Westwood Theatre

3743 Bloor Street W.,
Toronto, ON M9A 1A2

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Showing 1 - 25 of 51 comments

rivest266
rivest266 on March 5, 2014 at 4:06 pm

1980 grand opening ad as a triplex in photo section.

George Stompy Hollo
George Stompy Hollo on September 27, 2013 at 3:20 pm

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…

DavidDymond
DavidDymond on September 27, 2013 at 1:45 pm

It was said that old Dickie Dalhouse carried a gun.

scoldsteve
scoldsteve on September 26, 2013 at 8:00 am

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.

George Stompy Hollo
George Stompy Hollo on July 31, 2013 at 6:59 pm

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?

DavidDymond
DavidDymond on July 31, 2013 at 6:21 pm

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!!

George Stompy Hollo
George Stompy Hollo on July 31, 2013 at 3:46 pm

wow so sad. a big chunk of my life was spent there

telliott
telliott on July 31, 2013 at 2:58 pm

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.

George Stompy Hollo
George Stompy Hollo on February 5, 2013 at 1:17 pm

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…

DavidDymond
DavidDymond on February 5, 2013 at 12:39 pm

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!!

DavidDymond
DavidDymond on February 5, 2013 at 12:39 pm

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!!

DavidDymond
DavidDymond on February 5, 2013 at 12:39 pm

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!!

scoldsteve
scoldsteve on January 11, 2013 at 5:02 pm

robboehm It’s not hard to miss, right at the corner of Bloor St and Kipling Avenue north of the subway station.

telliott
telliott on January 8, 2013 at 12:05 pm

I know it, it’s 3743 Bloor St W, Toronto ON

robboehm
robboehm on January 8, 2013 at 11:05 am

scoldsteve – since you’re in the area perhaps you could get the address and ad it to the heading on this site.

scoldsteve
scoldsteve on January 7, 2013 at 7:01 pm

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.

igoudge
igoudge on April 6, 2011 at 5:56 pm

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.

telliott
telliott on April 6, 2011 at 1:17 pm

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.

igoudge
igoudge on April 6, 2011 at 12:42 pm

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.

telliott
telliott on April 6, 2011 at 12:35 pm

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…

telliott
telliott on March 30, 2011 at 3:42 pm

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.

igoudge
igoudge on March 30, 2011 at 3:23 pm

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?

telliott
telliott on March 30, 2011 at 3:16 pm

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

igoudge
igoudge on January 22, 2011 at 3:26 pm

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.