WESTDALE THEATRE’S
longtime owner has died; fans want 80-year-old landmark protected under Heritage Act
It’s Aug. 31, 1935.
A spotlight beams onto a rug-covered King Street West sidewalk outside Hamilton’s newest movie theatre.
Managing director David S. Rubin holds a microphone as he welcomes dignitaries and film fans on Westdale Theatre’s opening night.
The Westdale — a cutting-edge movie house for a budding young suburb — gets a rave review.
“The auditorium is a pleasantly proportioned oval shape, designed to secure the best possible seating and visibility conditions. The colours throughout the building are exquisitely blended and the lighting contributes to the effect of mellowness, luxuriousness and ease,” The Spectator reported. Roll the reel to Aug. 13, 2015. Peter Sorokolit, the Westdale’s longtime owner, has died.
Fans hope his Toronto-based family keeps the 80-year-old theatre alive.
“I don’t know what their intentions are now … but I am looking forward to learning more,” Coun. Aidan Johnson said this week.
Johnson plans to meet with Dawn Sorokolit, Peter’s daughter, after the holiday season to discuss protecting the Westdale.
The Ward 1 councillor wants a special designation under Ontario’s Heritage Act to shield the 1014 King St. W. theatre from alterations and demolition.
Last week, Dawn Sorokolit told The Spectator that since her father’s passing, she and her siblings haven’t been in a position to address the heritage question.
Peter also owned other independent cinemas in Ontario.
An obituary published in the Toronto Star called him a “kind-hearted soul who loved to laugh.”
“He loved the thrill of thoroughbred horse racing, the stock market and movies — a passion that led him to a lifelong adventure as the owner of many independent theatres in Ontario.” He was 87. Johnson praised him for his stewardship.
“I was very sad to learn that. I know that he took care of the Westdale cinema for many years. So to me, that’s a great loss. He performed a great service to Hamilton, as a Torontonian.”
In 1980, Sorokolit bought the theatre from the Sardo family, who’d owned it since 1952.
The Sardos, who ran a shoe repair shop and grocery store on York Street, bought the Westdale for a reported $200,000.
Louis Rosefield — who’d managed the Westdale and been in the theatre business for more than 30 years — made a neat profit on that sale, having bought it for $52,000 from his son in 1948.
The theatre was built on land that had been owned by McKittrick Properties, the developers of Westdale, in the early 1920s.
Plans for the Westdale weren’t announced until 1932. A company made up of local entrepreneurs promised to use local materials, employ several hundred workers and spend about $100,000 on the project that summer.
Prominent Hamilton architects William J. Walsh and Bruce Riddell were noted as having a hand in the theatre’s design.
Millo Bros. Ltd. held title of the parcel by the time the Westdale opened in 1935, property records show.
The new theatre opened to a competitive movie landscape: The Tivoli on James North and the Capitol on King East were just two established competitors.
But the Westdale had innovation and fresh glitz on its side. It was billed a “practically noiseless” high-fidelity wonder.
“And you will hear this in the first theatre erected in Hamilton for sound pictures,” a full-page newspaper ad promised on the eve of opening night.
The theatre was sound proof, fire proof and “discomfort-proof ” with its generously spaced aisles and 600-plus cushioned seats.
It also boasted a “crying room” for mothers to take “their unruly progeny and see and hear the picture without disturbing the audience below.”
For its opening, the Westdale offered the “continental” debut of “Dance Band,” a British musical comedy starring Buddy Rogers and June Clyde.
The Tivoli, on James North, challenged its young upstart by showing “Old Man Rhythm,” which curiously