LAST WALTZ FOR METRO CINEMA

Durban’s Metro cinema was opened on August 13, 1937 and was in the art deco style.

Located at the corner of Anton Lembede (Smith) and Samora Machel (Aliwal) streets, it was part of Durban’s cinema precinct that included the Playhouse Theatre and the Prince’s Theatre, opposite the City Hall. It was the main MetroGoldwyn-Mayer cinema in Durban and was equipped with a Wurlitzer organ.

The picture was taken by Derrick Willet who worked as assistant manager at the cinema in the two years before it closed in 1971.

The auditorium was demolished and replaced with an office tower, which our photographer Leon Lestrade shot this week.

Willet wrote: “It had lace curtains on the front doors and it had a phone number 212312 which we sometimes jocularly used as two dozen three dozen. The Metro had a Saturday morning club where kids got in for (I think) 15 cents.”

The sign for Khans seen in the picture was the chemist next door to the cinema. The closing movie was a rerun of the 1938 film

The Great Waltz, starring Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet and Miliza Korjus, possibly a reference to the re-released movie The Great Waltz that was coming out in 1972, which was after the cinema’s demolition.

The Independent on Saturday appeals to readers who have old pictures of Durban and other parts of the province to send them to us for consideration. If any readers are featured in the old picture, we will do our best to recreate the scene with them in it again. Readers who send pictures digitally – images should be about 1MB – can address them, with the relevant information, to satmail@inl.co.za

If the pictures are hard, they can be posted to The Editor, Old Pictures, The Independent on Saturday, PO Box 47549, Greyville, 4023.