Power the closest ones are the Basics and No Frills by East Mall and Dundas, not bad for the driving set, but a little off the beaten track for the condo guys there.
I would imagine a condo development just like the Tridel one with several towers will be built on the Westwood property and that big patch of land next door. I’ve also read that a grocery store of some kind is badly needed in the area, so maybe that would be included in any development.
Yeah one of my friends works for the ministry of housing and this announcement came across his desk, he actually lives at the Tridel block across the street and says its a shame. With it being the city owned land would have been at least great if a brand new project is just going to be built there it would be good for the former site to be finally brought down so they would have an easier time to flip it. Every time I drive by the theatre and keep seeing it wear further and further down getting pretty bummed.
The provincial court house that was to be built on this site has been cancelled in the latest provincial budget, so it looks like this will be sold off, probably to condos according to the local city counsellor in the area. So don’t know if the theatre will be torn down this spring as planned, or just sit there empty for years to come. What a shame…
I always thought on Dundas in the Cloverdale Mall area would have been a good spot. Or replace that awful Honeydale Mall with a SilverCity, that could have been a good site. Or they could have just built it on the Westwood site including that big empty property to the east of it. It could have been called SilverCity Westwood. I used to live in an apartment building on the 18th floor facing west (from 1980-93) and could see the Westwood from my balcony. Could look over and see how busy it was by checking out the parking lot.
Yeah it is pretty weird that happened, but outside of expropriating the land at the Westwood site, i Have the feeling that there wasnt too many sites in the central etobicoke area where they could have put it without a lot of money invested with the heavy urban areas and industrial. Only real thing I can think of maybe is actually putting one actually in Sherway Plaza finally?
I remember years ago writing to then Famous Players president John Bailey asking if they had any plans to build a new SilverCity in Etobicoke to replace all the closures (Westwood, Skyline, Skyway 6) and he said no but that the nearby Coliseum by Square One was open! Anyone knowing the Toronto area will know that the Coliseum is nowhere near central Etobicoke and you would definitely need a car to get there. He had actually given me bus routes to get there. It would take ages to get to Square One by bus. Anyway while North York and Scarborough got several new multiplexes, Etobicoke only got the Queensway 18 which is beautiful, but it’s more or less in Southern Etobicoke so between that and the Woodbine Centre in the north, there is nothing in the central area
Yeah I found the article and it is going to be a shame for sure that it went derelict for so long, although would have required a lot of work to at least convert it back to auditoriums since the property was gutted on the inside into office space which is tragic in itself. And yeah would have been cool if they found a way to make it work since the Kingsway reopened a few years ago and although it is still being pushed back that Humber Odeon is well along the way to getting there.