On Easter weekend, architect Michael McClelland and his colleagues presented three options for rebuilding the front of the Revue at a Saturday morning meeting in the theatre and listened carefully to comments from the audience.

You can download the proposal, in PDF form here: Revue Report.

About 60 people attended, including MP Peggy Nash, MPP Cheri DiNovo and school trust Irene Atkinson. Danny Mullin, who with his wife Letty, owns the building, also came to hear the discussion. Councillor Gord Perks, who had a previous engagement, sent his regrets.

McClelland told the audience that he hopes someone will come up with a photograph of the Revue before the 1935 marquee was added. Although elements from the 1911 façade remain, there’s no information about the canopy, signage, lighting and some of the cladding that graced the Edwardian front. Solving that mystery could affect renovation strategies.

Here are the team’s three proposals:

• Rebuild the 1935 marquee that came crashing down over a year ago.
• Reconstruct a 1935-style façade without the marquee using vitrolite, a shiny glass material, that covered the building below the marquee.
• Uncover the surviving elements of the 1911 façade on the lower half of the building, fill in sections between the existing piers with vitrolite to reference the 1935 period, and build a modern canopy over the door.

Among those audience members who spoke, support seemed evenly divided between the 1911 option and the rebuilding of the marquee.

McClelland was impressed by the thoughtfulness and sensitivity to design demonstrated in the remarks. Some points in favour of rebuilding the 1935 marquee included its nostalgia value and the community’s emotional attachment; the fact it came to symbolize the theatre; its protective and welcoming aspect; its utility as a marketing vehicle; and its distinctive presence as part of the Roncesvalles Ave. streetscape.

Those who preferred the 1911 hybrid emphasized the historical value of the Edwardian elements; the attractiveness of their verticality; the importance of representing the different layers of history in the renovation; and the recognition through modern elements that we are in a new technological age and the role of the theatre is changing.

On the other hand, one person commented that the 1911 proposal was too gentrified, while another suggested adding some kind of marquee to the Edwardian version might be a compromise solution.

McClelland said he and his colleagues, Doug Gibbons, Kirsty Bruce and Philip Evans, would continue developing all three proposals, examining issues such as city requirements, materials for reconstruction, and potential costs. They also may do some more exploratory work on the building. He expressed concern, however, that a 1935-style marquee, rebuilt with new materials and technologies, could disappoint. The result might be “eerily reminiscent of the old marquee,” he said. “I question whether it would have its homey, old character.”

Meanwhile building owner Danny Mullin won hearty applause from the audience, after he voiced his support of the endeavour.

E.R.A., arguably the best conservation architecture firm in the city, is working on the Revue as part of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario program, Preservation Works! “We are extremely fortunate to have the benefit of their expertise,” says Revue Film Society board member Terry Burrell.

Flashback to Johnson presidency (1963-1969): Civil rights, the summer of love and a culture of violence

Cinematic Retrospective: LBJ

Don't miss the next fascinating lecture by film critic Kevin Courrier, who will present a cinematic retrospective on the tumultuous Lyndon Johnson era.

Those eventful times saw the Civil Rights Act passed, the rise of hippies and flower children, the growing escalation of the Vietnam War, the riots that tore apart inner cities and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

The presentation at the Revue is the second in Kevin's eight-lecture series called Reflections in The Hall of Mirrors, American Movies and the Politics of Idealism. During the lectures, scheduled one a month through November, Kevin examines how movies reflect the cultural and political ideals of eight U.S. presidencies from John Kennedy to George W. Bush.

Revue Film Society director Terry Burrell certainly won't miss Kevin's next talk. Terry was in the enthusiastic Saturday morning audience April 26 that heard Kevin explore the idealism of Kennedy's New Frontier and the shock of his assassination, the evolution of television news coverage, then in its infancy, and some of the stunning movies that came out of the period, such as The Manchurian Candidate (which was screened later at the Revue).

Says Terry: "I attended the first presentation, not really knowing what to expect. I came away delighted. Kevin is a lively speaker, intelligent, knowledgeable and insightful."

Toronto Star film critic and High Park resident Phil Marchand was equally taken by Kevin's presentation: "Given the increasingly surreal race between Clinton and Obama, these talks have never been more relevant."

The series is fascinating for history students, as well as film buffs. And what could be more appropriate now than to look at a time when the U.S. was slipping deeper and deeper into an unwinnable war in southeast Asia.

Among the movies from the Johnson era that Kevin will discuss: In the Heat of the Night (1966), portraying the racially troubled times; the police thriller Bullitt (1968), reflecting ambivalence about Vietnam and the growing culture of violence; the gangster film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Sam Peckinpah's bloody western, The Wild Bunch (1969), also articulating the violence of the times.

So, mark Saturday, May 31, 10:30 a.m. on your calendar for another insightful look at American films and the times that they interpret and reflect. Regular Revue evening pricing applies.