By DAVE KOSONIC
The long-gone Westwood Theatre went down like the Titanic, the last movie shown at the storied south Etobicoke movie house.
Development was expected to be completed this Spring on the 13.8-acre site that is soon to be home of a new Etobicoke Civic Centre, public square, recreation centre, library, office space and child care facility.
Many moviegoers like to recall the good old days when they could enjoy first-run movies at the Westwood while munching on candy floss, hot dogs and popcorn.
The Westwood was located at the southeast corner of Six Points, or spaghetti junction, where Bloor and Dundas Sts. and Kipling Ave. met. This location was highly accessible, there was plenty of free parking and theatre seated about 1,000 fans.
The popular cinema opened in February 1952 and the featured flicks as Laughter in Paradise and You Never Can Tell. Dudley Dumont was the first manager whose success included screening good movies at discount prices so that the seats were always filled. By 1996 it cost $3 to see the thriller Mars Attacks.
The Westwood opened with one screen. In 1968 an addition was built on the east side of the building that included a second screen. In 1980 the large original screen was divided in half creating three theatres. Movie buffs were overjoyed with more and more movies to view.
The Saturday afternoon matinees were packed with school kids who were dropped off at the front door of the show. Many of these youngsters were more interested in the snack bar rather than the movies being screened. Groups of young guys would often sit in the back rows and get noisy. The ushers, who wore dapper tailored uniforms, would shine their flashlights on the youths and order them to sit still.
Sadly, for countless Westwood fans the theatre was closed in 1998, and ironically the last movie shown was Titanic. The facility was shut because some politicians at the time thought that the theatre land could be better used for other purposes. But that vision is taking a long time.
Before the Etobicoke landmark was demolished in 2013, it served as a shelter for homeless cats and In 2003 was used for the filming of the movie Resident Evil.
Some Westwood lovers wanted the old and bold Westwood sign saved and displayed to mark the theatre’s more than 50-years of operation, but that did not occur.