Progress at the Playhouse
New owners of Sherman Avenue landmark plan to have doors open by fall
THEY ARE STILL DECIDING which movie to show at the grand opening of the Playhouse Cinema on Sherman Avenue North.
“At one point we were thinking of ‘Cinema Paradiso’ or maybe ‘Casablanca’,” Wendy Tutt says from the lobby of the 1914 movie theatre.
Wendy and John Tutt bought the Sherman Avenue landmark in February. The last movie played there in the mid 1980s. The specialty then was adult films; now it’s turning to art.
On this day, the Tutts are having a movie poster sale from their huge collection. Film buffs and the curious drift in and out to see the renovations on the vintage gem. The couple are dressed in work clothes for the dusty job of clearing debris and going to the dump. Their son, Jacob, is showing the building plans for the new snack bar and box office.
“A 93-year-old woman named Viola came in and told us about coming here to watch Shirley Temple movies,” Jacob Tutt says. “She lived in the neighbourhood in the 1930s.”
Jacob Tutt is living in an apartment above the cinema.
“It’s like camping,” he says of the rustic accommodation.
In 1914, the movie business was very much owner-operated, Wendy Tutt explains. Movies ran all day, so living in the building made sense.
This resurrection of the Playhouse Cinema is very much a family affair, too. Wendy and John Tutt have run
the Princess Cinemas in Waterloo since 1985, and 21-year-old Jacob decided the movie business was also his passion. He wrote the business plan for starting up the Playhouse Cinema and a bank signed on to back them.
It will cost another $400,000 or so to put in new seats, screens, a sound system and projection equipment. That’s on top of the $630,000 it cost to buy the building.
“It’s really a miracle this building is here. Magnificent little theatres like this are rare in North America,” Wendy Tutt says.
The original plaster is still intact, ornate bands of it at the ceiling and framing the stage. It will get a new coat of paint as the theatre colours change to burgundy, gold and offwhite. New seats, 250 of them, will be rocker style.
“If people are going to come out of their homes they want to be comfortable; it has to be special,” Wendy Tutt says.
The Tutts have no doubt people will leave their homes to see the art films and independent movies that rarely make it into the multiplex theatres around Hamilton. They’d been looking for a building here for 10 years with the help of their filmmaker friend Terry Odette. Odette, who relocated to Hamilton from Toronto, sent them the listing when the Playhouse Cinema came up for sale. John Tutt liked what he saw. “Beyond the bad seats and bad paint, the building was structurally sound, the plaster work was beautiful and there’s plenty of parking around.”
The couple was also enthused about the vigour of the arts in Hamilton, with the programming at the nearby Cotton Factory, and the plans to reopen the Westdale Theatre.
But before the popcorn starts popping on Sherman North, Jacob Tutt will be showing an outdoor movie at Woodlands Park on Barton Street as part of a community outreach. His other company, called Fresh Air Films, is partnering with the Barton Village BIA for the Aug. 16 screening.
“After five years running that business, I’ve seen how positive outdoor movies can be for bringing community together,” he says.
The Tutts hope to have the Playhouse Cinema open in time for the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s fall film festival.