Another Ancient Moviehouse Bites the Dust

The Varsity Theatre closed for good early last week.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me as I walked along West 10th Avenue last week. There it stood, the Varsity Theatre, that last bastion of old fashioned, single-screen cinematic goodness in West Point Grey, with its lights out and the doors locked. A garish Narnia poster still covered their display windows. I looked up, half expecting to see the marquee letters put up for a new film that I didn't plan to watch. Instead my eyes met the sleek
fonts of yet another new condominium billboard. Oooh, you tenacious condo developers. You may have won this round, but seriously, what are you going to do, cover the entire city in new condos? Huh? Psshh...

The closure of the Varsity Theatre marks the end of over 65 years of movie exhibitionism. Park Theatre, you're next sucka!

For a structure that old, there are bound to be some interesting morsels of trivial to be gleaned from this sad event. For example, I learned that the Varsity was the first venue for the Vancouver International Film Festival back in 1982. That would explain the row of international flags pasted on the theatre's facade all these years.

My earliest memory of the Varsity was maybe sometime in '93, when I watched The Joy Luck Club with my family. That movie was a big deal and garnered a respectable line-up out into the street. The previous screening had just finished and patrons were staggering out, dabbing at their eyes and blowing into hankies. When I got inside for my screening it was a full house. Compare that hubbub to the odd screenings I've gone to in the last 5 or 6 years, when the Varsity seems more or less deserted. Ok, ok... so it's a complete dead zone.

So maybe the time was right for the Varsity to go quietly into the night. If you are feeling nostalgic and have a hankering for a single screen moviehouse, the Dunbar Theatre is only a 10 minute drive away. Me, I prefer not to subject my ass to cruel and unusual punishment and would rather continue patronizing the Park and Fifth Avenue
Cinemas.