Staff Photo: Darcie Thom

This old theatre will be making its way to the Kipling Museum in weeks to come

Staff Photo: Darcie Thom

(Left to Right) Larry Havelange, Cliff Johnson, Gordon Toppings and Vern Pusch prepared the site for the old theatre

Staff Photo: Darcie Thom

Vern Pusch (front) and Cliff Johnson (back) prepare the cement for the old theatre site

By: Darcie Thom

The Kipling Museum is preparing the grounds and will soon be home to one of the Town’s most historical buildings. Within the next few months, this historical building will finally make its way back into the Town of Kipling after a long awaited time.

This building served many purposes in the past 90 years to many of the gatherings and celebrations held by the community of Kipling. This historical building was originally built by a young entrepreneur by the name of Gabriel Szakacs who immigrated to Canada at the age of 16 in 1903. Szakacs, one of Kipling’s pioneers, was also one of the original homesteaders in the Bekevar District who quickly learned English to pursue his future businesses.

Once Szakacs settled into the district, he was quick to decide that the area needed a theatre, he bought a building that was once known as the Bakaluk store (located on Main St.) and turned it into a theatre. He learned very early in his endeavors that he would need to upgrade to a more modern electrical system, with this new knowledge, he soon gained another job opportunity.

In and around 1918, Szakacs built a building next door to the Bakaluk’s building for the new and improved community theatre. This building, which is now in the process of moving to the Museum, became the community dance hall, it also held its fair share of concerts and political meetings. This particular theatre had some very unique seating arrangements for its time. The seats in the front row were lower than each row behind them, the seats were easily moveable and were moved around or even taken out of the theatre during the occasional dance or meeting. Around this same time, in the early 1920’s, Szakacs began his business working with other businesses providing them with electricity from the light plant.

The financial history regarding this building hasn’t always been as good as the business that it once brought in. During the depression, Szakacs was unable to pay back some of his borrowed debt and made a deal with Henry Mann.

Mann, a tradesman and mechanist, who came to Kipling and bought himself a section of land with high hopes of prosperity promised by the farming community, traded the farm land for the light plant and theatre as a fair exchange and buyout of the debt that was owed. This exchange didn’t last as long as it was expected to because each of the men wanted their ‘old’ occupations back. Mann and Szakacs decided to exchange their businesses once again with the exception of the light plant, which Mann kept and later sold to the village.

The depression in the mid 1930’s had a very negative effect on Szakacs, even after he invested more money into making the theatre more attractive to the public. Somewhere between 1931 and 1932, Szakacs had no choice but to claim bankruptcy and turned the theatre business over to William Smith.

“I remember going to the theatre when I was young, to watch ‘Gone With The Wind’. It was about a four-hour movie with an intermission halfway through. I think we paid $0.75 for the movie, somehow I managed to come up with the $0.75,” recalls Enos Sproat.

In 1926, the Legion started, most of its new members lived out in the country. During the 2nd World War, the Legion needed to raise money and decided to rent the theatre space for their meetings and social gatherings.

When the 1940’s hit, things changed drastically for the community, the crops were good, and business was booming again. At this time, the Legion built its own theatre between what is now the Dentist Office and The Citizen located on Main St. In 1943, the ‘old’ theatre was sold to the Kipling Co-Op for $3000.00. The Co-Op fixed up the old theatre’s interior, added a basement and upstairs area for the Manager to reside in.

In years to follow, the building had been owned and run by different people in the community. At one time the building was known as Joe’s Electric and another time as a Sears outlet. The Legion eventually bought the building for tax purposes. The Co-Op wanted to build a new store (in the present location) and purchased the Bakaluks store and the old theatre was exchanged for what is now the Kipling Legion building.

G.B. Construction removed the two buildings, tearing down Bakaluk’s store and reserving the old theatre. Elgin Batters had the building moved to the location it sits at this present time.

This building has had its share of the Kipling Pioneers take part in its standing. A few details may have been missed throughout the years, but there is most definitely a history to this building and the people that took part throughout the years.