Maureen Parisien sits on her living room couch bouncing one grandchild, or as she likes to call them “grandbabies.” Another grandchild is running around the living room, testing out her newly discovered mobility. Maureen is frantically flipping through her day planner trying to figure out if one of her 11 grandbabies had a birthday that day. One night in early 1963 Maureen met Armand at The Bay and walked over to the Metropolitan Theatre to catch a movie. “It’s where we had our first date,” she says blushing before spilling the details of her first date with her future husband Armand Parisien.
“I can still see him standing there with his fedora on. He was so cute,” she says gushing. Maureen is so taken with the details of his charm, “I can’t even remember what movie we saw,” she says laughing. Maureen moved to Winnipeg from Surrey, England during World War II and Armand was born and raised in St. Germain, Manitoba. Armand worked at Prairie Maid Cereals when the new girl caught his eye. “I went home after meeting Armand and I said to my mother, if he asks me out, I’m going out with him. And If he asks me to marry him I am going to marry him, after that my mother tried to get me fired,” Maureen said laughing. After a short courtship Maureen did exactly what she said she would do and they were married in 1963.
The Metropolitan, originally built as the Allen Theatre, is the only movie theatre in Winnipeg still in its original form. The Allen Theatre was built in 1919 and the only major alteration was the modernization of the box office. “There were chandeliers, gold paint on the walls and beautiful woodwork,” said Maureen. Inside the theatre was a large proscenium, an elaborately decorated arch 60 feet wide by 40 tall that framed the stage. There was also a shallow stage and a 15-musician orchestra pit. “It was quite the movie house, very grand,” Maureen said.
The Allen Theatre closed in 1923 and reopened as the Metropolitan that same year. “Everyone went downtown. Friday we would get our paycheque and we would go downtown,” Maureen says. Maureen and Armand would shop at Eaton’s then head to Picardy’s, a small restaurant they frequented.
When TV was introduced to Canada it threatened theatre revenues nationwide. The crowds that surrounded Portage Avenue’s street level shops and restaurants were in awe. Canadians became “captivated all over again by television” according to CBC’s Digital Archives (archives.cbc.ca).
Maureen recalls their fascination, “Oh, there were televisions set up in the store windows and people would crowd around the window to watch.” Having televisions in the home created competition for the movie theatres. The Metropolitan pushed through it and kept up their schedule of six screenings a day.
As early technology changed so did Maureen’s family. At 19 she gave birth to their first child followed by four more children in the next seven years. Armand and Maureen raised their five children in Fort Rouge. Armand was a proud father and grandfather. He loved his family very much but in 2008 Armand died. Through the support and love of her family Maureen managed to stay in the home where they raised their children. She really found happiness again when her tenth grand baby was born. “Oh, I love my grand babies. Armand loved his babies too.” Maureen watches her 1-year-old and 3-year- old granddaughters full time. “They keep me busy,” Maureen says laughing.
After the Metropolitan closed its doors in the late 1980s there was talk of the theatre being demolished. Cindy Tugwell of Heritage Winnipeg says, “If they got rid of that building there would be a huge public outcry.” Heritage Winnipeg had the building protected and the Metropolitan remained untouched until Canad Inns bought property and promised to further convert the building.
“It was big bucks to fix,” says Tugwell. “It’s not just about buying the building. What do you use it for? And how do you make it economically viable?” The Canad Inns has yet to confirm what they will do with the building. All that matters to Tugwell is, “they bought it and it’s protected.”
Maureen went to the Metropolitan to see the magic happen on the silver screen. But instead the magic was happening in the theatre. And the rest is history.
Author’s Note: This was an article written in 2012 for a college project so the structure is different from most of my writing on here. It was a feature in my group’s made-up magazine Urban Heritage. It features my grandma and grandpa Parisien and their first date. I would like to revisit and rewrite it one day.